If you have to hear “Baby Shark” one more time, let it at least be in this context. Last week, passengers on a FlyDubai flight from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Tirana, Albania, came together to calm a crying toddler by singing the parent-detested viral hit in unison.
It’s a completely feel-good moment, even if I had to turn the sound off halfway through for my own continued sanity.
“Everyone on the plane passed the vibe check,” captions Parikshit Balochi, a Dubai-based radio host who captured the sweet but also totally annoying moment on his phone.
Balochi told Storyful that he was sitting next to the toddler on the plane when the boy began “crying nonstop.” While a few passengers tried to cheer him up and distract him to no avail, a group of men around the boy began singing the ear worm heard round the world — and others around the plane joined in until the cabin reached singalong status and the kid calmed down.
It’s a sweet moment, even if you detest that repetitive, mind-numbing tune: passengers supporting a parent who’s in a tough moment, people from around the world uniting to help out a fellow human, and a moment of cheerful happiness in the pretty dark world.
Hey, at least it wasn’t “Wheels on the Bus.”
“Baby Shark” is the number one most-viewed video on YouTube of all time — it just passed the one billion mark at the beginning of 2022. The insipid song has evolved into everything from a television show to plushies to heavy metal, and much like the global pandemic, there’s no end in sight.
If you haven’t somehow already gotten your complete fill of Baby Shark, you should seek medical help. Or you should go see the full-length Baby Shark feature film is coming in 2023.
