Nihilist Penguin (Werner Herzog)

[@Wilsongaboi]

Scientist: "They get disorientated" Werner Herzog: "The penguin peers into the void and sequesters what's left of his sanity and plunges head long into the abyss to never be seen again."

[@paulcolbourne9112]

😂

[@gavrelton6211]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@zeMasterRuseman]

It's a better explanation than being disoriented. He can see where his flock is and where the rest are heading.

[@DrawsRene]

@@zeMasterRusemanbeing disorient is not always that easy. You can hit your head pretty badly and see your mates and still walk the wrong direction.

[@WiseOwl_1408]

It's always strange how people apply meaning to the meaningless

[@TheStockwell]

Werner Herzog tells a joke: "Why did the penguin cross the road? To die. Alone. Insane and unnoticed."

[@KaiserFranzJosefI]

German humor

[@TheStockwell]

@ Copyright infringement and outright theft are the foundations of a healthy internet. Go for it! :)

[@86rattlehead]

Werner Herzog films a joke.

@@86rattlehead No, Vic. NO! Did you hear that, guys? Vic says (tremble), Werner....might be joking. What do we do with this new information? Commit suicide? Open a deli in Delhi? Examine our ontological basis for being? What? WHAT???

[@86rattlehead]

@ We just try to be ourselves while Werner films us and we pray it better be a joke video rather than his usual documentary...

[@ovskii96]

"The struggle against the absurd is the only meaning I have" - the Penguin probably

[@florianadolf2256]

Shamefully underrated quotation 😂

[@itsame5272]

Where is this quote from?

[@sbef]

Sounds a lot like Albert Camus in "the myth of Sisyphus"

[@itsame5272]

@@sbef thanks

[@stevenkelby2169]

All penguin die. Not all penguins live. 🐧

[@mcgoo721]

"is there such thing as insanity among penguins" is the hardest cold open open ive heard in my entire damn life.

[@DM-ur8vc]

Or coldest hard opening?

[@foxopossum]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 best comment 🥇🏆

[@foxopossum]

@@DM-ur8vcha! Nice

[@Bikewithlove]

You need to read Carl Jung.

[@richardpaxford5792]

"The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament."

[@johnp1667]

He's not running off to die, he's running to find out if he's really alive.

[@hiendarinenkoray]

damn it, spike

[@TheAeolian]

@@hiendarinenkoray Bang.

[@andrewswanson4819]

He's the Sky King of the penguin world

[@redtexan7053]

The Real Penguin Blues

[@Nick_fb]

Jurassic Park: The Lost World Nick says: The animal (T-Rex) exists on the planet for the first time in tens of millions of years and the only way you can express yourself is to kill it. Roland replies: Remember that chap about twenty years ago? I forget his name. Climbed Everest without any oxygen, came down nearly dead. When they asked him, they said why did you go up there to die? He said I didn't, I went up there to live.

[@stroud9208]

I expected a meme and instead I ended up with an existential crisis over a penguin.

[@snicket87]

This is a meme that "got disoriented" and ended up in the far away lands of the existential YT

[@florianadolf2256]

@@stroud9208 That's part of Werner Herzog's magic...

[@humbertorocha5162]

Yeah! Here I was watching Brooklyn 99 scenes and this popped up.

[@rustyshackleford6577]

But i’m sure you could make some great memes from this

[@ArtificialRockstars]

I made a heavy pinguin metal song. It might cheer you up again 😂

[@nopenahman7380]

Beyond the Mountains of Madness.... There are penguins.

[@slappy8941]

Hardly the Eldritch horrors beyond mortal comprehension that we imagined, but still weird nonetheless...

[@craiga2002]

Hi Kee Lee!

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

HP lovecraft would definitely describe a penguin as insane and deranged

[@geisaune793]

I like how the scientist takes a full 5 seconds to try and figure out what the hell to do with that question and then just gives it his best shot

[@entropybentwhistle]

In the cases if the rogue penguins it’s probably a short in the system that lets them detect magnetic fields or light direction that other birds use for migration and not insanity as humans deem it. Ornithologists that study migratory birds probably have stories of the odd individual that flies off in the wrong direction. Probably luckier for them that they aren’t likely in environments that guarantees they freeze or starve to death.

[@Utsav_D_Yadav]

Bro is literally the entire human race. Trying to capture the mountains, defying the vast, omnious cry of silence.

[@Utsav_D_Yadav]

Reflecting back with a strong heart.

[@Utsav_D_Yadav]

Faking our Happinesses

[@harbosonius]

Bro wtf… that’s some deep shit. Respect

[@joeking9760]

One bro impressing another bro

[@GeneralGuitFiddle]

Fuck man when you realize Herzog is just commenting on your life in a penguin documentary.

[@ellenthomas5704]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@M.Datura]

Or commenting on his own.

[@florianadolf2256]

Yeah, that's kind of his shtick😂...

