Duolingo. It was known as a simple language learning app...until recently. The company's advertising team has always gone all out, with their posts on Instagram, X, YouTube, you name it.

Duolingo Lore is as extensive as it is entertaining, so this article will only go into the recent events that have taken place. Namely, the infamous green owl's "death".

Backstory

Before recent events, Duo was mainly famous for his threats, both through notifications from the app, and responding to posts online. And, let me tell you, these notifications are relentless. I've gotten at least 6 in the time I've spent writing this article.

It became a running joke that he kidnapped people's families and kept them in his basement in order to force people to do language lessons. He even has several songs out threatening people, such as "Spanish or Vanish" and "French or the Trench" through Duolingo on Ice.

The internet gladly bought into this, making posts asking Duo if he would release their families once they did a lesson, which Duo responded to with the same energy, mostly replying no. This is how it was for years, until last month.

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Duo's Death

On February 11, 2025, the official Instagram for Duolingo made an unexpected post informing the world of Duo's death. The cause of his death was unknown, but the company did release a statement.

Authorities are currently investigating his cause of death and we are cooperating fully. Tbh, he probably died waiting for you to do your lesson, but what do we know.

Thus, everyone began to believe that the reason for the death was just because people weren't doing their lessons. It became a sort of publicity stunt to compel people to do their lessons. The thumbnail for the app was also changed to an image of Duo with crosses over his eyes, signifying his death.

Before Duo died, he threatened people to do their lessons. Now we were to do them because we were free. This is shown in a meditation clip released on the Duolingo's YouTube page:

Cause of Death

A few days later, Duo's official cause of death was announced on Instagram. He had been run over by a cybertruck. This news was taken very solemnly by the public, with brands such as KFC, Scrub Daddy, Hazbro, Chevrolet, Wonder Bread, and many more getting invested in the drama.

On February 18, Luis von Ahn, the CEO of Duolingo, made a public statement, confirming Duo's cause of death.

This gave Duolingo a lot more publicity, now that Duo's death was linked to another well-known brand. X also joined the drama, claiming that "all birds go to heaven", referring to the Twitter bird that also no longer exists. Many brands such as these rode the high of Duo's death, making posts joking about it and using it for publicity.

Even Dua Lipa, the well-known focus of Duo's affections, joined the trend, saying "Til' death duo part". However, the story didn't end there.

It was later announced that it was not just Duo who died. All of the other characters were dead as well, as shown in this reel. This prompted an event on the Duolingo app itself, which was a goal of XP that if reached, would bring Duo back to life. This was a collective goal of 50 billion XP, which was earned by, of course, doing language lessons.

The Lie

On February 26, 2025, as what could be labeled the biggest plot-twist of the year, Duolingo posted on both Instagram and YouTube. On Instagram, they posted a video of Duo getting out of a black body bag and taking the crosses off his eyes, saying "legends never die". The caption of this reel was "y’all really think i’d let a cybertruck take me out?" and had a tag of "duolingohasrisen".

This made sense, since most people assumed that reaching the 50 billion XP goal would somehow bring Duo back. However, it's the video that was posted shortly after that complicated things.

To summarize the video, Duo had never actually died, and instead had faked his own death along with those of his friends. According to him, he did this because he wasn't reaching either of his two goals, which were to get people to do their language lessons and get the attention of Dua Lipa. Apparently, he hadn't realized that so many celebrities and brands would start getting involved and "using my death to hit your quarterly KPIs". To him, the cyber truck was simply for flair, and even a touch of social commentary.

In the end, Duo isn't actually dead. He had orchestrated this whole scheme to draw attention and convince people to do their lessons. While these were certainly drastic measures, the internet did pay attention.

Now that this publicity stunt is over, things have calmed down in terms of Duolingo's presence online. However, I think there is a lesson in all of this. We probably shouldn't need a green bird to die to further our education, and as Film Theory's take on it (which you should definitely check out) proved, Duo's just trying to create a world where we can all communicate with each other.

And he does have a point. Especially after COVID, we've all spent a lot of time inside, not really having voice conversations with each other. Learning a new language strengthens our communication skills and prepares us for traveling abroad, which is a lot more fun when you can actually speak the language.

So, fake deaths aside, let's all go open our Duolingo and do a short lesson. I will, for sure.