The wheels on a bus go round and round.
Round and round, round and round.
Round and round.
Hello Internet! Welcome to Film Theory,
the show where the theories go round and round,
round and round, all through the town.
So as the parent of a child born in a post-YouTube world,
there has been no escape from Cocomelon.
Even if their content isn't exactly to your taste,
No, no, I don't like it, ew!
something involving this entertainment behemoth
has likely crossed your feed before.
Believe it or not, but this right here,
Help me, mommy, owie, ow!
is the third most subscribed channel on YouTube right now.
And who knows, it might very well be primed
to take the number one spot someday.
In fact, the meteoric rise of Cocomelon
sparked a bit of a feud with PewDiePie back in the day,
when they were about to surpass him in subscribers.
He actually made a diss track about Cocomelon
when they were in a neck-and-neck race for subscribers,
which then got removed from YouTube
for cyberbullying and child safety.
It's really funny, I'm not gonna lie.
That said, if somehow you've managed to dodge this series,
please tell me how.
Please, please get it to leave me alone.
Anyway, Cocomelon is a show, network,
collection of nursery songs.
Basically, it's like the infant version of MTV
right here on YouTube.com,
where the cast of animated characters
sing nursery rhymes to children
and promote good habits like eating vegetables
and saying please and thank you.
It's time to wear your shoes.
Yes, yes, I want to wear my shoes.
Riveting, he said.
Obviously not riveted.
Believe it or not, but Cocomelon's actually been around
in one form or another since 2006,
when a filmmaker named Jay Geon and his wife,
a cartoonist, started making simple animated videos
to educate their kids,
teaching them stuff like their ABCs.
They uploaded these videos onto their YouTube channel,
which eventually evolved into ABC Kid TV,
and they started focusing on 3D animations.
The channel began shifting more towards nursery rhymes,
and eventually new characters were introduced,
like the creatively named Mommy and Daddy,
along with their children TomTom, YoYo, and JJ.
The channel would eventually change its name to Cocomelon,
complete with all the videos that we know
and tolerate to this very day.
Now, we here at Team Theorist are no strangers
to the fact that these shows made for children
can be...strange.
And if you look at them through the lens of facts and logic,
you start to notice things that don't quite add up.
So when I started seeing some theories
floating around online that JJ,
the youngest of the Cocomelon crew,
was adopted, I got really excited.
I mean, we've already proven
that another YouTube nursery rhyme sensation,
Baby Shark, was adopted,
so could the same thing be happening here?
Well, hold on tight, friends,
because today, it's Morty time.
Leave your theories in the comments below.
I'll pick my favorites in the next episode of Morty.
But before we do that, let's take Cocomelon's advice and...
Save and save, and save our coins for a rainy day.
Because when those rainy days come,
you're gonna wanna buy our brand new winter line of Theorywear,
the Northern Lights Collection.
First of all, you guys have to check out
our new Cozy Hibernation Sweater.
This thing has a chunky knit design.
It's heavyweight and has an oversized cozy fit.
Basically, it's perfect for keeping warm
while you're out and about,
or looking suave and classy
while hanging out with family and friends.
I actually wore one of these sweaters in a meeting recently,
and film theory creative director Lee
complimented me on it.
He didn't even realize that it was something that we designed.
And you know what? That is the mark of a really good piece of clothing.
But of course, the sweater's only gonna be doing you
so much good if your hands are freezing cold,
which is why we also developed
the Polar Embrace Gloves.
These things are perfect for anytime
you wanna go out this winter.
Plan to go skiing or hiking at all?
These babies are waterproof and insulated,
keeping your fingers toasty
no matter what outdoor activities you wanna get up to.
And that includes watching your favorite movies, theories,
and yes, even nursery rhyme YouTube videos on your phone
since the Polar Embrace Gloves
also have themselves a touchscreen finger.
No need to take off your gloves
every time you wanna change songs
or find something new to watch.
Finally, if you wanna complete the look,
we also have ourselves the Northern Ember Beanie
to add a nice splash of color up top.
Never been much of a hat guy
since they tend to cover up that hair swoosh
I've tried to curate over the years,
but this beanie will absolutely keep your ears
warm if you have to get up early
to commute to school or work.
Listen, I think you guys can tell at this point
that Theoryware, it ain't just merch anymore.
It is genuine pieces of fashionable clothing
that can actually be useful to you
in your everyday life.
Pieces that'll last years in your wardrobe.
