The hottest thing on the internet this week, you’d have been hard pressed to have missed the video of a trolley-full of screeching duck toys.
Short, but sweet, it went viral almost immediately sparking parodies and pastiches. So what’s the story behind it?
We spoke to the man behind the meme for the first episode of Updog, a new Guardian podcast about fun things on the internet.
If you haven’t seen it yet, here it is, in all its glory:
Since it was uploaded by 22-year-old Kevin Innes, it has racked up more than 5 million YouTube views and on Vine it’s getting thousands and thousands of loops.
Inevitably, the remixes came. First, the Adele version:
Then the version combining the duck army with another meme of someone making fun of a police officer’s shoes:
Then the Taylor Swift edition:
Then there was the superb “Fall of the duck army”, showing two people kicking the screeching duck toy around what looks like a storage room:
All hail the duck army, our new internet overlords.
But when we tracked down he screaming avian online, where curious readers can grab their own for just $15 (though it won’t ship internationally, fellow Europeans), we discovered a horrifying truth – it’s not a duck at all. It’s a Pelican!
For the full story, Innes’s explanation and more on the duck army, listen to Updog (and follow us on Twitter at @updogcast).
Long live the duck army. (Or should that be pelican?!)
Want more screaming ducks and other memes? Follow us on Twitter @Updogcast. You can find all the Tech Weekly podcasts here.