[@MichaelConroy-o4s]

Good gimmick,really.LikeJordan Peterson and the invisible bubble gum.(Combined with the wardrobe(?),you’re pretty much there.)Vocabularic competence,at that point,attains superfluousness..one might aver.😉

[@Nathanatos22]

@@MichaelConroy-o4s…no

[@radovanwolf593]

One must imagine the penguin happy

[@5508Vanderdekken]

beautiful comment, lol. The myth of penuinis

[@tamanwar203]

- Albert Pinguin

[@joshuajackson530]

The struggle towards the mountain is enough to fill a birds heart. One must image Mr. Penguin happy.

[@evanwonisch788]

Incredible..

[@ZigbertD]

Emptied of hope, the penguin has laid his heart open to the benign indifference of the universe.

[@moskva-kassiopeya]

Imagine you escaped the matrix to discover some huge creatures standing silently still just watching you passing by.

[@colinharter4094]

okay but that perspective fucked me up.

[@420luvsounds]

😂😂😂

[@mcgoo721]

Ain't that just the Truman Show tho?

[@traceantonacci2495]

Like the Amygdala from Bloodborne.

[@baTonkaTruck]

Kind of a best-case-scenario when waking up from the matrix.

[@HughMansonMD]

How does Werner make a possibly insane penguin one of the most poetic things I've ever seen on film? The dude is a legitimate genius.

[@galilelollel9658]

He is just twlling facs. He knows whats heading infront of the penguin. After 5k kilometers he will die surely or before and this was the last moment that we sqw him

[@Gavin-w4r]

He sees poetry everywhere. All real artists do.

[@sdjslkdjlsskldjslkdjsl8262]

Herzog: IS THERE SUCH THEENG AS INSANITY AMONG PENGVINZ Guy: (pause) um, well,

[@98765zach]

To be fair if a man who sounds like Werner Herzog drags you up a cliff and tells you to sit down on the edge of it, and then IMMEDIATELY asks you a question about insanity and nihilism I too would be VERY careful with my words lol

[@Randomaccount9470]

😂😂😂 There's alot to process ​@@98765zach

[@willgrowdon9775]

😂😂😂

[@prettyokandy230]

@@98765zach Man: "We finally made it! I understand why you wanted to show me this view, it's AMAZING!" Herzog: "Exactly how afraid are you of death btw?"

[@DannyKlimt]

1:33 the penguin turned around and said: "In case I don't see ya: Good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"

[@privatevendetta]

And thanks for all the fish.

[@jeremifrancisco1]

😢😢😢

[@HeathenWays]

42

[@Seamannon]

@@privatevendetta So long! 😛

[@MichaelConroy-o4s]

@@HeathenWays A tip o’ the Jackie Robinson cap.⚾️⚾️⚾️🇺🇸👹👍

[@Chudea]

All death is certain. This penguin didn't go to the mountains to die. He went on the journey in order to live. Rest in peace on the top of that mountain, penguin. Your frozen grave will be your place of victory over monotony

[@louisvincent5035]

Damn dude I'm glad I came to the comments...

[@greymarsh8941]

right in the feels...

[@sealife12]

The penguin wrote me and said fuck you, he didn’t die, he made it alive and that he cannot understand English nor can he access KZbin.

[@senoj.rednaxela]

I read that all in Herzog's voice

[@janrupertalfeche8959]

Ah, so the penguin equivalent of doing Everest.

[@CG-mj4vf]

This was both disturbing, depressing, hilarious, and wonderful all at once.

[@jasonfuqua4284]

Werner Herzog

[@pravkdey]

Sublime

[@dmoon9037]

Chaotic, hostile, murderous.

[@Username-2]

Life.

[@chaosdweller]

Well said haha.

[@johnlo2117]

Herzog: But why? Penguin: Why not?

[@DrSpaceman42]

5,000km of forzen wasteland is a good reason why not

[@josephl9931]

I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it. - Franz Kafka

[@eldermillennial8330]

In the book “Conversations with Kafka” by Gustav Janouch, the morose Kafka commented on reading Chesterton's “Orthodoxy” and “The Man who was Thursday”: "Er ist so lustig, dass man fast glauben könnte, er habe Gott gefunden." "He is so joyful, that one might almost believe that he had found God." NO ONE else even came remotely close to getting Kafka to say anything so nearly positive. I can’t recommend Chesterton enough.

[@paulheinrichdietrich9518]

​@@eldermillennial8330Good quote, I'm not fluent in German but shouldn't it be "Er ist so lustig, dass man fast glauben könnte, er HAT Gott gefunden"?

[@glimlog]

@@paulheinrichdietrich9518“habe“ or „hätte“ are correct. „Habe“ in this context is more ‚sophisticated‘ one could say

[@paulheinrichdietrich9518]

@@glimlog OK.

