Watch: Duolingo Announces Death of Owl Mascot
Duolingo is saying goodbye to a legend.
The language learning app revealed that its mascot Duo—formally known as The Duolingo Owl—has unexpectedly died for its latest brand marketing campaign.
“Authorities are currently investigating his cause of death and we are cooperating fully,” the app shared across social media platforms Feb. 11. “We’re aware he had many enemies, but we kindly ask that you refrain from sharing why you hate him in the comments.”
Duolingo also quipped, “Tbh, he probably died waiting for you to do your lesson, but what do we know.”
The statement also jokingly requested fans to include their credit card number in the comments to “automatically sign” them up for a paid Duolingo Max subscription “in his memory.”
Known for Duo’s unrequited love for Dua Lipa, the app concluded, “We appreciate you respecting Dua Lipa’s privacy at this time.”
Meanwhile, Duolingo reflected on their beloved bird’s legacy.
“For years, he tirelessly reminded millions to do their language lessons—sometimes with gentle nudges, sometimes with sheer, unhinged persistence,” a Duolingo spokesperson told E! News in a statement. “But even the most relentless of birds can only take so much. Our app icon reflects this tragic loss with ‘Dead Duo.’ There is an ongoing investigation that we cannot comment on extensively at this time.”
But don’t worry, this isn’t the end of Duo’s story.
“We know no owl as dedicated as Duo just drops dead without a story,” the rep continued. “Keep an eye on our social channels as we uncover the shocking (and possibly absurd) truth behind his untimely demise.”
The unexpected news of their mascot’s death isn’t the first stunt their social media team has shared. For April Fool’s Day last year, the app announced the bird was starring in its own multilingual four-hour musical, Duolingo on Ice! with a link to tickets to the fake show. The elaborate trailer also included a team of backup dancers with Duo masks and multiple dance numbers.
The app’s social media account has also proven they’re always ready to push boundaries when it comes to posting.
During the 2025 Super Bowl, they shared a video of a “new lesson” in music, in which the cartoon character since Kendrick Lamar‘s line “Trying to strike a chord and it’s probably a-minor” from his diss track “Not Like Us.” And another of Duo crying with the text, referring to the halftime show, “Drake after attending his own funeral on national TV.”
For global senior social media manager Zaria Parvez, the chaotic owl embodies the app’s mission.
“Duolingo’s whole personality has always been about making language learning fun and doing fun things,” she told Teen Vogue in March 2022. “Duolingo’s culture has never been very buttoned up. We’ve created this really awesome community where I can post stuff and have a fun banter with commenters.”
Read on for more surprising facts about beloved animated characters.
WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Many fans were left purrrrrfectly confused after this revelation.
“Hello Kitty is not a cat,” Jill Cook—an executive at Sanrio, the company behind the character—explained to Today July 18. “She’s actually a little girl born and raised in the suburbs of London. She has a mom and dad and a twin sister Mimmy who’s also her best friend. She enjoys baking cookies and making new friends.”
While the news may have surprised some, Cook wasn’t the first to share this insight. As a matter of fact, Christine R. Yano—a professor of anthropology who penned the book Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across the Pacific—had also previously confirmed that Hello Kitty isn’t a feline.
“Hello Kitty is not a cat,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2014. “She’s a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it’s called Charmmy Kitty.”
Other fun facts about Hello Kitty? According to Sanrio, she is five apples tall, weighs three apples, was born on November 1 (making her a Scorpio) and dreams of being a pianist or poet.
Gawrsh! Did you know this fact?
Bill Farmer, who’s provided the voice of Goofy for decades, explained why the Disney character can talk while Mickey Mouse’s pet Pluto can’t.
Goofy is “not a dog, but he’s a canine,” the voice actor said on an August 2024 episode of Popcorn Podcast with Leigh Livingstone and Tim Iffland. “So it’s kind of like a wolf is not a dog but it’s a canine—same thing. Goofus canis, that’s what he is. Or, he’s a MOG—he’s a man-dog.”
However, Pluto, he added, is a “regular dog”—a blood hound as it turns out.
Paramount Animation ©2021 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved
You’ll want to get to the (bikini) bottom of this discovery.
SpongeBob SquarePants‘ creator Stephen Hillenburg once revealed that Squidward Tentacles is actually an octopus—not a squid.
“This is Squidward the Octopus, SpongeBob’s grumpy next-door neighboor,” he shared in the 2005 Case Of The Sponge ‘Bob’ video resurfaced by BuzzFeed. “I like the octopus for this character because they have such a large, bulbous head, and Squidward thinks he’s an intellectual so, of course, he’s going to have a large, bulbous head.”
But if you’re wondering how Squidward can be an octopus when he has only six legs instead of eight, Hillenburg had an answer for that, too—noting “it was really just easier for animation to draw him” with fewer tentacles.
Break out your handy dandy notebook and jot this one down.
“One of the things that nobody knows is that Blue was originally a cat,” the show’s co-creator Angela Santomero said in the 2006 special Behind the Clues: 10 Years With Blue resurfaced by Mental Floss. “First his name was Mr. Orange and then we’re like, ‘Uh, maybe Mr. Blue.'”
But according to the special, Nickelodeon was already working on a series about a cat—leading animators to toss out the original idea and redesign Blue as a dog.
Now this really isn’t funnie, er, funny.
But as it turns out, Doug Funnie from the cartoon series Doug was almost named Brian. As for what led to the change?
“I just thought Brian was too fancy of a name,” Doug creator Jim Jinkins told HuffPost TV in 2014, “So, I geared it down, and started calling him Doug. If you think about what that sounds like, it sounds incredibly average, and that’s what I was trying to do: express from that point of view.”
© Walt Disney Pictures/Entertainment Pictures/ZUMAPRESS.com
This fact is so good it’s scary.
In Monsters, Inc.: An Augmented Reality Book, the name of Boo—the little girl who accidentally ends up in Monstropolis and befriends monsters Mike and Sulley—is revealed to be Mary Gibbs, according to BuzzFeed. And if the name sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the real-life moniker of the actress who provided the voice of Boo.
Need more proof? In the movie, there’s actually a scene where Boo is sorting through some of her drawings and fans can spot the name “Mary” scribbled at the top of one of the pieces of paper.
Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Speaking of names, while Mickey Mouse’s girlfriend is often called Minnie Mouse, according to the BBC, it was revealed in 1942 that her full name is actually Minerva.
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