Berlin producers' song 'Gut genug' becomes a global meme, misheard as 'Doobie Scoot Canoe' in the US
A track by Berlin production team KitschKrieg, featuring Blumengarten and Shirin David, has turned into an international phenomenon after US celebrities and the football World Cup picked up its hook.
From a demo to a world hit
The song "Gut genug" began as an unreleased demo by the German duo Blumengarten. Producers Christoph Erkes and Christian Meyerholz, known as KitschKrieg, asked to hear their shelved ideas and found the track that would become the first single for their album "KITSCHKRIEG ZWEI". In the studio they reworked the chords while keeping the core hook, sung in a distinctive high falsetto by Rayan Djima.
The hookline was already in the demo, but we changed the chords, so it feels different. The main words you hear now were already there.
Early viral spread in Germany
After its release in May 2026, social media users began layering the hook under their clips. Phonetic variations emerged, such as "Arbeitszeitbetruuuuuuuug" (working time fraud) and, during a heatwave, "Es ist warm genuuuuuuuug" (it's warm enough). The meme format proved highly adaptable.
There were early text messages between us and Rayan where we said: This is a world hit. As you do. Of course we didn't know it would really happen.
Crossing the Atlantic
One morning the Berlin-based producers woke to a flood of notifications from US users on Instagram and TikTok. A clip had been discovered by the American internet community, and soon celebrities like Lizzo, Doja Cat and Wiz Khalifa were posting videos set to the German words "Du bist gut genug".
That's pretty wild, right? It's really funny.
The 'Doobie Scoot Canoe' wave
American listeners, unfamiliar with the German lyrics, misheard the phrase as "Doobie Scoot Canoe". This phonetic reinterpretation became a meme in its own right on TikTok and Instagram, then rolled back to Germany. The song was suddenly everywhere: in schoolyards, in Instagram Reels, and even playing a role at the 2026 football World Cup.
It has a big influence nowadays in this internet culture, what the American influencers and kids do. And then suddenly it was everywhere here, even in schoolyards. Then we felt that the hype left the internet and arrived in the real world.
A language-blind hit
The producers, spending late June in New York's Greenwich Village to build on the momentum, are struck by how little language mattered. A German-language hook, carried by melody and internet culture, became a global singalong.
- Song 'Gut genug' released as first single from 'KITSCHKRIEG ZWEI'
- German social media users begin overlaying the hook on clips, spawning phonetic memes
- US internet community discovers the meme; Lizzo, Doja Cat and Wiz Khalifa post videos
- Misheard lyric 'Doobie Scoot Canoe' becomes a separate meme and spreads back to Germany
- Song appears at the 2026 football World Cup; producers visit New York to promote the hit
