Potoos are nocturnal birds of Central and South America, famous among birders for their eerie, drawn-out calls and their talent for freezing motionless like a broken branch. Clips of their strange vocalisations get passed around online because they sound less like wildlife and more like a cartoon character complaining. Short riffs on the call, rendered in text as a wailing maaaawwwm, show up on soundboards and meme pages where people collect odd animal noises. The joke endures because the sound is instantly recognisable as a bird yet weirdly human at the same time.