Overview

Free Birds is an animated science fiction comedy film about two turkeys that go back in time to the first Thanksgiving in an attempt to get turkeys off the traditional menu. The movie was released in November 2013 and received mostly negative reception from critics and fans alike. In late October through November 2022, however, the film became the subject of ironic memes similar to those about Morbius.

History

On November 1st, 2013, Free Birds was originally released in theaters. The movie, which follows two turkeys who travel back in time to the first Thanksgiving to stop turkey from becoming the staple Thanksgiving dish, made roughly $110 million on a $55-million budget but received mostly negative reviews.^[1] A trailer for the film was posted to YouTube^[2] in June 2013, five months before release, garnering over 2.6 million views in nine years (shown below).

Online Presence

November 2022 Ironic Meme Resurgence

In late October and throughout November 2022, ironic memes about Free Birds started appearing online, mostly on sites including Reddit and Twitter. On October 1st, 2022, Twitter^[3] user @Yolo360Swag posted a mock Fortnite collaboration concept about Free Birds, garnering over 80 likes in a month.

On October 26th, a Redditor then posted the movie's poster to /r/shittymoviedetails,^[4] writing, "In the Movie Free Birds, never does the song 'Free Bird' by Lynyrd Skynyrd ever play, this means the movie is a 0/10," garnering over 200 upvotes in a month. On November 1st, Twitter^[5] user @TheCartoonBase made a post announcing that the movie was released nine years ago on that day, garnering over 2,800 likes and inspiring users to post memes about the movie in the comments, including a promotional teaser for the film that reads "control your cocks," which gained viral spread over the following weeks (examples shown below).

On November 3rd, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @vincells posted a thread consisting of the entire movie in roughly 10-minute chunks, out of order, garnering over 57,000 likes in three weeks. On November 5th, Twitter^[7] user @KevinTemmer posted an edit of a scene from the film where a turkey says, "We're going back in time to stop Elon's daddy from getting that emerald mind," referring to Elon Musk, garnering over 20,500 likes in a similar span of time (shown below).

Why the hell did they cut this scene from Free Birds?? pic.twitter.com/MtjWiY49aJ

— Kevin Temmer (@KevinTemmer) November 5, 2022

On November 14th, YouTuber Schaffrillas Productions posted a review of the movie, ironically calling it the "greatest cinematic achievement of our time," garnering over 834,000 views in a week (shown below).

Memes about the film also became increasingly popularized on subreddits like /r/moviescirclejerk and /r/shittymoviedetails. On November 18th, a Redditor posted a meme to /r/memetemplatesofficial^[8] using the "we're going back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu" line and Men With A Time Machine format, garnering over 2,800 upvotes in four days. On November 19th, Redditor Aeyen_the_lobster then posted a meme about the film to /r/shittymoviedetails,^[9] garnering over 5,000 upvotes in three days (shown below).

On November 21st, 2022, Redditor Endermonke posted a meme to /r/okbuddyreiner^[10] about the movie, calling Attack on Titan a ripoff of it, garnering over 1,400 upvotes in a day (shown below).

Search Interest

External References