‘Baby Shark’ moves from YouTube behemoth to Top 40 hit

It’s been nearly three years since “Baby Shark,” the super catchy pop diddy for kids, popped up on YouTube.

And now, more than 2.1 billion YouTube views later – yes, billion, with a “b” – “Baby Shark” had debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the week ending Saturday. At No. 32, that makes “Baby Shark” a bona fide Top 40 hit.

This will come to no surprise to anyone who has young children in their lives. The song, released by the South Korean company PinkFong, was streamed 20.8 million times last week. It inspired a minor controversy when people began jumping out of their cars in the name of the #babysharkchallenge, as NPR noted in an article Wednesday morning.

Even Ellen Degeneres got in on the fun back in September, when she created her own version of the candy-colored ocean themed video. “The Late Late Show” host James Corden did too, and enlisted actress Sophie Turner, singer Josh Groban and a gospel choir to help him perform the tune in an epic, slowed-down version for grownups.

“It’s once in a lifetime when a song comes along that defines a generation. A song that unites us all together in beautiful harmony,” Corden deadpanned before sarcastically comparing it to John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”

It’s a song “so icnoic it’s been viewed 2 billion times on YouTube,” he said. “There are only 7 billion people in the world. Think about that for just a second.”

He later added, “As the father of three young children, I’ve heard it many, many, many times.”

And there are parents across the planet who feel his pain.

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo …