Akbar's Tea Party

Akbar a fairly large Elephant had invited some friends over to his home for an afternoon tea party. Akbar had never thrown a tea party but he had somehow stumbled onto the tea party algorithms on his social media feeds and was so enamored he decided to try it out.

Akbar spent weeks pouring over tea party Reels, TikTok’s, YouTube Shorts, etc. hoping to narrow down the perfect design aesthetic that both paid homage to the traditions of a tea party but still allowed his own personality and artistic vision to shine through.

Akbar picked the decor, the music, the tableware, the colors, and even got out his best china which had been passed down through several generations but seldom used by his most recent ancestors starting with his grandparents.

Akbar took care to dust off and polish the fine China so the whole tea party would shine and sparkle just like Akbar knew it could.

Akbar’s friends were perplexed when they saw the invite come from him for a tea party. It was really out of left field. Akbar had never mentioned tea, or parties, or anything like that and now here he was inviting everyone over for a tea party? And he expected everyone to attend? Oy vey.

When the day of the big tea party finally arrived Akbar put on his finest high tea outfit and gave his whole tea party scene a final once over. He took several videos of the tea party that he would use to make a short video and join the tea party conversation online. His guests arrived and Akbar graciously informed them of where to sit and how to comport themselves for a high tea celebration.

The whole affair, however, was stiff and awkward. Everyone was afraid of doing something wrong. No one had ever been to a tea party before and felt a bit out of place. Akbar sensed this but assured his guests that tea parties were fun, he knew that for a fact, for it was handed to him by his algorithms and algorithms don’t lie to you. This has been confirmed and supported by numerous studies and scholarly articles that were also served up to Akbar by his algorithms.

So color Akbar surprised when he too finally realized the fun tea party he had planned was not so much that. Akbar had fun planning the party, sure, but it wasn’t really feeling the way he wanted the party to feel

“Do you guys want to crack a few beers into these tea cups, maybe?” Donovan, a Hippo, asked a quiet, stiff table.

“I’m way ahead of you pal,” Said Bartholomew, a Buffalo, as he poured from a flask into his teacup.

Akbar was disappointed, but ultimately, he understood. Akbar himself could feel that the tea party idea was lame and not coming together. Who was he to begrudge the friends he invited to some way salvage the evening for a good time? Akbar joined in and before they knew it everyone was laughing and Akbar was being self-deprecating and a good sport about the whole tea party thing. They even had little snacks to eat with their alcohol beverages which were originally meant to be had with tea, and that was a new and not typically the way their group of friends hung out. So that was cool.

A few weeks later, Akbar finished putting together a video of his tea party and posted it. It was a medium success, didn’t go viral but had decent reach and engagement. Many of the folks who saw Akbar’s video commented on how much fun the tea party looked and how they hoped Akbar wouldn’t mind if they took his ideas and tried to do a party of their own. Akbar of course told them to run with it, and assured everyone how much fun he and his friends eventually had at his party.

He did leave out the part about it sucking at first though, why should reality get in the way of a good time?