Seagulls aren't a thing. Just gulls.
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
203 points (91.1% liked)
Showerthoughts
35682 readers
932 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I think a "landgull" would just be a pigeon
Nah, that's an airgull. A landgull would be a chicken.
Nah, that's a farmgull. A landfill would be an ostrich
No that's where garbage goes, landgull would be a peacock
No, that'd be a fancygull. A landgull would be a rat.
No that would be a politigul. A landgull would be a gopher.
No, that's a dirtgull. A landgull would be a kangaroo.
In light of the above, then, I hereby propose that squirrels get renamed to "treegulls."
It's all fun and games until the firegull nation attacks.
My brother and I discovered the new Gulliver...
Wrong.
Seagulls imply the existence of Rivergulls, Lakegulls, Mountiangulls, Desertgulls, Forestgulls, Plaingulls, Valleygulls, Hillgulls, etc.
Archipelagulls
No no no, you're all wrong. It goes Agles, Beagles, Seagulls, Deegles, Eagles, etc. We've proven the existence of 3 of these species already, but the search continues for these other mysterious creatures the certainly must exist. In this TED Talk, I will...
If there are armadillos, where are the legadillos?
Given how much cuter a goldfish is than a silverfish, whatever a bronzefish is must be a absolutely disgusting.
load more comments
(1 replies)
If seagulls fly over the sea, then what flies over the bay?
Bagels.
I've seen many seagulls in my life.
But I've never seen any of the others.
And that's terrifying. Stay vigilant.
also, spacegulls
Space gul
thank you.
Attention Bajoran workers...
I used to study animal management and there was a lecturer who wrote his uni thesis on "seagulls" and any time he heard someone call them seagulls he'd shout down the hallway "They're herring gulls!"
Seagulls are not just herring gulls though. The term is used for any gulls people see near the sea. In the UK that's herring, great black backed & and lesser black backed, black headed, common, and kittiwakes.
A birdwatching friend of mine has decided that if he ever discovers a new species, he's naming it "seagull" regardless of where he finds it or what it looks like just to piss off all the ornithologists.
Reminds me of a John Hodgman bit - we have ice hockey, field hockey, and air hockey, implying the existence of fire hockey.
Long ago, the four gulls lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the fire gulls attacked...
Captain Planet Gull: "Give me those chips and I'll poop on you!"
You: "... don't you mean 'or' you will poop on me, not 'and'?"
Captain Planet Gull: ...
You: ...
Most of what we consider "seagulls" dont actually go out to sea. It's all lies.
They're seaadjacentgulls.
The seagull is the state bird of Utah. About 400 miles from the nearest ocean.
So they are lakegulls then.
I live in Colorado and there are gulls here, we are far from the sea.
Water-Gull. Earth-Gull. Fire-Gull. Air-Gull. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire-Gull Nation attacked.
Water. Earth. Fire. Air. My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Avatar kept balance between the Seagulls, Landgulls, Firegulls, and Airgulls. But that all changed when the Firegulls attacked.
Don't forget bay-gulls. They love fish, especially smoked salmon
You have to go pretty far back (to proto-Celtic, it looks like) to find a linguistic ancestor for the word "gull" that doesn't just mean "that specific bird."
But in proto-Celtic, it looks like "weilanna" probably meant "wailer." As in, "one who wails," though we don't know exactly what the suffix "-anna" means. A similar word in that language would've been "wailos," which even though it sounds similar seems to have been unrelated to our modern term "wolf," as it comes from a different proto-indo-european root.
Anyway, the word "gull" does refer to the sounds that it makes more than anything else. So in figuring out what a landgull, airgull, and firegull might be, we need to find something noisy. Or just something annoying, given the derisive connotation of "wail."
Edit: This is, of course, assuming that we're looking for different existing types of animals to be these creatures, rather than just (for instance) creating new, elemental forms of gulls; or "reskinning" seagulls with different elements; or inventing all-new animals to fill those roles.
load more comments
(5 replies)
I never knew that. I thought it went from beagle to seagull and then on to eagle…
Don't forget heartgulls. Everyone always forgets heart.
Don't forget THA GOOD SHIP MERRY GULL!
view more: next ›