You On Kazoo — Two-panel banner of Kazoo Kid playing a red kazoo and standing outdoors with 'Wait a minute' caption

You On Kazoo

2014viral videoclassic

Published October 8, 2026

You On Kazoo, also known as Kazoo Kid, is a viral video clip of child actor Brett Ambler cheerfully playing a kazoo on the 1989 educational show Special Friends. An edited YouTube upload from 2014 pulled the forgotten footage back into circulation, where it became a favorite target for YouTube Poops and techno remixes.

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Overview

You On Kazoo, also called Kazoo Kid or Wait A Minute, Who Are You, centers on a short scene where a young Brett Ambler grins into the camera, grabs a kazoo and leads a group of kids through a buzzing little jam3. The clip comes from a 1989 episode of the children's series Special Friends, and the appeal is almost entirely in Ambler's wide-eyed delivery and the hypnotic kazoo loop3.

Most of the edits built around the footage lean into that loop. The 2014 Dead VCR cut tightened the pacing and became the version everyone remixed, and from there the clip got pushed through YouTube Poop treatment, techno beat drops and acid-trip gag edits15. The line "Wait a minute, who are you?" became the signature audio tag, with uploaders chopping and pitching it over electronic backing tracks2.

Origin & Background

Platform
VHS / Special Friends (1989), YouTube (viral spread 2014)
Creator
Dead VCR; original footage from Special Friends
Date
2014

The source material is a segment from the 1989 children's program Special Friends titled "You On Kazoo," in which Brett Ambler plays a kazoo alongside other kids3. YouTuber Jim VanBlarium uploaded the raw segment on March 24th, 20116, but the clip did not pick up traction until a condensed, more memeable edit arrived three years later.

On August 25th, 2014, the Dead VCR YouTube channel posted an edited version of the episode that became the reference cut for the meme3. Within roughly two years the Dead VCR upload gathered more than 500,000 views and over 2,200 comments3.

How It Spread

The Dead VCR edit sat on YouTube for over a year before the broader meme audience caught up. On October 20th, 2015, Redditor mikesicle posted the video to r/DeepIntoYouTube, where it collected more than 420 votes at 99% upvoted and about 60 comments over the next three months3. The same day it was mirrored to r/NotTimAndEric, where Redditor grahamthefalcon surfaced a current-day photo of Ambler from a theater company blog3.

Remixes followed quickly. SoundCloud user Florian Olsson uploaded a techno remix of the audio on October 22nd, 20153. YouTuber Grant NOT The Flash Gustin posted a YouTube Poop edit on November 5th2, and on November 24th YouTuber Gumble Dog uploaded a version that spliced in a voice saying "let's do acid" before dropping into techno4. On December 25th, 2015, Brett Ambler himself confirmed on Twitter that he was the kazoo kid3.

The repost that really pushed the clip into mainstream feeds came on January 20th, 2016, when the Hood Vines Facebook page reshared the video and pulled upwards of 2 million views and 38,000 shares inside the first 24 hours3.

Timeline

1989

Brett Ambler appears in the "You On Kazoo" segment of the children's program Special Friends.

2011-03-24

YouTuber Jim VanBlarium uploads the original Special Friends segment to YouTube.

2014-08-25

The Dead VCR YouTube channel posts the edited version that becomes the viral reference cut.

2016-01-20

The Hood Vines Facebook page reposts the clip, drawing roughly 2 million views and 38,000 shares in 24 hours.

How to Use This Meme

Edits typically isolate Ambler's "Wait a minute, who are you?" or the buzzing kazoo riff and loop it under techno, dubstep or acid-house backing. A common convention is to pair the clip's bright 80s video grading with a sudden hard beat drop, often adding YouTube Poop-style sentence mixing to make Ambler appear to say something absurd.

Frequently Asked Questions