About

AnnaLynne McCord's "Dear President Putin" Slam Poem, also known as I'm So Sorry I Was Not Your Mother, refers to a viral video of actress AnnaLynne McCord reading a poem addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the start of the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict. The poem attracted negative attention due to the fact most of the poem features McCord apologizing to Putin for not being his mother and that if she was his mother, she would have given him love so that he would not be inclined to start wars. Portions of the poem later were used as reaction images and the poem itself inspired widespread negative commentary and jokes. It was also compared to Gal Gadot's 'Imagine' video.

Origin

On February 24th, 2022, actress AnnaLynne McCord published a video in which she read a slam poem addressed to Vladimir Putin. McCord starts off with the phrase, "Dear President Vladimir Putin, I'm so sorry I was not your mother," and goes on to explain how if she was his mother, she would have showered him with love so that he would not be inclined to start wars. The tweet^[1] racked up a ratio of 112,000 quote-tweets to 20,000 retweets and 95,000 likes in the span of one week (shown below).

Dear Mister President Vladimir Putin… pic.twitter.com/LbDFBHVWJf

— AnnaLynne McCord (@IAMannalynnemcc) February 24, 2022

Spread

The tweet was quickly and widely mocked on Twitter shortly after it was posted on February 24th, 2022. For example, Twitter user @BrandyLJensen^[2] tweeted, "Not in a million years could you guess how this starts," gaining over 4,900 retweets and 92,000 likes (shown below, left). User @lalailinn^[3] joked "The i can change him bitches are taking it to another level what the fuck is this," gaining over 70 retweets and 310 likes (shown below, right).

Cr1TiKaL posted a video reacting to the poem, harshly slamming it in a video that gained over 3.7 million views (shown below, top). On February 28th, McCord appeared on The Modern Spirituality podcast and acknowledged that she understood why her poem received a negative reaction but stood by the idea that if Putin was loved as a child, he would have become a more peaceful adult (shown below, bottom).

On February 25th, Twitter user @tayforpay^[5] used a portion of the video as a reaction image with the caption "high school english teachers to their gay students," gaining over 10,000 retweets and 127,000 likes (shown below, left). On March 1st, 2022, Twitter user @RichardStaff^[4] posted the "I'm so sorry I was not your mother" portion of the video as a meme joking about MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, who is being blamed by many online for the recent strike in Major League Baseball. The tweet gained over 870 retweets and 2,200 likes (shown below, right).

On March 2nd, 2022, Polygon^[6] parodied the poem by writing it about a clip from a recent, disastrous round in a Wheel of Fortune episode.

Search Interest

External References