[@MichaelConroy-o4s]

@@josephl9931 And then there was a grand epiphany,Mr. Kafka,the eternal pessimist,had a change of heart.He felt deep from within a Power much larger and greater than himself.He decided that life was worth living after all and was actually looking forward to the rest of his life with great enthusiasm.Life,alas,had decidedly other plans.How ironic..and just?😧

[@duncanthomson7894]

I never thought I would have watched a video of a penguin waddling giddily towards oblivion as many times as I have now.

[@colinmelton6919]

It’s the voice...

[@dmoon9037]

In a Herzog documentary, with full spectrum anthropomorphism, that penguin is you looking back at yourself in chaos and existential hostility. As in Kubrick’s Odyssey, Dave Bowman looking in the mirror.

[@johngoldsworthy7135]

Herzog is a filmmaking genius that’s why

[@MsMiguel70]

Oh come on, you saw it coming. : )

[@Briar7862]

2025 and I’m here once again hahahaha!

[@Sabrowsky]

give it up to werner herzog to make penguins look depressing that shit requires sheer talent

[@seththomas9105]

Ehhh... it's a German talent.

[@lordmegatron4789]

@@seththomas9105 i was about to say it's called being german lol

[@seththomas9105]

@@lordmegatron4789 Pretty much sums it up.

[@satisfying6040]

How would you know? You have experience filming and narrating penguins?

[@dmoon9037]

I need to see that penguin on a Rammstein treadmill.

[@avfn8981]

i feel like this short clip pretty much sums up all of Herzog's films. deeply profound and totally bonkers at the same time.

[@Niphredyl]

It's around 60% of the runtime of the film. I actually shread a tear. Not embarrassed.

[@sunsetvista877]

I think the penguin is on his way to pull an abandoned boat out the the central american jungle☺☺

[@Progger11]

​@@NiphredylHow does one "shread" a tear? What is "shread," anyway?

[@Niphredyl]

@@Progger11 typo, shed

[@humildemarcelo]

​@@sunsetvista877bro going to put an opera house in the ancient city of the elder ones

[@Tribophopic]

People don’t understand the abyss was the colony. Faceless, unchanging, stuck in monotony. A hideous cycle. The penguin chose, ergo he’s not looking into the abyss. He’s looking into the sun to find his fortune.

[@richardpark3054]

Thanks, Franz.

[@AlexisB-gv1tk]

This changes the whole vegetarian argument obsolete. Clearly animals have not much to live for

[@stejer211]

Deadly poetic.

[@yemiplwn]

@@AlexisB-gv1tk... Right Lets go back to making plastic bottles and youtube videos

[@AlexisB-gv1tk]

@@yemiplwn completely irrelevant

[@dinolover]

Sometimes i think animals have frighteningly accurate moments of clarity, like for a split second they actually wonder and dream rather than eating and surviving on a daily basis. I wonder how many animals committed self suicide in the search for something more.

[@leeleeturn]

That's an interesting thought. We used to have free-range chickens and there were always one or two in the bunch who would roam off a good distance from the others. They would get interested in something and be curious enough to put themselves at risk in order to check it out. It was always the same ones. Maybe they had explorer genes? 😂 Or maybe they were too smart for their own good. It was definitely a risk because every now and then a chicken would get picked off by a hawk or a coyote.

[@jjjakobayersss]

“Self suicide”😭

[@Alexey-e5b]

The notion that others are inferior is made up to justify you killing/eating them, pretentious ape.

[@faraday1548]

I genuinely can't tell if Werner Herzog is a comedic genius or entirely insane.

[@jorgel.quiroz8862]

"Yes"

[@leoelliondeux]

He’s German.

[@SapphosGalPal]

He's an empath.

[@linajurgensen4698]

@@leoelliondeux Bavarian*

[@Frankholmquist]

He is neither. He is simply Werner Herzog.

[@avisays350]

this penguin reminds me of the insanity of early human exploration, the fact that there were humans living on islands like new zealand or even the polynesian islands means that a group of humans had to construct and get on a boat and sail the open ocean towards absolutely nothing, no identifiable goal or destination, just to see what was out there. like them, even this penguin had to be held to the answer to the question “but why?”

[@chrissibersky4617]

I've read a lot about the Vikings. They believed in fate. That their time on earth was set before birth. They thought that you couldn't escape your destiny. So if you were to die at a certain time it didn't matter if you were at the battlefield or cowering under a table at home. And the best thing you could achieve in life was a glorious death that would make people remember you. I think that's why they were such fearless explorers. I don't know what is going on in the penguin's mind though.

[@franzlinke8086]

Endless try and error of the human collective

[@kesorangutan6170]

Yeah actually sea-exploring civilizations such as iberians, phoenicians, austronesians/polynesians, and vikings kinda know where to go thanks to their knowledge and skills on navigation but definitely did not know what was awaiting them in the vastness of ocean. It was mental but not that much mental.

