Barbara's Rhubarb Bar

Barbara's Rhubarb Bar(German:Barbaras Rhabarberbar)is a German and Dutchtongue twisterthat gave rise to a popularnovelty song. The tongue twister is based on repetition of the sound "bar", and celebrates a well-liked seasonal dessert.
A Germanmusic videoof the song, created in late 2023, became aninternet phenomenon, getting over 47 million views onTikTokwithin a few months.
The German tongue twister,Rhabarberbarbarabarbarbarenbartbarbierbier,had existed in various forms before the creation of the song.Such constructions have occurred since antiquity. AVulgar Latingraffitoaboutbarbarians, reading "Barbara barbaribus barbabant barbara barbis", was found atPompeii.
In theGermanic languages, the words "Barbara", "rhubarb", and "barbarian" have a sharedetymology, originating from theAncient Greekβάρβαρος(bárbaros), referring to foreigners, and literally meaning "babbler", as of a foreign language; "barber" derives from theLatinbarba, for "beard".The modern tongue twister makes use of howcompoundingcan result inlong words in German,where multiple individual words are combined into a single long word, without spacing.It is constructed in thePräteritum tense.
An early German occurrence of a similar tongue twister can be found in a 1915 news article fromOberhausen, blaming vandalism of arhubarbgarden onRhabarberbarbaren("rhubarb barbarians").An earlyDutchversion of the tongue twister,rabarberbarbarabarbarbierbarbaren("Barbara's rhubarb bar's barber's barbarians") can be found inBinnenspel, a Dutch book with children's games from around 1935.
The tongue twister has been widespread in the Dutch language since the mid-20th century. In 1981, it appeared asBarbararabarberbararabierenbarbarenbaardenbarbier("Barbara's rhubarb bar's Arab barbarians' beards' barber") inOpperlandse taal- & letterkunde, a book ofword playfromHugo Brandt Corstius. Brandt Corstius remembers having heard the tongue twister beforeWorld War IIin one ofChiel de Boer[nl]'s comedy routines.A 1950 article with rhubarb recipes inLibellerefers to the tongue twister in the introduction, suggesting that it "must have been invented by alogopedicianas an exercise for slow talkers".An article in the Dutch newspaperHet Paroolfrom 1954 mentions the tongue twister and says it was originally an American joke.In 1991,cartoonistEvert Geradtspublished aGyro Gearloosecomic stripepisode based on the same story.
A particularly elaborate version of the tongue twister in German goes:
The song and the original music video were created in December 2023 bycomedianBodo Wartke[de]andmusic producerMarti Fischer[de]. Wartke had the idea of making a humorousrap-like song and video based on the tongue twister and wrote the lyrics, while Fischer created the music.Wartke often makes comedic songs from German tongue twisters, which he says he frequently discovers onspeech therapywebsites.When asked if Barbara is a real person, Wartke replied: "Sure! Unfortunately, I haven't met her yet."The New York Timesreports that the video briefly ranked aboveBeyoncéon somestreaming mediamusic charts.
The lyrics describe Barbara, who lives in a small town, and who creates an extraordinary rhubarb cake. She opens abarto serve the cake. Three barbarians in the town love the cake – along withbeer– so much that they come to the bar every day. They stop behaving barbarically, and go to abarber, who shaves them.
The lyrics also make references toBarbapapa, a French children's book character, the songAberakadabraby the Austrian bandErste Allgemeine Verunsicherung, and thenonsense verseGerman children's songDrei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass.
Numerous variations on the video were created by other people. Two young Australian women named Stephanie and Christina made a video in which they danced to the song, which got over 15 million views. After multiple other dance versions were created by other people, Wartke and Fischer posted their own dance version.The popularity of the videos has been attributed in part to the decision of theUniversal Music Groupto stop releasing their content to TikTok, creating an opening for unaffiliated contributors.
Wartke and Fischer are scheduled to perform onLet's Dance, and there is agrassrootsmovement for them to represent Germany in the nextEurovision Song Contest.
Audrey Morgan writes that, contrary to some inaccurate English translations of the song lyrics, the rhubarb dessert in the song would not, inGerman culture, be arhubarb pie; rather, it would likely be akuchen-like cake, probably with astreuseltopping (streuselkuchen).
Sarah Maslin Nirplaces the craze over the video in the context of rhubarb's place in springtimeseasonal cuisinein Germany. Rhubarb, along withstrawberriesandwhite asparagus, are treated as cause for merriment.Tobias Hagge, another German musical comedian, notes that there was alsoa songpopular around 1930, about a woman named Veronika, whose ability to make asparagus grow gives rise to adouble entendre.