Have You Ever Had A Dream Like This

2011viral videoclassic

Have You Ever Had A Dream Like This is a viral video clip of a five-year-old boy named Joe Cirkiel stumbling through an incoherent sentence about dreams, taken from a 1999 bedtime-story special and uploaded to YouTube in 2011. The clip pulled over 67 million views on YouTube and spawned more than a decade of musical remixes and edits.

child virality memesyoutube viralmashup video memesaccidental fame memesearly 2010s memes

Overview

Have You Ever Had A Dream Like This is a short live-action clip of a five-year-old boy in a red shirt trying to ask an interviewer about a dream, then losing the thread of his own sentence and looping through fragments like "you had, your, you, you could, you'll do" before landing on "you want him to do you so much you could do anything"1. The clip is beloved because the delivery is earnest, wholesome, and completely nonsensical, a "kids say the darndest things" moment that plays like accidental poetry1.

The boy was later identified as Joe Cirkiel, and the footage originally came from a 1999 bedtime-story special narrated by Susan Sarandon2. Fans nicknamed him "Dream Kid" or "Stuttering Kid," and the video became the seed for over a decade of musical mashups, edits, and drum covers that treat his stammer as a rhythmic hook3.

How It Spread

The video spread fast in the summer of 2011. BuzzFeed picked it up on June 4th, 2011, and the Tosh.0 blog followed on June 7th, pushing it out to comedy audiences2. From there it settled into a long tail of remixes on YouTube, starting with harvestsur's April 2nd, 2012 edit that pasted Cirkiel's face over Martin Luther King Jr. during the "I Have A Dream" speech, and ItsDrewsif's 2013 metal remix that pulled over 5 million views2.

A popular fan theory took hold on October 26th, 2015, when Redditor u/TeaBoneJones argued on r/FanTheories that Cirkiel had been trying to quote Hercules' line from the 1997 Disney film, "Haven't you ever had a dream? Something you wanted so bad you'd do anything?"2. Cirkiel himself confirmed the Hercules theory in a Know Your Meme interview published on August 18th, 2021, after YouTuber Wavywebsurf tracked him down and posted "I FOUND THE DREAM KID" on July 28th, 20212.

Musicians kept the clip alive well beyond its original wave. Pianist Charles Cornell's June 14th, 2019 jazz keyboard mashup passed 2.4 million views on YouTube, Schmoyoho released an autotuned original remix on May 8th, 2020, and drummers including Drew on the Kit, Buckets the Drummer, and Gabe Iadeluca have continued releasing new percussion cuts, with a 2026 Iadeluca edit highlighting how rhythmic Cirkiel's stammer actually is3.

How to Use This Meme

The typical use is a remix rather than a template. Musicians often loop the audio of Cirkiel's "that, you um, you had" opening as a rhythmic sample and play instruments over it, and video editors commonly cut his face into other famous speeches or dream-related scenes. It is also used as a reaction quote in comment threads whenever someone loses their train of thought.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have You Ever Had A Dream Like This

2011viral videoclassic

Have You Ever Had A Dream Like This is a viral video clip of a five-year-old boy named Joe Cirkiel stumbling through an incoherent sentence about dreams, taken from a 1999 bedtime-story special and uploaded to YouTube in 2011. The clip pulled over 67 million views on YouTube and spawned more than a decade of musical remixes and edits.

child virality memes youtube viral mashup video memes accidental fame memes early 2010s memes

Overview

Have You Ever Had A Dream Like This is a short live-action clip of a five-year-old boy in a red shirt trying to ask an interviewer about a dream, then losing the thread of his own sentence and looping through fragments like "you had, your, you, you could, you'll do" before landing on "you want him to do you so much you could do anything"1. The clip is beloved because the delivery is earnest, wholesome, and completely nonsensical, a "kids say the darndest things" moment that plays like accidental poetry1.

The boy was later identified as Joe Cirkiel, and the footage originally came from a 1999 bedtime-story special narrated by Susan Sarandon2. Fans nicknamed him "Dream Kid" or "Stuttering Kid," and the video became the seed for over a decade of musical mashups, edits, and drum covers that treat his stammer as a rhythmic hook3.

How It Spread

The video spread fast in the summer of 2011. BuzzFeed picked it up on June 4th, 2011, and the Tosh.0 blog followed on June 7th, pushing it out to comedy audiences2. From there it settled into a long tail of remixes on YouTube, starting with harvestsur's April 2nd, 2012 edit that pasted Cirkiel's face over Martin Luther King Jr. during the "I Have A Dream" speech, and ItsDrewsif's 2013 metal remix that pulled over 5 million views2.

A popular fan theory took hold on October 26th, 2015, when Redditor u/TeaBoneJones argued on r/FanTheories that Cirkiel had been trying to quote Hercules' line from the 1997 Disney film, "Haven't you ever had a dream? Something you wanted so bad you'd do anything?"2. Cirkiel himself confirmed the Hercules theory in a Know Your Meme interview published on August 18th, 2021, after YouTuber Wavywebsurf tracked him down and posted "I FOUND THE DREAM KID" on July 28th, 20212.

Musicians kept the clip alive well beyond its original wave. Pianist Charles Cornell's June 14th, 2019 jazz keyboard mashup passed 2.4 million views on YouTube, Schmoyoho released an autotuned original remix on May 8th, 2020, and drummers including Drew on the Kit, Buckets the Drummer, and Gabe Iadeluca have continued releasing new percussion cuts, with a 2026 Iadeluca edit highlighting how rhythmic Cirkiel's stammer actually is3.

How to Use This Meme

The typical use is a remix rather than a template. Musicians often loop the audio of Cirkiel's "that, you um, you had" opening as a rhythmic sample and play instruments over it, and video editors commonly cut his face into other famous speeches or dream-related scenes. It is also used as a reaction quote in comment threads whenever someone loses their train of thought.

Frequently Asked Questions