# I Like Turtles 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. ## Origin 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 comment[3]. 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 there[5]. 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 up[6]. - **Platform:** KGW local news (broadcast) / YouTube (viral spread) - **Creator:** Jonathon Ware - **Date:** 2007 ## 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 weather[3]. 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 sites[1][2]. 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 today[4]. ## 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 games[3]. 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 August[3]. 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 upload[1][2]. Urban Dictionary added an entry on November 3rd, 2007 defining it as a reply to a boring question you do not feel like answering[4]. In April 2009, the viral-media site Urlesque ranked the clip in its "100 Most Iconic Internet Videos" column[7]. Ware kept popping up as an adult. On September 15th, 2010 he appeared on Comedy Central's Tosh.0 for a "Web Redemption" segment[6]. In September 2013 he launched the ItsTurtleTime YouTube channel with Let's Play videos[3]. 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-shot[8]. ## How to Use 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 question[4]. 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 ### What is I Like Turtles? It is a viral 2007 catchphrase from a KGW local news interview where a zombie-painted kid gave the line as his entire on-camera response[3][5]. ### Where did I Like Turtles come from? Ten-year-old Jonathon Ware said it to KGW reporter Nancy Francis at the Portland Rose Festival on May 31st, 2007, and YouTuber CaptJax458 re-uploaded the clip on June 11th, 2007[3][5]. ### What does I Like Turtles mean? Urban Dictionary defines it as a reply to a boring question you do not feel like answering, though Ware said he was thinking about a turtle exhibit he had just visited[4][6]. ### How do you use I Like Turtles? People drop it as a deadpan non-answer in conversations and comment threads, or quote it in reaction to unrelated turtle content[4]. ### Is I Like Turtles still popular? It is a classic early-YouTube meme that keeps resurfacing, including a 2023 Paramount promo where Ware recreated the clip as an adult for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem[8]. ## References 1. [https://www.zazzle.com/i+like+turtles+gifts]() 2. [https://www.snorgtees.com/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-like-turtles]() 4. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=I%20Like%20Turtles]() 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y]() 6. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1735106/]() 7. [https://web.archive.org/web/2009*/urlesque.com]() 8. [https://www.youtube.com/@ParamountPictures]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/i-like-turtles Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library