Why Do You Let Him Eat Sand / I Don't Like Him

Submission 1,902

Part of a series on Exploitables. [View Related Entries]

About

Why Do You Let Him Eat Sand? or I Don't Like Him is a viral photoshop adding the text bubble "I don't like him" over a screenshot of a TikTok video by ComingUpFern in which a baby, Fern, is shown eating sand under the TikTok comment, "Why do you let him eat sand?" as if the uploader is responding to the comment. The video from which the screenshot originates is real and was met with controversy after it went viral in April 2023 as ComingUpFern claimed that she lets her child eat sand to build his immune system. The photoshop inspired redraws over the following years depicting characters from various fandoms as the sand eating baby.

Origin

Around April 19th, 2021, TikToker and mommy vlogger @ComingUpFern posted a video where she claims that she lets her "exclusively breastfed" baby, Fern, eat sand and rocks to boost his immune system, claiming she's unafraid of germs. The video has since been deleted along with the TikToker's entire account, but it was reuploaded by Instagram^[1] user i.kill.myslef on April 20th, garnering over 17,000 views in two years (shown below).

The video became the subject of criticism in the following weeks on TikTok and online in general, with the Daily Mail^[2] reporting on it and several TikTokers^[3]^[4] posting videos criticizing and making memes out of her for allowing her baby to eat sand (examples shown below).

On April 21st, 2021, X^[5] user @then0tfather posted a photoshop of the video adding the text bubble "I don't like him" to the screen, garnering over 466,000 likes in two years (shown below). The user later admitted that the image was photoshopped in a follow-up comment.

Spread

The "I don't like him" photoshop gained viral spread over the following weeks, along with criticism towards the TikToker. On April 22nd, 2021, the photoshop was reposted to /r/Im15AndThisIsYeet,^[6] garnering over 4,000 upvotes in two years. On August 30th, YouTuber^[7] Ryan Beard posted a video criticising the TikToker in general, making explicit mention of the sand video, garnering over 800,000 views in two years (shown below).

On November 27th, X^[8] user @paintedhen posted a redraw of the photoshop depicting Deltarune character Lancer as the baby, garnering over 15,000 likes in two years (shown below, left). On April 27th, 2022, X^[9] user @eimikosmoothie posted a Genshin Impact version of the meme that gained over 24,000 likes in a year (shown below, right).

On January 11th, 2023, X^[10] user @CosmicoCoffee posted a redraw of the meme featuring Kirby in place of the baby, garnering over 2,200 likes in 11 months (shown below). On August 15th, Instagram^[11] user needless.mp3 posted the original meme, garnering over 17,000 likes in four months.