Singing Killed My Grandma

About

Singing Killed My Grandma is a line from the 2016 film Trolls. The line is spoken by the character Branch as he explains his reluctance to join the other trolls in singing. Branch explains that when he was a child, he was singing so loud he didn't hear the villainous Chef coming to eat him, leading his grandmother to sacrifice herself while saving him. The scene has been used in numerous YouTube remixes and jokes on social media. In early 2023, Twitter users began posting Trolls threads recreating the scene.

Origin

In Trolls, the character Branch is a recluse due to the childhood trauma he received after his grandmother saved him from Chef. When Poppy questions him on why he doesn't sing, he explains "Singing killed my Grandma!" and tells the story of how it happened. The scene was isolated and published on YouTube by user Holly Jolly Transformations on April 20th, 2020 (shown below).

Spread

After the film's release, the scene would be remixed on YouTube as people added the audio to various pieces of media. The earliest known remix of this type was posted July 6th, 2017 by YouTuber Epic Roasts, who used the line in a scene from Moana, gaining over 11,000 views (shown below, left). On April 19th, 2020, YouTuber I Just Arted also mashed the clip with Moana, gaining over 3,700 views (shown below, right).

The line became a popular joke in Twitter and Tumblr communities in early 2021. For example, on January 8th, Twitter user @badboyhalosimp1^[1] posted a comparison between Branch and YouTuber Skeppy with the line, gaining over 240 retweets and 2,200 likes (shown below, left). On January 6th, Tumblr user emositecc^[2] posted a Garfield comic recreating the scene, gaining over 200 notes (shown below, right).

Trolls Threads / Pink Troll 'Why Not? Why Won't You X?'

Pink Troll 'Why Not? Why Won't You X?' or Trolls Threads refers to a series of memes on Twitter where an image of the pink troll Poppy from the movie Trolls is used alongside the phrasal template "Why not? Why won't you X," X being something that someone won't do. The majority of the posts are threads, with the next post in the thread showing the troll Branch saying X killed his grandma, which previously became a meme in 2017. The meme became popularized on Twitter in late February 2023 (examples shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References