Why has a ‘nihilistic penguin’ meme taken over the internet?
- A scene featuring a 'nihilist penguin' from Werner Herzog's 2007 documentary, Encounters at the End of the World, has gone viral on social media.
- The Adélie penguin is shown inexplicably walking inland, away from its colony, the sea, and potential food, towards the mountains in Antarctica.
- When Herzog asks the Antarctic scientists, he’s told the birds sometimes “get confused”. As he watches the penguin wander off into the abyss, the German filmmaker concludes the penguin is “heading towards certain death”.
- Despite the film being 19 years old, the scene has recently gone viral with social media users reposting it as an example of humans who have chosen to walk their own path rather than follow the crowd.
- The White House and Homeland Security X/Twitter accounts have also shared their version of the meme, only to be met with derision, as some saw it as a metaphor for the current turmoil in the United States.