Today's YouTube hope-giver: Mama Rabbit defeats snake with kung fu kicks
The trouble with most YouTube movies that go viral is that they don't have a moral.
A cat does something cutesy and the world's jaws drop and its eyes flood. A wedding proposal is done in a theatrical way, with the bride-to-be truly, madly, deeply not suspecting a thing.
But a YouTube video that has spread itself across the world's screens this week offers layers and nuances beyond some of the finer works of art.
The scene is simple. A nasty black snake has found some tiny bunny rabbits, all alone. The snake thinks to himself: "An afternoon snack. How generous of Mother Nature."
This is a typical tale of evil vs. good. This is Russia invading some unsuspecting, defenseless country just so it can crush it and have its leader ride topless through Red Square on his horse.
This evil snake, however, has never seen anything like Mama Bunny. She is not some ordinary rabbit. She is a superhero. She is Bunny Woman.
She leaps upon him with all the ferocity in her being. She sees one of her babies is dead, which drives her into a complete frenzy.
She bites the snake. She uses kung fu-like kicks that, frankly, I wasn't aware bunny rabbits could perform.
The snake, for its part, fights like so many a loudmouth bar-dweller late on a Friday night. Oh, he acts all mean, but when Bunny Woman sets about him, he's just a sad little weed.
He offers a bite, but I understand he's a black rat snake, which emits an awful stink but isn't venomous.
So this isn't a mere YouTube video. This is a morality tale for our times. Perhaps that's why more than 2.5 million people have watched it in just four days.
Yes, it's sad that one of the babies appears to have died (though another can be seen leaping to freedom at about the 0.23 mark).
But this has resonance for everyone who's dreamed of being protected from some inane, ignorant bully. This is for all those who think that good people only win in movies.
Yes, this is a movie. But it's also real life. Bunny Woman suffers loss. But she doesn't just defeat the snake. She chases him away, continuing to attack him until he realizes he's the chump and she's the champ.
If this doesn't give you at least a little hope, what will in our troubled times?