A Sinkhole Just Appeared on the White House Lawn & Everyone's Making the Same Jokes

Shutterstock
Shutterstock

Mother nature can be a real pain in the ass, royally messing up people's homes and straight-up melting cars, but occasionally it has a pretty great sense of humor. At least that's one way to explain the origins of a sinkhole that randomly opened up on the White House lawn in recent days, sending groundskeepers scrambling to rope off the area and the internet scrambling to make jokes.

At some point over the weekend, a small hole appeared on the North Lawn of the White House, just beyond the fence frequently passed by those trekking to and from the press briefing room. So, as you might imagine, it caught the eye of plenty of folks who are literally paid to be curious for a living. According to Voice of America reporter Steve Herman, it got noticeably bigger between Sunday and Monday, and was even bigger on Tuesday. He also said a second one opened up right next to it, per a report by Quartz.

In terms of a geological phenomenon, sinkholes are actually pretty common, but the fact that one has appeared so close to the abode of the Commander-In-Chief has plenty of people cracking wise about what it could mean. Specifically, Twitter has been awash with riffs on how it may be a physical manifestation of the whole "Drain the Swamp" movement, among other metaphors.

Some jabs have also been made about its proximity to the press briefing room.

On Tuesday afternoon, a large sheet of green-colored wood was placed atop the hole, presumably to keep people from getting too close. Though even that act prompted some "cover-up" jokes. 

Of course, it's worth mentioning that sinkholes are a fairly frequent occurrence in and around the nation's capital, since the city was literally built on a swamp. As the folks at Quartzpoint out, they've opened up across the city quite a bit in recent years, and have grown large enough to gobble up entire school busses. 

But hey, metaphors are fun.

h/tQuartz, CBS News

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Joe McGauley is a senior writer for Thrillist. Follow him @jwmcgauley.