Springtime is rhubarb time. But even though the pink-green vegetable is very popular, especially in the form of cakes and compotes, it has certainly never gone as viral as it has this year. But that has less to do with the sweet and sour taste of the plant itself, and more to do with the rhyming potential of the word: rhubarb, bar, Barbara, barbarians or Barbara’s rhubarb barbarians.
Some people may find this “almost meaningless syllable purring” – this is how author Gerhard Henschel describes the tongue twister phenomenon – familiar. The story of Barbara, who bakes rhubarb cake and opens a bar and counts barbarians among her customers, has been around for a long time. But six months ago, musicians Bodo Wartke and Marti Fischer pimped up the story into a rap song. The choreography followed at the end of March: two Australian women showed themselves dancing on Tiktok in a public toilet. The fact that they don’t understand the lyrics at all? No problem!
The internet is no longer able to contain itself, especially in English-speaking countries: the original video by Wartke and Fischer has now had over six million views on YouTube. Internationally known TikTokers are performing to the German nonsense song – including lip-syncing. Memes are springing up all over the place, wondering how German can actually sound so nice.
The social media phenomenon has not only made it around the world, but also to a religious center in Kaufbeuren. The Franciscan sisters of the Crescentia Monastery usually give insights into religious life on their Instagram channel. But then the sisters Annika and Clara Marie wanted to push the number of their followers over the 1,000 mark.
They studied the viral dance and two days after the post, their channel already had over 1200 subscribers. Composer Wartke also congratulated the sisters on their Catholic trend awareness with a “Bravo!” in the comments column. The response was greater than they had imagined. But that’s how quickly internet fame can sometimes happen. Or to put it in Barbara’s terms: Aberakadabera.