Tariq was on an episode of Recess Therapy, a web series hosted by comedian Julian Shapiro-Barnum in which he speaks to children in playgrounds.
Tariq was in one of the episodes. The video of him eating corn and saying “I can’t think of anything cuter than corn” went viral very quickly.
Tariq’s internet fame has taken him to new heights. He was on actor Drew Barrymore’s show and was named the official “Corn Bassador” of South Dakota.
Who is Corn Kid?
7-year-old Tariq rose to fame online as the “Corn Kid” when he opened up about his favorite food.
Tariq confused the host and audience when he said, “Ever since I was told corn was real, it’s tasted good.” But when he said, “Have a corntastic day!” He made happy the host, his grandmother and millions of people.
The original video was seen by more than 5 million people, and the music group Gregory Brothers turned it into a song called “It’s Corn”.
The music group and Tariq and his family will share the money made by people streaming the song.
When Tariq and his family went to South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem made Corn Kid the state’s “official corn bassador.”
With this statement, Noem made September 3 the “official Maisbassador Tariq Day”. The statement said: “South Dakota is one of the largest corn producers in the country. It feeds people all over the world, but most notably a 7-year-old boy named Tariq who just found out corn is real.”
Jessica, Tariq’s mother, found out her son had gone viral when her cousins in Europe sent her a message with a video of him asking, “Isn’t that Tariq?
On September 13, Tariq went on The Drew Barrymore Show, a talk show hosted by Drew Barrymore. He and the host tasted corn flavored foods.
Corn is back because of a boy who caught everyone’s attention online by opening up about how much he loves food.
If you’re on TikTok and have noticed an insane amount of content about corn, here’s why. The Corn Kid meme is about a kid named Tariq. If you haven’t already, you should check out his enthusiastic, short and sweet interview about corn (and not much else).
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Why are so many people talking (and singing) about corn?
Corn-related content first caught my attention in late August when I was scrolling through my TikTok “For You” page and seeing multiple videos with the same soundtrack, which was a catchy song posted by the TikTok account @schmoyoho became.
The song is based on an interview from the web show Recess Therapy, which asks children questions. In this interview, published in early August and conducted by Julian Shapiro-Barnum, a young boy named Tariq speaks very passionately about corn while near a microphone.
Tariq’s front tooth is missing, he’s wearing a shirt with pictures of double-decker buses on it. During the interview, he holds a half-eaten cob of corn and bites off one or two of them.
Shapiro-Barnum asks him how corn is. “A big lump with bumps,” he says. Tariq says corn should be $1 and wishes everyone a “corntastic” day.
At the time of writing @schmoyoho’s version of the song had 10 million likes. With over 1 million videos using the song, people rate the lyrics, jam and display Corn Kid tribute art. There are versions in the style of musical theater, punk and emo. Even actor and musician Kevin Bacon joined the trend by releasing a good acoustic version of the Corn Kid song.
You can order a video of The Corn Kid on Cameo for $220. He was in an ad for Chipotle. People sometimes call him “the CEO of corn.”
South Dakota made the Corn Kid its official “Corn-Bassador” earlier this month. Nobody has ever been better suited for a job than you.
What is the name of the Corn Kid?
Tariq has spoken a lot about corn, but we don’t know much about the boy who started the meme.
He enjoys playing games like tag and hide and seek when he’s not saying funny things about corn.
Tariq says of Recess Therapy, “I play a lot of different games, but I never play lava monsters.”
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How can I watch the Corn Kid interview from the beginning?
If you know the corn song and want to see Tariq’s interview from early August, you can find it on the Recess Therapy YouTube channel.
Julian Shapiro-Barnum, who runs the show Recess Therapy, tells us about the cheesy day one.
In July, Julian Shapiro-Barnum approached a boy in a Brooklyn park. The host of popular web show Recess Therapy said to the 7-year-old, “Nice corn on the cob.”
You probably already know what came next. Many people now call Tariq the “Corn Kid” because he kept telling people about his favorite yellow food. The video went viral thanks to its infectious enthusiasm and hilarious puns that made corn the vegetable that other vegetables wanted to be.
“I mean look at this,” Tariq says, holding up a half-eaten cob of corn. “I can’t think of anything nicer.”
Corn Kid quickly gained a lot of support on the internet. In early August, Tariq interviewed Recess Therapy. Since then, more than 3.4 million people have viewed it on YouTube (one post on TikTok garnered more than 23 million.) More than 716,000 TikTok videos, and counting, use a catchy song version of the interview.
