AboutWhat does the meme depict?

The "Is this a pigeon?" meme features a still shot of Yutaro Katori, a humanoid android protagonist from the Japanese anime TV series The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird, looking quizzically at a butterfly. In the image, Katori is depicted outdoors, his hand outstretched toward the butterfly, with a perplexed expression on his face. This scene is accompanied by a caption derived from the English-translated subtitle that misquotes Katori as saying "Is this a pigeon?", despite the fact that he is clearly looking at a butterfly. The meme is commonly used to exemplify confusion or misunderstanding.

OriginWho did it first?

The meme originates from a specific episode of the 1991 Japanese anime series The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird. In the third episode of the series, Yutaro Katori, an android studying Earth's nature, mistakenly identifies a butterfly as a pigeon. This humorous error occurs in a scene where Katori is trying to learn about the natural world. The incorrect identification, along with his confusions between different plant species, became the focus of the meme. The original scene can be viewed on YouTube.^[1]

Origin: 1991