What is the Nanalan “wonderful girl” puppet? Viral character explained

Nanalan, the “who’s that wonderful girl?” character is trending online, but where does it come from? Well, the creator has recreated the original puppet. 

If you’ve found yourself scrolling through social media this past month, then chances are you’ve stumbled across an array of videos featuring the iconic “Who’s that wonderful girl,” meme. 

The TikTok video, which features characters from the famous children’s TV show, Nanalan, has gained a lot of traction on social media.

In the video, we see Mona, who is dressed as a pink princess, enter the frame, as her grandmother plays the organ, to the dulcet tones of “Who’s that wonderful girl.”

“Could she be any cuter?” the lyrics ask, before repeating, “Who’s that wonderful girl? Oh look! Here comes a suitor,” at which point Russel, the grandmother’s dog arrives, dressed as a royal courtier. 

The video has subsequently been the subject of many memes. The original meme video, which gained over nine point five million views, was overlaid with text reading, “When the clothes you ordered arrive and you treat the family to a fashion show.”

Most however, pertain to romantic relationships, with another overlaid with “My man hyping me up after I had a mental breakdown trying to find an outfit to wear.”

Another reads: “My boyfriend when I finally recover from my full blown meltdown and drop my attitude from a fight I started.” 

Where does the wonderful girl puppet come from?

The meme originates from the show ‘Nanalan,’ which featured on Canadian children’s TV 20 years ago. It eventually became so popular that it was featured on CBC, Nickelodeon and PBS for Kids.

The show’s creator modelled it after his own grandmother, explaining: “Nanalan’ is short for ‘Nana Land’, which is what I called my nana’s backyard. It’s about a little girl in that backyard.”

“Mom drops Mona off at her nana’s everyday and goes to work, just like a lot of people’s situations. We were so lucky to do it without scripts, improvised.”

Nanalan creator recreates “wonderful girl” puppet after 20 years

It’s safe to say that despite its popularity, Nanalan didn’t hit public consciousness on the same scale as it did in 2023. 

The creator, who has a YouTube account, where they regularly post previous clips from the show, surged in popularity as he joined in with the fanfare. 

In a viral video, he revealed the famous “wonderful girl” puppet, named Mona in the show, which he’d recreated. The text overlay on the video reads, “When you ARE that wonderful girl, and you feel like you’ve been in a box for 20 years.”

The video gained a lot of attention, with a lot of excited viewers pleased to see the puppet after all these years. 

“I LOVE YOU MONA”, one excited viewer proclaimed, clearly happy to witness her return.

Another wrote: “I’d love to have a tutorial on how to build your own Mona.” 

Despite forgoing her princess attire in the aforementioned video, Mona is still most certainly, a wonderful girl.