You know what? You're gonna look darn good
while you're wearing them too.
Please, if you're interested,
go check out our Northern Lights collection
over at theorywear.com.
And stay warm this winter season.
But enough shilling for one day,
let's get back to that Morty.
So the earliest version of this fan theory
that I could find comes from,
believe it or not,
the Cocomelon Fandom Wiki,
with this page being created
on December 10th, 2020.
And what's the evidence that they present here
that JJ's adopted?
One, his hair is blonde,
while the rest of the family's hair
is a much darker brown or red.
Two, there is no number two.
Wait, really? That's it?
That is the only real piece of evidence
that they're hanging this fan theory on.
I'm gonna be real with you guys.
When I first saw this, it surprised me.
This is barely a hypothesis,
let alone a theory.
But believe it or not,
there is actually a bit more to stand on
than you might first expect.
Break out your textbooks, friends.
We're jumping back into some high school biology
and hereditary genetics.
When it comes to physical characteristics
like eye color, blood type, whatever,
it all comes down to dominant and recessive genes.
You've probably heard this like a thousand times before,
so we won't dwell on it too long.
Basically, your parents each have two genes,
and both parents pass down
just one of those genes to their children.
Some of these genes take priority over others,
thus making them the dominant gene.
So let's say your parents pass down a type A
and a type O blood type gene.
You'll end up with type A blood
because it's the dominant gene there.
But if both your parents pass down
the recessive type O gene,
even if both your parents have type A blood themselves,
then you're gonna still end up with type O blood.
You can actually map out all these potential outcomes
and how likely they are
with a helpful little diagram called
a Punnett Square.
Which again, we've talked about plenty in the past,
let's not dwell.
But all of that being said,
that whole dominant recessive gene thing,
it is one of those big lies
that tend to get taught in schools
because genetics, go figure,
is a lot more complicated
than the shorthand given to it in those textbooks.
Case in point, hair color.
Instead of being a simple case of
the brunette gene is dominant over the blonde gene,
there's way more going on
in a system called incomplete dominance.
Imagine you have a red flower and a white flower.
In a typical Punnett Square system,
you might think that the red would be the dominant color,
so if you breed those two together,
you're gonna end up with another red flower.
But then all of a sudden,
you get confused when the flower turns out to be pink.
The long and short of what's happening here
is that the dominant gene is being diluted
by the recessive gene.
This is what happens with hair color.
See, the actual genes being passed on here
control how much eumelanin
and pheomelanin you have in your hair.
And those determine what color your hair is.
Melanin is the natural pigment that's found in organisms.
Eumelanin is a darker pigment,
and pheomelanin is a lighter pigment
that often skews red.
Typically, eumelanin overpowers pheomelanin.
So if you have a lot of eumelanin,
then you're gonna have black hair.
If you have almost no eumelanin and more pheomelanin,
then your hair is gonna be red.
Blonde and brown hair, then,
fall into the spectrum between those two colors.
Thanks to incomplete dominance,
your hair is likely gonna be a mix of the colors
that your parents have.
And this is exactly what we're seeing with Cocomelon.
When you really look at each of the characters,
they all have slightly different hair colors,
because they have different amounts of eumelanin.
So boom! There you go!
It's not only possible for JJ to be blonde,
but it's possible for all five of these characters
to end up with differently colored hair, period.
And even if we discount all of this,
it would still be possible for JJ to have blonde hair
while the rest of the family doesn't.
See, a child's hair can fall out quickly,
it can grow back quickly,
and most importantly for us,
it can change color quickly.
As a child matures,
the amount of eumelanin in the hair tends to increase,
darkening the color.
In some extreme cases,
it can even take a child with platinum blonde hair
and turn it jet black within the span of a few months.
Something similar actually happened with me.
I started out as a blonde baby
before ending up as a brunette
by the time I was in first grade.
Out of curiosity,
I actually asked around the team
if this had happened to any of them,
and no fewer than 10 of us had the exact same story.
And you don't have to take our words for it either.
One study found that babies can have lighter hair
for between 9 and 30 months,
and after age 3,
it becomes progressively darker
until it settles into the final color around age 5.
So even if it were impossible for JJ to be blonde genetically,
which again, it isn't,
if he were this young,
there'd still be a good chance that he could be blonde
while the rest of his family isn't.
Therefore,
there just isn't enough here to say that he's adopted.
Theory busted.
So is, um, is that it?
Well, given how much runtime there's left in this video,
you know the answer to that one, friends.
