Pink Fluffy Unicorns is a story floating around the Kars4Kids office—because Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows did something no one expected. Last summer at TheZone, Kars4Kids’ sleepaway camp, Lily was a camper in TeenZone, the teen unit. She arrived dressed all in black, anger written across her face. She read gruesome books and intimidated anyone who tried to talk to her. In other words, she was the kind of teenager who dares adults to misunderstand her—right up until a “wacko” song (and its unforgettable pink fluffy unicorns chorus) cracked the façade.
Here’s how one staffer continued the story:
“Lily was what we call, ‘a tough nut to crack.’ No one could figure out how to get through to her and most people just kept their distance. She was challenging to say the least, and not a little daunting.
“Now every day the staff wakes up TeenZone with a wacky song. Sometimes the head staff chooses a song and sometimes the campers will offer suggestions. In any event, it’s a fun thing and gets everyone up with a smile.
“One night, Lily came over to me offering a folded up scrap of paper, asking if I’d play the song she’d chosen. I agreed with some trepidation, shoving the piece of paper into my sweatshirt pocket without looking at it.
Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows at Camp
“The next morning I unfolded the paper expecting some dark and crazy song. Instead, I found that Lily had written, ‘Pink Fluffy Unicorns.’
“I found the song and played it. When Lily heard it, she ran out of her room and starting dancing and singing at the top of her lungs. No one could believe this spectacle—the way Lily had morphed from a silent, moody creature to this electrified teen, totally alive and vibrant. I don’t think we’d ever seen her even smile before.
“From then on, we put that wacko song on in the dining room at every meal. It was worth it, because each time that tune kicked in, Lily would get up and begin dancing and singing. Before long, Pink Fluffy Unicorns was a camp favorite; most people did not even know the origin of the song or how Pink Fluffy Unicorns had become a camp favorite.
The Rise of PFUDOR
When we went looking for the original version of Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows, we discovered the song already had a massive internet life of its own. Online, fans often shorten the title to PFUDOR.
When we searched for the song, we learned it has a whole internet life of its own. Andrew Huang’s original Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows upload has drawn millions of views over the years. And it didn’t stop there: fan animations and remixes helped PFUDOR spread far beyond one channel, including versions that have amassed tens of millions of views.
So What Does PFUDOR Mean?
PFUDOR is simply an acronym for Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows. It’s the shorthand fans use in comments, captions, and cover videos because the full title is a mouthful.
The clip was released on November 11, 2010. At that time, Huang had just 3,000 YouTube subscribers. But PFUDOR went absolutely viral. “It was the first thing that put my channel on the map in the YouTube world!”
“This story taught me that all campers deep inside are really “Pink Fluffy Unicorns” no matter what they look like on the outside.”
It’s only natural that in telling this story, we’d want our readers to hear what this miracle song, Pink Fluffy Unicorns, sounds like. So we turned to Google and heard the most popular version of the song, which turned out to be a cover. We wanted to hear the original. A little more digging and we struck gold.
Even though we’d found the song, we wanted to know more about the origins of Pink Fluffy Unicorns. So we kept on digging and found a December 2016 clip from Andrew Huang, creator of the Pink Fluffy Unicorns song. In the clip, Huang talks about how the song Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows propelled him to YouTube star status.
The clip was released on November 11, 2010. At that time, Huang had just 3,000 YouTube subscribers. But PFUDOR, the acronym Huang uses to refer to the hit song, went absolutely viral. “It was the first thing that put my channel on the map in the YouTube world!”
Andrew Huang tells us how the number of subscribers he had grew slowly, but consistently. Today Huang has 671,249 subscribers. It was all due to that wacko song.
The song received “massive” views when it was new. Now that the initial newness has worn off, the song’s views have settled into a consistent pattern, getting three to five thousand views every single day. Even now in 2016, six years since Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows was released, the song is still getting its daily 3-5,000 shares. Andrew credits the song with helping him get his music in front of an audience. “For a completely independent musician it is a ridiculous, far-reaching piece of music. I’ve got a bunch of other videos that get shared around in their own right, but PFUDOR is still the biggest thing on my channel,” says Huang.
Andrew’s original video clip has by now amassed 8 million views, while covers by other artists of Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows have also gained millions of views. There’s one cover of the song (with 30 million views) that is so popular that people leave messages on Andrew’s version accusing him of ripping it off.
The Many Covers of Pink Fluffy Unicorns
Every day people are releasing new covers of PFUDOR including one by Maddie Ziegler, a celebrity in her own right, the child who plays the young version of reclusive artist Sia in her music videos.
The Lyrics of PFUDOR
People searching for pink fluffy unicorns lyrics are usually looking for the hook—and that’s the point. The song’s words are intentionally simple, repetitive, and packed with absurd imagery, making it easy to chant in a group and impossible to hear without smiling. It’s silly on purpose, and that silliness is exactly what lets guarded teens drop the armor.
Somehow, Andrew Huang seems to have found a magic formula for happiness and fame with his simple little tune whose lyrics were pulled from a comment left by a subscriber. The tune took a little detour from its original form and became the one that lit up Lily, made Maddie Ziegler do a silly dance on Instagram, and catapulted Andrew Huang to fame. There’s just something about this song that lets us drop the façade and get a little silly, with no shame or blame. More to the point, the song teaches us that in every dark teenager, budding musician, or already out there dancer, there’s a Pink Fluffy Unicorn, just waiting to dance on a rainbow.
You’ve only got to believe, show a little patience, then sit back and let the music do its magic.
As it did for Andrew, Maddie, and well, Lily.
Have you got a teenager who all Goth and forbidding? Be patient. You’ll find the key to get past the anger to the laughing, dancing girl inside.
About Varda EpsteinVarda Meyers Epstein serves as editor in chief of Kars4Kids Parenting. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Varda is the mother of 12 children and is also a grandmother of 12. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Learning Site, The eLearning Site, and Internet4Classrooms.