Over a year had gone by and I hadn’t reopened Duolingo after my paid subscription lapsed. I’m an on-and-off user, sometimes inspired to explore the (very) basics of a new language before traveling where it’s spoken. Or, sometimes I get motivated for awhile to practice French because my conversation skills are a rusty bucket of nails. Either way, like millions of users globally, I keep returning to Duolingo.

This winter, I fired up the app again (in the free tier now, which means lots and lots of ads) to give myself something useful to do in idle moments. And I was happy to see my pal Duo again! It’s simple, but I love a little wave from Duo’s wing and the little pounce-y sound effect when I’m cruising through vocab.

Duo, if you don’t know, is the equally beloved and maligned owl mascot for Duolingo. There are a lot of Duo- and Duolingo-related topics to explore, but today we will talk about… his death and resurrection.

virtual characters in learning

Okay, before talking about Duo’s death: why does Duo exist? What’s the point of this green interstitial owl friend?

Something I rarely talk about (or really, even think about) is that I am(?) actually an expert in characters used in virtual learning environments. Let me give a quickie quick recap on that.

In the early 2010s, part of my PhD hell path included a step called qualifying exams. These exams took place after completing five years of coursework and research, before proposing a dissertation. Basically, it was an all-day written test my committee created uniquely for me, which proved whether I was an expert in my field (in the morning) plus an expert in my chosen area of focus (in the afternoon). And! My committee let me choose an area of focus that I actually enjoyed studying: virtual characters in instructional design. (And I passed… woohoo?)

Well, grad school feels like eons ago — both personally, and technologically. In 2013, we were still mostly referring to the tried-and-true learning games from my childhood, like Oregon Trail. In my research studies, we faked conversation with simple branching logic, or even Wizard of Oz-ing character dialogue with a hidden researcher using type-to-speech. Now, AI agents can support realistic conversations! And the machine learning models that shape people’s learning paths (Duolingo’s is called Birdbrain) make for ultra-personalized learning.

Anyway, if you’re still with me, I say all that because I actually started using Duolingo back in 2013 when I was really focused on this stuff, and even then it was already a great example of game-like learning. Over the years, Duo has evolved from a traditional learning support mechanism (a cute creature with big eyes providing encouragement and communicating your progress) to a full-blown… celebrity???

Duo’s behavior and cultural influence has progressed in a totally unexpected way to me! From an instructional design POV, Duo is a motivator. In UX terms, he’s adding “delight” by being cute and weird. In memes, he guilts and strong-arms learners into completing lessons. And on top of all that, for the company and for shareholders, he generates sooooo much buzz.

the 2025 death and rebirth of Duo

Almost immediately after I started using Duolingo again this year, the company reported on social media (that’s les réseaux sociaux 😉) that a Cybertruck had hit and killed Duo.

Cybertruck. Hit and killed. Duo.

Wha?

“And it looks like, in fact, every Duolingo character is dead,” the CEO indicated in his statement on TikTok. And it wasn’t even April Fool’s Day, or a Super Bowl commercial — the two contexts where we’ve all agreed to tolerate brands’ strange and dumb ideas. 

The Duolingo site urged people to take to their apps and tackle some language lessons to resurrect Duo (and friends?). Sorta like when a stage production of Peter Pan asks the audience to clap to revive Tinker Bell?

Not to worry though. As we all expected, Duo came back to life. And the world continued turning.

We can take this Duo death stunt a few ways:

• Attention grab: Of course, it got some people talking. (Remember in 2020 when Mr. Peanut died?) It probably reminded a few people to engage in their app, and maybe kept the brand floating around in public awareness.

• Anti-Tesla: I love this, because I truly, absolutely hate that man. And the other man. You know the ones. I love people clowning on Cybertrucks and adore watching them fail.

• Pro-Kendrick: I can’t even believe I’m typing this, but a few days prior to Duo’s death, Duolingo had made a few #TeamKendrick posts after his Super Bowl performance. Duo’s murder was also purported to be linked to Drake. 

• A commitment to the brand tone: Duolingo is known for being a bit whacky. And here they leaned into absurdity.

“our slightly unhinged sense of humor”

I took a look at the Duolingo Handbook, which is basically the company’s culture principles. I LOVE when companies make this sort of thing publicly available. And… yep! The silly death and resurrection of a mascot is indeed in line with their current brand guidelines. One of their five principles is “make it fun” — including a commitment to being “wholesome and unhinged.” 

Of course, not everyone loves Duolingo’s tone and voice. Duo can upset people — stirring up guilt and annoyance. What seems playful to some can be cheap and offensive to others. The app itself can also feel manipulative: relying on motivation gimmicks like streaks and gems and leaderboards can cheapen people’s motivation to learn new things. But the company knows what all good brand strategists know: trying to appeal to everybody means you don’t really appeal to anybody. So, take a stance and stand out.

I personally fall on the side of fully appreciating the Duolingo app — it’s come a long way over the years! — and all its weirdness. I understand all the criticisms from folks who just wanna learn, but honestly, anything that gets millions of people doing something productive for themselves is probably a net positive thing.

miscellany

• 🎮 Good news for video game accessibility: The Accessible Games Initiative — first developed by EA, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Ubisoft — published a standardized set of tags to make it easier for players to know which accessibility features are available in a game (like subtitles, control remapping, and narrated menus). As a word nerd, I love the use of common terminology here for easier shared communication, and I love the commitment to making it easier for everyone to play.

• 🌿 And in plant news: a recent edition of Alisa Bonsignore’s wonderful Sustainable Content newsletter introduced me the movement of rewilding golf courses. Golf courses take up a lot of land while using a lot of water and pesticides. And they’re expensive to maintain. Releasing golf course land back to nature is nice for both wildlife and biodiversity (duh) and maybe for giving communities more access to public greenspaces.

• 🐭 Art Spiegelman, whose graphic memoir Maus told the story of his parents’ Holocaust horrors, reminds us that the past is here. Spiegelman continues to create work inspired by ongoing and unfolding traumas of history, humanizing victims through an approachable comic form. I’m really interested in seeing the documentary about him, Disaster is My Muse.

One last thing!! I’m hoping this post looks okay! My styling is all missing in the preview and I’m… too tired to figure it out. (If I have to redesign everything or switch platforms again, oof.) Thanks for sticking around! 💚