You’re at a wedding, halfway through deciding whether you have the stamina for one more dance, when something large, furry, and deeply committed sprints past you. You pause, mid-step, mid-thought, mid-existence, and do a quick internal audit. Am I drunk? Yes. Am I this drunk? Hopefully not. You turn, and there it is again. A gorilla. Doing push-ups. On the dance floor while ‘Laila Main Laila’ blasts in the background. No one bats an eyelid. Somehow, this has already been accepted as part of the evening’s programming. Which, apparently, it now is.
Indian weddings have now added a new category of guest: a mascot. What started as viral TikTok videos in Egypt around 2023 first took off in New Delhi before expanding to other parts of India, where it has been embraced with alarming enthusiasm as the new wedding blueprint. The new checklist goes: venue, catering, DJ, and mascot. Gori Boy Events have built a business out of this new trend. “Since the beginning of February, I’ve done at least 45 to 50 weddings,” the event planner’s spokesperson says. “I have nine suits right now, and they’re always booked out.” Read on about this and more viral internet gimmicks, on The Nod.