As I was looking into this whole theory,
I noticed something else about JJ.
Something that is far more concerning
than just the kid potentially being adopted.
And it all starts with his age.
If we're going off the whole
blonde hair that can darken with age thing
that we just talked about,
that means that JJ is younger than 5 years old,
which visually checks out.
I mean, he's a baby,
but we can get more specific than that.
So my first thought was,
well, what do we see JJ doing in Cocomelon
that could help us pinpoint his age?
As children get older,
they're able to do more and more.
It's like they're leveling up,
unlocking new abilities.
And typically,
children are able to unlock the same abilities
at roughly the same time.
Some of the first that might come to mind
when determining a child's age
might be whether they can walk
or whether they can talk.
Throughout the series,
we see JJ walking on his own
without the aid of his parents or siblings.
Most children are able to start doing this
between the ages of 10 and 18 months.
This also lines up with how much we see JJ speaking,
or singing, I guess in this case.
As I'm sure you know,
a baby's vocabulary,
it ain't that great.
A goo-goo here, a ga-ga there.
An average 18 month old
should only be able to say
roughly between 20 and 200 words.
Your average three-year-old
can say up to a thousand words.
So, how many words are we looking at JJ knowing?
Well, despite the fact that JJ isn't singing
all the parts in all the songs across Cocomelon,
it is implied that he's at least
singing parts of the chorus.
The wheels on the bus go round and round.
He's also got his own solo parts.
It's a great day on Cocomelon Lane.
Thankfully, due to the nature of nursery rhymes,
many of the Cocomelon songs
have repeated words and phrases
because repetition is key to a child's development
and a parent's insanity.
The amount of new words
that JJ says in each song varies
depending on the repetition of the song
and whether or not it's covering a new topic.
For instance, both here...
You'll be the cleanest dog I've ever seen.
And here...
I'll be the cleanest kid you've ever seen.
The rhyme and message are basically the same,
with just a couple of words switched out.
And then in other places,
specific words will be reused across songs.
I want a bed like big kids have
A nice new bed like big kids have.
But wait!
Is there something wrong?
My bed is too big!
Because of this, the number of new words that JJ's saying per song
can vary between 7 and 20.
Though the actual Cocomelon YouTube channel
has over a thousand uploads,
many of them are either old videos
without the Cocomelon cast,
repeats of songs that they've already covered,
or compilations of related content.
Because of this,
we're only going to be looking at the songs
released on the Cocomelon Kids Hits Albums,
which will lowball the number, if anything.
There are 10 songs on each of the 13 albums,
totaling 130 songs.
Doing some quick math there,
that means that on these albums,
JJ has a vocabulary of somewhere between
900 words on the low end,
and up to 2600 on the high end.
Smashing that thousand word average
that a three-year-old should probably be able to say.
Of course, the mind of every child
is going to develop differently,
some have greater aptitude
for learning new words than others,
and it is a children's cartoon after all,
but this is just more evidence
to say that JJ's age range
is probably falling a bit older
than you'd initially expect
based on his appearance.
This also lines up with two more pieces of evidence
you might not expect,
where JJ sleeps,
and more importantly, where he poops.
That is a sentence that I just said.
That is my life!
During the series, we see JJ graduate from a crib
into a new, cool, ship-themed bed.
Generally, toddlers are ready to move out of a crib
and into a toddler bed
when they're old enough to walk around
and climb out of their crib,
just like what we see with JJ,
roughly between the ages of 18 and 36 months.
Anyway, a baby will typically show signs
that they're ready for potty training
at roughly 18 months,
but some studies show that
only 40 to 60% of children
are fully trained by the age of 3.
Both are ages that fit with all our other evidence.
The toddler bed, the blonde hair,
the ability to walk,
and how much he sings.
But the thing that really cinched JJ's age for me,
believe it or not,
Shadow Puppets.
In the Shadow Puppets song,
the power goes out,
leaving the Cocomelon house in darkness,
and then Daddy decides to entertain the family
by making Shadow Puppets.
Solid dad move.
That right there is DadPat approved.
By the end of the whole thing,
everyone's joined in,
making Shadow Puppet snails,
and rabbits,
and all that good stuff.
But the really interesting thing here,
JJ joins in,
making a Shadow Puppet dog.
And here's why that's important.
Being able to make a Shadow Puppet like this
takes a lot of dexterity.
Moving each finger independently,
and then understanding how objects can move
in a three-dimensional space.
