That Crazy Round Sun Is Up Again

“That crazy round sun is up again” is a phrase used to greet sunrise with resignation rather than gladness. It twists the opening line of the Korean children’s song “The Round Sun Has Risen,” loading the cheerful original with the opposite feeling. It is used mainly after pulling an all-nighter and noticing the sky brightening outside, or when facing another day on almost no sleep. Grammatically the “crazy” thing is the sun, but what the phrase is really aimed at is the day starting over.

It came into wide use from the middle of 2024 on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and YouTube Shorts. Idol fan accounts in particular quoted it repeatedly as shorthand for having stayed up all night, and because it is short enough to need no explanation, it settled in as a set phrase for all-nighters, overtime and insomnia.

The post or image where the phrase first appeared, however, has not been identified. Korean communities have repeatedly asked where it came from without pinning down the first user or the date, and this entry likewise records nothing about its origin beyond what has been confirmed.