kevin_harris78•20d agoProlific Poster

That viral 'Birds Aren't Real' meme finally clicked for me after a weird encounter

I was at a diner in Tulsa last Thursday, and this guy at the counter was dead serious explaining how all birds are government drones. Everyone around was laughing at him like he was crazy. But then he showed me a photo of a pigeon with a tiny antenna-looking scar on its leg, and I honestly couldn't tell if it was a joke or not. I ended up spending 20 minutes on my phone trying to fact check it, and now I feel like I'm the one who doesn't get the joke. Has anyone else had that moment where a meme stops being funny and just feels confusing?

2 comments

2 Comments

chen.casey20d ago

The pigeon leg scar thing is actually a real thing (not a joke though), some pigeons get tiny metal bands from bird watchers or researchers for tracking populations. That's probably what he showed you, not an antenna. I fell down that same rabbit hole a few years back when a friend sent me a video of a "drone bird" and I spent an hour looking at bird leg rings on Wikipedia. The whole Birds Aren't Real thing started as a parody of conspiracy theories, but some people genuinely ran with it and now it's this weird blur between satire and actual belief.

patricia_schmidt1420d ago

Ngl those bands are usually just numbered rings for research, not tracking antennas.