‘Bean Dad’ becomes Twitter’s first ‘main character’ of 2021

If you ventured onto Twitter during the first weekend of 2021, you were probably wondering why everyone was talking about beans.

The answer: “Bean Dad” became Twitter’s first “main character” of the year, the person who has such a bad take that people feel compelled to dunk on them. 

On Saturday evening, musician and podcaster John Roderick shared a tale about his hungry 9-year-old daughter wanting some baked beans. Twenty-three tweets later, we got the full story.

Basically, the child wanted to eat the baked beans. Roderick saw this as a “teaching moment.” He wanted her to open the can herself. His daughter did not understand how a can opener worked because she is 9 years old. Roderick wanted her to figure out how the can opener worked herself. Six hours later, the frustrated 9-year-old figured out how to open the can of beans with the can opener.

The story, and the tone in which it was told, infuriated Twitter. “She’s 9,” “Apocalypse Dad,” and an exasperated all-caps “SIX HOURS” trended on Twitter all Sunday morning.

People also had jokes.

The Bean Dad discourse was so much that people felt they had to take part.

Bean Dad obviously had to respond to the negative responses.

Now, as a father of two children (a 5-year-old and a 1-and-a-half year old), I can tell you that I personally would not make my children spend six hours trying to figure out how to open a can of beans. I also try to avoid criticizing other parenting “styles.” 

Roderick took 23 tweets to tell a story in the most condescending way possible. It’s something you would you do if you were trying to make readers hate you.

And that’s what made me think this whole story was written purposefully just to get a rise out of people. A fan of Roderick’s podcast agrees.

This tracks, especially when you take into consideration that Ken Jennings of Jeopardy! fame is his podcast co-host.

So, what’s the moral of this story?

It’s not about parenting, or beans, or joke writing. To me, the moral of the story was perfectly crafted by Twitter user @maplecocaine back in 2019.

Every day, one person’s take on Twitter is so hot, it sets off an avalanche of criticism, turning that person into the day’s “main character.” 

Even though we are in a brand-new year, full of new hopes and dreams… some things remain the same.

UPDATE: Jan. 3, 2021, 4:51 p.m. ET: One of the consequences of being Twitter’s “main character” of the day is that people start really looking into your background. 

As old tweets of Roderick’s are brought to light, perhaps it’s time for him to take after his podcast cohost, Ken Jennings, who recently had to apologize for his own old, insensitive tweets.

UPDATE: Jan. 3, 2021, 5:43 p.m. ET: The Twitter account for the podcast, “My Brother, My Brother, and Me,” announced it would no longer be using Roderick’s music on the show.