The big breakout from this past week’s episode of Peacemaker is easily Tim Meadows’ character, Langston Fleury, confessing that he has “bird blindness.” The not real affliction is explained as Fleury being unable to tell one bird from another, which is a big problem when he doesn’t know whether Peacemaker’s (John Cena) best friend Eagly is an eagle or a duck, leading to his team getting decimated by the bird. However: was the gag lifted directly from Norsemen, a Norwegian comedy now on Netflix?
Originally premiering in 2016 in Norway under the name Vikingane, the show was filmed in both Norwegian and English. It came to Netflix a year later with the new name (that would be Norsemen), and the section in question can be seen about 14 minutes into Season 3, Episode 4, “War Table,” which aired in 2020. In it, Viking weirdo Torstein Hund (Bjørn Myrene) sits down next to a fellow Viking and is making idle conversation about the wind.
They’re interrupted when Torstein notices a bird walking around. “What’s this?” he says. “A little raven with a message?” Earlier in the episode, Torstein’s boss Jarl Varg (Jon Øigarden) had sent several ravens off with messages, so Torstein has been on the lookout.
It’s definitely not a raven, though. It’s clearly a chicken he picks up. “Is that an important message you have there, little raven?”
“That’s a chicken,” clarifies the other Viking, to which Torstein looks resigned and annoyed.
“Chicken? Right, of course,” he says. “I’ve never been very good with birds… I see beaks and wings, but aside from that… They look all the same to me. Totally identical.”
“So you can’t tell the difference between a sparrow and an eagle?” the Viking asks.
“Not a chance,” Torstein continues. “Totally bird blind, always been… You know what? Maybe the scouts didn’t have any ravens left, so they sent a messenger chicken… If that is a chicken and not a raven. But I just have to take your word for that.”
Let’s compare that to the dialogue between Fleury and John Economos (Steve Agee) in Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 2, “A Man Is Only As Good As His Bird”:
“What’s the deal with the parrot?”
“It’s an eagle. It’s a bald eagle. It’s the symbol of America. Are you telling me you don’t recognize what kind of bird that is?”
“Okay you obviously have not read my dossier. I have bird blindness.”
“Bird blindness?”
“I can’t tell the difference between one type of bird and another.”
“Okay, but a duck and an eagle are totally different sizes.”
“Yeah, well, they look the same size to me, man.”
“What about, like, a hummingbird?”
“Tiny bird? Incredibly fast wings? Hovers?”
“Yeah, see?”
“Yeah, I only know about that because I read it. To me the look and move just like any other bird… Bird blindness. It’s my sole weakness.”
Is it weird that the “bird blind” conversation, a stand-out of Northmen, has been around for five years before Peacemaker had a similar conversation? Yes. And that Fleury also knows about bird parts, just like Torstein, but otherwise can’t tell them apart? Sure. Is it also weird that Northmen explicitly mentions an eagle? Definitely.
Here’s the thing, though… Joke stealing is notoriously hard to prove. Did James Gunn see the “bird blind” joke on Northmen and decide to explicitly lift it because he’s a mean guy? Likely not. Could he have seen it, forgotten about it, and written it into the script for Peacemaker? That’s more possible, particularly given the dialogue brushes up against each other, but isn’t one for one.
Far more likely, though, this is just a case of parallel thinking versus joke stealing. Parallel thinking is essentially when two people come up with the same idea. Here, that’s Gunn, and Jon Iver Helgaker and Jonas Torgersen, the two guys behind Northmen. It’s more reasonable to think that they thought bird blindness was funny, separately, versus Gunn flagrantly stealing from a show that’s been on Netflix for years and hoping nobody notices.
But perhaps we’re being joke theft blind? After all, bird blindness might not be real, but joke theft blindness definitely is.
Peacemaker Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
Peacemaker season 2 premiered on HBO Max on Thursday, August 21. The season will be eight episodes long, with one episode premiering per week.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Peacemaker Season 2, with premiere dates:
- Thursday, August 21, 2025: Peacemaker, Season 2, Episode 1
- Thursday, August 28, 2025: Peacemaker, Season 2, Episode 2
- Thursday, September 4, 2025: Peacemaker, Season 2, Episode 3
- Thursday, September 11, 2025: Peacemaker, Season 2, Episode 4
- Thursday, September 18, 2025: Peacemaker, Season 2, Episode 5
- Thursday, September 25, 2025: Peacemaker, Season 2, Episode 6
- Thursday, October 2, 2025: Peacemaker, Season 2, Episode 7
- Thursday, October 9, 2025: Peacemaker, Season 2, Episode 8 *Season Finale*
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