"Coco" is a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...

diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (diss – abbr. from ''disrespect'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feud between the t ...

by Swedish

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...

Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg (co-written with David "Boyinaband" Brown), aimed towards American YouTube channel Cocomelon, though the track makes heavy references to American rapper

6ix9ine Daniel Hernandez (born May 8, 1996), known professionally as 6ix9ine (stylized 6IX9INE and pronounced "six nine") and also as Tekashi69, is an American rapper. His music has been marked by an aggressive style of rapping, while his controversia ...

and Kjellberg’s past competition with Indian record label T-Series. The song and music video premiered on YouTube on 14 February 2021. Just four days after the video was uploaded, on 18 February, YouTube removed it for having "violated the Terms of Service". However, the original song as well as official instrumental and a cappella versions are available on streaming services such as

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Background

The name of the song, "Coco", is derived from the first four letters of the

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

channel Cocomelon, on which the

primarily focuses. In the months leading up to the song's release, Cocomelon had begun to close in on Kjellberg's subscriber count and was expected to overtake him soon, becoming the second most-subscribed channel on YouTube. Cocomelon finally surpassed him on 25 April of the same year. Kjellberg had hinted at the track's release for several weeks prior to its release. At the end of the song, Kjellberg states "I'm just playing, Coco; you know I love you", which is a reference to American rapper

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

, as he has used the phrase "I'm just playing (x); you know I love you" in songs such as " Kill You" and " Killshot".

Composition

In the song, Kjellberg expresses how he negatively views companies that take advantage of the YouTube algorithm to target children. The lyrics are set to a nursery-rhyme inspired

trap A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research. Trap or TRAP may also refer to: Art and entertainment Films and television * ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...

beat, produced by Oxygen Beats. The song also includes references to

, J. K. Rowling and Kjellberg's previous subscriber contest with T-Series. The producer uploaded the official instrumental and a cappella to YouTube on the same day as the music video.

Disses directed at Cocomelon

PewDiePie disses Cocomelon as the primary target of the song. It includes lines such as "It's not even funny and your head is really big", referring to the art and animation style of Cocomelon's videos, which Kjellberg criticised in a video uploaded in June 2020, remarking that the heads of certain characters appeared disproportionately large compared to the rest of their bodies. Other lines include "Your audience is just a bunch of motherfucking virgins" and "Scrub behind your ears (''Okay''), then you rinse your eyes" as a reference to a video Cocomelon has produced by the name of "Bath Song". He also goes after the parents by saying "Babies must be viewing when their mommy is asleep, while their brain is developing, before they can talk. They learn to subscribe before they can walk".

Disses directed towards other people

Despite the song being advertised as being about Cocomelon, it includes numerous lines about American rapper

, including "Don't eat lead paint or you'll cry (cry, cry) / Then your brain will end up like 6ix9ine (nine, nine)" and Kjellberg calling the rapper an " ankle-monitor-wearing cunt" and " snitch". At the end of the song, Kjellberg challenges 6ix9ine to a "legal fight". He also throws a line related to 6ix9ine's involvement in a child sex complaint, telling the children to watch out for him after their bath. PewDiePie also aimed at J. K. Rowling, saying "I'll spoil ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students a ...

''; wait, J.K. already did that."

Disses directed at T-Series

PewDiePie dissed T-Series too, saying, "Last time that I dissed, it took a government to blacklist me", referring to the

Indian government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

banning PewDiePie's past diss tracks against T-Series, " Bitch Lasagna" and " Congratulations".

Music video

The music video, released on 14 February 2021 alongside the song, features Kjellberg in simple-coloured environments. The first one has decorated, vibrantly coloured props on a white background while wearing a red sweater, possibly referencing attire commonly worn by

Fred Rogers Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), commonly known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television se ...

on ''

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' (sometimes shortened to ''Mister Rogers'') is an American half-hour educational children's television series that ran from 1968 to 2001, and was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series ''Misterogers'' debu ...

''. The next scene shows PewDiePie in camouflage clothing in front of a blue-and-white backdrop. Pewdiepie later confirmed in a video that this was a reference to Stanley Kubrick's ''

Full Metal Jacket ''Full Metal Jacket'' is a 1987 war drama film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 novel '' The Short-Timers'' and stars Matt ...

''. There is also a scene in which he is dressed as a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of History of Japan#Medieval Japan (1185–1573/1600), medieval and Edo period, early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retai ...

(that was made by Cosplay Shop Select Style) and concludes with PewDiePie wearing a suit covered in a transparent raincoat with an axe, referencing ''

American Psycho ''American Psycho'' is a novel by Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story is told in the first person by Patrick Bateman, a serial killer and Manhattan investment banker. Alison Kelly of ''The Observer'' notes that while "some countri ...

''. Some of the scenes show PewDiePie with children, usually a group of them. Some of the children featured in the music video are the children of Oxygen Beats, the producer of the song. The segment of the music video accompanying the break of the song shows PewDiePie destroying watermelons (Cocomelon's logo is a combination of a television and watermelon) with various weapons. The children also participate, but with cardboard cut-outs instead of actual weapons. The music video also contains a 3D animated section for the first leg of the third verse, which was animated by BadHistoryTV. At the time of the song's deletion from YouTube, it had received over 11 million views.

Reception

Controversies

In the music video, there are several scenes in which PewDiePie appears to use

profanity Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, ru ...

in front of children, who then repeat it back to him. This has raised some concerns regarding child harassment and

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an i ...

. A day after the music video's release, Kjellberg confirmed in a livestream that a censored version of the track was used on the set of the music video, so he did not play or use actual profanity in front of the children. Oxygen Beats, the producer of the song, commented on the music video that the children were not swearing.

Policy violation and removal

On 18 February 2021, the music video was removed by YouTube for supposedly violating YouTube's policy on harassment and bullying. In response to a fan, YouTube stated on

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that, "Our policies prohibit content that leads to repeated patterns of harassment on-and off-platform. Following a review, we've removed the video in question for violating those policies because they had the effect of encouraging abusive fan behaviour", despite diss tracks being explicitly stated as an exception from said policies.

References

{{PewDiePie 2021 YouTube videos 2021 songs 2021 singles Criticism of Google Diss tracks Obscenity controversies in music Online obscenity controversies PewDiePie songs Protest songs Satirical songs Songs about children YouTube controversies Swedish hip hop songs