Chicago Cubs: Bill Murray shares fans' joy

Overcome - the actor cannot contain his emotion

A huge smile, then tears of joy: Bill Murray's reaction to the Chicago Cubs' baseball World Series win has resonated across social media.

The US actor better known for his hangdog expression and deadpan delivery was on the pitch to celebrate before being sprayed with champagne in the Cubs clubhouse.

Footage of Bill Murray smiling is going viral

Mr Murray was sprayed with champagne by Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein

Meanwhile Nasa tweeted a picture of Chicago as seen from space in honour of the team (the direction north is to the left of the photograph).

US President Barack Obama - a fan of the rival Chicago baseball team the White Sox - invited the winning Cubs to the White House.

Fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, who is from Chicago and running to be Mr Obama's successor, also tweeted in celebration.

The former chairman of the Republican National Convention, Michael Steele, hailed the Cubs' "amazing effort".

Many shared jokes about the length of time it had taken the Cubs to win, reportedly after a curse was placed on the team in 1945.

Bar owner Billy Sianis is said to have cursed the Cubs, so that they would never win a World Series game again, or even reach the World Series again (different versions of the story exist).

Some made their intention to celebrate abundantly clear while others poked fun at the number of people declaring themselves Cubs fan following the victory.

As always seems to happen on social media, a cat found its way into the story.

This time it was Amanda Steiner's cat Kira. A video of Kira attempting to catch the baseball during a TV action replay was retweeted more than 11,000 times.

The video can be seen here.

And as is often the case, there was someone pouring cold water on the whole thing.

Business journalist Josh Barro said the win would prove the Cubs' undoing, "ruining the franchise's magic".

The Cubs win was huge news outside the US too. Baseball is big in Japan and many Japanese social media users offered their reactions.

One Twitter user, @takayuu15, offered a historical perspective, listing other events that happened in 1908 when the Cubs last won, such as a visit by the Reach All-American baseball team to Japan, and the death of the Qing Dynasty empress dowager in China.