The Duck Song

2009viral videoclassic

"The Duck Song" is a 2009 children's comedy song by Bryant Oden about a duck who keeps walking up to a lemonade stand and asking for grapes. An animated YouTube version by Forrest Whaley turned it into a classic viral video, with three sequels released between 2009 and 2024.

earworm memesyoutube viralchildrens media memeslate 2000s memesanimation memes

Overview

"The Duck Song" is a children's comedy song written by American songwriter Bryant Oden and released on his Songdrops label in 20091. The premise is simple: a duck waddles up to a lemonade stand and keeps asking the owner "Got any grapes?", ignoring the seller's insistence that they only sell lemonade, with the verses looping through several rounds before an off-the-wall payoff involving bees1.

The version most people know is an animated music video by YouTube animator Forrest Whaley, built from simple cartoon drawings of the duck and a visibly frustrated lemonade seller. The plain art, singsong melody, and rapid-fire repetition made the clip a fixture of late-2000s YouTube. Urban Dictionary users have jokingly called it "the greatest artwork in the history of the human race"5.

How It Spread

The clip spread quickly in its first months. Video-sharing site Vodpod archived it on March 31st, 20094, and that October Songdrops itself put out a press release titled "Viral YouTube Sensation 'Duck Song' Waddling into Hearts of Teens," admitting the children's song was catching on with high schoolers1.

Whaley made three animated sequels between 2009 and 2010, sending the duck to a corner store to pester a woman for grapes and later tricking the lemonade man into buying duct tape; Flinders Press published a children's picture book based on the song on September 1st, 2010, and by May 2012 the tune sat at #1 on the UK iTunes children's chart. Twelve years after the original, Whaley (now posting as forrestfire101) revived the series with a live-action remake on March 23rd, 2022, shot with real actors and a CGI duck, then followed with a Christmas special in November 2023 and "The Duck Song 4" on March 23rd, 2024, which set off jokes on X including a widely shared post from user @Awesomemay_ pretending actor Michael Cera would star in a fictional Duck Song movie3.

How to Use This Meme

"The Duck Song" mostly gets referenced by quoting the duck's opening line, "Got any grapes?", either as a text reply or by dropping Forrest Whaley's animated video into group chats and social media threads. Longtime fans also share the follow-up entries (Duck Song 2, 3, and 4) to signal familiarity with the running joke.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Duck Song

2009viral videoclassic

"The Duck Song" is a 2009 children's comedy song by Bryant Oden about a duck who keeps walking up to a lemonade stand and asking for grapes. An animated YouTube version by Forrest Whaley turned it into a classic viral video, with three sequels released between 2009 and 2024.

earworm memes youtube viral childrens media memes late 2000s memes animation memes

Overview

"The Duck Song" is a children's comedy song written by American songwriter Bryant Oden and released on his Songdrops label in 20091. The premise is simple: a duck waddles up to a lemonade stand and keeps asking the owner "Got any grapes?", ignoring the seller's insistence that they only sell lemonade, with the verses looping through several rounds before an off-the-wall payoff involving bees1.

The version most people know is an animated music video by YouTube animator Forrest Whaley, built from simple cartoon drawings of the duck and a visibly frustrated lemonade seller. The plain art, singsong melody, and rapid-fire repetition made the clip a fixture of late-2000s YouTube. Urban Dictionary users have jokingly called it "the greatest artwork in the history of the human race"5.

How It Spread

The clip spread quickly in its first months. Video-sharing site Vodpod archived it on March 31st, 20094, and that October Songdrops itself put out a press release titled "Viral YouTube Sensation 'Duck Song' Waddling into Hearts of Teens," admitting the children's song was catching on with high schoolers1.

Whaley made three animated sequels between 2009 and 2010, sending the duck to a corner store to pester a woman for grapes and later tricking the lemonade man into buying duct tape; Flinders Press published a children's picture book based on the song on September 1st, 2010, and by May 2012 the tune sat at #1 on the UK iTunes children's chart. Twelve years after the original, Whaley (now posting as forrestfire101) revived the series with a live-action remake on March 23rd, 2022, shot with real actors and a CGI duck, then followed with a Christmas special in November 2023 and "The Duck Song 4" on March 23rd, 2024, which set off jokes on X including a widely shared post from user @Awesomemay_ pretending actor Michael Cera would star in a fictional Duck Song movie3.

How to Use This Meme

"The Duck Song" mostly gets referenced by quoting the duck's opening line, "Got any grapes?", either as a text reply or by dropping Forrest Whaley's animated video into group chats and social media threads. Longtime fans also share the follow-up entries (Duck Song 2, 3, and 4) to signal familiarity with the running joke.

Frequently Asked Questions