Baby Shark

2016Viral song / dance challengeclassic

Also known as: Baby Shark Dance · Baby Shark Challenge · Kleiner Hai

Baby Shark is a 2016 viral children's song by Pinkfong, whose repetitive "doo doo doo doo" chorus and dance video became YouTube's most-viewed clip and internet shorthand for parental suffering.

"Baby Shark" is a children's song turned global viral sensation, best known through Pinkfong's 2016 YouTube video "Baby Shark Dance," which became the most-viewed video in YouTube history. The song originated as a camp singalong decades before the internet existed, but South Korean entertainment company SmartStudy turned it into an inescapable earworm that hit 10 billion YouTube views by January 20221. Online, the song became both a beloved kids' staple and a widely mocked cultural force, with the repetitive "doo doo doo doo doo doo" chorus becoming shorthand for parental suffering and internet-age sensory overload2.

childrens media memesearworm memesyoutube viralrecord breaking memeskpop memes

Overview

"Baby Shark" is a call-and-response song where each verse introduces a member of a shark family (Baby Shark, Mommy Shark, Daddy Shark, Grandma Shark, Grandpa Shark), accompanied by clapping hand gestures that mimic a shark's mouth. The Pinkfong version features a bouncy electronic beat, bright animation, and child vocals singing the iconic "doo doo doo doo doo doo" refrain after every line. The music video opens with bars from Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, echoing the Jaws theme, before launching into a story where a shark family hunts fish that eventually escape to safety1.

The meme dimension of "Baby Shark" comes from its sheer unavoidability. Parents, teachers, and anyone within earshot of a toddler with a tablet know the song by heart, whether they want to or not. Urban Dictionary entries capture the collective exhaustion well, describing it as "the #1 most kid-friendly, annoying, viral, overdone, repetitive, thoughtless and stupid song of all time"2.

The underlying "Baby Shark" song is believed to be in the public domain, having circulated as a camp singalong for decades before anyone put it on the internet1. Various people have tried to copyright versions of the song, but the core melody and characters belong to no one.

The first notable online version came in 2007 when German performer Alexandra Müller, known as Alemuel, uploaded "Kleiner Hai" (German for "Little Shark") to YouTube. Set to Jaws-inspired music, her version told the story of a baby shark growing up and eating a swimmer. The single peaked at number 25 on the German charts and number 21 in Austria1.

In 2011, American children's entertainer Jonathan Wright (stage name Johnny Only) released a sanitized version aimed at toddlers. Wright had encountered the song as a DJ at a kids' summer camp in the 1990s and stripped out the violent imagery to focus on the shark family1. This version predated Pinkfong's by five years.

The version that broke the internet came from Pinkfong, an education brand owned by South Korean company SmartStudy (now The Pinkfong Company). An initial music video without child actors went up on November 25, 2015. The definitive "Baby Shark Dance" video followed on June 17, 2016, sung by then-10-year-old Korean-American singer Hope Segoine and featuring child actors Park Geon Roung and Elaine Kim Johnston1.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (Pinkfong viral video), camp song tradition (original song)
Key People
Pinkfong / SmartStudy, Hope Segoine, Jonathan Wright, Alexandra Müller
Date
2016 (Pinkfong viral version; camp song origins date to late 20th century)

The underlying "Baby Shark" song is believed to be in the public domain, having circulated as a camp singalong for decades before anyone put it on the internet. Various people have tried to copyright versions of the song, but the core melody and characters belong to no one.

The first notable online version came in 2007 when German performer Alexandra Müller, known as Alemuel, uploaded "Kleiner Hai" (German for "Little Shark") to YouTube. Set to Jaws-inspired music, her version told the story of a baby shark growing up and eating a swimmer. The single peaked at number 25 on the German charts and number 21 in Austria.

In 2011, American children's entertainer Jonathan Wright (stage name Johnny Only) released a sanitized version aimed at toddlers. Wright had encountered the song as a DJ at a kids' summer camp in the 1990s and stripped out the violent imagery to focus on the shark family. This version predated Pinkfong's by five years.

