About

Cobra Chickens is a slang term for Canadian Geese that grew popular after a tweet describing a scene where a man who did not speak a lot of English called a Canadian Goose a "cobra chicken" went viral. The term was celebrated on Twitter and Reddit in June of 2018.

Origin

On June 9th, 2018, Twitter user @bibliophileq^[1] tweeted:

I work with a guy from Mexico who doesn't speak a lot of English. A Canadian goose made a nest by one of the paddock gates and hissed at him while he was putting horses out. He comes back to us after and says, "I do not like the cobra chicken."

The tweet gained over 98,000 retweets and 445,000 likes (shown below).

Spread

After the tweet began going viral, @bibliophileq posted a video of the goose in question (shown below).

The phrase was celebrated on Twitter in numerous posts, though none were as popular as the original. For example, Twitter user @SaskaJanet posted pictures of geese on a golf course calling them "Cobra Chickens" (shown below, left). User @Piper_Thibodeau posted art of the "cobra chicken," gaining 240 retweets and 810 likes (shown below, right).

On Reddit, a post of a Canadian Goose called "Cobra Chicken" was posted to /r/ProperAnimalNames,^[2] gaining over 17,000 points. The tweet appeared on /r/MadeMeSmile, gaining over 72,000 points.^[3] Multiple other threads appeared on Reddit in the following days referring to geese as "cobra chickens,"^[5] leading to a post on /r/OutOfTheLoop^[4] on June 14th.

Search Interest

External References