Is This A Pigeon
Where it came from
A screenshot from the 1990s anime "The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird" where an android character points at a butterfly and sincerely asks "Is this a pigeon?" Became a meme in 2018.
A guy in a green suit gestures earnestly at a butterfly and asks, in perfect confidence, "Is this a pigeon?" You label him, the butterfly, and the question to make a joke about someone confidently misidentifying a thing. "Me / A single successful day / Is this a functional adult life?"
The comedy is the total certainty. He is not guessing. He is confirming. He is wrong in the most committed way possible. The format is perfect for self-deprecating "I have no idea what I'm doing" posts where the point is that you think you're doing great and you're not.
Still in active rotation. The sincerity of the original anime still makes it land every time.
Search interest, over time
↳ data courtesy of google trends