The version that broke the internet came from Pinkfong, an education brand owned by South Korean company SmartStudy (now The Pinkfong Company). An initial music video without child actors went up on November 25, 2015. The definitive "Baby Shark Dance" video followed on June 17, 2016, sung by then-10-year-old Korean-American singer Hope Segoine and featuring child actors Park Geon Roung and Elaine Kim Johnston.

How It Spread

"Baby Shark Dance" simmered on YouTube for about a year before igniting across Southeast Asia. It went viral in Indonesia in 2017, then spread rapidly to other Asian countries. The related mobile app surpassed 150 million downloads and ranked number one in 112 countries that year.

K-pop played a major role in amplifying the song globally. Groups including Blackpink, Red Velvet, Twice, Monsta X, Got7, and Mamamoo performed the song and dance on TV shows and at concerts, pushing it far beyond the kids' content ecosystem.

The song broke into the Western mainstream in August 2018. By January 2019, it had cracked the Billboard Hot 100 at number 32, benefiting from a 2013 Billboard rule change that counted YouTube views toward chart placement. The "Baby Shark Challenge" dance craze was in full swing, with people filming themselves doing the hand-chomp choreography and posting it across social media.

On November 2, 2020, the "Baby Shark Dance" video hit 7.04 billion views, surpassing Luis Fonsi's "Despacito" to become the most-viewed YouTube video of all time. In January 2022, it became the first YouTube video ever to reach 10 billion views.

Platforms

YouTubeTikTokInstagramSchools worldwideTelevision

Timeline

2017-09-10

Entry published on Know Your Meme

2025-05-09

Last modified on Know Your Meme

2025-01-01

Baby Shark is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The Baby Shark meme works on two levels: the song/dance itself and the meta-commentary around it.

As a participatory meme: People typically film themselves performing the signature hand gestures (opening and closing hands to mimic a shark mouth, getting bigger for each family member). The "Baby Shark Challenge" format involves recording the dance in unexpected settings, like offices, sports stadiums, or public transit.

As an ironic/suffering meme: Parents and anyone exposed to the song on repeat commonly post about "Baby Shark" as a form of torture or psychological endurance test. Typical formats include:

1

Captioning images of distressed people with "day 47 of hearing Baby Shark on loop"

2

Using "doo doo doo doo doo doo" as an intrusive-thought punchline

3

Joking about the song as a weapon of mass destruction

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

"Baby Shark" jumped from YouTube to virtually every commercial and media sector. In July 2019, Kellogg's partnered with Pinkfong to launch a Baby Shark cereal, a berry-flavored Froot Loops variant with marshmallows, available at Sam's Club and Walmart.

The song found political and public health applications as well. South Korea's Liberty Korea Party attempted to use "Baby Shark" in campaign promotions in May 2018, prompting SmartStudy to threaten legal action over copyright infringement. In January 2018, the South Korean newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun ran a front-page editorial criticizing the Pinkfong lyrics as sexist for describing Mommy Shark as "pretty" and Daddy Shark as "strong".

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pinkfong released a handwashing-themed version of the song in March 2020, encouraging children to wash their hands properly. In December 2020, SmartStudy and Nickelodeon launched *Baby Shark's Big Show!*, an animated preschool series adapted from the franchise.

By 2024, LG had launched a Baby Shark World for Kids app on Smart TVs across 184 countries.

Fun Facts

The song starts with a musical quote from Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, which itself echoes the Jaws theme, a fitting nod given the shark subject matter.

Hope Segoine was only 10 years old when she recorded the vocals for the version that would become the most-watched video in YouTube history.

"Baby Shark" is both the most-viewed AND most-liked video on YouTube.

Jonathan Wright, who released his version in 2011, told the Liberty Korea Party the song was public domain when they asked for permission to use it, inadvertently contributing to a copyright dispute with SmartStudy.

Urban Dictionary users describe the song in apocalyptic terms, with one entry claiming "listening to Baby Shark made the sun implode".

Derivatives & Variations

Countless cover versions in different languages

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Professional performance videos and choreography tutorials

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Metal, rock, and electronic remixes

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Celebrity and athlete parody versions

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Educational variations and dance competition videos

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Baby Shark-themed merchandise and toys

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Frequently Asked Questions

References (2)

  1. 1
    Baby Sharkencyclopedia
  2. 2
    Baby Shark - Urban Dictionarydictionary

Baby Shark

2016Viral song / dance challengeclassic

Also known as: Baby Shark Dance · Baby Shark Challenge · Kleiner Hai

Baby Shark is a 2016 viral children's song by Pinkfong, whose repetitive "doo doo doo doo" chorus and dance video became YouTube's most-viewed clip and internet shorthand for parental suffering.

