The Baby Yoda/Chicky Nuggies Complex Must Be Stopped!
When I saw Baby Yoda, AKA Grogu, for the first time my immediate reaction was “That is the most disgustingly adorable thing I have ever seen. It will take over the minds and imaginations of every child in the world and make Disney billions upon billions of dollars.”
I was right. I was extremely right. Baby Yoda wasn’t just the breakout character on The Mandalorian; he’s a bona fide pop culture phenomenon, a fad in green puppet form.
I was also right about my children, and by extension, all children, falling in love with Baby Yoda instantly and intensely.
I cannot count how many Baby Yoda items my children have. They have Baby Yoda dolls and Baby Yoda backpacks and all manner of other consumer items related to the annoyingly adorable little guy.
Baby Yoda is a huge presence on Youtube. I have learned through firsthand experience that children will watch anything if it’s on Youtube. That is doubly true of Youtube videos cynically coopting Baby Yoda.
That, unfortunately, is true of a hypnotically terrible animated clip entitled “Baby Yoda Chicken Nuggets Song” about, you guessed it, Baby Yoda and his love of Chicken nuggets.
I wondered why Baby Yoda had become associated in the public imagination with poor quality fast food chicken so I looked up Know Your Meme and got the information I was looking for.
The essential site asserts, “On December 14th, 2019, Redditor SwagFish03 received over 20,900 point (86 % upvoted) in a month for an image in which Baby Yoda says chicky nuggies to a frustrated Adam Driver on r/cringetopia[5] (shown below, left). Redditors began associating Baby Yoda with an affinity for chicky nuggies. On December 29th, 2019, Redditor ButterflyGalaxy posted another Baby Yoda still with the caption "Me opening the oven to get my chickie nuggies" to r/meme[6] and accumulated over 5,600 points (96% Upvoted) in a week (shown below, right).”
There you have it! As is generally the case, Redditor SwagFish03 is responsible through a meme posted on r/cringetopia.
That’s how memes spread on the internet: like a malignant virus. Being very stupid and very annoying, the internet took to the infantilizing phrase “chicky nuggets” and decided to pair it with one of its most enduring, prolific and annoying obsessions.
As of now, “Baby Yoda Chicken Nuggets Song” had been viewed 3.9 million times. That’s a LOT! I’m sure my household has been responsible for at least a thousand of those views.
Success leads to success so “Baby Yoda Chicken Nuggets Song” was followed by “Chicky Nuggies over the Rainbow (Official Baby Yoda Song).” It’s the mash-up we never knew we never needed of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “Baby Yoda Chicken Nuggets Song.”
Does it improve on Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg’s standard from The Wizard of Oz? It does not. It doesn’t even improve upon “Baby Yoda Chicken Nuggets Song” and that song is terrible.
Ah, but the irritating saga of Baby Yoda and his love of chicky nuggies somehow does not end there. I was recently mortified to learn that the evil opportunists who gave the world “Baby Yoda Chicken Nuggets Song” and “Chicky Nuggies over the Rainbow (Official Baby Yoda Song)” have released an entire EP of songs about Baby Yoda and his love of chicken nuggets.
The monstrosity consists of EIGHT Chicken Nugget/Baby Yoda songs: “Riding the Chucky Nuggie Train”, “Chicky Nuggies Very Yummie”, “Nuggie Friends”, “Dance Like a Nuggie”, “Chicky Nuggies Pizza”, “10 Little Chicky Nuggies”, “Chicky Nuggies Farm”, “I’m a Chicky Nuggie Fan” and, surprisingly, a cover of NWA’s “Fuck tha Police.”
To listen to this EP in its entirety, as I have, is to court madness. No one should ever have to experience so much terrible Baby Yoda Chicky Nuggies content all at once.
I hope Chicky Nuggie Land marks the end of this awful experiment but I’m sure that the monsters behind it will find even more grating ways to exploit children’s endless appetite for even the crappiest Baby Yoda-themed content.
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