What is Michael Rosen?

Michael Rosen is a British children's author and poet whose YouTube and CBeebies readings became the most-used source footage in the YouTube Poop scene starting in 2009.

Where did Michael Rosen come from?

The meme started on 13 June 2009 when YouTube user Lnsector uploaded a poop built from Rosen's CBeebies Bedtime Story reading of "The Opposite" two days earlier.

What does Michael Rosen mean?

As a meme, "Michael Rosen" refers to sentence-mixed edits of the poet's own readings, cut and looped from Artifice Design's 92 YouTube uploads of his poems.

How do you use Michael Rosen?

Editors typically splice syllables from his poetry videos into new sentences, or repost short catchphrase clips like "Noice" and the chocolate cake lines as standalone reactions.

Is Michael Rosen still popular?

The format is a classic of YouTube Poop, and by 2011 Rosen himself had publicly thanked editors after initially trying to flag the videos down.

Michael Rosen

2009viral videoclassic

Published September 6, 2026

Michael Rosen is a British children's poet whose earnest CBeebies bedtime story readings and Artifice Design poetry videos became the raw material for one of YouTube Poop's longest-running fads starting in 2009. His expressive face and looping catchphrases turned him into a household name inside the YTP scene, long before he embraced the community that once made him try to take the videos down.

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Overview

Michael Rosen memes almost always come from sentence-mixed edits of the British poet's own performances, cut apart syllable by syllable so his voice can be forced to say almost anything1. The static camera setup, identical outfits and matching backgrounds across dozens of his readings made his footage unusually easy to splice, which is why editors kept returning to him instead of any other children's author2.

The fad lives inside the YouTube Poop tradition of chopping earnest source material into vulgar, absurd or hypnotically repetitive loops. Rosen's exaggerated facial expressions, sing-song delivery and lines like "Hello, my name is Michael Rosen" and constant references to chocolate cake gave editors a small library of catchphrases that later travelled to Twitter, TikTok and Discord as standalone reaction clips3.

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Origin & Background

Platform

YouTube (Artifice Design uploads) / CBeebies (viral spread)

Creator

Lnsector; source footage by Artifice Design and BBC CBeebies

Date

2009

From May 2007 to August 2011, British design agency Artifice Design, run by Mark Foster, posted 92 videos of Michael Rosen performing poems from his books on YouTube, including "We're Going On A Bear Hunt," which passed one million views1. On 11 June 2009, Rosen recorded a Bedtime Story reading of Tom McCrae and Elena Odriozola's picture book "The Opposite" for BBC's CBeebies, broadcast at 6:50 PM2.

Two days later, on 13 June 2009, YouTube user Lnsector uploaded the first Michael Rosen YouTube Poop, titled "Youtube Poop recites a bedtime story for kids," built from that CBeebies segment2. Lnsector later deleted the account, but the template was already set.

How It Spread

Established YTP creators cs188 and KatanaSoul picked up the format soon after Lnsector's upload, and their Rosen edits pushed the fad into the wider YouTube Poop audience2. The Artifice Design uploads became the standard source pool because the matching backdrops let editors cut between poems without visible seams4.

Rosen initially responded by flagging the videos and getting them removed, which made him briefly disliked inside the YTP scene2. He then reversed course. In two videos uploaded on 23 and 29 May 2011, user LitUp666 shared clips of Rosen thanking editors, saying he found the poops funny and arguing that children who couldn't understand them shouldn't be online in the first place5 3.

By the mid-2010s, short catchphrase clips ("Noice," "chocolate cake," "nice") were being ripped out of longer YTPs and reposted on their own, which is how Rosen crossed from a niche YouTube subculture into a broader meme vocabulary used well outside the poop community3.

How to Use This Meme

The typical Rosen edit is sentence-mixed: syllables from his poetry readings are cut apart and reassembled so he appears to say something absurd, rude or nonsensical, often looped for emphasis. A common convention is to keep his original delivery and background intact so the edit reads as a straight-faced children's performance until the punchline lands. Short standalone clips like "Noice" or the chocolate cake monologue are often reused as reaction videos in chats and replies rather than as full poops.