Serge the llama (29 June 2005 – 2020) was a

llama The llama (; or ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with ...

in the circus Cirque Franco-Italien of John Beautour and

internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

. Serge was named after the French singer Serge Lama, who described the choice of name as "genius". During the night of 30 to 31 October 2013, while the circus was performing in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

, the llama was taken from its cage by a group of five youths returning from a disco. They took the llama out for a walk, posted some pictures on social media, and took it on a

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

. The five were arrested by the police and Serge was returned to his owner, unharmed. Initially the circus director John Beautour pressed charges. However, the photos went viral on the internet, leading to a lot of publicity for the circus. Beautour subsequently dropped the charges. The llama was bookable for parties at 1,200

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s per event, and appeared as a

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

at soccer games. A parody of the

Stromae Paul Van Haver (; born 12 March 1985), better known by his stage name Stromae (), is a Belgian singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his music, which is a blend of hip-hop and electronic music styles. Stromae came ...

song "

Papaoutai "Papaoutai" (, , French for "Dad, where are you?") is a song written and performed by Belgian singer Stromae. The song was released as a digital download in Belgium on 13 May 2013 as the lead single from his second studio album ''Racine carré ...

" called "Lamaoutai" was viewed more than 4 million times on YouTube. The parody was made with the cooperation of the circus.

References

{{reflist 2005 animal births 2020 animal deaths Animals on the Internet Individual camelids Internet memes introduced from France Internet memes introduced in 2013 Llamas