Is This a Pigeon?

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

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.

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.

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