[@StuffandThings_]

@@kesorangutan6170 Some of them definitely did not make it. There were stories of lost Polynesians eking out a living on some random atoll, and plenty of Polynesian outliers which are weirdly isolated (and on/near already inhabited islands) with names of previous homelands that really seem like a navigation error took them there. In some cultures they sent out adolescents to navigate in a sort of trial by fire. Storms can send you off course too. Of course, some of the skilled navigators were able to follow birds and knew exactly where to go. But it was definitely not a surefire thing every time, who knows how many died lost in the ocean, observation bias is very strong here. Iberians and Phonecians never made it beyond Gibraltar (and maaaybe the islands of Macaronesia), the Mediterranean is much more chill considering the weather is generally not quite so bad and you're bound to hit shoreline within a reasonable time. And even then they tended to follow the shorelines. Basically, a lot of early European sailing was pretty chill, the Austronesian peoples were pretty bonkers with navigation and definitely had their fair share of failures in the quest for new islands.

[@kesorangutan6170]

@@StuffandThings_ What do you mean Phoenicians never made past gibraltar? They ruled the atlantic trade. Phoenicians went as far south as Senegal (a conservative estimate btw) and as north as Great Britain. They definitely did not just coast-hug because you can't pass cape Bojador by coast-hugging. You also can't find colonies in Sardinia, Baleares etc by coast hugging. By "iberians" I meant portuguese and spanish. I also never claimed all of them made it?? Do you know how many ships vikings of Greenland lost due to harsh ocean currents and icebergs? A lot. If 10 viking ships sailed to Greenland only 3 or 4 of them would make it.

[@mishtaromaniello8295]

The way the penguin turns around at 1:33 after Werner asks “But why?” is very chilling. It’s like the penguin heard the question and turned to try to answer, but went back to the mountains and said “I don’t know.”

[@kaboulscabal4816]

Auda abu Tayi : [to Lawrence] There is only the desert for you.

[@kaboulscabal4816]

Or said ... "I *do* know" and *then* turned back to the mountains ...

[@sonnyboyduffy8399]

WOULD YOU GO BACK, I need a pizza bra

[@fakecubed]

It's almost as if the narration was written after they got the footage, and timed with the footage for maximum emotional impact.

[@fajita2]

Well, it's not like the voiceover was played in real time to the penguin during that shot....

[@plutovenus4101]

He isn't a nihilist. He doesn't follow the crowd.

[@FreeTheUyghurs]

0:18 there's no doubt that penguin believes he's Napoleon Bonaparte

[@jakobpetersohn7266]

he dresses like him...

[@someoneelseentirely2657]

This penguin would cross the alps too if he could

[@televikkuntdaowuxing]

That "But *WHY* ?" basically explains the only existential question that matters..

[@Navak_]

so profound even the penguin heard him and considered the question for a moment before continuing on his way

[@ingolfurarnar697]

Suicide. These penguins can't hang themselves in a rope or blow their brains out.

[@thesprawl2361]

This comment section has some of the most unintentionally funny comments I've seen. "why is the penguin waddling off to the mountains?" is apparently the most transcendent existential question in all the universe! I know what you were getting at, but it sounds quite funny if you take a step back and look at it. It's a penguin that's a bit thick - once you realise that, all the posts in the comments immediately appear deeply absurd.

[@wittylibrarian]

@@Navak_ the penguin turned around when he heard the question and shouted back "EFF YOU HERZOG I JUST WANNA DIE"

[@colinharter4094]

At first, I thought he was going to answer his own question. But then I remembered this ain't no David Attenborough documentary. 😂

[@roxxram9151]

This penguin understands that if they reach the summit against all odds, they will triumphantly belly-slide down and become the fastest penguin that ever lived. If he hits a snow-ramp he will be truly airborne for a short time. Waddle on, little dreamer

[@DrawsRene]

Waddle on little dreamer just killed my heart

[@nodeloliver6201]

Belly slide on, you beautiful creature.

[@archsys307]

Bros making learn to fly in real life

[@brobruh7850]

Misread fastest and first and I think that’s beautiful too

[@roxxram9151]

@@brobruh7850 God I wish penguins were real

[@lisacupcake5777]

That penguin is the philosopher of its time

[@emperorarasaka]

1:35 After one last look at the cameraman as if to say goodbye, the penguin marches ahead towards the mountains that will lead him to heaven.

[@kerryscott3287]

He's single, his mate likely died, he lost his egg, He's now an explorer, maybe travel is on his bucket list. Is it deranged to not grind out an existence

[@seanm4173]

Penguins bored as fuck with it all. Doesn't fancy a cuddle and doesn't feel like having his life run by an egg. He's the smartest of the group. I wish he could fly.

[@shadowfox6438]

Sean M I'd have done the same

[@seanm4173]

yup, one or two seasons of that nonsense? time to bounce

[@joe3489]

I wish he could touch the sky

[@FlaccidSunday]

He's certainly flying now

[@amyvic5121]

It's Nietzsches Überpinguin, living (or dying) alone in the mountains.

