Iāve written about a lot of gay characters in video games over the years, but I didnāt know until yesterday that Angry Birds has what seems to be a pretty explicitly queer bird in its ranks. Well, at least thatās what fans thought until an official post through the gameās social channels labeled him as merely an ally. The fans are not pleased.
It all started well-meaning enough. The official Angry Birds X (formerly Twitter) account posted a July Pride Month post stating that āPride isnāt confined to just one monthā and telling queer fans that theyāre āworth fighting for.ā The text is fine. Itās good, even. Itās the image that accompanied this heartfelt message that has fans making a ruckus.
The attached graphic includes Chuck, the yellow bird featured in a lot of Angry Birds movies and TV shows. Heās been in the Angry Birds Toons animated series, and has a starring role in the CG-animated films, where heās voiced by Frozen star Josh Gad. But behind him in the post on X is the āAlly flag,ā which includes a rainbow-colored āAā in front of a black-and-white striped background.
pride isn't confined to just one month!
our flock is full of LGBTQIA+ members and allies, and our hearts soar when we see our fans feel seen, loved and like they belong.
you're worth fighting for ā¤ļøš§”šššš pic.twitter.com/gcduIp03tA
— Red (@AngryBirds) July 8, 2024
Whatever the intention was, fans took this to be a declaration that Chuck is only an ally of the queer community, rather than a part of it himself. Meanwhile, hereās a clip from the 2016 film of him fantasizing about another manās ass.
Donāt usually make posts like this but
Cāmon https://t.co/ggTUR8LnS7 pic.twitter.com/iya2Cl2N0h— OptimusGloveš (@PMaintweets) July 9, 2024
Some fans also point to the unhinged 2018 episode of the Angry Birds Toons series called āMiracle of Lifeā as evidence of the bird being queer. In the episode, Chuck and Angry Birds protagonist Red are locked in a cage by the evil pigs to make them fuck. This is not an exaggeration, this is literally what happens. Theyāre trying to get them to make an egg for them to eat. Itās a whole thing. But Chuck blushes at the notion rather than reacting with immediate anger, which some fans read as further evidence of him liking boy birds.
āYāall choose the gayest character to make the āstraight ally,āā @TheLameShiver wrote
āTHAT BOY IS *NAWT* AN ALLY THAT IS A WHOLE ASS FRUIT BASKET RIGHT THERE,ā @FIeshbook said
āSo heās like the straight friend that swears heās straight but does the gayest things ever,ā @AShortGuy_ replied
Some fans elected to just āfixā the graphic by putting the standard Pride flag in the background instead. Doing so would have both likely felt true to fansā perception of the character over the years while also giving the Angry Birds brand some plausible deniability if they werenāt ready to commit that hard. Some of the responses claiming Chuck isnāt straight have been hidden by the official account, but they were mostly ones that either had profanity or direct references to banginā. There are also some predictably bigoted responses in the hidden replies, so look through them at your own risk.
No need to thank me guys pic.twitter.com/uOcHEexs5v
— mrblizzard (@Mista_Blizzard) July 9, 2024
The Angry Birds brand has been incredibly online over the years, using platforms like TikTok to create its own versions of popular memes and trends. The team even boosted fan art shipping Chuck with Red for Pride Month in 2018 (while also acknowledging the series has no canonical relationships). So I find it hard to believe that no one was aware that a pretty sizable number of Angry Birds fans read Chuck as queer. Overall, the whole thing could have been avoided by using the regular olā Progress flag. Donāt overthink it next time, yāall.
