Me As A Baby / Whimsical Little Creature / Mestreensinador1

Overview

Me When I Was A Baby, also known as Whimsical Little Creature, refers to videos of the TikTok account MaestreEnsinador1. It features videos of a flying white puppet wearing a green hat named "Tiburcio." The name translates to "master teacher" in Portuguese, with the gnome puppet being referred to as a "forest being" by the TikToker in his comment sections. The videos often show the puppet flying and twirling, sometimes doing a little dance and sometimes undertaking mysterious rituals. Maestre Ensinador went viral in the fall of 2022 after a series of duets where people showed his videos to their younger siblings and tried to convince them that the puppet was them as a baby. Many humorously speculated as to how the faked collective memories could harm Gen Alpha in the future.

History

On May 9th, 2020, TikToker^[1] @mestreensinador1 posted a skit where he digs up a mysterious cloth bag containing a white puppet wearing a green hat. The caption to the video read, "Butija," which means "buried treasure." The post gathered over 1 million plays and 100,000 likes in over two years (seen below, left). On June 4th, the TikToker^[2] posted a skit of him dancing with a white puppet with a green hat, alongside a caption that read, "Meu Professor," and a comment that read "Meu mestre e meu rei ele é meu professor," which translates from Portuguese to mean "My master and my king he is my teacher." The post gathered over 6,000 views and 600 likes in over two years (seen below, right). These posts appear to set up the cinematic universe for later videos featuring the puppet, alluding to the account's username as well.

Online Presence

The account continued to post videos of the puppet flying around forested areas, with the next video^[3] to break viral fame being posted on February 23rd, 2021, and gathering over 300,000 plays and 20,000 likes in nearly two years (seen below, left). On September 9th, 2022, the account posted a video^[4] that gathered over 3 million plays and 600,000 likes in nearly two months (seen below, right).

The post from February 23rd, 2021, also contained a comment from the TikToker that read, "Irmão o gnomo se chama Tiburcio, ele um ser da floresda é muito forte por isso muitos nao entende, mas vai o momento do mestre ensina a força," which translates to, "Brother, the gnome is called Tiburcio, he is a being from the forest, he is very strong, so many do not understand, but it is time for the master to teach strength" (shown below).

That's You When You Were A Baby

On October 27th, 2022, TIkToker^[5] @iz.khalifa1 posted a video duetting @mestreensinador1 in which she tried to convince her younger brother that the video was him as a baby. The post gathered over 2 million plays and 370,000 likes in nearly two weeks (seen below, left). On November 20th, the TikToker^[6] posted another duet of her pranking her brother again, gathering over 1.3 million plays and 200,000 likes in nearly two days (seen below, right).

Fanart

Mestreensinador became the subject of fan art as well as NSFW art in November and December 2022. On November 30th, Twitter^[7] user @OddOblivion posted art depicting the flying puppet, alongside a caption that read, "Me as a baby." The post gathered over 40,000 likes in nearly a week (seen below, left). On December 3rd, Twitter^[8] user @cratocas posted a piece of fanart as well, gathering over 14,000 likes in nearly four days (seen below, right).

On December 6th, 2022, Stonetoss posted a comic referencing the meme to his Twitter, gathering over 20,000 likes in a day (seen below). ^[9]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References