747, the winner of this years Fat Bear Contest. As you can see he is an absolute unit. Photo via Katmai National Park.
A scandal has rocked Alaska’s annual Fat Bear Off and accusations of ballot box stuffing have forced all of us to question which bear is truly the thiccest of them all. For eight years now, the Fat Bear Week contest put on by Katmai National Park has allowed Americans to vote for their favourite big ol' bear. It's brought us such winners we all adore such as the rotund Beadnose and, of course, the four-time winner Otis—a chonker so large he makes our hearts bigger by just existing. The 2022 Fat Bear contest seemed innocuous at first, with the chunky 747 (who tips the scales at over 1,400 lbs) crowned Bear king. He defeated another absolute unit, a bear known as 901, for the title. The vote has become a beloved online tradition as its inherently wholesome nature seemingly works as an elixir from everything else on the internet. More than a million people voted for their favorite fat bear this year. However—because scandals are rocking everything from chess to fishing these days—something smelled funky about the competition, and it wasn’t just the rotting salmon corpses the bears left behind. On October 9, the Twitter account for the Katmai National Park shocked the world with accusations of voter fraud. “FAT BEAR WEEK SCANDAL,” they tweeted, alleging the ballot box was initially stuffed for 2019 winner Holly who was going up against 747.
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“It appears someone has decided to spam the Fat Bear Week poll, but fortunately it is easy for us to tell which votes are fraudulent,” the national park wrote. “We have discarded the fake votes.” With the discarded votes, 747, also known as Bear Force One, easily bested Holly by over 7,000 votes to take the championship. Finally, an American election that no one takes issue with.