Is This a Pigeon?

"Is This a Pigeon?" represents one of anime culture's most successful crossovers into mainstream meme culture, transforming a sincere moment of android confusion into a universal template for misunderstanding and misidentification. The meme's enduring popularity stems from its perfect visual representation of the gap between perception and reality, making it an ideal format for satirical commentary on everything from politics to pop culture.

The original scene comes from Episode 3 of "The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird" (太陽の勇者ファイバード), which aired in February 1991. The anime was produced by Takara and Sunrise under the direction of Katsuyoshi Yatabe as part of the "Brave" franchise, a series of mecha anime that ran from 1990-1998 (Wikipedia, 2025). The specific moment features Yutaro Katori, a human android created by Professor Hiroshi Amano, who has assumed human form to study Earth's ecosystem and blend in with human society.

In the scene, Katori is attempting to demonstrate his knowledge of terrestrial nature while speaking with a police inspector. When he encounters a butterfly, he points at it confidently and asks "Kore wa hato desu ka?" (これは鳩ですか?), which translates directly to "Is this a pigeon?" The moment was intended to show the android's incomplete understanding of Earth's fauna, illustrating his alien perspective despite his human appearance. The subtitle translation was accurate to the original Japanese, making this a case of genuine character confusion rather than translation error.

The anime scene remained obscure for two decades until it was discovered and posted to Tumblr in 2011. The image resonated with users who recognized its potential as a template for expressing confusion, misidentification, or satirical commentary on obvious mistakes. Early versions maintained the original context, using the image simply as a reaction to express bewilderment or to highlight someone's fundamental misunderstanding of a situation.

The meme experienced a massive resurgence in 2018, exploding across Twitter in late April and early May. The revival was sparked by object-labeling variations that transformed the format into a more sophisticated commentary tool. On April 26, 2018, Twitter user @romiosini posted a version labeling the butterfly as "any makeup look without red lipstick," helping to establish the pattern of using the three elements (character, butterfly, caption) to create pointed observations about misplaced priorities or faulty reasoning (Know Your Meme, 2015).

The viral breakthrough came on May 3, 2018, when Netflix's official Twitter account posted a version that labeled the character as "28-year-old actors," the butterfly as "teenagers," and added the caption "high school TV dramas." This corporate endorsement, combined with the highly relatable content, propelled the meme to mainstream status, garnering over 40,400 likes and 9,400 retweets within a week (Know Your Meme, 2015).

Throughout May 2018, the meme dominated Twitter and spread to Reddit, Instagram, and Facebook. Its success lay in the object-labeling format's infinite adaptability—users could apply it to political commentary (corporations mistaking profit for ethics), social observations (adults mistaking busy-ness for productivity), or personal struggles (mistaking procrastination for self-care). The format became particularly popular among leftist and queer online communities, who used it to critique societal assumptions and highlight systemic misconceptions.

The meme's 2018 peak represented a new sophistication in meme culture, where formats served not just as humor but as vehicles for social commentary. The "Is This a Pigeon?" template allowed complex ideas to be distilled into instantly recognizable visual jokes, making it one of the most versatile meme formats of the late 2010s.