On one fateful Tuesday morning, it was announced across all social media platforms that the mascot of Duoling, Duo, died. On February 11, the company released a message saying authorities were investigating the cause of his death. The sudden passing of Duo was a shock to all users worldwide. Everyone’s curiosity only heightened when an update on the death was posted the following day. This time, it depicted a Tesla Cybertruck hitting the mascot, launching the owl into the sky. Following this shocking reveal, the company changed the app icon and profile pictures of Duolingo from what once was a happy, green owl to a deceased one with eyes crossed out and tongue hanging from his mouth. 

To add to the absolute absurdity of events, it was then revealed that each and every character of Duolingo was dead. This included the ever-so-nonchalant Lily, the happy-go-lucky Zari, and the always grumpy Falstaff. In a TikTok video, the character’s cause of death was disclosed. Falstaff had fallen due to illegal hunting, Zari passed away from the shock of there being no bidet in the restroom, and Lily’s cause of death was a “sincere hug by a cute child” (Duolingo). As an attempt to address the recent events, the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, Luis von Ahn, starred in a video, grieving Duolingo as well as giving hope to users, saying that there is a chance the mascot could come back if people did their lessons.

Then, it was unearthed that there was a new lead in the enigma of Duo’s death. The small price to pay for this revelation was a collective 50 billion experience points from players around the world. Named “It’s Duo or Die!” countries were competing against each other to see which could contribute the most to XP to the event. The top countries included the U.S.A., Germany, and Brazil, and the United States got a whopping 6.18 billion XP. All that was left was the big reveal…

To conclude the fiasco that was Duo’s death, on the twenty-fourth, the company unveiled that the owl has returned with the caption, “y’all really think i’d let a cybertruck take me out?” (Duolingo). After being “dead” for thirteen days, the fake death was a test all along, a test that everyone passed. In a video explaining the reason for this endeavor, it was because people weren’t doing their lessons and Duo wasn’t getting noticed by pop star, Dua Lipa. An extreme measure was needed, and what a better thing to do than fake a death? This strategy apparently worked, as it got users from across the globe to participate in the revival of Duolingo. As for the second goal, even that was accomplished in a now pinned comment from Dua Lipa saying, “Til’ death duo part .” Following the revival, the profile pictures and app icon once again changed, this time depicting an awakened Duo.

In an attempt to conceptualize this stunt, Madison Chou (12), a Duolingo user with an impressive 1239 day and counting streak on the app, says, “This death made people realize how much Duolingo did for them. Who else would encourage them to do lessons?” In a similar yet different perspective, Cynthia Lan (11), who is on her 333 day streak, shares, “I think Duo’s ‘death’ was a very successful marketing strategy. This kind of unexpected and crazy news can easily become a topic to share among friends.”

As this chapter of Duolingo comes to an end, it is only fitting to think, “What’s next?” Duolingo has been known for their social media presence and hilarious online content. With this unpredictable owl, there is no telling what he might do next if people don’t do their lessons.