Johnny Johnny Yes Papa

About

“Johnny Johnny Yes Papa” is a nursery rhyme about a young boy named Johnny who eats sugar without his father’s permission. Lacking in lyrics, story, and message, the song found itself the subject of online mockery and parody.

Origin

Though its exact origins are unknown, “Johnny Johnny Yes Papa” was first uploaded to youtube on July 9th, 2009 by Shemrock, a Playschool Chain located in India.^[1] Notable for its poor quality, the video garnered over 2.9 million views in the following six years.

Sung to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star”, the lyrics are as follows:

Johnny! Johnny!
Yes, Papa?
Eating sugar?
No Papa,
Telling a lie?
No Papa,
Open your mouth,
Ha! Ha! Ha!

Spread

Four years later on August 2nd, 2013, the song experienced new found popularity when ChuChuTV, a children’s entertainment group, uploaded their own version of “Johnny Johnny Yes Papa” (shown below).^[2] On November 14th, 2014, ChuChuTV released an updated version of their first “Johnny Johnny Yes Papa” together with other popular nursery rhymes. ^[7] As of June 27th, 2015, the videos have gathered respectively over 70 million and 280 million views.

The videos were subsequently mocked due to the lackluster lyrics and the bizarre nature of the animations. However, this did not deter other children’s entertainment groups from creating their own interpretations in an attempt to appeal to new viewers .^[3] Threads discussing the song eventually made their way onto sites like 4chan^[4] and Reddit,^[5] where they were readily ridiculed. On June 3rd, 2014, the r/johnnyjohnnyyespapa sub-reddit was established.^[6] In the following year, the sub-reddit gained over 800 subscribers.