[@mator2339]

Nietzsche wasn't a nihilist.

[@amyvic5121]

@@mator2339 Yeah he was just an arrogant prick. He didn't say there was nothung true to say about the world he just said everybody else was wrong so far.

[@robinhoodwasasocialist.1401]

When you stare at the penguin; the penguin stares back at you.

[@jml4000]

He's retreating to the mountains to work on his manuscript - "Thus Clucked Zarathustra"

[@trikkinikki970]

@@mator2339 no, but he did idolize those who made their virtue their downfall, whether it be a tight rope walker who fell, or this penguin who yearned for greatness and the unknowable to only be rewarded with death.

[@chaosfive55]

"But WHY?" --because sometimes the quest for the unknown outweighs all considerations of mere life and death.

[@alenaivanov3868]

Yes, penguins on the quest for the unknown. The classic novel "Pengarrtha" immediately springs to mind.

[@FalconTalk]

Boom

[@RoyOrbisonsElvisTape]

To die free and fulfilled, we should all be as fortunate as that penguin.

[@catedoge3206]

When the penguin turned around for the last time, not because of doubt, but perhaps as a last goodbye. He is on his path and nothing will stop em.

[@l.3626]

Agree, best sceney the way he looks back for a last time it's so cute and inspiring

[@Alemanizando]

There are so many days when I feel just like this penguin.

[@Markwaynesapp]

Life is not about how many days you feel like the penguin, Life is about how many days you dont :)

[@menospeakwelsh]

@@Markwaynesapp And that's the problem. The overall amount of days where I do feel like him is vastly greater than those where I don't. When I just fixate on the 'good' days I am simply ignoring most of my life at best and outright refusing to acknowledge it at worst.

[@Gallowglass7]

I understand, however, don't presume your suffering within itself is proof of your authenticity. *Nods*

[@ogungou9]

@@Markwaynesapp: 51 years of penguinism for me ... really.

[@sonneversets3530]

Jesus is waiting to help you with that.✝ Just ask...❤

[@coolandgood1010]

At 1:34 when he looks back, then continues onward towards the mountains with such conviction.. I could feel that moment in the fibers of my heart. I could feel it in my blood. I relate to the little guy. I can relate so much. He's going to the big tundra in the sky.

[@OrdnanceTV]

I am with you

[@RFC3514]

He's going to the bucket full of fish behind that rock that Werner showed him the previous day.

[@mitenka222]

Ну проголодается и рванёт к воде этот пухляшка

[@valinorean4816]

@@mitenka222 The other one had already traveled 80 kilometers and was still going forward...

[@SPAPBrocker]

When you feel like you relate to a penguin more than most people

[@Slechy_Lesh]

I'm quite sure many people are struggling with suicidal thoughts

[@DrawsRene]

@@Slechy_Leshmore than you think. And most people find a solution to live with that.

[@MostIntelligentMan]

​@@Slechy_Leshnot enough

[@sonneversets3530]

@@MostIntelligentMan You must be a big fan of the genocide that goes on. Including currently. And what you’re most likely unaware of, the past couple yrs. Not to worry, plenty more will be happening. Everywhere. Well calculated & planned. Hope you know Jesus soon. No One Else is going to save you, or anyone else from themselves. *Jesus is everyone’s Only Hope.* ✝ Don’t keep ignoring Him.

[@sonneversets3530]

​@@SailorCheryl Hey suit yourself dear. God allows. Heads up butts is the new norm. Best to you w/yours.🐑 Keep Jesus in mind when it’s all hitting the fan here.♥✝ He still loves you. And will save your sorry butt from yourself, when you cry out to Him to. *Remember that.* Before you fall for the ‘mark’ coming down the rd. If you fell for the jabs, well.... _Try_ *not* to fall for that too. :)

[@GermanDreadnought]

"you shall be what you must be, or you shall be nothing" -Jose de San Martin. heroe of my homeland, Argentina

[@metalema6]

Comments: "he must have an existential crisis, contemplating philosophical cencepts, and must be tired of this sensless life" Penguin: "I wonder what's over there"

[@simonriley4131]

Isn't that the root of it though? Not knowing what's over there?

[@Lieutenantfollicle]

That’s the problem, healthy animals do not sacrifice their life to satisfy basic curiosity

[@peruviansatan1969]

Some might say the penguin “is literally just vibing” but we may never know the truth of this tiny modern sisyphus’s intentions.

[@ianroberts2470]

The s-l-o-w fade to black at the end of the clip is a sign of ultimate respect to the little guy from a great filmmaker.

[@AbAb-th5qe]

I think that penguin is truly alive. We are all heading towards certain death, but not everyone realises this. He will see what few other penguins ever will.

[@otten5666]

Snow and ice?

[@AbAb-th5qe]

@@otten5666 all penguins see that anyway. Likely most wouldn't be able to imagine anything else. They lack any other experience you see.

