The "Birds Aren't Real" guy trolled a Chicago news station and fake puked on live TV
See video clip at link.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Listen, you invite the "Birds Aren't Real" guy on live TV and you're almost certainly going to get trolled. WGN News in Chicago found that out the hard way.
In a clip that's gone viral, Peter McIndoe — the 23-year-old creator of the faux conspiracy theory — fake vomits milk as he talks to the news anchors. At first, however, things seem normal in the interview. McIndoe talks about how "Gen Z is full of some amazing men, women, and children" (lol) "that are aiming for change and I think that is what our movement's all about."
But when the hosts try to interject with more questions, McIndoe fake voms what looks like milk out of a coffee cup.
"Oh my God, I'm so nervous, I'm so sorry," McIndoe says through spit-up. Hilariously, he wretches and sticks to the bit as the anchors cut to the weather, unsure about what's going on. It's pretty great.
If you're unfamiliar with the "Birds Aren't Real" movement, it's a fake conspiracy theory that pokes fun at other conspiracy theories such as the whole QAnon nonsense. It's basically a bunch of Gen Z kids pretending that all birds were replaced with drones by the government in order to spy on Americans. The New York Times' Taylor Lorenz wrote a definitive piece featuring McIndoe briefly breaking character to explain the movement.
It's not totally clear if the Chicago news station knew McIndoe fakes the conspiracy theory — one hopes they read the Times article — but at the very least they set themselves up for a massive troll. Invite the "Birds Aren't Real" guy on live TV and you get what you get. The terminally online would've expected this — they're in on the joke — but a local news station was woefully unprepared for the ten layers of irony to every internet joke.
To wit: The Birds Aren't Real TikTok account — which is verified (lol) and run by McIndoe — was already joking about the troll, acting as if he had really thrown up. "The most embarrassing moment of my life," McIndoe wrote about the viral moment. But don't be fooled, it was definitely all a troll.
One commenter posted, "They used 'birds' to poison his coffee."
To which the Birds Aren't Real account responded: "We are looking into this but have no conclusive evidence to suggest."
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I think the Birds Aren’t Real troll is genius. For this guy to maintain a straight face while performing it is impressive. The first time I heard about it was when I was reading an article about some QAnon idiot who was arrested for making threats to some official or something. The article wasn’t that interesting but it mentioned he had a Birds Aren’t Real sign in his front yard. I was like wtf?? Apparently there are some conspiracy morons who just aren’t in on the joke yet.
I've heard stories that all pigeons are secretly robots
they're all owned by car painting companies...
For four years this guy was pulling off this troll with a straight face and nobody knew whether it was a serious thing or not. In that time numerous people bought into it.
Some people just have too much time on their hands.
This is worth the ten minutes.
Birds recharge on power lines, lol, genius.
That makes sense!
The bird is the word.
I would love to know how much this guy has made since he started Birds Aren't Real.
Me too, hopefully a nice wad (imo). I love his props too. The telescoping antenna on his van is a nice touch.
I was never a big fan of the comedian Andy Kaufman, because he was so out there without much connection to reality. However, reality is so warped now with the advent of social media and it’s ability to connect conspiracy nutjobs to one another and become visible as a group. I feel like this guy is like a modern version of Andy Kaufman, except better because his shtick has a connection to reality.