If you use TikTok, or live with someone who uses TikTok, or love someone who uses TikTok, you've heard the song "Berries and Cream". Berries and cream, berries and cream, I'm a little boy who loves berries and cream. (If you haven't heard it yet, yes, this is a song you may or may not have heard. Give it a listen) (open in new tab) Maybe you've heard a million and one "berry and cream" remixes on TikTok or heard your roommate yelling from the next room that "berry and cream" is his favorite lad! Maybe you've heard the "berry and cream" remix. Maybe, like me, you have had this song stuck in your head for five days and have no idea what it is, where it came from, or how to escape it. Welcome to the "Berries and Cream" TikTok community.

It all started with a Starburst commercial: in 2007, Starburst launched its "Berries and Cream" flavor (which you can still buy if you're so inclined (open in new tab)) and ran a moderately successful commercial to accompany it. In the commercial, actor and writer Jack Farver (open in new tab) (using their/their pronouns) does a little dance about being a Berries and Cream-loving chap. Behold:

The "Berries and Cream" song spread quickly, but the word "spread" meant something very different in 2021 than it did in 2007; according to Know Your Meme, the song and its various remixes existed on YouTube, where it was used as the basis for a song about the "Berries and Cream" song. Starburst responded by releasing a second extended commercial featuring Farver, called "The Little Lad Dance":

In this extended clip, Farver says, "When I was little, if I wanted berries and cream, my mom made me do the Little Lad Dance. She made me dance. Mama is gone now. But I still like the little lad dance." If this line sounds familiar, that's because it's a line that is often remixed on TikTok, in addition to the "berries and cream, berries and cream." song featured in both the original commercial and the extended clip. By "song" I mean "lines that will stay in your head forever.

Know Your Meme (opens in new tab) explains: "Throughout the late 2000s, YouTubers created multiple remixes and mash-ups of the original commercial. It further explains that "berries and cream" faded into near obscurity until 2021.

According to Know Your Meme, podcaster and comedian Justin McElroy started this trend on TikTok in January:

It took several months for the trend to go viral. However, according to Mashable, by mid-September (open in new tab) tens of thousands of TikTok videos featured variations of the "berries and cream" song, and the tag #berriesandcream has over 300 million views.

Initially, creators simply sang, danced, and posted captions of the original song. The "Berries and Cream" song and Little Lad are a catchy combination of cottage-core (open in new tab) and nostalgia. So at first, most of the jokes were about these creators giving off a big "Little Lad" vibe.

Then the trend evolved. When creators started mashing up popular songs and well-known audio clips with "berry and cream" songs, and other creators started posting videos with new audio they found, "berry and cream" really took off. Some creators (opens in new tab) dedicated their TikTok accounts to creating new "berry and cream" remixes. Other creators (opens in new tab) appreciated the "berry and cream" remix and it went viral.

According to Insider, (open in new tab) Ferver created a TikTok account @thereallittlelad (open in new tab) and thanked new and old fans of "berries and cream" TikTok's tagline. "I love berries and cream. Wanna dance with us?" Mom is gone. She already has 1.5 million followers.

They also posted a new song on the same theme called "Mummy's gone":

My personal favorite about "Mummy":

Farver also has a cameo on "Catfish" host Nev Schulman's TikTok:

As for McElroy, who started this whole fever-dream-slash-nightmare, he knows exactly what he has unleashed on the world:

Adweek also got in touch with the creators of the original ad, as creative director Jerry Graff explains contacted (opens in new tab): "This was made for TikTok. This was made for TikTok, it's TikTok's first dance.