[@otten5666]

@@AbAb-th5qe That was the lame joke I made. It doesn't matter where this little adventurer goes, it's all snow and ice. But I applaud the little guy for trying to reach for more than what the colony has to offer.

[@AbAb-th5qe]

@@otten5666 Why does anyone go holiday? It's just more trees and rocks. It certainly is a lame joke. Actually rocks might be quite novel to a penguin. They're only little.

[@otten5666]

​@@AbAb-th5qe I go on holiday for parties and ladies. Enjoy looking at rocks and trees.

[@tobiasfoppe725]

It is beautiful to see that this incredibly touching and equally hilarious and haunting little excerpt of Herzog s movie seems to attract interesting and delightful people. So far I have not encountered a single comment with a hostile or defaming content here. Moreso I read many wonderful comments full of wit and compassion. That again touches me deeply, I must say.

[@danzacjones]

Award for greatest scene of all time in a nature documentary: This.

[@RustinChole]

I’m not crying. You’re crying.

[@jaidaniels905]

"Appel du Vide", The call of the void. You ever get a strange feeling when driving, that you can suddenly turn your wheel and it'll all come to end? The French call it L'Appel du Vide. This penguin has answered that call.

[@regzzuse280]

1:34 That last glance, then turning around accepting the fate of the unknown and running towards it.

[@BarbaryLion0]

Truly the most odd and equally captivating video on the internet

[@kinocorner976]

“I don’t plunge into the unknown to die, I plunge into the unknown to live.”

[@thelostronin]

That penguin was the Werner Herzog of his colony - utterly unique and determined to tell his own story

[@n0tarealdoctor]

Scientist: So what do you want to know about? Feeding habits? Mating habits? How they interact with each other? Werner Herzog: can a penguin go insane

[@romanec3764]

😂😂

[@fragdude]

Talk about a guy that should be the moderator for all presidential debates. Now *that* would be a show.

[@zachjones6944]

Actually, mental illness in animals is a facet of behavioral ecology.

[@notinspectorgadget]

Scientist: um, well...

[@mrhombreman]

Nihilist penguin Defies the shackles of life With senseless ease

[@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494]

was the choice to leave the last line of the haiku a syllable short deliberate? If so, congratulations. You have shown your own defiance. If not, this is a disrespectful treatment of a great literary tradition. Senseless indeed. Either way, it made me think 🙂

[@mrhombreman]

@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 haha just me being sloppy

[@sneezejs]

@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494😂

[@averytijerina3425]

Love it, the music makes it seem like the penguin is searching for something greater.

[@brightonfunds]

This is either really sad or really the story of a hero who has a unique calling.

[@MichaelConroy-o4s]

@@brightonfunds If that penguin had orange hair and played “air accordion”,you can bet half the country would be rooting for it to die.We live in a fallen world,sadly.😔

[@Eddddddddddyz]

He’s not a nihilist. He’s an artist.

[@mitenka222]

Ну тут уж как пойдёт! Может исследователь территории.

[@IsaiahINRI]

He's an existentialist penguin

[@ShawnLevasseur]

Are we still talking about the penguin or Werner himself?

[@SWProductions100]

​@ShawnLevasseur I not too familiar with nihilism or Herzog - but from what I understand, nihilism is more a focus on being good despite the lack of meaning. And Herzog seems he could have both artistry and this hopeful nihilism. I don't know about the penguin.

[@kanjuro8926]

There's a quote I like from "Louise" (it's an opera) : "workers want to be bourgeois, bourgeois want to be nobles, nobles want to be kings, kings want to be artists, artists want to be gods"

[@grispymohtajeb3471]

I cried! I really cried with this shit! When Werner Herzog said "But Why?" I couldn't hold it!

[@Osmann45]

Even heading to his death his waddles are still absolutely adorable

[@adambazso9207]

Very true. 😃🙂😊

[@florianadolf2256]

And it kind of really helps taking the edge off an otherwise highly dramatic scene😏

[@likemy]

Penguin isn't a nihilist. He's an explorer. He's got more vitality in his heart than most men.

[@ClaudeSpeed6]

Easy to be vital when you don't wake at the same time every day and sit still for 8 hours a day only to sit on the couch doing absolutely nothing and then pay taxes. The penguin's life is harder, but it's also more fulfilling. It doesn't leave you much time to ponder life, because you need to survive. That's the meaning of your life. Paired with the fact penguins aren't very smart and certainly not capable of philosophical thought, you can see why he's more vital than most men.

[@patrickpowell2236]

1:36 Penguin checks to see if cameras are still watching. They are. So he keeps walking. Later, after humans go to bed, Penguin returns to penguin camp. "Hey guys, they're making a movie about me! They didn't even try to save me from running away to certain death. Those cruel jerks! I wonder what the movie will say about me?"

[@jojojorisjhjosef]

Maybe the reason some penguins just start walking is for the same reason humans just cross the ocean for no reason, and go into space for no reason. It's the beauty of evolution. Only an idiot knows better than the genius.

