When God Sings with His Creations, Will a Turtle Not Be Part of The Choir?

About

When God Sings with His Creations, Will a Turtle Not Be Part of The Choir? is a quote from Twitter user @bigfatmoosepssy that later became a copypasta and phrasal template on Twitter in which people replace "turtle" with another animal or object.

Origin

On February 17th, 2021, Twitter user @bigfatmoosepssy^[1] popped into a Twitter thread from a user asking if anyone is named "Sheldon" in real life. @bigfatmoosepssy responded that their class turtle was once named Sheldon. Another poster dismissed that with by pointing out Sheldon was a turtle. @bigfatmoosepssy then responded, "When God sings with his creations, will a turtle not be part of the choir?" The tweet gained over 4,100 retweets and 20,000 likes in two years (shown below).

While not confirmed, the tweet may have been inspired by the folk song "All God's Critters Have a Place in the Choir," by Bill Staines,^[2] which describes several animals playing instruments and singing in God's choir.

Spread

The tweet became a prominent part of social media lexicon in some circles over the following years. A screenshot of the Twitter thread was posted to the subreddit /r/brandnewsentence^[3] a week after it was posted, gaining over 160 points in two years. It was then reposted to the subreddit^[4] on May 21st, 2021, where it gained over 49,000 points in a similar timeframe.

The original post has also been parodied in videos. On June 25th, 2021, YouTuber Pedor posted a parody with Joshua Graham voicing the text through an AI voice-over tool, gaining over 1,500 views in just under two years (shown below).

On March 23rd, 2023, a dramatic reading video of the thread appeared in the /r/DramaticText subreddit, gaining over 5,400 points in one month (shown below).

It has also been used as a snowclone, with "turtle" replaced by various creatures in the phrasal template "When God Sings with His Creations, Will a X Not Be Part of The Choir?" On October 14th, 2021, Twitter user @nwordchan^[5] posted a version of the tweet with "Twink," gaining over 70 retweets and 760 likes in 18 months (shown below, left). On December 20th, 2022, Twitter user @bxsel^[6] posted a variation using "Nepo Baby," gaining over 100 retweets and 1,000 likes in four months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References