ITV/PixabayI’m A Celebrity returns this weekend, bringing with it a whole hoard of nervous celebs who are about to realise just how much they love their beds (and food, and everything else they can’t get in the jungle).
The show’s return inevitably means thousands of us are going to be tuning in every night to see which poor soul has been voted to do the Bushtucker trial, although what those trials will consist of this year remains a mystery.
They’ll no doubt involve kangaroo testicles or an anus of some sort, but will 2019 be the year where ITV ups the ante and puts live animals like koalas and wombats centre stage in the challenges? The people running Ian Wright’s social media certainly think so…
PA ImagesTo be more precise, the football pundit’s team think a certain ‘chlamydia-ridden’ koala named Karl might be getting involved in the trials, according to a tweet sent from Wright’s account last night (November 13).
The tweet referenced a Metro article suggesting Karl the koala had set up camp in the jungle before the celebrities have even arrived, even making himself known among the production team.
Ian’s team wrote, alongside a laughing face emoji:
These Bushtucker Trials are getting more and more bizarre each year…
These Bushtucker Trials are getting more and more bizarre each year… 😂 #TeamIan #ImACeleb pic.twitter.com/K9S5R4kTyI
— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) November 13, 2019
While Karl might be ‘a bit smelly’, production manager Olly Nash described him as harmless, saying the koala tends to laze around in the trees while the team set up the new series.
He said it was ‘the first one [he’s] ever heard of in the camp’, adding: ‘He’s around here somewhere, he’s on the side of the valley somewhere hanging around a ridge.’
It’s not known if the koala definitely has the sexually transmitted infection, although it is common among koalas, with some wild populations seeing a 100% infection rate, according to one study.
The animals are struck by a different strain of the disease from that which affects humans and it’s rare it can be passed on to people, although it is possible as humans can catch the koala strain through exposure to an infected animal’s urine.
PixabayLuckily Karl won’t actually be taking part in any Bushtucker trials and will presumably just continue to laze around in the jungle until the celebrities arrive.
Although it would be nice to get a slight reprieve from cow penises and fish eyes…
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).