Parry Gripp facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Parry Gripp
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Gripp in 2016
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Parry Pillsbury Gripp
September 22, 1967 |
| Education | UC Santa Barbara |
| Occupation |
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| Title | Co-owner of Santa Barbara Orchid Estate |
| Spouse(s) | Aylene Rhiger |
| Awards | Daytime Creative Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song |
| Musical career | |
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| Years active | 1994–present |
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| YouTube information | |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Subscribers | 1.4 million |
| Total views | 705.4 million |
| Subscriber and view counts updated as of April 5, 2025. | |
Parry Pillsbury Gripp (born September 22, 1967) is a super creative American songwriter, singer, and musician. He's best known as the lead singer and guitarist for the fun pop-punk band Nerf Herder, which started way back in 1994. Parry Gripp also writes awesome and funny novelty songs especially for kids, and you might have heard his music on Disney TV shows!
Contents
Early Life and Music Beginnings
Parry Pillsbury Gripp was born in Santa Barbara on September 22, 1967. He grew up in Goleta. Parry and his sister Alice now own the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate, a special plant business. His dad, Paul Gripp, bought the estate in 1967 and ran it for many years.
Parry went to the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1994, he helped form the band Nerf Herder. He became their lead singer and guitarist.
Parry Gripp's Music Style
Nerf Herder's Fun Songs
Parry Gripp's band, Nerf Herder, is known for its funny and playful songs. Their music often talks about pop culture and uses humor. They are part of the pop-punk and geek rock music styles.
Nerf Herder songs often use references from movies or games to talk about real-life feelings. For example, a song called "Ghostbusters III" used the idea of a movie that never happened to describe dreams that might not come true. Their songs usually have a strong bass sound, like punk music, mixed with cool synthesizer sounds. Parry has also worked with other musicians like MC Lars and MC Frontalot.
Creative Jingles and Silly Songs
As a songwriter, Parry Gripp loves to make up fake jingles, which are like short advertising songs. In 2005, he released an album called For Those About to Shop, We Salute You. This album had 51 songs that sounded like commercials for different products, but they were all just for fun!
Parry also started a "song-of-the-week" website in 2007 and a YouTube channel in 2006. On his YouTube channel, he creates music for popular internet memes and makes music videos for his own funny novelty songs.
Real Advertising and TV Music
Besides his fake jingles, Parry Gripp has also written music for real advertisements. He created Beatles-inspired songs for Wawa Food Markets' Hoagiefests. He also wrote songs for the Hallmark Cards characters Hoops & Yoyo.
Parry Gripp has written and performed theme songs for many popular TV shows. These include The Super Hero Squad Show, Ben 10: Omniverse, The 7D, and StoryBots Super Songs.
He even teamed up with MC Lars for a song called "Guitar Hero Hero." This song was about how video games like Guitar Hero might stop kids from learning to play real instruments in a band.
In 2009, Parry debuted a song called "The Girl at the Video Game Store" for the 1000th episode of the G4 TV show Attack of the Show!. The show's hosts, Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira, were in the music video.
In 2013, Parry recorded "Backyard Hodge Podge" for the kids' TV show Phineas and Ferb. He even appeared as an animated character in that episode!
He also writes and performs songs for the Netflix children's show StoryBots Super Songs, which is a spin-off of Ask the StoryBots.
Fun Songs for Kids
Parry Gripp writes many songs just for children. He has over 232 kid-friendly songs on his YouTube channel, which have been watched over 523 million times! He has released five albums for kids, including Do You Like Waffles?, Fuzzy Fuzzy Cute Cute, Vol. 1, and Jingle Burgers.
One of his most famous songs, "Raining Tacos", became super popular online between 2014 and 2019, especially with players of the game Roblox. The city of West Palm Beach even used it to try and keep homeless people from gathering in certain areas, along with the song "Baby Shark". Parry Gripp asked them to stop using his song and donated money to homeless shelters. "It's Raining Tacos" was also featured in an Amazon.com advertisement in 2017.
Recurring Themes in His Music
Parry Gripp often includes fun themes in his songs.
Captain Kirk and Other Characters
The character Captain Kirk from Star Trek is a special theme in Nerf Herder's songs. For example, in the music video for "Mr. Spock," Parry dresses like Captain Kirk. The song jokes that even though Captain Kirk is a hero, girls prefer Mr. Spock. In "At the Con," he sings about dressing up as Kirk at comic book conventions.
Parry also sings about his childhood crush, Vivian, in songs like "Born Weird" and "Vivian." Another common theme in Nerf Herder songs is about liking girls who enjoy specific types of music or bands, like in "The Girl Who Listened to Rush" or "New Wave Girl."
Food and Animals
In his solo songs, Parry Gripp often sings about animals and food. He even has special playlists on Spotify for these themes. For example, "The Raining Tacos Saga" includes songs like "Raining Tacos," "TacoBot 3000," and "Quesadilla Explosion," all about yummy Mexican food. His "Scary Parry Gripp Halloween Playlist" has songs like "Zombies Want Your Candy" and "Haunted Cupcake," which mix spooky Halloween fun with animals or food.
Awards
Parry Gripp has won awards for his amazing songs. In 2017, he won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song for "I'm Not Very Nice."
Discography
Parry Gripp has released many albums, both with Nerf Herder and as a solo artist.
- For Those About to Shop, We Salute You (2005)
- Do You Like Waffles? (2008)
- Jingle Burgers – A Parry Gripp Christmas Album (2020)
