Guy Singing Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 In G Major

Submission 17,669

Part of a series on Viral Videos. [View Related Entries]

About

Guy Singing Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 In G Major refers to a viral video in which a white man is hunched over with his hands on his knees, staring into the camera and singing the prelude of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major which sounds phonetically like him singing, "La Doo Di Doo Di Doo Di Doo." The video was originally posted to TikTok in early 2023 by TikToker Andy Arthur Smith (@andyarthursmith). Many thought the video was creepy, unsettling and disturbing, using it in memes to often portray craziness or the behavior of a "homeless man trapped in a basement." The memes spread to iFunny and Instagram in 2023, being used as a meme sound and an exploitable paired with varying captions.

Origin

On February 7th, 2023, TikToker^[1] @andyarthursmith posted a video that had text reading, "Stop scrolling. Take this journey with me." In the video, he's looking directly into the camera with his hands awkwardly placed on his knees, singing the notes in the prelude of Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major.^[2] Over the course of three months, the video gained roughly 11.9 million plays and 1.8 million likes (shown below).

Spread

Following the video's upload, creators either used the TikTok^[3] sound or layered @andyarthursmith's video on their own. For instance, one of the earliest examples was a duet uploaded by TikToker^[4] @brendan.goh in which he played the cello version of the song, gaining roughly 113,600 plays and 12,500 likes in three months (shown below, left). On February 9th, 2023, TikToker^[5] @batmanbatfan used the Patrick Bateman walking template, receiving roughly 1.2 million plays and 189,400 likes in three months (shown below, right).

Going into February 2023, viral usage of the meme persisted on TikTok.^[6] Semi-viral iterations soon spread to iFunny^[7] in February 2023. On March 29th, 2023, TikToker^[8] @thegreatcahleeb_ posted a video that used the original guy singing as well as Negan from The Walking Dead smiling, likening one character to a homeless man trapped in a basement and the other to his kidnapper. The video gained roughly 857,700 plays and 192,600 likes in two months (shown below, left). On April 13th, 2023, TikToker^[9] @jaitom14 uploaded a video that used the guy's voice in a Gushers commercial, showing a starfish singing Bach's Cello Suite. The video gained roughly 4.2 million plays and 607,000 likes in one month (shown below, right).

Both aforementioned videos were later reposted to iFunny.^[10]^[11] The meme also spread to Instagram. For instance, on May 5th, 2023, Instagram^[12] user @huge.poop posted an iteration with a top caption reading, "Pov: it's 1485 and you ask the court jester to make you laugh." The video gained roughly 165,000 views and 18,400 likes in three days (shown below).