Shapiro-Barnum tells me over Zoom, “I don’t know if he would have brought it up.” “But he was willing to talk about it.”
Since the show debuted on social media in 2021, other Recess Therapy clips have gone viral. (You may have met a boy online who is obsessed with Komodo dragons named Dillon.) Still, the show’s creator, 23-year-old Shapiro-Barnum, says he didn’t think Tariq’s interview would become so popular.
The child’s sincere thanks for the snack warmed the hearts of everyone, even the spoiled ones. South Dakota made Tariq its “Corn-Bassador,” and actor Kevin Bacon performed an acoustic guitar version of the song. People still pay tribute to the Corn Kid by dressing up in fun costumes, making cool chalk art, and making their own corn on the cob.
It’s beautiful and oddly cathartic to see someone finding so much joy in something so simple.
Julian Shapiro-Barnum, who runs Recess Therapy
The Recess Therapy Instagram account has 2.4 million followers and is full of cute and funny interviews with young children. (Shapiro-Barnum says he wants to talk to kids between the ages of 4 and 7, but it’s clear adults are more interested in Corn Kid.) In Recess Therapy videos, kids talk about everything from the environment to Thanksgiving to dinosaurs.
Shapiro-Barnum says, “It’s like a fun, cheery, scrappy interview show where my friends and I walk around Brooklyn, New York and sometimes other places to see what the kids there are thinking and talking about .”
On Zoom, Shapiro-Barnum looks fun and enthusiastic about what he does. “I think he just got his corn,” he says of Tariq when discussing their meeting. “He felt it.” When I ask him who else Recess Therapy Corn Kid fans should be watching, he points me to Miles and Sloane.
“We usually ask almost everyone who walks by,” he says, adding that videos on Recess Therapy are made by a team of people, not just him.
Shapiro-Barnum says, “A lot of people say no.” “And you don’t know what you’re getting. I am always surprised and delighted by what children say.”
He filmed an interview with Tariq during a food festival in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Tariq’s grandma is the older woman who can be seen laughing sideways in the video.
Less than 15 minutes passed while they talked. We have already seen the first two. I asked Shapiro-Barnum for outtakes but he said the best bits are already out there.
Shapiro-Barnum can’t explain why Corn Kid has become so popular. “It’s hit and miss what the internet finds,” he says, but the fact that Tariq’s reaction to corn seems so real probably helps.
Shapiro-Barnum says, “It’s really beautiful and weirdly cathartic to see someone finding so much joy in something so simple.” “I think it’s hard to find good things and things to relate to these days feels better. Even quoting and not quoting a lot of “uplifting content” feels compelling to me.”
Shapiro-Barnum has already spoken to Tariq twice. During the second he has a moment that will stick in his memory. Tariq talks more about his favorite lumpy snack, corn, and engages in a “corn sword fight” with Shapiro-Barnum.
Shapiro-Barnum says, “It was so gross.” They both ate and slapped the corn. “The kernels and stuff were everywhere. It was just a good time. He’s a lot of fun.”
Shapiro-Barnum says that although Tariq doesn’t give interviews, it was all “really fun” for the corn-loving boy.
When seven-year-old Tariq spoke passionately about why he loves corn, he became one of the most talked about kids on the internet.
In the video, posted to Instagram on Aug. 4 by a kid interview show called “Recess Therapy,” Tariq called corn a “big lump with tubers” and said, “I can’t think of anything nicer.” Then he smiled and said that people to “have a delicious day.”
The internet quickly fell in love with Tariq’s enthusiasm and funny comments about the veggies. This made the video go viral overnight on Instagram, where it now has 27 million views on the Recess Therapy page.
The song then became very popular on TikTok, where it was used in more than 900,000 videos.
Tariq is now a full-fledged internet superstar. He gives interviews to US talk shows and news outlets and even met and filmed with MrBeast, America’s most popular YouTuber. His family also set up a temporary account for him on Cameo, a website where celebrities record personalized messages to fans for a fee. Prices start at $145 and the account has been set up for him.
To make matters worse, the state of South Dakota gave Tariq the title of Corn-bassador.
Recess Therapy host Julian Shapiro-Barnum told Insider that he met Tariq while he was filming interviews in Brooklyn, New York, for his show, which is about asking young kids what to think about think different things.
Little did he know that his simple questions would help Tariq become so famous so quickly.
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