Meaning
What does Is This a Pigeon? mean?
Is this a pigeon? is a quote and reaction image from the The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird, a 90’s Japanese anime series.
The quote is seen at a scene, where the protagonist, Yuutarou Katori is pointing at a butterfly, asking if it is a pigeon.
The butterfly meme is used to express confusion about a topic.
via MEME
Origin
What's the origin of Is This a Pigeon??
The shot is take from the third episode of the first season of the series, which aired in Japan in 1991.
“Is this a pigeon?” caught on early, as many thought it was a translation error, when it was, in fact, a direct translation of the original sentence.
Spread & Usage
How did Is This a Pigeon? spread?
The scene was turned into a meme in 2011, when Tumblr user, Indizi dell’avvenuta catastrophe uploaded it.
“Is this a pigeon?” started gaining popularity after this, initially as a “translation gone wrong”, and later as a meme.
It has seen a resurgence in 2018, when object labeling memes were created from the original screenshot of the scene.
