There’s a particular sequence of sounds that many, if not all, of us would remember by heart: two rings of the phone, a high-pitched female voice saying “Can I help you?”, some dog barks, and then “Ai ai ai, I’m your little butterfly.”
This is what would play if you pressed on the buttons of any toy phones produced in the 1990s and 2000s, likely made in China and distributed to all casual toy shops around the world. These phones come in a vast array of appearances and brandings depending on whatever cultural products that were popular to youngsters at the time of production, from Batman phones to Barbie phones to Pokémon phones. They, however, would all play this sound clip. The other sounds are generic enough, but what in the world is that song?
Not knowing English as a child, I only realized a few years ago that those lyrics were in English, and until recently, I would assume that it was a Chinese song with random English words thrown in. It was, in fact, the chorus of ‘Butterfly,’ a song by Swedish bubblegum dance duo Smile.dk.
An Asian wave was sweeping past the western cultural landscapes of the late 1990s and defined much of the Y2K era. It wasn’t discerning enough to take informed inspirations from specific nations, but more a vague mishmash of Oriental tropes: chopsticks in hairstyles, cheongsam-esque shirts, bamboo patterns, typefaces that ripped off katakana characters, etc.
Smile.dk made a career out of these proto-weeaboo appropriations, releasing songs like ‘Doki Doki’ and ‘Moshi Moshi.’ ‘Butterfly’ itself references samurai and includes zither-like instrumentation on a techno backdrop. The music video, however, is like a fever dream awash in Y2K futurism, crude 3D animatronics, white women wearing dreadlocks, and flat-textured butterflies. It’s a lot.
The song likely made the cross into Asian consciousness from November 1998 when it was licensed by Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution, an arcade game involving players stomping on dance pads, in Japan. The game and ‘Butterfly’ quickly gained popularity in Asia, so much so that Smile.dk became the first foreign act to perform on South Korea’s SBS Inkigayo in 1999. While the song was known in China, it’s still unclear how it came to be selected for toy phone production.
On the technical side, a single company in China probably manufactured all the sound chips with the sound sequence written, and most toy companies assembled plastic phones using these ready-made chips. Could it have been thanks to a Dance Dance Revolution fan who happened to have the decision-making power in the sound ship company? Either way, because of the phone sample, Smile.dk has since gained a cult following and become a global meme amongst those in the know. Cheap Chinese toy phones are now referred to as “butterfly phones” and the band even toured China in 2016.
Photo via Flickr user morecoffeeplease.
