Sunshine, Rainbow, White Pony / Nae Nigga Nae Nae

Confirmed 152,065

About

"Sunshine, Rainbow, White Pony" (also known as "Sunshine, Rainbow, Unicorn") is a song made by the Chinese artist Wowkie Zhang. Attention was drawn to the song in the western web when internet users would remark and joke about how the chorus of the song, where Wowkie Zhang repeats the lyrics "nèi nèi ge nèi nèi nèi ge nèi ge nèi nèi," is misinterpreted in English as "nae nigga nae nae nigga nigga nae nae."

Origin

On April 16, 2018, Wowkie Zhang released the song “Sunshine, Rainbow, White Pony” and a music video was uploaded to YouTube on April 24th.^[1] The chorus containing the phrase is can be heard at the 1:01 mark. As of September 17, 2020, the music video has accumulated over 5 million views.

The phrase in question is "内内个内内内个内个内内 (nèi nèi ge nèi nèi nèi ge nèi ge nèi nèi)" which can be translated as "the the th-the the the th-the th-the the." The phrase "那个 (nèi ge)" is commonly used in the Chinese language as a filler word similar to "uh," "um," or "like" in the English language.^[3]^[5]^[6]

Spread

On July 8th, 2018, Youtuber Trainwreckstv uploaded a video onto YouTube from a stream he did where he would react to videos submitted by his viewers. One of the videos submitted was the music video for “Sunshine, Rainbow, White Pony.” When the chorus started playing, Trainwrecks attempted to drown out the song by shouting into the microphone (clip of the incident shown below).^[2]

By early 2020, edited videos were being uploaded showing YouTubers such as iDubbbz, BlastphamousHD, and Flight reacting to the music video in a shocking manner. Other memes referenced in the compilations include the video of two girls crying while reacting to K-pop, and SKYVIEWRAY’s reaction where he utters the N-word. On May 30th, 2020, YouTuber "Nae Nigga nae nae nigga" posted a compilation of reactions, gaining over 95,000 views (shown below, left). On May 27th, LBuckley posted a similar video, gaining over 58,000 views (shown below, right).

The track has also seen some remixes on YouTube. On January 2nd, 2020, user Xyrothim posted a Nightcore remix of the track, gaining over 29,000 views. SiivaGunner remixed the track on May 20th in its video, "Emote Poki: Fortnite Chapter 2" (shown below, right).

USC Professor Controversy

On August 21, 2020, the University of Southern California recieved a complaint from a group of students identifying themselves as the "Black MBA candidates c/o 2022" regarding an incident that occurred the previous day where professor Greg Patton used the phrase "nèi ge" as an example of breaks in other languages during his "Communication for Management" class. The group accused Patton of "neligence and disregard" in his use of the word, which sounded similar to the English word "nigga." As a result, Patton stepped away from from teaching the course and replaced by another instructor, and issued a public apology to the university.

Despite the backlash, many people and groups defended Patton's actions including Chinese-speaking students and netizens and the Black China Caucus, who claimed that the phrase is common in the Chinese language and that the reaction to the incident was an insult and an attempt to limit the Chinese language to English rules. According to CNN, netizens on the Chinese social media website Weibo pointed to the song "Sunshine, Rainbow, White Pony" as an example of the use of the phrase.^[3]^[4]^[5]