The ‘Daddy chill’ or ‘What the hell is even that’ meme, explained
You may know the Bonnie M. hit song from 1976 called "Daddy Cool," but how familiar are you with the meme phrase, "Daddy chill?"
The origin of ‘Daddy chill’
Also referred to as the “What the hell is even that” meme, "Daddy chill" is a quote from a longer video that appeared on YouTube in 2019. The original vlog, titled “EVICTION DAY,” was uploaded by YouTuber McJuggerNuggets as a part of his series, “The Devil Inside.”
In the snippet of the video that’s been meme-ified, a group of partygoers, played by various YouTubers, are being kicked out of a house by a character named Jeffrey Ridgway Sr., also known as Psycho Dad. The man is yelling at the group until he’s interrupted by another character, Tippy.
The exchanges goes like this:
“You’re trespassing on my property,” Psycho Dad yells at the group as they try to calm him down.
“JT let me have this house,” says one of the partiers, who is holding a camera.
“He let you have my house? My sh*t?” Psycho Dad asks incredulously.
“I won it,” the younger man responds.
“You’re trespassing on my property, you didn’t win sh*t,” says a heated Psycho Dad.
“Wait, wait wait,” interrupts Tippy, before adding, “Daddy chill.”
Psycho Dad erupts, “What the hell is even that?”
The spread of ‘Daddy chill’
While the YouTube series never became all that popular, the phrase “Daddy chill” took on a life of its own after it started making the rounds on TikTok. In mid-2020, social media users began to use the phrase “Daddy chill,” saying it like Tippy, in humorous situations.
The meme gained so much popularity that Tippy (who is a character in the video series and the name the actor uses on social media) posted a video to YouTube in which they reacted to memes from TikTok that referenced the video.
In an interview with Knowyourmeme.com, Tippy said of the famous phrase, “It wasn't planned, I swear to you. This is not planned, no one's told me to say anything … I got there and all this screaming, screaming, screaming is going on. I was like, 'You know what? Let me just say something real quick,' so I was like, 'Wait, wait, wait. Daddy, chill.'"
The 'Daddy chill' meme on TikTok
A search for the phrase on TikTok today brings up users who are still playing with the meme, "Daddy chill."
Zachk (@zachkshat) posted a video where he orders a “Daddy chill” in a McDonald’s drive-thru. The post, which the TikToker captioned, "DADDY CHILL IS ON MCDONALD'S SECRET MENU," has received 720,000 views as of this writing.
Another TikToker, Joshua (@joshgancas) posted a popular video that has 4.5 million views, asking various people to do their best “Daddy chill” impersonation.
Joshua’s video, in turn, inspired numerous other accounts to post similar videos, like this one from user Zayn Mitchell (@zayhmitchell0), which received 11,300 views.
Creator Jordyn Rojas (@innocentjoee) posted a video that he captioned, “Daddy chill,” in which he pretends to be a call center worker getting chewed out by someone he calls.
A TikTok user who posts under the handle @cuhstarican also captured the moment when Pedro Tovar, singer from the musical group Eslabon Armado, said the phrase on stage while playing his guitar.
In 2021, Tippy also stitched a video from social media personality Bretman Rock in which Bretman showed off a bucket hat that had the phrase on it.
While new iterations of the meme have slowed down in 2023, a number of TikTok accounts still post the original clip, which means the internet probably has a couple more years to enjoy "Daddy chill."
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