NTU pops up as the top search result when you Google 'kukubird kukubird'

While most (emphasis on most) of us have moved on from the amusingly juvenile antics of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students yelling phallic rallying cries during a student camp, the internet doesn't forget. 

The 11th top university in the world is now suggested as the top Google search result when you key in the term "kukubird kukubird". 

For the pure of mind, "kukubird" is a slang term used by Singaporeans that refers to "penis". It's interchangeable with the term "kukujiao" (which also refers to the male member) with the Hokkien word "jiao" translating to "bird". 

Try searching the term "kukubird kukubird" on Google — if you're lucky, the search result might still pull up NTU as an automatic suggested answer. As of writing, we can't seem to replicate the same results that were pulled up on Google last night. 

This comes following an online furore last week when a STOMP submission depicted student campers from NTU gyrating their hips and pointing at their crotches while parroting a camp leader in a virile cheer: "Kukubird, kukubird, this is my kukubird". 

While performing cheers is a pretty common group activity in local university and polytechnic orientation camps, sexually-charged actions and chants tend to cause concerned members of the public to grouse. 

Just last year, Ngee Ann Polytechnic made the news when a video of a student performing a lap dance at a co-curricular activity camp circulated. In 2016, the National University of Singapore began its crackdown on sexually-suggestive activities during orientation games.

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While the NTU students seemed to lark about in the camp chant, others did not swallow the tomfoolery in good spirits.

Sniping a response to the video, the university assured that it would investigate inappropriate behaviour by students at one of its freshman orientation camps. Following the online activity and news stories, NTU lit up the web with news headlines and social media mentions, linking the prestigious university to the vulgar reference.

It's unclear if the result is the outcome of an intentional campaign to manipulate Google's algorithm such that NTU will be the first thing to appear once the specific term gets punched in the search engine. Infamously, disgruntled Game Of Thrones fans did so following the end of an unsatisfying final season for the hit TV series — the pictures of showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss popped up when one searched for "bad writers" on Google. 

NTU isn't the only unusual result that'll pop up when you search for "kukubird" though. Earlier this week, British leggings brand Kukubird made local headlines when the coincidental name was discovered.

As for the NTU-kukubird association, it's our guess that the two terms will be lovebirds for a while longer. After all, as the saying goes, (kuku)birds of a feather flock together.

jayjaylin@asiaone.com / ilyas@asiaone.com