The Super Bowl is this Sunday. It’s an unofficial holiday in the US, as everyone from football diehards to people just watching it for the commercials gather together for the big game.
It’s all anyone can talk about, especially online—but if you’re looking for updates about the big game on Reddit, you might be confused: instead of stats about the 49ers and the Chiefs, you’ll get… pictures of owls?
If you’re unfamiliar with the site, Reddit is made up of user-created “subreddits” dedicated to specific topics: r/worldnews is for world news, r/todayilearned is for interesting fun facts, r/funny is for funny things, etc.
So naturally you’d expect that r/Superbowl would be about the Super Bowl, but those internet jokesters decided to make it a “Superb Owl” page instead.
And honestly, we like it much better this way.
Every year on game day, football fans end up on the page, confused about why there’s no big game content on there (for what it’s worth there is an NFL subreddit to give you your fix.)
And while the Redditors seem to delight in this confusion:
The page otherwise functions as a sincere tribute to these truly superb birds:
The page has also been used to educate people about owls, and to spread awareness about their conservation.
Last year, on the day of the Super Bowl, r/superbowl hosted a live Q&A with James Duncan, director of Discover Owls.
“People protect things they care about, and science alone will not benefit owls if people do not value them,” he wrote. “That is why, in addition to conducting research on owls, I am passionate about exchanging information about owls with everyone.”
Like so many things on the internet, what started off as a joke could make a real difference. Maybe seeing a feed of “superb owls” could make more people fall in love with the majestic species, and act to help them.
But one thing’s for certain: you can expect more than a few confused Reddit users on Sunday night.
Tired of so many posts about the Super Bowl? Share this story to spread some superb owls instead!
