On April 16, Grammy-winning songwriter Shane McAnally posted an Instagram Reel of his five-month-old son, Texson Ray, sitting with his husband, Michael Baum. Baum asks the baby who he wants — “Dada or Pop?” The baby babbles what sounds like “mama.” Baum laughs. “No, there is no mama.” The baby cries. McAnally, filming, laughs.
The Reel was captioned “who’s gonna tell him?” and overlaid with the text “baby has 2 dads… chose neither.” The hashtags were #comedy and #standup.
Within 48 hours, a single repost on the Right Angle News Network account had reached 6.8 million views. The clip had drawn public reactions from Michael Knowles and Tim Pool, triggered a statement from Concerned Women for America, and produced a MailOnline interview in which McAnally defended it.
Two gay men in Nashville are sparking nationwide outrage after recording a video of themselves mocking the baby they had via surrogacy as it cries for its mother for content.
Man: “Who do you want, Dada or Pop?”
Baby: “Mama”
Man: “No, there is no mama.”
Baby: cries pic.twitter.com/ym3ujfdS0Q
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) April 16, 2026
Not the first one
This was not McAnally’s first “homophobic baby” video. In December 2025, when Texson was six weeks old, McAnally posted a clip of the infant furrowing his brow at the mention of his two dads. The caption: “6 week old homophobic baby.”
That clip has been viewed more than 36 million times and remains pinned to the top of his Instagram page. McAnally has posted other videos in the same format in the months since — the infant filmed reacting, on camera, to being told he has two fathers.
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The April 16 Reel shares their format. It shares their hashtags. It shares their punchline.
The second act
The April 16 Reel was not a home video. It was standup material.
In May 2025, McAnally debuted a one-hour standup show at the Bluebird Café in Nashville. By fall, Walker Hayes had invited him to open 10 dates on his Unplugged tour. McAnally told People last October that his act covers his song inspirations, his Texas upbringing, and, in his own phrasing, “his life as a gay dad.”
The Reel carried the hashtags #comedy and #standup. The caption — “who’s gonna tell him?” — is structured as a setup. The baby’s cry is the payoff. It is the same format McAnally has been running on his Instagram since Texson was six weeks old, and the same premise he has been performing on stage for a year.
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The clip that 13 million people saw was part of his act.
“We found it hilarious,” he told MailOnline
Speaking to MailOnline on April 17, McAnally defended the clip. “We found it hilarious,” he said. “He’s five months old, he obviously doesn’t understand English.” He added that he felt some people had taken it “out of context” and was “appalled by what some people have been saying.” On the critique that the baby was crying for his mother, McAnally said: “Babies usually say dada first, but people wouldn’t then say the babies are only wanting their dads? It doesn’t really make sense.”
By that point, the context had expanded. Tim Pool wrote “This is fuck–g depraved evil my god.” Daily Wire host Michael Knowles called the clip “the most horrifying video I’ve ever seen in my life.” Concerned Women for America issued a formal statement: “Children deserve better than this.” A Cornell-housed research summary on outcomes for children of same-sex parents began circulating in McAnally’s defense.
The most horrifying video I’ve ever seen in my life. https://t.co/y4QiI83jdc
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) April 16, 2026
The second act from here
McAnally’s 10-date opening run for Walker Hayes is behind him. The premise he has been developing for his new comedy act since December — the homophobic-baby bit, the “who’s gonna tell him?” setup, the infant’s reaction as the payoff — is now indexed, clipped, and owned by audiences he was not writing for.
Tim Pool’s followers have it. Michael Knowles’s readers have it. Concerned Women for America has it on record as an argument against commercial surrogacy.
What a second act looks like from here — whether the material survives, whether the country-circuit bookings hold, whether the “hilarious” framing holds — is the question the latest installment leaves open.