It is 1991. You’re watching a Japanese anime about space police and androids called The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird. In the third episode, an android named Katori Itaru is trying to learn about Earth. He sees a butterfly. He looks at it, completely confident in his misguided intellect, and asks: "Is this a pigeon?"
Fast forward twenty-seven years. Suddenly, that specific moment from a relatively obscure 90s show is the most important image on the internet.
The is this butterfly meme is a weirdly resilient piece of digital culture. It’s a snapshot of human error. We love watching someone get something spectacularly wrong, and this meme captures that "confident but clueless" energy better than almost anything else in the history of Reddit or Twitter. Honestly, it’s kind of beautiful how a mistranslated line of dialogue from a niche cartoon became the universal shorthand for being totally out of touch.
Where the Is This Butterfly Meme Actually Came From
People often think this was a modern parody. It’s not. It is a genuine, 100% real screenshot from a show produced by Sunrise, the same studio that did Gundam. The character, Katori Itaru, is basically an alien consciousness in a human body. He’s reading a book and trying to identify things in nature. He sees the butterfly. He asks the question. It’s meant to be a joke within the show—demonstrating his lack of human knowledge—but it wasn’t meant to be a global phenomenon.
The first recorded instance of this becoming a "meme" happened way back in 2011 on Tumblr. A user named Indrizzo uploaded the screen capture. It sat there, simmering in the background of the internet for years. It wasn't an overnight hit. It was a slow burn.
Then 2018 happened.
In May of that year, the image exploded. Why? Because the internet realized the "butterfly" could represent literally anything you’re trying to ignore or misidentify for your own convenience. It became a way to mock people who make bad faith arguments or who are just fundamentally confused by reality.
One of the most famous early viral versions involved a guy looking at a butterfly labeled "literally anything" and asking, "Is this a personality?" It hit home. It was brutal. It was perfect.
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The Anatomy of a Perfect Misidentification
What makes the is this butterfly meme work isn't just the text. It’s the face. Katori Itaru looks so earnest. He isn't trying to be funny. He’s trying his best, and he is failing miserably.
We’ve all been there.
You see this template used in political commentary, in relationship jokes, and in the tech world. In 2024 and 2025, we saw a massive resurgence of the meme in the context of AI. Critics would post the image with the butterfly labeled "Stochastic Parrots" and the guy asking, "Is this AGI?"
The structure is simple:
- The Character: The person making a wrong assumption.
- The Butterfly: The obvious truth or object.
- The Caption: The delusional question.
It’s a three-part visual joke that requires zero explanation. If you have to explain a meme, it’s already dead. But you never have to explain the butterfly. You just feel it. It’s the visual equivalent of that feeling when your mom calls every video game console a "Nintendo."
Why the Meme Peaked and Then Just... Stayed
Most memes have a shelf life of about two weeks. They burn bright, they get overused by corporate Twitter accounts, and then they die a slow death on Facebook.
The is this butterfly meme is different. It’s what we call a "Legacy Meme."
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It belongs in the same hall of fame as "Doge" or the "Distracted Boyfriend." It provides a utility. As long as people continue to misinterpret things—which, let’s be real, is going to happen forever—the meme remains relevant. Netflix used it to promote shows. Wendy’s used it to roast competitors. Even NASA-adjacent accounts have used it to joke about misidentifying celestial bodies.
There is a psychological element here, too. According to digital culture researchers like those at the Know Your Meme database, the longevity of a meme often depends on its "remixability." The butterfly meme is infinitely remixable. You don't need Photoshop skills. You just need a font and an opinion.
The Subculture of Anime Screencaps
We can't talk about this without acknowledging the specific "90s aesthetic" that makes it work. There is a nostalgia for that grainy, hand-drawn cel animation. The colors are slightly muted. The subtitles are in that classic yellow font. It feels authentic.
In a world of high-definition, AI-generated images that look too perfect, the is this butterfly meme feels like a relic from a simpler time. It’s a piece of "low-fi" content that resonates in a "hi-fi" world. It reminds us of Saturday morning cartoons and the weirdness of early internet forums.
Interestingly, the original Japanese line is exactly what the subtitle says. Sometimes people claim it was a "bad fan sub," but no—he actually says Kore wa pigeon desu ka? (using the English word for pigeon). The absurdity was intentional by the Japanese writers, but the internet turned that absurdity into a universal language.
Common Misconceptions About the Butterfly
A lot of people think the character is a scientist. He’s not. He’s an extraterrestrial energy being inhabiting a human lab assistant's body. That’s a pretty important distinction because it explains why he’s so confused.
Another misconception: that the meme started on Twitter. Nope. Tumblr was the laboratory for this one. Twitter was just the megaphone that made it loud enough for the rest of the world to hear.
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How to Use the Meme Without Cringing
If you're going to use the is this butterfly meme in 2026, you have to be careful. If you use it exactly like people did in 2018, you look like a "fellow kids" meme yourself.
The key is "meta-commentary."
The best versions of this meme lately are the ones that subvert the format. Maybe the butterfly is actually a pigeon, and the guy is asking "Is this a butterfly?" Or maybe the butterfly is the meme itself, and the guy is asking "Is this still relevant?"
Meta-humor is the only way to keep a decade-old meme fresh.
Putting This Into Practice
If you're a creator or just someone who wants to understand why your feed looks the way it does, pay attention to the "Structure of Delusion." That’s what this meme is actually about. It’s a tool for pointing out when someone is ignoring the obvious.
If you want to create your own:
- Identify a common misconception in your niche (e.g., "Drinking 8 gallons of coffee" = "Is this a sleep cycle?").
- Use a high-quality version of the original template (don't use the blurry 200px ones).
- Keep the caption short. The more words you add, the less funny it gets.
The is this butterfly meme works because it is fast. It is a punch to the gut. It tells the viewer, "I see what you're doing, and it's ridiculous."
Next time you see a tech bro claiming a chatbot is sentient, or a politician calling a minor inconvenience a "national crisis," you know exactly which image to reach for. The guy, the butterfly, and the beautiful, stupid question.
To really master the art of the internet's most enduring "wrong" observation, you should look into the history of "The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird" itself. Understanding the source material gives you a leg up on the meta-commentary that keeps these images alive. Check out the original clip on YouTube—it’s only a few seconds long, but the delivery of the line is even funnier than the still image suggests. From there, you can start layering your own irony. Just don't call it a pigeon.