We’ve heard of cruel and unusual punishment, but this is something else.
Two US prison guards and their supervisor have been charged after forcing at least four inmates to listen to the ‘Baby Shark’ song on repeat for two hours in November last year.
Don’t know the song?
The ‘Baby Shark’ song rocketed to fame after it was uploaded to video-sharing platform YouTube by a South Korean children’s education company in 2016.
It’s catchy, but probably not one you need to listen to more than once, and billions of views later it has left more than a few parents annoyed.
According to court documents, the guards admitted to using the song “as a means to discipline inmates and teach them a lesson because they felt that disciplinary action within the Detention Centre was not working in correcting the behaviour of the inmates”.
And while it might have been intended as a joke, investigators found the song had caused “undue emotional stress” on the inmates.
The two guards were suspended and subsequently resigned, with the supervisor retiring from his role.
Listen to the ‘Baby Shark’ song more than three times and you’ll agree they got off pretty lightly.