[@swedish0guy]

Humans usually survive when we explore, this penguin just went to certain death

[@Wrathborn771]

The penguin doesn't know that though. The vikings didn't know what they were going into whilst sailing the seas, finding england. It was told there was only certain death and/or infinite sea rather than new lands and new people.

[@Sabrowsky]

Actually, the "vikings" (quotation marks because the word viking means a looting/trading/colonization trip instead of the more common erroneus denomination of a people) did, seeing as the jutes and danes were directly involved in taking britain from the britonnic peoples after the romans left in the fifth century, even estabilishing a few colonies of their own before the anglo-saxons incorporated them into the newly formed kingdoms. Basically the scandinavians were well aware of the existense of an island, hell, they were sailing there for centuries already. So, when the first looting Viking (as in expedition) arrived in Lindisfarne it wasnt a completely unknown enemy, just an unexpected one, seeing as they had a longstanding trading relationship with the Northumbrian kingdom

[@MCVessels]

@@swedish0guy No we don't! The people who come back and tell us the story of these great, undiscovered places, they survive. We never hear from the people who have gone out there and died, so we're largely unaware of their deaths.

[@deltoroperdedor3166]

I think it's the penguin version of going into the sea to drown, except it's into a barren wasteland, since penguins are good swimmers

[@MrXetios]

Everyone else my age is getting married and starting a family and here I am like:

[@efectoyoga7]

like... but WHY?

[@kooroshrostami27]

And yet they will all die and all their children will bear the burden of knowing they have to die. None will find lasting meaning or happiness. Time to wake up!

[@bloodyhell8201]

​@@kooroshrostami27nihilist begone.

[@florianadolf2256]

​@@kooroshrostami27Readying yourself for a trip to Antarctica, by any chance?

[@Arbitrary_Moniker]

@@bloodyhell8201 Nihilist? It's a simple existential truth. Unless, you intend to live forever, you don't disagree; whatever meaning you find, will not be everlasting, since you are not everlasting. None will find lasting meaning or happiness.

[@rong2912]

We are all heading towards certain death...

[@djrobbie7717]

I'm sad for all brother :(

[@Itstwofourteen]

Yup, we all got one life. Act accordingly 🍻

[@no_i_dont_want_no_slugs]

/snaps fingers repeatedly/

[@CaioAraujoRibeiro]

"...And yet here we are for the moment alive. Each of us knowing we are going to die, each of us secretly believing we won't"

[@nowhereman6019]

Let's head to the mountains on the way there.

[@susanmcdonald-timms3202]

I cry every time. I cry out of the love the life force itself. Perhaps he has indeed made a mistake. But perhaps-it crosses my mind-he is doing what creatures and even plants have done for billions of years: made a change. The kind of change that brings about evolution-or annihilation. In that process, SOMEbody has to -TAKE A CHANCE. Risk something. Many, many die. And then -one does something that turns out to be the beginning of a better way for all. In the human world, we have such people. If they succeed, we call them heroes: if they fail, we think they are mad

[@hibryd7481]

Herzog has these moments in his films that are completely sublime; the reactor/crocodile scene at the end of Cave of Forgotten Dreams had a similar effect on me. They're so profound they haunt you from time to time decades after you've seen it. I love the moment the penguin stops and briefly turns around before continuing his march. It's like there was some germ of a thought...a familiar, nurturing instinct; "This is the wrong way, go back. Hunt fish, raise chicks, and rest." But before it could form, it was consumed by the gravity of whatever nameless force compels penguins to chase mountains.

[@helveticaneptune537]

Penguin suffering from existential angst

[@colinharter4094]

Attenborough: "But why? Scientists are still unable to explain this aberrant and counterintuitive behavior." Herzog: " "But why?" [Silence]

[@ericocccams5865]

herzog lets the penguin go attenborough takes the penguin and puts it in a zoo with other penguins to rehabilitate it

[@Atlink]

Silence is powerful when used properly.

[@sunsetvista877]

Penguin: "Why ask"?

[@Badficwriter]

@@Atlink Herzog once said it frustrated him when filmmakers didn't let the silence speak.

[@victorm152]

Can we all just agree that Werner Herzog is pretty much an overly serious German version of the Joker

[@omenoflaherty1294]

If you’re having a good day, you need to call Werner Herzog to find out why you really shouldn’t be.

[@zomalfa4363]

Its interesting that the penguin stopped and looked back.

[@SSS-pn9ex]

That was a great, polite recovery for such a deep nutty question from Werner.

[@leonconnelly5303]

This is the most beautifully tragic thing, the penguin despite its lack of intellect is expressing the human desire for the unknown willingly or not. He is a kindred spirit to our condition, a brethren of the madness that drive us further

[@RitosM]

He just wants to explore what is within the vast mountains. He is truly enlightened, and broke out of the system. He is not nihilist, but rather the opposite, finding adventure in the mundane life of the average penguin.

