Have You Ever Had A Dream Like This?

About

Have You Ever Had A Dream Like This? refers to a viral video taken from a 1999 home videotape of a boy fumbling over a sentence about dreaming which ends up being completely incoherent, starting the sentence with "have you ever had a dream" and ending with "you want him to do you so much you could do anything." The video went viral in 2011, becoming a classic in the years since where it's been used in various remixes and other memes. In mid-2021, Dream Kid's identity was finally revealed two decades later to be a man named Joe Cirkiel after an interview with YouTuber Wavywebsurf.

Origin

On July 15th, 1999, Turner Classic Movies released Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales,^[1] a primarily animated home-video special consisting of readings of bedtime stories like Goodnight Moon, and featuring narration from Susan Sarandon. The video contains a number of interviews with children about dreams. On January 24th, 2011, YouTuber^[5] lololark uploaded a compilation of the interviews, gaining over 181,000 views in 10 years. At the end of the video is a blooper in which a boy in a red shirt attempts to say something about dreams, but stumbles over the sentence, making it completely incoherent (shown below). They also uploaded the isolated clip to their channel,^[4] garnering over 1.7 million views in the same span of time.

On June 2nd, 2011, YouTuber^[3] mrblueangeldood uploaded the isolated clip of the boy fumbling his sentence, titled "Have you ever had a dream like this?" The clip went viral, gaining over 67 million views in 10 years (shown below).

Have you ever had a dream that you, um, you had, your, you- you could, you’ll do, you- you wants, you, you could do so, you- you’ll do, you could- you, you want, you want him to do you so much you could do anything?

Spread

The video was shared across social media countless times over the course of the next few weeks, leading to its viral success. For example, on June 4th, BuzzFeed^[2] shared the video, and on June 7th, the Tosh.0 blog^[3] then shared the video.

The viral success of the clip inspired video edits and remixes, primarily on YouTube. On April 2nd, 2012, YouTuber^[6] harvestsun uploaded a video in which the dream kid's face is placed over Martin Luther King's during his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, garnering over 500,000 views in nine years (shown below, left). On May 11th, 2013, YouTuber^[7] ItsDrewsif uploaded a metal remix of the video, garnering over 5 million views in eight years (shown below, right).

Hercules Theory

On October 26th, 2015, Redditor u/TeaBoneJones posted a theory to /r/FanTheories^[8] in which he suggests that the kid in the video is trying to quote a line from the 1997 Disney animated film Hercules where Hercules says, "Haven't you ever had a dream? Something you wanted so bad you'd do anything?" (shown below.) Although unconfirmed, the post gained over 900 upvotes in five years. On August 18th, 2021 Know Your Meme published and interview with the kid confirming the Hercules theory.^[15]

Continuing Popularity

The video has remained a staple of internet memes and culture since going viral in 2011, with new, successful variations still popping up nearly a decade later.

On September 19th, 2016, Redditor u/Chriscftb97 posted an image to /r/funny^[12] taken from a yearbook showing a graduate who quoted the video (shown below). The image was also posted to /r/continuityporn^[13] that day by a now-deleted user with the title "[Have you Ever had a dream kid] Kid from famous meme uses his stutter as yearbook quote," however, it is unconfirmed if this is actually the same kid from the video (shown below).

On June 14th, 2019, musician Charles Cornell posted a video playing the keyboard along with the video to Instagram^[10] and YouTube,^[11] garnering over 496,000 views on the former and 2.4 million on the latter in roughly two years (shown below).

On May 8th, 2020, YouTuber^[9] Schmoyoho released an original remix to the video, garnering over 1.4 million views in under a year (shown below).

Identity

After decades of mystery, the identity of Dream Kid was eventually discovered. On July 28th, 2021, YouTuber^[14] Wavywebsurf uploaded a video titled "I FOUND THE DREAM KID," which acquired 272,000 views in two weeks (shown below). The video explains how he came into contact with Dream Kid after a prior video on his channel covered the meme. A man named Joseph Cirkiel, the Dream Kid himself, then reached out and confirmed his identity in an interview with Wavy.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References