Sheโs going to a restaurant. Sheโs ordering takeout. Sheโs getting in an Uber.
In every instance, she makes sure to drop her name: Chanty Beluga.
Who is this smiling, millennial blonde woman whose videos have gone viral on TikTok? And where did that hypnotic and unique name come from?
Hereโs what to know.
Who Is Chanty Beluga?
The character is the alter ego of comedian and actor Courtney OโDonnell, who posts TikTok videos of herself as Chanty Beluga.
Cheerful and demurely dressed, Chanty Beluga is always finding herself in situations where she has to use her goofy name. Sheโs checking in at a restaurant, ordering takeout, and introducing herself at a pool party.
The videos are quick and simple. Just a woman casually saying her ridiculous name, which seems to roll off the tongue and promote repeat listening. The character has already spawned multiple fan accounts on TikTok.
โThis is so dumb and I see myself becoming rapidly obsessed with it,โ one follower commented on a TikTok video of Chanty at a coffee shop. โNo notes. Just a woman named Chanty Beluga in situations where she makes her name known.โ
โClassic Chanty,โ another one wrote.
โI would die for Chanty Beluga,โ another commented.
Who Is Courtney OโDonnell, the Inventor of Chanty Beluga?
OโDonnell is a Los Angeles-based comedian who has a separate TikTok account under her real name. She posts short comedy skits as different, non-Chanty Beluga characters, from the host of the fictional โYup, She Went Thereโ podcast to a divorcรฉe singing through the heartbreak.
She posted her first Chanty Beluga video on July 28 introducing herself, and it was a hit with nearly 500,000 views.
OโDonnell told Rolling Stone that she came up with the catchy name in the middle of the night while filming the upcoming comedy โStephanie, Bride to Beโ in Brooklyn, New York. She and the cast were โbeing sillyโ when it popped into her head.
โAnd I said, โHi, my nameโs Chanty,โ and we thought that was funny,โ she said. โI was like, โActually, my name is Chanty Beluga.โ We said the full name, and it seriously went viral in the room. We just could not stop saying Chanty Beluga. And I said, โHi, my nameโs Chanty,โ and we thought that was funny.โ
Why Does the Internet Love Chanty Beluga?
The Chanty Beluga skits are so short, they allow OโDonnellโs followers to have fun by building out a longer story for the character.
โChanty doesnโt play abt her takeout,โ one follower commented on a video of Chanty Beluga ordering food.
โOMG IMAGINE BEING THE WORKER AND THE CHANTY BELUGA CALLS IN,โ another joked.
The blank canvas of a character whoโs not much beyond a funny name allows the internet to take it and run with it.
โSheโs a Barbie doll. Sheโs a paper doll. You can put her in any situation. She can do anything,โ OโDonnell told Rolling Stone. โI had this instinct to really build her up and create this crazy backstory, but I thought it was more interesting to allow the internet to create its own.โ
Count Major League Baseball among those followers. The MLB X account posted on Aug. 18 that a woman named โChanty Belugaโ was presenting that dayโs schedule of baseball games.
โSometimes you go viral for something that you didnโt connect to, and I actually think this is really fun,โ OโDonnell told USA Today. โI love pretending to be this woman on the internet whoโs sort of quirky and basic and talking to people in the comments like Iโm her.โ
Then thereโs one simple reason. Saying โChanty Belugaโ is fun.
โSomething about the intonation of the words that feels like crack to say,โ OโDonnell told Rolling Stone. โSomething about the intonation of the words that feels like crack to say.โ
Now the question is whether Chanty Beluga will reach the internet heights of 6-7 before people inevitably have had enough.
โI like the idea that she is the 6-7 for the girls and the gays,โ OโDonnell told USA Today. โThat would be really amazing. I donโt know. Weโll have to see. Iโd be very happy. These things have a short shelf life, so Iโm happy to just kind of be a part of it for now and let people have their fun. If we see some Halloween costumes, I wonโt be mad.โ