H2O: Just Add Water, the much-loved early-2000s Aussie tween drama centred around a group of teen girls who turn into mermaids, is currently having a moment on TikTok, especially with American users.
How did this start? No-one really knows, it seems to be one of those random internet trends that we are so glad happened. It was first picked up by Twitter user @neonfiona, who shared TikTok user @franck.ruggerineti’s video of him simultaneously acting out the three main gals, Cleo, Rikki and Emma, in a mockery of how the characters get super weird during the full moon, easily the most ridiculous part of the series (and yes I know it is a fantasy mermaid show).
A water tentacle? Moonstruck? Who writes this stuff?
i could listen to people say “Cleo” in really bad Aussie accents all day pic.twitter.com/ouxUNEMzHJ
— fiona 💞 (@neonfiona) July 22, 2019
His imitation of the Australian accent is questionable, to say the least, but he does give us some quality zingers:
“Kleor woteva you do, don’t open the windawe”
“Kleor nor”
“I want to go in the wort-ah”
The trend’s popularity peaked on 28 July when Brad Esposito, a reporter for Pedestrian, linked to a thread of H2O TikTok videos where teens were acting out and creating parodies of certain ‘dramatic’ scenes from the TV show. They were essentially roasting the show and absolutely destroyed the Australian accent in the process.
Weirdest thing right now is American teens have somehow found out about Australian tween drama classic “H2O” and are flooding tiktok with stuff like this pic.twitter.com/liPSty3jsC
— brad esposito 🍃 (@bradesposito) July 28, 2019
like how do we as a nation recover pic.twitter.com/ZnIV0fi12T
— brad esposito 🍃 (@bradesposito) July 28, 2019
Their attempts at pronouncing the main characters’ names, and saying “water” and other random words in an Aussie accent are a mix between hilarious, insulting, and downright mind-boggling. Is that really how they think we talk? I knew our accent was rough, but I’m genuinely concerned about how bad it is, and the lack of self-awareness we have about it.
why’d she say water like that i hate americans https://t.co/FLg0KJLCaM
— lucas (@thickshke) July 28, 2019
like whyyy pic.twitter.com/aFh7xI4l4q
— brad esposito 🍃 (@bradesposito) July 28, 2019
While it may seem like Americans have just discovered our national treasure, H20: Just Add Water has apparently been airing in the US on Nickelodeon since 2009, just a few years after it debuted in Australia. Its popularity sparked a spinoff series titled Mako Mermaids, as well as an animated Netflix original series, H2O: Mermaid Adventures. You can find all three shows on Australian and US Netflix, so it still has an active audience – whether they are a new generation of tweens appreciating the show, or nostalgic millennials and Gen Z-ers re-living their childhood.
If you were an Australian girl who grew up watching H2O: Just Add Water, chances are we all had a very similar childhood. Summers were spent at the beach or local pool trying to hold your breath for as long as you could underwater, and burning your eyes with chlorine or saltwater trying to keep them open – because mermaids don’t wear goggles! My little sister, our friend next door and I spent countless afternoons after school playing on the swing set in our back yard – the green one every Aussie 90s kid had – pretending it was our Mako Island. We decided who got to be Emma, Cleo, or Rikki based on our hair colour, and we argued over who would get to be with Lewis, the heartthrob of 2006.
Despite the merciless butchering of our accent, this TikTok trend has to be the most entertaining yet. It’s both an endearing tribute to a much-loved children’s television show, a piss-take at its ridiculousness, and a brutal roast of our accent. It’s a bit of fun which has evoked a collective nostalgia for childhood and old school Aussie TV shows, and just as long as we keep Round the Twist from being discovered by the Americans and becoming the next TikTok trend, hopefully, the roasts will stop with H2O.
why do i laugh so much at this lmaooo. h20 just add water pic.twitter.com/zO52ntl3pA
— hollie loves joanne☀️ (@holliewheatleyy) July 26, 2019
“Khleor, you’re a sloot”
Ok that’s enough, the accents have wrecked my eardrums.