WBIR 10News traffic reporter Ed Rupp loves Hump Day.
Rupp started participating in the weekly tradition by drawing a cartoon camel on the screen during 10News Today.
“It never really started. It just kind of evolved,” Rupp said. “One day a guy asks and sent me an email, and said ‘how come you draw an outline of Norris Lake every Wednesday?’
“I thought maybe I better label this as a camel. I started labeling it as a camel, but I still did it every once in a while.”
Mothers in East Tennessee began emailing Rupp saying their children wouldn’t get ready for school until they saw the camel.
One day a 10News production assistant told Rupp about a friend named Debbie Matoy, who never got ready for work until she saw the camel.
“I thought, well, that’s pretty funny because there’s thousands of Debbie’s, right? If you had an unusual name it wouldn’t work,” Rupp said. “I thought I’m just going to throw that in there with the rest of the shtick, and see what happens because every Debbie that watches us is going to think they’re the Debbie.”
The tradition continued to evolve. Rupp’s friend Rod Milligan from ET Motorgear created Hump Day t-shirts, and Zoo Knoxville sent over a stuffed toy camel. A number of East Tennessee viewers have also sent Rupp their Hump Day memorabilia.
Rupp rode on a camel from Zoo Knoxville on Wednesday’s edition of Live at Five at Four. He also finally got the chance to meet Matoy.
“I never said anything to anybody until this past week,” Matoy said. “Then it was like, ‘oh my gosh! You’re that Debbie!’ So, now the word is out.”
Matoy refused to take her Wednesday morning showers until she saw Rupp show the Hump Day camel.
“You’re going to learn all about Debbie (Matoy), and how she’s helped make she we are all getting to work on time because if Debbie can take her shower, we all can take our shower,” 10News anchor Abby Ham said.
“Camels are kind of temperamental and unpredictable,” Rupp said. “They’re really not funny characters like we make them out to be. We’ll see what kind of mood the camel is in when we get there.”
Rupp said he’s ridden an elephant from the circus before in downtown Knoxville, but he’s never rode a camel before.
“I hope the camel knows that I’m going to be on the camel,” Rupp said. “I don’t want to fall off the camel. That’s one thing I know.”
well it's official, I'm gonna try and ride a camel of Live at Five for hump day! LOL
— Ed Rupp (@EdRupp) February 8, 2017
.@EdRupp is fired up that it's #HumpDay!https://t.co/k5Z2reX4rF
— WBIR Channel 10 (@wbir) May 25, 2016
@wbir dangit! I meant to send this pic of baby Witcher in for @EdRupp to show for ober the hump day! @WeatherWitcher pic.twitter.com/FI82q6bADM
— Kirsten Horne (@KirstenHorneWx) October 15, 2014