The Walking Dead – far too cheery, it turns out
Hard to believe we know, but TV’s most miserable drama, The Walking Dead, is wildly over-optimistic about the future of mankind in the event of a zombie apocalypse, according to new research.
Whereas Rick Grimes and his intrepid bunch of survivors have lasted seven series of the US drama, encountering no end of people alive (and dead) along the way, a university study has suggested that all of humanity would be wiped out in less than six months.
That’s not even as far as season three.
Students at the University of Leicester were given the task of working out exactly how long it would take for a zombie virus to infect every individual on earth, and calculated that 100 days into the infection, fewer than 300 people would be left alive.
The findings were presented in the Journal of Physics Special Topics, a “peer reviewed student journal” run by the university’s department of physics and astronomy, so they must be accurate.
Zombie apocalypse would potentially wipe out humanity in just 100 days, students calculate —University of Leicester: https://t.co/z33wbpxj2J
— Physics & Astronomy, University of Leicester (@PhysicsUoL) January 5, 2017
Reassuringly, the researchers admit the data did not take into account how quickly and efficiently humankind was able to fight back against the undead terror.
“Including this may give the humans a better chance at survival,” it added. They’re not kidding. But does it also include how quickly the survivors turn on each other?
In the meantime, we can console ourselves by watching that upbeat, cheery, heartening and all-round rosy vision of our future that is The Walking Dead.