#DrummondPuddleWatch: The puddle the whole world is talking about

The Periscope stream of the puddle - officially named the #DrummondPuddle - has taken the world by storm. Photo / Periscope

Nearly 20,000 people are currently riveted by a livestream of a pool of standing water in Newcastle upon Tyne, England - an example of either the Internet's neverending vapidity or its boundless potential for collaborative, viral co-creation. Take your pick!

The Periscope stream of the puddle - officially named the #DrummondPuddle, for the creative agency that's streaming it - has been airing since Wednesday morning, when employees of the agency started gawking at pedestrians struggling to cross it. As of this writing, the video is being viewed by 19,392 people (and being sought out by an unknown number of passerby who want a few seconds of on-screen fame. They appear in the Periscope from time to time, splashing around or waving.).

The hashtag #DrummondPuddleWatch is trending in the U.K., U.S. and worldwide; everyone from @TwitterUK to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution has weighed in, at this point.

#drummondpuddlewatch pic.twitter.com/U5XzvnDFCA

— Elena Cresci (@elenacresci) January 6, 2016

I know what you're probably thinking, of course: "why" and "stop" and "what is this?" Those are valid reactions, surely, but there's actually something kind of interesting going on here: If you hang out in the stream long enough, and watch the scrolling viewer commentary along the lower left-hand side, you'll see a sort of collaborative narrative emerge, a crass Internet sketch about the scene's imagined characters.

A guy just placed a 'slippery when wet' sign in the Drummond puddle and it's amazing #DrummondPuddleWatch pic.twitter.com/akjYHE0ZHV

— Elliot Wagland (@elliotwagland) January 6, 2016

"It's brilliant," Periscope streamer Richard Rippon told the Telegraph. "There are many puddles in the world and this one's ours so we are very proud of it."