[@JohannRosario1]

Aren’t we all that penguin, staring into that void of oblivion?

[@nettieb7604]

this genuinely moved me to tears

[@bettinaschmidt8940]

me too. Greetings.

[@1Live2Love3Thrive]

Werner Herzog is the dark humorous version of David Attenborough.

[@angelamedvid7372]

Oww man the saddest thing I’ve seen. They always make me cry.

[@anastasijac.r8732]

This is literally the best documentary I’ve ever seen

[@curtisprice6046]

His reaction is the reaction of a rebellion against the life of the crowd.

[@dukeon]

Sisyphus in his avian form. Wings without flight. No escape from the eternally dead, frozen wasteland. Nevertheless he persisted.

[@horricule451]

I want to be like Werner Herzog when I grow older

[@sebsy15]

I hope to see you hold yourself to that.

[@cow_tools_]

Funniest comment.

[@danijelcerkic273]

Good luck. Whish you very best.

[@cralo2569]

so you want to be a loser when you grow up

[@diegobadiaamedee4717]

I want to be like the penguin

[@0ld_Scratch]

Lovecraft: mountain of madness

[@ano_nym]

Had to scroll too far for this. He heard the recognizable, yet eerie calling: "Tekeli-li, tekeli-li..."

[@paulheinrichdietrich9518]

I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why. It is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing this contemplated invasion of the antartic - with it's vast fossil hunt and it's wholesale boring and melting of the ancient ice-cap - and I am the more reluctant because my warning may be in vain. Doubt of the real facts as I must reveal them is inevitable (...) In the end I must rely on the judgement and standing of the few scientific leaders who have, on the one hand, sufficient independence of thought to weigh my data on its own hideously convincing merits or in the light of certain primordial and highly baffling myth cycles; and on the other hand, sufficient influence to deter the exploring world in general from any rash and overambitious programme in the region of those mountains of madness.

[@florianadolf2256]

Penguin: "Hold my beer."

[@thofabyq]

This is evolution. some day a penguin will succeed

[@dryued6874]

We rise.

[@LegoWorld1231]

that penguin was like fuck routine and decided to explore the world until it dies because the world is beautiful

[@Bobby.Kristensen]

If that effort makes that penguin have more offspring than those who do not do this then yes - this is evolution. If not, then this behavior will likely die out. But it could also be a kind of behavior that won't be corrected, because it's such a deep rooted flaw in their DNA that all penguins have a certain likelihood of doing this.

[@zanthor5422]

There's also the possibility that something external is affecting them, though I doubt it.

[@daronstube]

probably Ancient Aliens

[@naufaladen2401]

Nihilist pinguin... What a great band name

[@christywasher308]

Ohhhh, and he looks back... so forlornly. My heart swells and breaks simultaneously for this little rebel penguin.

[@DetectiveAndrey]

Penguin! ;( We will not forget you! R.I.P.

[@Toto-95]

bet you forgot

[@honoraryanglo2929]

Legend says he lives in those mountains now

[@dlewis9760]

​ @Toto-95 I've been back 3 or 4 times to watch this over the years. I haven't.

[@MikeGeorgeC0619]

Thus Spoke Nihilist Penguin

[@phildoyle8263]

“I’m just going out and may be some time.” Lawrence Oates, Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. 17 March 2012

[@ryanlee6530]

Oh wow man, this is some deep and heavy thought! A lonely penguin on a solemn quest searching for life's meaning only to wander off into the mysterious unknown and its certain demise. I think I'm going to have an anxiety attack!

[@turnleft8645]

1:33 man that pause was so sad, it was like there was a sliver of hope he'd stop and turn back, only for the insanity to pull him back right in like an inescapable urge...

[@saidtoshimaru1832]

The Penguin march: Films the whole colony working together to countinue life. Herzog: Films the only penguin that goes by itself to die alone.

[@florianadolf2256]

Yep. That's him. That's Werner.

[@MrArtisticjay]

when complexity ends and entropy's on full throttle

[@JonDoeIsWaleed]

/r/videos

[@florianadolf2256]

Yet, the ice that surrounds that little fellow does have a lower degree of entropy in its frozen solid state, than liquid water, that might be found in the more agreeable and less hostile zones of our planet. Nevertheless, the penguin fully accepts this irony and keeps waddling along. He remains fully committed to the task at hand.

[@sunsetnoiser]

this is pure brilliance

[@Jackjohnjay]

He’s a Carthusian. This penguin was simply called by God up into the mountains like great mystics and monks long ago. The music was perfect. Pray for us brother

[@garcalej]

No god in those mountains except Cthulu, the Devourer.

[@MB-xe8bb]

He doesn't have hands to hold tablets of the Ten Commandments.

[@CT-FiftyfiveFiftyfive]

This penguin is on a journey none of us will ever be able to comprehend until some of us feel compelled to join him one day