twitter trend

People started a hilarious Twitter trend of pretending exotic locales are Ontario cities

Though Toronto has pretty much everything that a person could want in a bustling metropolis as far as food, nightlife, arts, culture and more, there's one thing the city and its surrounding suburbs do definitely lack: some scenery.

But some out-of-town Twitter users may be thinking otherwise this week thanks to a new tongue-in-cheek trend on the platform.

Locals decided to start a running joke last week of sharing beautiful photos of picturesque exotic locales and pretending that they are pics of GTA cities, and some of the examples are absolutely hilarious.

It all started when one resident shared a photo of Moraine Lake in Banff National Park, Alberta, calling it Scarborough.

"If you're ever in Canada make sure you visit Scarborough, Ontario," they wrote last Tuesday alongside the image of stunning bright blue waters and awe-inspiring snow-topped mountains.

Along with the 14.2k likes, thousands of retweets and more than 530 quote tweets the post has received, there are also hundreds of responses of people submitting their own suggestions of where in Ontario others should come visit, along with some very riotously misleading photos.

In the viral trend, luxury beach resorts in Cuba become Thunder Bay, the remarkable futuristic architecture of Dubai becomes Whitby, and what appears to be the iconic infinity pool atop the Sands Marina Bay Hotel in Singapore is now Kitchener-Waterloo.

Meanwhile, Brampton is portrayed as either Paris or Dubai, Hamilton's waterfalls transform into the infinitely more impressive Iguazu Falls in Brazil, and Chatham-Kent? Well, that's an ancient Mayan village.

Though anyone would admittedly have to be extremely naive and not very well travelled to actually believe that any of these scenic destinations could pass for anywhere in the GTA, the thread is certainly a source for a good laugh and an amusing way to poke fun at our beloved home, as unexceptional as it may be in some ways compared to other locales.

Lead photo by

@LeafsOfMaaple


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