Everyone needs Corn Kid in their life.
Have you heard someone telling you to have a “corn-tastic” day lately? The delicious, often under appreciated vegetable is having a serious moment right now, and that’s not just because people are relishing the final weeks of summer. It actually has more to do with a seven-year-old boy named Tariq who recently went viral for his effusive love of corn.
Tariq, now forever known as “Corn Kid,” recently appeared in a video on Recess Therapy, a social media account known for sharing adorable and often nonsensical videos of children talking about random subjects. In the video, Tariq explained to interviewer Julian Shapiro-Barnum that he “really likes” corn. When asked why he loved the summer vegetable, he replied casually, “Ever since I was told that corn was real, it tasted good. But when I tried it with butter, everything changed! I love corn.”
The video goes on, and there are a number of adorable moments — in fact, the whole video was so charming (and hysterical) that it went viral on TikTok, before eventually taking over the internet completely.
Now, Corn Kid has become one of the rare unicorns on social media who’s managed to maintain virality for weeks on end. In fact, it appears his celebrity just expanded by quite a bit, thanks to this new honor he received from the state of South Dakota.
Corn Kid is now a Corn-Bassador, according to the state of South Dakota
Over the weekend, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem named Tariq the official “Corn-Bassador” for the state. She also shared a number of photos that showed Tariq visiting the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. The official proclamation for Tariq’s Corn-Bassadorship included a wide range of veggie-friendly wordplay, including a section that read, “Tariq’s a-maize-ing endorsement contains more than a kernel of truth and has reached ears across the world via social media.”
According to local media, Tariq’s Corn-Bassador position doesn’t just end with a trip to the Corn Palace and a photo opp. He’s also been given a scholarship to study agrotourism efforts in the area, though it’s unclear what that will look like or when that will happen.
For those worrying how much Tariq, himself, gets to cash in on his own corny namesake, you can rest slightly assured that he will get to profit from his virality, too. The Recess Therapy account recently announced that a song based off of his viral corn comments will be available to stream on Spotify, YouTube, and other streaming networks, and that Tariq and his family will receive half of the proceeds from those streams.
Tariq also has an account on Cameo now, which means that people can pay him a starting price of $220 to send a brief video wishing someone a corn-tastic day. Talk about the perfect gift for the corn-lover in your life.
