A Californian man has captured the world's attention after going on a quest to discover why there were shrimp tails in his cereal.

Allegedly discovered inside a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, what began as a customer service issue for comedian Jensen Karp has now turned into a true online scandal.

Commentators have suggested that it was the result of everything from a cover-up by the cereal maker to other plot twists that M Night Shyamalan would approve of.

It all began on Monday (March 22) when Karp took to Twitter to ask the cereal company why there were what appeared to be shrimp tails inside his Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374051365417230336]]

It wasn't long before Karp received a reply from a Cinnamon Toast Crunch (CTC) employee, who asked him to send a direct message about the problem.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374080604988305412]]

"We're sorry to see what you found! We would like to report this to our quality team and replace the box. Can you please send us a DM to collect more details? Thanks!" they wrote.

Then, a few hours later, the CTC account revealed that there was a perfectly logical explanation for the shrimp tails: they had been created by an accumulation of sugar.

The account added that there was "no possibility of cross-contamination with shrimp" in the making of the cereal.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/CTCSquares/status/1374106716980326406]]

However, this answer wasn't good enough for Karp, who went on to accuse CTC of trying to "gaslight" him about the shrimp tails.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374108037376483331]]

He then shared a screenshot of a message between himself and CTC, asking them to take the shrimp tails into their lab for investigation.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374130107711819778]]

But the saga wasn't over there, and Karp decided to look into the box again to see what else he could find, only to discover a small piece of string and cereal squares with black marks on them.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374132475375493122]]

"Also, many of the squares have black marks, and some are dyed red? And yes, I ate a bowl before noticing all this," he wrote.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374132481759219714]]

Karp then decided to take matters into his own hands and personally have his cereal tested a lab.

At this point, the story had gone mega-viral and was covered by major publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.

CTC was then forced to issue a social media statement to allay any fears people might have about finding shrimp or other alien objects in their cereal.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/CTCSquares/status/1374408643848798212]]

It was at this point that the story took an unexpected turn when social media users discovered that Karp's wife is actor Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga in the 90s teen sitcom Boy Meets World.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Perminisconious/status/1374511712611692553]]

One Twitter user joked: "Imagine saying 'wow the shrimp cinnamon toast guy is married to Topanga' to any normal person."

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/cbranch89/status/1374456916865212417]]

Eventually, the cereal made its way to pest control via the testing lab. A research company then offered to pay for a DNA test for the shrimp tail.

While Karp has no idea how the alien objects got into his cereal, he did point out that the "black stuff" was cooked into it.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374446380324847616]]

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JensenKarp/status/1374558622684880901]]

CTC now wants Karp to send the cereal box to local law enforcement to ascertain whether or not it has been tampered with, however, their official line remains that the shrimp are nothing more than sugar clusters.

We await the conclusion to this story with bated breath...

Featured image credit: Pexels / Elle Hughes

A complete timeline of the guy who allegedly found 'shrimp tails' in his cereal