About

Parrots are a type of bird that can be found in subtropical and tropical areas. There are three types of parrots: New Zealand parrots, true parrots and cockatoos. Because of their ability to imitate human speech and non-human sounds, talking and singing parrots have been a staple of viral animal videos on YouTube.

Online History

One of the earliest viral videos featuring a parrot was uploaded on July 2nd, 2006 by YouTuber Autograph Authentic.^[1] The video, which shows a parrot name "Rocky" mimicking the sound of beatboxing, was featured on many sites including Neatorama^[8] and CreatedDigitalMusic.^[7] As of May 2014, the video has gained over 8.7 million views.

One of the most viewed parrot videos to date on YouTube was uploaded on November 8th, 2010 by YouTuber peachy525.^[11] The video features a parrot singing the 2001 Drowning Pool song “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor.” As of May 2014, the video has gained over 8.4 million views.

The search interest for the keyword "parrot" peaked in December 2012. The most popular video from this time period is titled "Parrot Dances Gangnam Style (Rosie)," which features a parrot dancing to the 2012 PSY song 'Gangnam Style.' The video was uploaded on December 24th, 2012 by YouTuber auntphibian.^[10] As of May 2014, the video has gained over 600,000 views.

Notable Examples

Swearing Parrots

Singing Parrots

TV Stars

Fandom

The subreddit r/parrots^[9] has over 6,000 subscribers as of May 2014. As of May 2014, a search query for "parrot" on YouTube^[5] yields more than 350,000 results and Facebook's topic page^[6] on parrots has gained over 60,000 likes. Parrot GIFs, photos, and videos frequently circulate through Tumblr and popular Tumblr blogs focused on parrots include fyeahparrots^[2] and hellyeahparrots.^[3] As of May 2014, there are over 100,000 fan art submissions tagged "parrot," on DeviantArt.^[4]

JonTron's Jacques

Jacques^[12] is a green-cheeked conure who lives with video game vlogger Jon Safari ^[13] as his pet and stars in almost every episode of his web series JonTronShow. In the series, the pet bird is portrayed as a robot with omnipotence and known for his ability to swear obscenities.

Related Memes

Paranoid Parrot

Paranoid Parrot is an advice animal image macro series featuring a blue and yellow parrot looking over its shoulder. The captions often relay a mundane scenario or an everyday situation (ex: "save game file") followed by an irrational response driven by paranoia.

External References