What do Queen Elizabeth II and Ozzy Osbourne have in common? One wore the Crown, the other was the Prince of Darkness, and both have been reincarnated as the children of Trisha Paytas – according to the internet.
In September 2022, a social media theory took off, suggesting that Trisha Paytas, 37 – a YouTube vlogger with 5million subscribers on the platform -had given birth to the reincarnation of Queen Elizabeth II.
If you’re unfamiliar with Trisha, a short list of the things she’s known for includes tearfully declaring she identifies as a chicken nugget, asking with perfect sincerity if Jesus paid taxes, and filming dozens of emotional breakdowns on her kitchen floor to ever-increasing viewership.
What does this have to do with the Queen or the beloved lead singer of Black Sabbath? Well, the reincarnation concept was fueled by (divine) timing: Queen Elizabeth died on September 8, and Trisha gave birth to her daughter, Malibu Barbie Paytas-Hacmon, just six days later.
So, of course, it follows that Trisha’s next baby would contain the cosmic spark of another British icon, albeit on the opposite end of the spectrum.
As a result, yesterday, when she announced the birth of her third child, Aquaman Moses Paytas-Hacmon (no, seriously, that’s what she named her human baby), on the same day that the news broke that Ozzy Osbourne died at 76, people just about snapped their thumbs rushing to reshare the baby announcement with the caption: ‘Welcome back Ozzy Osbourne.’
Adding another layer to the melee, Trisha named her new baby Aquaman – a direct nod to the DC superhero portrayed by Jason Momoa in the 2018 film.
In a surreal twist of pop culture synchronicity, Momoa hosted Ozzy Osbourne’s Black Sabbath farewell concert just 16 days before Osbourne’s death was announced.
The coincidences have been far too much for some people to handle rationally, some of whom now seem earnestly convinced that Trisha Paytas’ womb is a portal of reincarnation.
A few are even arguing that Trisha’s second child, Elvis, is a reincarnation of Pope Francis (despite there being nearly a year between the child’s birth and the leader of the Catholic church’s death, but why let logic get in the way of a good time?).
As silly as the meme is, for many fans, it’s a playful way to mourn Ozzy, with the comforting idea that maybe – somehow, someway – he’s still with us in spirit.
Trisha, for her part, has yet to comment on the Aquaman-Ozzy theory (as it will no doubt be short-handed in academia for years to come), but, knowing her, she will have something to say, and it’ll only fuel the gleeful chaos and meme-making.
Some people are even wondering: Did Trisha choose to announce the birth of her baby on the same day as Ozzy’s death, fully aware of the meme renaissance it would spark?
Did she pick Aquaman as her son’s name as a subtle connection to the rocker? Could anyone be that calculated?
Part of Trisha’s appeal as an entertainer is that its impossible to determine whether she’s in on the joke of her own persona – which, if intentional, would make her one of the most profoundly subversive and insightful performance artists of this or any generation (Marina Abromivic could never make the Chicken Nugget video, but Trisha Paytas could totally make Rhythm 0).
The other option? Trisha is genuinely oblivious to the surreal absurdity she embodies, making her a tragic and poignant anthropological study of how the digital performance of self subsumes authentic personhood in the internet age (or something like that; you get the vibe).
Meaning…she earnestly named her newborn Aquaman Moses, and it was just a coincidence that the timing of her children’s births aligned with the deaths of global icons.
To put it more simply: No one knows if they’re laughing with or at Trisha Paytas and the reincarnation theory – they just know they’re laughing.
She’s a glittering car crash of modern internet identity worthy of an entire graduate-level course in a media studies department – and we’ll probably never truly know if she’s behind her latest bout of internet mega fame.
The YouTuber did respond to the original Queen Elizabeth theory in 2022, saying with deadpan earnestness that just fed into the joke: ‘I still don’t get the correlation between the two. But I did not have my baby and there is no reincarnation of the Queen in my baby.’
Now, as yet another chapter in the Trisha Paytas Reincarnation Extended Universe unfolds, all we can do is brace ourselves – and maybe start placing bets.
Will her fourth child arrive the same day as Paul McCartney’s eventual departure? David Attenborough? Peppa Pig?!
One thing’s certain: if the internet is a religion, Trisha Paytas might just be its high priestess, its sacred fool, and its glitching oracle – all rolled into one and crying on the kitchen floor.
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