I Like Turtles

2007viral videoclassic

Published August 30, 2026

I Like Turtles is a catchphrase from a 2007 KGW local news clip in which ten-year-old Jonathon Ware, face painted as a zombie at Portland's Rose Festival, gave the answer as his entire on-camera interview. The awkward non-sequitur became one of the earliest YouTube viral video memes, spawning years of remixes, T-shirts, a Tosh.0 web redemption and eventually a Paramount Ninja Turtles ad reprise.

catchphrase memesyoutube viralchild virality memesinterview memeslate 2000s memes

Overview

I Like Turtles is a three-word answer that made zero sense in context and that is exactly why it stuck. A Portland kid with zombie face paint was asked about his costume on live TV, ignored the question entirely, and dropped the line with the flat delivery of someone announcing the weather3. The clip works because the reporter clearly expects a cute quote about the fair and gets a total conversational dead end instead.

The format that grew out of it is less a template and more a running joke. Fans re-cut the audio into music videos, dubbed the line over unrelated footage, and pasted the phrase on T-shirts sold through Zazzle, Snorgtees, CafePress and other early e-merch sites12. Urban Dictionary logged the phrase in November 2007 as a stock reply for boring or dumb questions, which is roughly how people still use it in comment threads today4.

Origin & Background

Platform
KGW local news (broadcast) / YouTube (viral spread)
Creator
Jonathon Ware
Date
2007

On May 31st, 2007, ten-year-old Jonathon Ware was at the Rose Festival in Portland, Oregon, with his face painted like a zombie when KGW reporter Nancy Francis stopped him for a quick on-camera comment3. Instead of talking about the paint job, Ware looked at the camera and said, "I like turtles." That was the whole interview.

YouTube user CaptJax458 uploaded a copy of the KGW segment on June 11th, 2007, and the clip took off from there5. Ware later explained on Tosh.0 that he had visited a turtle exhibit right before getting his face painted, so turtles were genuinely on his mind when the reporter walked up6.

How It Spread

Through June and July 2007, the video spread across YouTube in the form of remixes, autotuned song edits and mashups pairing the line with movie clips and video games3. Ware's family had no idea any of this was happening until his sister spotted him going viral on Myspace, and KGW came back for a follow-up interview with the Ware family that August3.

The catchphrase quickly jumped off the screen. T-shirt printers on Zazzle, Snorgtees, CafePress, Screened and Shirtstastegood listed "I Like Turtles" designs within months of the clip's upload12. Urban Dictionary added an entry on November 3rd, 2007 defining it as a reply to a boring question you do not feel like answering4. In April 2009, the viral-media site Urlesque ranked the clip in its "100 Most Iconic Internet Videos" column7.

Ware kept popping up as an adult. On September 15th, 2010 he appeared on Comedy Central's Tosh.0 for a "Web Redemption" segment6. In September 2013 he launched the ItsTurtleTime YouTube channel with Let's Play videos3. Then on July 27th, 2023, Paramount Pictures posted a promo for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem in which a grown-up Ware recreates the original bit shot-for-shot8.

How to Use This Meme

The phrase is typically used as a deliberate non-answer, dropped into a conversation or comment thread when someone asks a boring, stupid or unanswerable question4. People often quote it in the same deadpan tone as the original video, sometimes paired with the screenshot of Ware's zombie face paint. It also works as a generic response to any turtle-related post.

Frequently Asked Questions

I Like Turtles

2007viral videoclassic

Published August 30, 2026

I Like Turtles is a catchphrase from a 2007 KGW local news clip in which ten-year-old Jonathon Ware, face painted as a zombie at Portland's Rose Festival, gave the answer as his entire on-camera interview. The awkward non-sequitur became one of the earliest YouTube viral video memes, spawning years of remixes, T-shirts, a Tosh.0 web redemption and eventually a Paramount Ninja Turtles ad reprise.

catchphrase memes youtube viral child virality memes interview memes late 2000s memes

Overview

I Like Turtles is a three-word answer that made zero sense in context and that is exactly why it stuck. A Portland kid with zombie face paint was asked about his costume on live TV, ignored the question entirely, and dropped the line with the flat delivery of someone announcing the weather3. The clip works because the reporter clearly expects a cute quote about the fair and gets a total conversational dead end instead.

The format that grew out of it is less a template and more a running joke. Fans re-cut the audio into music videos, dubbed the line over unrelated footage, and pasted the phrase on T-shirts sold through Zazzle, Snorgtees, CafePress and other early e-merch sites12. Urban Dictionary logged the phrase in November 2007 as a stock reply for boring or dumb questions, which is roughly how people still use it in comment threads today4.

Origin & Background

Platform
KGW local news (broadcast) / YouTube (viral spread)
Creator
Jonathon Ware
Date
2007

On May 31st, 2007, ten-year-old Jonathon Ware was at the Rose Festival in Portland, Oregon, with his face painted like a zombie when KGW reporter Nancy Francis stopped him for a quick on-camera comment3. Instead of talking about the paint job, Ware looked at the camera and said, "I like turtles." That was the whole interview.

YouTube user CaptJax458 uploaded a copy of the KGW segment on June 11th, 2007, and the clip took off from there5. Ware later explained on Tosh.0 that he had visited a turtle exhibit right before getting his face painted, so turtles were genuinely on his mind when the reporter walked up6.

How It Spread

Through June and July 2007, the video spread across YouTube in the form of remixes, autotuned song edits and mashups pairing the line with movie clips and video games3. Ware's family had no idea any of this was happening until his sister spotted him going viral on Myspace, and KGW came back for a follow-up interview with the Ware family that August3.

The catchphrase quickly jumped off the screen. T-shirt printers on Zazzle, Snorgtees, CafePress, Screened and Shirtstastegood listed "I Like Turtles" designs within months of the clip's upload12. Urban Dictionary added an entry on November 3rd, 2007 defining it as a reply to a boring question you do not feel like answering4. In April 2009, the viral-media site Urlesque ranked the clip in its "100 Most Iconic Internet Videos" column7.

Ware kept popping up as an adult. On September 15th, 2010 he appeared on Comedy Central's Tosh.0 for a "Web Redemption" segment6. In September 2013 he launched the ItsTurtleTime YouTube channel with Let's Play videos3. Then on July 27th, 2023, Paramount Pictures posted a promo for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem in which a grown-up Ware recreates the original bit shot-for-shot8.

How to Use This Meme

The phrase is typically used as a deliberate non-answer, dropped into a conversation or comment thread when someone asks a boring, stupid or unanswerable question4. People often quote it in the same deadpan tone as the original video, sometimes paired with the screenshot of Ware's zombie face paint. It also works as a generic response to any turtle-related post.

Frequently Asked Questions