Drivers spend most motorway journeys looking at brake lights, roadworks and somebody in the middle lane conducting a personal experiment into how slowly a car can move.
A few motorists in America have recently received something better: Woody and Buzz Lightyear apparently clinging to the side of a moving truck as though Toy Story had been remade by the Department of Transport.
Footage filmed near Tampa, Florida, shows toys resembling the famous cowboy and space ranger attached to a large truck and swaying in the wind.
It is charming, ridiculous and considerably more interesting than another sticker announcing that the vehicle is being monitored by satellite.
TO INFINITY AND THE NEXT SERVICE STATION
The scene recreates a sequence from the original 1995 film, in which Woody and Buzz face a fairly stressful relationship with a moving vehicle.
A video reshared on social media claimed the truck was travelling at 70mph and that its driver did not know the toys were there. Those details have not been independently verified, and the more likely explanation is that somebody went to considerable effort to create the display deliberately.
The Daily Dot reported that similar recreations have appeared on trucks elsewhere, including one in Britain featuring Slinky Dog as an additional passenger.
In other words, this is not a toy emergency.
It is a trend.
THE INTERNET BRIEFLY ENJOYS SOMETHING NICE
The clip works because people recognise the scene immediately.
No explanation is required. There is a truck, there are two toys and somewhere inside every adult viewer is a child shouting that they are about to miss the removal van.
Social media consequently performed one of its increasingly rare useful functions and passed the footage around for people to enjoy.
Nobody had to reveal a conspiracy. Nobody needed to argue about politics. Nobody filmed themselves confronting a supermarket employee over the price of cheese.
For several seconds, the internet simply watched two toys endure an unnecessarily dramatic commute.
ABC News also shared footage of the Tampa sighting on YouTube, providing a useful reminder that even major broadcasters will abandon geopolitics when Buzz Lightyear appears on an articulated vehicle.
PLEASE ATTACH YOUR CHILDHOOD SECURELY
There is, inevitably, a boring adult paragraph.
Anybody recreating the scene needs to make certain the toys are securely attached, do not obscure lights or registration plates and cannot become airborne plastic hazards. Motorway nostalgia stops being delightful when a cowboy arrives through somebody’s windscreen.
Drivers should also avoid filming while behind the wheel. Let a passenger collect the footage while the person controlling the car continues the traditional activity of quietly criticising everybody else’s lane discipline.
PIXAR’S CHEAPEST SEQUEL
Hollywood spends hundreds of millions creating sequels, promotional campaigns and computer-generated spectacle.
A trucker has apparently achieved the same emotional response using two toys, some secure fastenings and a motorway.
The result is funny because it turns an ordinary journey into a scene millions of people remember. It is also wholesome enough to share without first checking whether a distant relative has posted an angry political comment underneath it.
OUTOUT VERDICT
Woody and Buzz survived the original adventure, several sequels and decades inside children’s toy boxes.
A trip down the motorway was never going to finish them.
The only real concern is whether Slinky Dog has been declared as an abnormal load.
