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Is this a pigeon?

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Internet meme
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Is this a pigeon? (Japanese: これは鳩ですか?, Hepburn: Kore wa hato desu ka?) is an Internet meme and quote of the protagonist from the 1990s Japanese anime TV series The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird. The image originates from a scene where the character mistakes a butterfly as a pigeon. The image was originally posted on Tumblr and later the meme spread with other variations.

Origin

The meme originates from Yutaro Katori, a human android made by professor Hiroshi Amano, who misidentifies a butterfly as a pigeon while studying terrestrial nature in a scene from Season 1, Episode 3 of The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird, which first aired in Japan in February 1991.

In 2011, the scene was uploaded to Tumblr, spawning many variations and becoming a popular meme. The meme had a resurgence in 2018. On June 27, 2013, BuzzFeed highlighted the meme in their compilation article titled "27 Subtitles That Have Gone Awesomely Wrong." In 2018, the meme returned to prominence on Twitter. In 2021, the meme was also used in The Mary Sue's article.

Reception

Mashable described it as a new Distracted boyfriend meme of 2018.

References

  1. Feldman, Brian (May 15, 2018). "The Pigeon Meme Is Here to Bring Order to the Internet". Intelligencer.
  2. "Some of These Pigeon Memes Are Almost Too Relatable". www.vice.com. 16 May 2018.
  3. Shamsian, Jacob (May 7, 2018). "The 'is this a pigeon?' meme is super relatable for people who have no idea what they're doing". Insider. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
  4. Gerken, Tom (May 15, 2018). "How a 2011 meme took over Twitter in 2018". BBC News. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  5. Romano, Aja (May 15, 2018). ""Is this a meme?": the confused anime guy and his butterfly, explained". Vox. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  6. Lin, Joseph (27 June 2013). "27 Subtitles That Have Gone Awesomely Wrong". BuzzFeed.
  7. "Is this a pigeon? A 2011 meme reincarnated in 2018". BBC News. May 15, 2018.
  8. ""Edward" Is Trending on Twitter Thanks to Service Industry Nightmare Customer Stories". May 3, 2021.
  9. Hamilton, Isobel (May 8, 2018). "The 'is this a pigeon' meme is the new 'distracted boyfriend' and it's way too real". Mashable.
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