About

I Miss You Daddy, also known as It's Been A Year Daddy, refers to a viral Newgrounds animation where a young girl gives a monologue about her father who supposedly died in the September 11th, 2001 Attacks, telling him how much she misses him a year after his death. The animation is set to a 2002 candlelight remix of Bryan Adams' "Heaven" by DJ Sammy. The animation became extremely prominent on Newgrounds and inspired short videos and further remixes over the following years. In 2022, the video's audio became a prevalent original sound on TikTok, used in ironic shitposts, lip dubs and 21st-Century Humor compilations.

Origin

On September 11th, 2004, Newgrounds^[1] user Philljc, also known as Phill Collins, posted a roughly four-minute-long animation where a young girl gives a monologue about how much she misses her dad a year after he died in the 9/11 attacks. The girl visits his grave and cries in a number of locations while offering specific reasons why she misses him (shown below, reuploaded to YouTube). The video was very well received on Newgrounds, gaining over 843,000 views and an average rating of 4.6/5 stars in 18 years. The video is set to the 2002 candlelight remix of Bryan Adams' "Heaven" by DJ Sammy.^[2]

On May 20th, 2015, Dailymotion^[6] user Simona Creamer also uploaded the audio of the girl's monologue set to a video featuring a compilation of 9/11-related images, claiming it to be the true original, though no further information is provided.

Spread

The animation inspired videos and content referencing it over the following years. On June 11th, 2008, YouTuber 1t2t3t4t5t6s posted a video inspired by it using the same audio, gaining over 1.6 million views in 14 years (shown below).

On May 17th, 2016, YouTuber KiKi Pepper posted a video reacting to a version of the animation, challenging herself not to cry, gaining over 4.9 million views in six years (shown below).

On September 9th, 2016, radio DJ John Moug from the Las Vegas station 98.5 KLUC^[3] posted a remix of the "Heaven" candlelight remix adding the audio from the animation and several additional audios of children talking about how they miss their parents who died on 9/11. The remix was reuploaded to YouTube on September 17th, gaining over 9.7 million views in six years (shown below). The remix was reuploaded by YouTuber^[4] Nighcore Mtb in 2018, gaining over 10 million views in four years.

The audio is often used in "try not to cry" challenges, where viewers are challenged not to cry while listening to it. For example, on December 30th, 2016, YouTuber Shemar Walters uploaded the audio titled "WORLD'S HARDEST TRY NOT TO CRY CHALLENGE," gaining over 33 million views in five years (shown below).

On June 19th, 2019, YouTuber Gacha-Cupcake created a version of the video using Gacha characters, gaining over 8.8 million views in three years (shown below).

2022 Resurgence On TikTok

In February 2022, TikToker^[5] @raven123444 posted a now-deleted video consisting of a portion of the audio from "I Miss You Daddy," beginning with "I miss you daddy." The original sound became popularized over the course of the month in lip dubs, comedy videos and ironic 21st-Century Humor compilations, inspiring over 10,000 videos in a month. For example, on February 4th, TikToker @krulcrepes posted a video trying to get a human-shaped ice cube into a jar, gaining over 3.4 million views in a month (shown below).

On February 6th, TikToker @friendswillb3friends posted a skit where she cries immediately to the sound, captioned, "8 year old me watching 'try not to cry' videos," gaining over 1.1 million views in a month (shown below, left). On March 5th, TikToker @metalinmynose posted a skit using the audio to describe missing his bro, gaining over 1.7 million views in five days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References