And though children can get a basic grasp
of spatial reasoning by 18 months,
to be able to do this sort of precise,
dexterous movement with their hands and fingers,
these are fine motor skills
that a child masters no earlier
than the age of 3.
For JJ to be able to do all this
in the Shadow Puppets video,
to understand how they work,
and to make one for himself,
he has got to be at least 3 years old.
But this then raises another question, loyal theorists.
Does JJ look 3 years old to you?
I don't know about you,
but his visual design skews much younger to me.
And one thing that really stands out here
is JJ's teeth,
or lack thereof.
Though each child is obviously gonna be different,
a kid's baby teeth will start coming in
as early as 5 months
with the bottom central incisors,
those bottom front teeth.
But then the rest of the teeth can pop into the mouth
between 6 and 18 months,
sometimes even as late as 3 years old.
Already though,
given what we found about JJ's age
and the fact that he has to be at least 3,
he should have most, if not all, of his teeth.
That right there?
That's suspicious.
But you know what's even more suspicious?
The only teeth he has are his top front teeth,
which should be coming in after his bottom front teeth.
Now, it's not impossible,
but it's definitely very odd.
And it tells me that something here isn't quite right.
After doing a bit of research,
if you see a kid who's JJ's age
without a majority of their teeth,
while it is possible they might just not have come in yet,
there is another possibility.
A darker possibility.
That they have come in
and have since fallen out
before they were supposed to.
That might seem like an extreme conclusion to jump to,
but this actually isn't something all that impossible
or uncommon in children.
In fact, it's a well-known disorder
known as hypophosphatasia,
or just HPP for short.
And it's not something that I would wish on anyone.
HPP is a metabolic disease
that disrupts the development of bones.
And sadly, it can affect roughly 1 in 100,000 newborns.
Basically, it disrupts a process called mineralization,
where minerals like calcium and phosphorus
are deposited into bones and teeth.
Without this crucial step,
bones just won't develop properly,
causing them to become weak
and stunting the child's growth.
It can also cause your teeth to break
or fall out prematurely,
exactly what we might be seeing here with JJ.
The lost teeth?
It's not the only sign that we can point to
regarding this diagnosis.
Just consider how short JJ is.
In the video, JJ Wants a New Bed,
we see several shots of JJ in a typical crib.
And using them,
we can see that he's the height of roughly 8 of these bars.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission,
the distance between slats on a crib
should be no bigger than 2.4 inches or 6 centimeters.
Meaning that JJ right here is just 18.9 inches tall.
48 centimeters.
That right there?
That is not big.
It is smaller than how tall a newborn baby boy
should be immediately after their birth.
Some other symptoms of HPP in infants
can include restricted movement,
an altered gait,
and skeletal deformities.
All of which we see in JJ's enlarged head
and awkwardly stiff animation
from JJ throughout the series.
HPP is a serious disease,
which can cause a lot of recurring fractures
in places like your feet or your thigh bones.
It can also lead to chronic inflammation
and joint pain later in life.
In the worst of cases,
it can even be fatal.
It's also an inherited disease.
So just like the hair and eye color,
JJ would have gotten the genes necessary
for his diseases from his parents.
This is the true dark secret of Cocomelon.
Underneath this happy family facade of nursery rhymes
and children's entertainment
isn't adoption,
it's disease.
Thankfully, this isn't one of those stories
that has to have an unhappy ending.
Though HPP is a rare disorder,
it's not impossible to live with.
And there have been plenty of advancements
in treatment made in just the last decade alone.
In 2015, for instance,
the FDA approved an enzyme replacement
that would help patients with HPP
increase their bone mineralization.
Literally helping them breathe easier.
The fact that we, here on Film Theory,
have caught this so early with JJ
means that the Cocomelon family
now has the opportunity
to get him the treatment that he needs.
A treatment that'll allow him
to live a positive, healthy life
while also opening the door
for more education about diseases like this to children.
If they can possibly fit it in
between their songs about baby sharks
and potty training.
But hey, that's just a theory.
A Film Theory.
And hey, if you wanted to learn
why baby shark is in fact adopted,
we got that video right here on the left.
Spoiler alert,
you're gonna learn a whole heck of a lot
about shark anatomy.
Or if you're in the mood for another dark theory
about children's IP,
check out our theory about
how the Paw Patrol members are all dead.
That video's on the right.
Hit the subscribe button if you haven't already
and I will see you all next week.