In news that gives us all the opportunity to take a moment to astral project back to the slightly calmer year 2018 — ‘Baby Shark’ is now the most-viewed YouTube video of all time.
The persistent track reached the highest echelons of virality in 2018, following a social-media challenge that saw fans record themselves dancing to the track.
The two-minute music video has now official dethroned Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s earworm ‘Despacito.’ The Spanish-language version of ‘Despacito’ held the title of the most popular video on YouTube for over three years, after cinching the top spot back in August 2017.
As it stands, the top 5 most-viewed videos on YouTube are: ‘Baby Shark’ with 7.046 billion views; ‘Despacito’ with 7.039 billion views, ‘Shape of You’ by Ed Sheeran 5.049 billion views, ‘See You Again’ by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth with 4.80 billion views and an episode of a kids show called Masha and the Bear with 4.360 billion views.
Check out ‘Baby Shark’, or don’t:
I understand the enduring popularity of ‘Baby Shark’. I don’t think that we should deprive kids of enjoying themselves. I can objectively recognise that a four-year-old probably has something to like about this otherwise excruciating track
What I don’t understand, and what I think that we, as a society, have to answer for, is the popularity of that truly heinous Ed Sheeran ditty.
In other news, three former employees of Oklahoma County Jail are facing criminal charges after they forced inmates to listen to ‘Baby Shark’ on repeat.
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Detention officers Christian Miles and Gregory Butler and former supervisor Christopher Hendershott, 50, were charged in early October with cruelty to prisoners, corporal punishment to an inmate and conspiracy.
It has been reported that on at least five occasions in November and December, five inmates, were separately placed into an empty attorney visitation room, handcuffed against the wall and forced to stand for as long as two hours whilst ‘Baby Shark’ played on repeat.
