It's Corn

Origin

On August 4, 2022, the kids’ street-interview series Recess Therapy, hosted by Julian Shapiro-Barnum, posted a clip titled ‘The CEO of Corn.’ In it, a seven-year-old named Tariq is asked how he feels about corn and lights up: ‘For me, I really like corn. Ever since I was told that corn was real, it tasted good.’ He calls it ‘a big lump with knobs’ and marvels that ‘it has the juice.’ His unguarded, total sincerity, capped by the line ‘It’s corn!’, made the interview an instant favorite, and Tariq was quickly christened the ‘Corn Kid.’

The song that made it explode

The clip became a full-blown phenomenon when The Gregory Brothers, the musician-comedians behind the long-running ‘Songify This’ series (YouTube channel schmoyoho), Auto-Tuned Tariq’s words into a song. ‘It’s Corn’ was released on August 28, 2022, produced by Michael Gregory and credited to Tariq alongside the group, with Tariq reportedly receiving an equal split of the royalties. The music video went on to gather tens of millions of views (around 33 million on YouTube), and the sound was used in well over 400,000 TikTok videos.

What it means and how it is used

‘It’s Corn’ works as a celebration of pure, uncomplicated enthusiasm, a wholesome antidote to cynical internet humor. Creators lay the sound over videos about whatever they personally love, swapping their own passion in for corn, or simply use ‘It has the juice’ as an all-purpose expression of delight. In a feed full of irony, Corn Kid’s joy read as genuinely disarming, and much of the coverage framed him as a rare feel-good moment online.

How it spread

The song saturated TikTok through the autumn of 2022 and spilled into the mainstream. Kevin Bacon posted a soulful acoustic cover on September 4, 2022. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem declared September 3 ‘Official Corn-bassador Tariq Day.’ Tariq appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show, rode in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, attended the premiere of Pinocchio (2022), and starred in a Chipotle ad, while brands such as United Airlines, Dunkin’ and Chips Ahoy folded the catchphrase into their marketing.

Notable examples and variations

• The Gregory Brothers’ official ‘It’s Corn’ song and its many sped-up and remixed edits.
• Videos swapping in a creator’s own passion over the ‘It’s corn’ beat.
• Kevin Bacon’s acoustic cover and other celebrity and brand riffs.
• Tariq’s ‘Corn-bassador’ appearances and Thanksgiving parade cameo.

Legacy

‘It’s Corn’ became one of the defining wholesome moments of the 2022 internet, and, unusually for a viral kid clip, one where the child was formally credited and paid. A year on, Tariq was still doing interviews about his corn fame, and the phrases ‘It’s corn’ and ‘It has the juice’ remain shorthand for guileless, full-hearted excitement.