"Baby Shark" is a children's song turned global viral sensation, best known through Pinkfong's 2016 YouTube video "Baby Shark Dance," which became the most-viewed video in YouTube history. The song originated as a camp singalong decades before the internet existed, but South Korean entertainment company SmartStudy turned it into an inescapable earworm that hit 10 billion YouTube views by January 2022. Online, the song became both a beloved kids' staple and a widely mocked cultural force, with the repetitive "doo doo doo doo doo doo" chorus becoming shorthand for parental suffering and internet-age sensory overload.

childrens media memes earworm memes youtube viral record breaking memes kpop memes

Overview

"Baby Shark" is a call-and-response song where each verse introduces a member of a shark family (Baby Shark, Mommy Shark, Daddy Shark, Grandma Shark, Grandpa Shark), accompanied by clapping hand gestures that mimic a shark's mouth. The Pinkfong version features a bouncy electronic beat, bright animation, and child vocals singing the iconic "doo doo doo doo doo doo" refrain after every line. The music video opens with bars from Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, echoing the Jaws theme, before launching into a story where a shark family hunts fish that eventually escape to safety.

The meme dimension of "Baby Shark" comes from its sheer unavoidability. Parents, teachers, and anyone within earshot of a toddler with a tablet know the song by heart, whether they want to or not. Urban Dictionary entries capture the collective exhaustion well, describing it as "the #1 most kid-friendly, annoying, viral, overdone, repetitive, thoughtless and stupid song of all time".

The underlying "Baby Shark" song is believed to be in the public domain, having circulated as a camp singalong for decades before anyone put it on the internet. Various people have tried to copyright versions of the song, but the core melody and characters belong to no one.

The first notable online version came in 2007 when German performer Alexandra Müller, known as Alemuel, uploaded "Kleiner Hai" (German for "Little Shark") to YouTube. Set to Jaws-inspired music, her version told the story of a baby shark growing up and eating a swimmer. The single peaked at number 25 on the German charts and number 21 in Austria.

In 2011, American children's entertainer Jonathan Wright (stage name Johnny Only) released a sanitized version aimed at toddlers. Wright had encountered the song as a DJ at a kids' summer camp in the 1990s and stripped out the violent imagery to focus on the shark family. This version predated Pinkfong's by five years.

The version that broke the internet came from Pinkfong, an education brand owned by South Korean company SmartStudy (now The Pinkfong Company). An initial music video without child actors went up on November 25, 2015. The definitive "Baby Shark Dance" video followed on June 17, 2016, sung by then-10-year-old Korean-American singer Hope Segoine and featuring child actors Park Geon Roung and Elaine Kim Johnston.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (Pinkfong viral video), camp song tradition (original song)
Key People
Pinkfong / SmartStudy, Hope Segoine, Jonathan Wright, Alexandra Müller
Date
2016 (Pinkfong viral version; camp song origins date to late 20th century)

The underlying "Baby Shark" song is believed to be in the public domain, having circulated as a camp singalong for decades before anyone put it on the internet. Various people have tried to copyright versions of the song, but the core melody and characters belong to no one.

The first notable online version came in 2007 when German performer Alexandra Müller, known as Alemuel, uploaded "Kleiner Hai" (German for "Little Shark") to YouTube. Set to Jaws-inspired music, her version told the story of a baby shark growing up and eating a swimmer. The single peaked at number 25 on the German charts and number 21 in Austria.

In 2011, American children's entertainer Jonathan Wright (stage name Johnny Only) released a sanitized version aimed at toddlers. Wright had encountered the song as a DJ at a kids' summer camp in the 1990s and stripped out the violent imagery to focus on the shark family. This version predated Pinkfong's by five years.

The version that broke the internet came from Pinkfong, an education brand owned by South Korean company SmartStudy (now The Pinkfong Company). An initial music video without child actors went up on November 25, 2015. The definitive "Baby Shark Dance" video followed on June 17, 2016, sung by then-10-year-old Korean-American singer Hope Segoine and featuring child actors Park Geon Roung and Elaine Kim Johnston.

