German fans are upset and calling for psychic octopus Paul's head after he successfully predicted Germany's defeat to Spain in the World Cup semi-finals.| "Throw him in the frying pan," wrote the Berliner Kurier newspaper in a popular sentiment echoed by Die Welt, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the Hamburger Abendblatt and other newspapers. |
Octopus Paul has gotten a great deal of attention for his uncanny abilty to correctly predict the outcome of each of Germany's soccer games in this year's World Cup.
Sky News reports that Paul is the talk of social network sites and has "topped Twitter trends."
When Paul predicted Germany's defeat to Spain, covered in this Digital Journal article, the Germany fans were hoping he was wrong, just as he had been wrong in his only mistake of the 2008 Euro tournament predictions. That mistake concerned the Germany vs Spain final.
Paul's keeper, Oliver Walenciak, said before Wednesday's match: "We know that all octopuses have nine brains so we know he has exceptional powers. In the European Cup he got one game wrong. It was the final between Germany and Spain and he picked Germany which was wrong and this time he has picked Spain so we are thinking he must be wrong again."
But Paul was not wrong in this year's prediction. His 100% success rate for the 2010 World Cup predictions has the world waiting to see if this psychic octopus can successfully predict the result of the World Cup final between the Spanish and the Dutch, as well as the third-place play-off where Germany goes up against Uruguay this Saturday.
Many Germany fans, however, would like to see the psychic octopus served up on a platter as revenge for Germany's defeat to Spain.
"Nothing beats grilled octopus," said Germany fan, Dolores Lusch. "Cut him up in thin slices and grill him on all sides with a dash of lemon juice, olive oil and garlic on it. Delicious!"
According to Reuters, German newspapers and websites have been filled with suggestions of what to do with psychic Paul -- "most involved cooking and eating him."