We should be cynical about all of these post-ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Youtube memes (like the Mannequin Challenge, the Whisper Challenge and the Eat It or Wear It Challenge) but the latest challenge meme to go viral in Indonesia is just too damn adorable.
While we’re not sure about the first person to challenge-ify it, it’s based on the Baby Shark Sing and Dance For Children By Pingfong which came out last year.
How did such a simple song about the family dynamics of the fearsome finned fish find such a huge audience in Indonesia? Just a guess, but we think the challenge might have been started by a parent who had been forced to listen to the hyper-cutesy tune several hundred times by their children (the original Youtube video has been viewed 190 MILLION times since it was released about one year ago).
At any rate, the challenge and its obligatory hashtag #babysharkchallenge have gone hugely viral in Indonesia recently, with Youtube and Instagram filling up with entries.
Here’s a few of our favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqPg5C-Fd9k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbxgMdDiPmU
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYURST8lMSH/?tagged=babysharkchallenge
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYURxfZF-um/?taken-by=babyshark_challenge
It appears that American actress and model Amanda Cerny might have been the first foreigner to take on the challenge (which otherwise seems to have only become a meme amongst Indonesians) during her appearance on the Indonesian Tonight Show.
If you’re interested in getting in on the Baby Shark Challenge you better hurry up. Already Indonesian authority figures are getting in on the meme (which is usually a sign that a fad is about the fade away due to uncoolness).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYH9d76DJ3D/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VhZVsZVqTA
However, considering all of the depressing news we’ve been seeing lately, in Indonesia and the rest of the world, we hope the simple, uncynical cuteness of the Baby Shark Challenge keeps it swimming a little while longer.