How It Spread

"Baby Shark Dance" simmered on YouTube for about a year before igniting across Southeast Asia. It went viral in Indonesia in 2017, then spread rapidly to other Asian countries. The related mobile app surpassed 150 million downloads and ranked number one in 112 countries that year.

K-pop played a major role in amplifying the song globally. Groups including Blackpink, Red Velvet, Twice, Monsta X, Got7, and Mamamoo performed the song and dance on TV shows and at concerts, pushing it far beyond the kids' content ecosystem.

The song broke into the Western mainstream in August 2018. By January 2019, it had cracked the Billboard Hot 100 at number 32, benefiting from a 2013 Billboard rule change that counted YouTube views toward chart placement. The "Baby Shark Challenge" dance craze was in full swing, with people filming themselves doing the hand-chomp choreography and posting it across social media.

On November 2, 2020, the "Baby Shark Dance" video hit 7.04 billion views, surpassing Luis Fonsi's "Despacito" to become the most-viewed YouTube video of all time. In January 2022, it became the first YouTube video ever to reach 10 billion views.

Platforms

YouTubeTikTokInstagramSchools worldwideTelevision

Timeline

2017-09-10

Entry published on Know Your Meme

2025-05-09

Last modified on Know Your Meme

2025-01-01

Baby Shark is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The Baby Shark meme works on two levels: the song/dance itself and the meta-commentary around it.

As a participatory meme: People typically film themselves performing the signature hand gestures (opening and closing hands to mimic a shark mouth, getting bigger for each family member). The "Baby Shark Challenge" format involves recording the dance in unexpected settings, like offices, sports stadiums, or public transit.

As an ironic/suffering meme: Parents and anyone exposed to the song on repeat commonly post about "Baby Shark" as a form of torture or psychological endurance test. Typical formats include:

1

Captioning images of distressed people with "day 47 of hearing Baby Shark on loop"

2

Using "doo doo doo doo doo doo" as an intrusive-thought punchline

3

Joking about the song as a weapon of mass destruction

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

"Baby Shark" jumped from YouTube to virtually every commercial and media sector. In July 2019, Kellogg's partnered with Pinkfong to launch a Baby Shark cereal, a berry-flavored Froot Loops variant with marshmallows, available at Sam's Club and Walmart.

The song found political and public health applications as well. South Korea's Liberty Korea Party attempted to use "Baby Shark" in campaign promotions in May 2018, prompting SmartStudy to threaten legal action over copyright infringement. In January 2018, the South Korean newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun ran a front-page editorial criticizing the Pinkfong lyrics as sexist for describing Mommy Shark as "pretty" and Daddy Shark as "strong".

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pinkfong released a handwashing-themed version of the song in March 2020, encouraging children to wash their hands properly. In December 2020, SmartStudy and Nickelodeon launched *Baby Shark's Big Show!*, an animated preschool series adapted from the franchise.

By 2024, LG had launched a Baby Shark World for Kids app on Smart TVs across 184 countries.

Fun Facts

The song starts with a musical quote from Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, which itself echoes the Jaws theme, a fitting nod given the shark subject matter.

Hope Segoine was only 10 years old when she recorded the vocals for the version that would become the most-watched video in YouTube history.

"Baby Shark" is both the most-viewed AND most-liked video on YouTube.

Jonathan Wright, who released his version in 2011, told the Liberty Korea Party the song was public domain when they asked for permission to use it, inadvertently contributing to a copyright dispute with SmartStudy.

Urban Dictionary users describe the song in apocalyptic terms, with one entry claiming "listening to Baby Shark made the sun implode".

Derivatives & Variations

Countless cover versions in different languages

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Professional performance videos and choreography tutorials

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Metal, rock, and electronic remixes

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Celebrity and athlete parody versions

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Educational variations and dance competition videos

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Baby Shark-themed merchandise and toys

A variation of Baby Shark

(2018)

Frequently Asked Questions

References (2)

  1. 1
    Baby Sharkencyclopedia
  2. 2
    Baby Shark - Urban Dictionarydictionary