The Johny Johny Yes Papa nursery rhyme turned viral meme has been given a queer makeover

In today’s thing you definitely didn’t ask for but reluctantly welcome nevertheless, there’s now a version of ‘Johny Johny Yes Papa’ with a same-sex family.

The nursery rhyme-turned viral meme was born out of the hellscape that is children’s YouTube videos.

There are dozens of different versions of the song, but Little Baby Bum released a queer version of the rhyme on Tuesday.

‘Johny Johny Yes Papa’ gets queer makeover.

The nursery rhyme was said to originate in Kenya, historians say, and has been sung for more than 60 years.

But it became an aggressively layered meme in 2018 as the spiritual successor of the ‘Baby Shark’ song that is the eternal soundtrack of the seventh circle of Hell.

‘Johny Johny’ is all about the titular infant eating sugar to the chagrin of his father, who quickly scolds him.

But Johnny then belts into demonic laughter. Lifting his hands and spinning wildly, as if possessed by an unholy spilt.

He and his father then start dancing for some truly infernal reason. The sugar-based parent-child conflict quickly became the stuff of cursed legends.

There are many, many different takes on this nursery rhyme, but one video by Billion Surprise Toys was the nightmarish version that became a meme.

Little Baby Bum’s queer remix of the song has already tallied more than 205,700 views.

The song now sees the boy singing “Yes, papas?” as the family help Johny get dressed and prepare dinner for him.

Now, this is the level of LGBT+ representation we have been fighting for.

But it appears to be dividing some viewers, with likes and dislikes evenly split but tilted slightly towards likes.

Homophobic viewers, or are they simply YouTube users now in close proximity to death after listening to the song?

We guess we will never know.

• Dec 01 2023

16 TV stars you grew up watching who later came out as LGBTQ+