Hee-haw: A sassy miniature donkey 'Mambo' is being used to relieve stress during long videoconferencing sessions

David Copperfield’s Aunt Betsey would keep a sharp eye out for the quadrupeds, and the moment she’d spot them on the adjacent common, she’d call out to her maid, ‘Janet! Donkeys!’, and the duo would rush to drive the offending creatures away. The good lady would be not a little put out to learn that far from being a bane, the long-eared animals can be a boon, helping to relieve the tedium of long sessions of videoconferencing by introducing an element of barnyard humour in the proceedings.

A sassy miniature donkey called Mambo can be hired from a North Carolina farmer for $50 for 10 minutes to ‘camera crash’ an online meeting and add pizz-ass to the palaver.

As its owner proudly puts it, Mambo is ‘like a pesky little brother who doesn’t let anyone relax too long’. Mambo remains the favourite on farm that has three horses, and hens and ducks, among others. Indeed, the animal that Chesterton defended as being unjustly derided as ‘The devil’s walking parody/ On all four-footed things’ can be a winsome critter.

And don’t just believe donkey’s putative associations with stupidity in popular lore. During his US presidential campaign, when Andrew Jackson was called ‘a jackass’ by opponents, he adopted the animal as his mascot and became the US’ first Democrat president, making the donkey the party symbol and showing that a gadha can turn out to be a smartass.