# Father, When Can I Leave To Be On My Own?

Pauly Shore's voice as the title puppet in Lionsgate's 2022 animated film Pinocchio: A True Story became an instant TikTok sound after the trailer went live in late January, with viewers hearing his delivery of 'Father, when can I leave to be on my own?' as a camp, effeminate or 'yassified' Pinocchio. By early February 2022, lip-sync videos set to the audio had reached tens of millions of views, and Lionsgate itself leaned into the joke by captioning its own post 'the yassification of #pinocchio.'

## Origin
The trailer for Pinocchio: A True Story, a Russian-produced animated film redubbed in English by Lionsgate with Pauly Shore voicing the puppet, was uploaded to YouTube on January 26th, 2022[2]. The opening seconds show Geppetto naming his creation, after which Pinocchio asks, 'Father, when can I leave to be on my own?' Reactions to Shore's unusual line reading started almost immediately[9].

On January 31st, Twitter user @AniMat505 posted an isolated clip of the exchange, which collected more than 184,000 likes and 22,000 retweets inside a week[3]. Lionsleaned into the reception; both the studio and Shore are the subjects, not the creators, of the meme format that followed.

- **Platform:** YouTube (trailer) / TikTok (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2022

## Overview
The joke hinges on Pauly Shore's voice performance being read as camp or stereotypically gay, with TikTokers staging exaggerated lip syncs while mouthing Pinocchio's one line to Geppetto[1]. The puppet is literally a child asking his father for permission to go explore, but Shore's reading made the question sound closer to a fey teenager announcing he is moving out to find himself[2].

A typical video shows a creator looking just off-camera, letting a limp wrist or a batting eyelash land on the word 'own' as the audio plays underneath[6]. The label 'yassification,' already in circulation on TikTok for over-filtered, hyperfeminized edits of celebrity photos, became the dominant description after Lionsgate's own account used it as a caption[5].

## How to Use
A standard entry loops the original audio from the trailer while the creator performs an exaggerated, stereotypically gay reading of the line, often with heavy eye movement or a hand flick on the final word[6]. Captions typically call the clip 'fruity,' 'yassified,' or something similar, following the vocabulary Lionsgate used in its own post[5].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Father, When Can I Leave To Be On My Own??
It is a line spoken by Pauly Shore's Pinocchio in the 2022 Lionsgate film Pinocchio: A True Story, which TikTok users treated as an unintentionally camp or 'yassified' reading[5].

### Where did Father, When Can I Leave To Be On My Own? come from?
The quote appears seconds into the English-dubbed trailer uploaded by Lionsgate to YouTube on January 26th, 2022[2].

### What does Father, When Can I Leave To Be On My Own? mean?
Inside the film, Pinocchio is asking Geppetto for permission to set out on his own, but the meme reframes it as a stereotypically effeminate declaration because of Pauly Shore's voice[1].

### How do you use Father, When Can I Leave To Be On My Own??
Creators lip-sync to the original trailer audio with exaggerated, stereotypically gay mannerisms, following the template Lionsgate labeled 'the yassification of #pinocchio'[5].

### Is Father, When Can I Leave To Be On My Own? still popular?
The sound had its big moment across early February 2022 and fell off well before the film's March 2022 release, with activity concentrated in that short window[1].

## References
1. [https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/pauly-shore-reacts-to-his-pinocchio-voice-going-viral-on-tiktok/](<https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/pauly-shore-reacts-to-his-pinocchio-voice-going-viral-on-tiktok/>)
2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBVtQmq_jU](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBVtQmq_jU>)
3. [https://twitter.com/AniMat505/status/1488301435188092931](<https://twitter.com/AniMat505/status/1488301435188092931>)
4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45DMbdg9Nj4](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45DMbdg9Nj4>)
5. [https://www.tiktok.com/@lionsgate/video/7060548612044000559](<https://www.tiktok.com/@lionsgate/video/7060548612044000559>)
6. [https://www.tiktok.com/@scotthoying/video/7061437512568343855](<https://www.tiktok.com/@scotthoying/video/7061437512568343855>)
7. [https://www.tiktok.com/@jalogann/video/7061996201947712815](<https://www.tiktok.com/@jalogann/video/7061996201947712815>)
8. [https://www.tiktok.com/@paulyshore/video/7062418906199133487](<https://www.tiktok.com/@paulyshore/video/7062418906199133487>)
9. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/father-when-can-i-leave-to-be-on-my-own](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/father-when-can-i-leave-to-be-on-my-own>)

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