[1][2] A 1989 book by the American scholar and professor Francelia Butler records the poem being told in Kenya in 1980.
[5] The nursery rhyme has been recreated by many other edutainment YouTube channels targeting young children.
[8] The song became an internet meme in August 2018, with one version by the Indian channel Billion Surprise Toys—a company with 56.6 million subscribers to its YouTube channel—[9]going particularly viral on Twitter.
[1][10] The various videos by edutainment channels were subsequently described as "terrifying", "disturbing", "nonsensical" and "a godforsaken nightmare".
The Verge went on further to explain that "Each video features a child and their family lying to one another as a form of affection.
Firstly, because of the unclear copyright status of the song itself, secondly because American copyright law permits parodies as a form of fair use, and thirdly, because the UAE (Billion Surprise Toys' native country[12]) allows for "The reproduction of the work for the purpose of personal, non-profit and non-professional use" under their fair use laws.