Bird Up began as a recurring segment on The Eric Andre Show, the Adult Swim talk show parody hosted by comedian Eric Andre that premiered in 2012. In the bit, Andre roams public places in a bright green outfit, repeatedly announcing the title and testing how strangers react to the nonsense premise. Clips circulated on YouTube and social media as a standalone meme, detached from the full sketches. Its brevity and total lack of explanation made it easy to reuse, and it remains a shorthand for confident, purposeless absurdity online.