Creator of ‘Pigeons of Boston’ Page Really Hates ‘Humans of New York’
The creator of the parody Facebook account “Pigeons of Boston,’’ which lampoons the popular Humans of New York account, has barely spent any time in Boston. But that hasn’t stopped him from turning what, in his words, was a “lark of a joke’’ into a Facebook page with 15,000 likes and a published e-book.
A.R. Pellowski, an Austin, Texas native and senior at Dartmouth, formed the Pigeons of Boston Facebook back in August 2014. There, he posts photos of pigeons downloaded off the Internet, combined with a supposed interview with the pigeons. These “interviews’’ — invented by Pellowski, of course — hew toward absurdist tales of drug binges and Weird Internet topics.
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It’s a bizarre and unique parody to the earnestness of Humans of New York, a blog that posts portraits of people around New York City accompanied by a quote from the person in the photograph. Those quotes generally tell an inspirational or moving life story. The posts have turned Humans of New York into a viral sensation.
Pellowski told Boston.com that he decided to create Pigeons of Boston partly out of his searing hatred of Humans of New York.
“I think Humans of New York sells itself as human interest realism,’’ he said. “My sense about it is it’s got this aura of phoniness, because the stories it does choose to share seem to have sort of a selective bias.’’
Pellowski said he sees Pigeons of Boston and its fake tales of avian adventure as “more honest’’ than Humans of New York.
“It’s more authentic to make stories up than to give people stories embellished or pruned in order to appease [the audience’s] assumptions, and then tell them that it’s real 100 percent authentic realism,’’ he said.
That hatred of Humans of New York has worked out nicely for Pellowski. In August, Pellowski wrote a 1,600-word thinkpiece on that hatred for a Dartmouth College magazine. In the midst of talking about that piece—while riding the commuter rail to Sharon, Massachusetts—a friend joked that there should be a parody of some kind, and pitched the idea for Pigeons of Boston. His friend’s “lark of a joke’’ turned into something more for Pellowski, though.
“I just thought it was so funny that someone should actually do it, and put it into practice,’’ Pellowski said. “I went back home and just started pulling pictures of pigeons off the Internet.’’
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So no, he admitted, the pigeons featured are not explicitly from Boston. Indeed, Pellowski has visited the city only a number of times — he visits school by flying in to Logan — but hasn’t spent more than a few days in a row in the Hub. He said he has a “nebulous relationship’’ with the city.
He did, however, get his picture taken running through a flock of pigeons in Boston when he visited in high school. That photo, at the top of the page, adorns the cover of his Pigeons of Boston e-book that was released early January.
“I couldn’t have Photoshopped a better picture,’’ he said.
That e-book, a mix of past Facebook posts and new “pigeon’’ interviews, came out of a Kickstarter that Pellowski set up. He raised $342 from 32 backers. (He had to find new, license-free photos for the e-book due to copyright restrictions.) Over winter break, Pellowski finished the book and sent it to his backers.
He’s working on an audiobook version, too.
In the spirit of Humans of New York (and Pigeons of Boston), we asked Pellowski a series of deep questions about his life.
Boston.com: What are your greatest fears as the Pigeons of Boston writer?
Pellowski: “[I’m] afraid of Humans of New York finding out about Pigeons of Boston, if it’s getting too big, and then slamming it really hard. That might be a good thing — no press is bad press — but Humans of New York fans are really pretty vigilant in a way that I find a little spooky. I’m not really at the stage of my life where I’m emotionally prepared for online death threats.’’
Boston.com: What’s the happiest moment you’ve had with Pigeons of Boston?
Pellowski: “One of the people who backed the book sent me an email about sitting down with it, and reading the whole thing aloud with her dad, and just really enjoy[ing] it, and some of the things I said really speaking to her, and giving her a new perspective. I don’t know, that’s pretty fulfilling.’’
Boston.com: What things specifically?
Pellowski: “It was one of the pigeons saying something about how, ‘Every cloud has a silver lining, but every silver lining probably has a giant cloud inside of it.’ Pigeons are ‘rats with wings,’ but maybe it might be more accurate to think of them as ‘wings with rats.’ I don’t know. For some reason, they thought that was really profound. I actually thought that was kinda gimmicky.’’
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