Narrator Dog

Some of you may have seen this video pop up on social media recently. I highly recommend watching it. You do not need to have a TikTok account to watch the video. It's very funny and has an interesting twist ending.

In the video, a dog narrates an encounter between his owner and a women at a county fair of sorts. The scene, though popular on social media on its own, actually comes from a live active dog movie called Strays, starring Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx, which was released in August. For fun, I decided to write the scene out into a story. Enjoy!

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James and I entered the county fair, the smell of buttered popcorn and funnel cake filling my nose. If I play my cards right, I could be having more than just kibble for dinner tonight. James hasn’t been himself since the last girl left. I try to give him cuddles as best I can, but I know that there are some wounds that I can’t close. I hope I can help him find a new girl at the fair tonight. He always looks so happy when he starts a new relationship. I’m a yellow lab, so I’m instinctively very loyal to him. Other than being James’ pet, I’m also what’s known as a narrator dog—I narrate his life for anyone who will listen. Many dogs like me have become popular in TV and movies recently, but I just do it because I care about James.

We walk through the fair, my brown leather leash lax. James spots a girl in a jean jacket playing one of the carnival games. I see a glint in his eye, so I bark to get her attention.

“Um, your dog messed up my shot,” the girl says, smiling at James.

I bark again, prompting James. “I think he’s telling me I should pay for you to take another one,” James retorts.

“Oh, is that right,” the girl giggles.

James drops my leash, knowing I won’t go anywhere, and walks slowly toward the girl. “Yeah, that’s what he was saying. I promise, I wouldn’t make it up. He’s got good ideas.”

I begin my narration, knowing this is an important moment in James’ story. “I could tell James felt differently about this human girl. Maybe it was because she smells like biscuits, or maybe it was because something about her...”

“Excuse me, do you know where we can get some food around here?” I am rudely interrupted by a wiry brown mutt coming up to my left with a Boston terrier.

I continue. “As I was saying, James through he was helping this girl, but the truth is, she was helping him.”

The Boston terrier barks in. “Oh, fuck this bullshit.”

“Wait, what is he doing,” asks the mutt.

The terrier continues. “I’ve seen this shit before. He’s one of those narrator dogs.” He turns to me and says, “Hey, no one’s listening to your lame human story, you fucking dumbass.” The terrier rolls his eyes and nods for the mutt to head toward the left. Thankfully, the two waltz away, and I can get back to my story.

“Sadly, the little dog was right. No one was listening to my story. Which is too bad because I’m the only one who knows James is a cold-blooded serial killer. He’s got three bodies buried in the backyard already. But I guess no one’s interested.”

The girl claps and jumps as the attendant hands her a stuffed animal. James grabs the girl’s hand and leads her over to me. I sit up straight, lifting my paw. I know the role I must play to keep James happy.