The informant is of Korean descent, and shared this piece of folklore at my request.

There is a Korean proverb that goes “청개구리 (Chung-kgeh-kgu-ry),” which translate to “blue frog.” It is used to describe someone who is behaving oddly for attention, stemming from the idea that it is like a blue frog trying to go against to standard of green frogs.

The informant sees that it follows a certain pattern found in Korean folk speech. That is, references to animals and normalcy. Following that second line of thought, there is a Chinese saying that roughly translates to “no one else is like you.” This is suppose to be a negative thing, a phrase also used to describe those who stand out from the rest.