John Roderick, the leader of the indie rock group the Long Winters, has been dubbed "Bean Dad" by the internet after a tweet about teaching his daughter how to open a can of beans went viral. On Saturday evening, Roderick sent out a very long thread detailing his 9-year-old daughter's alleged struggle with the functionality of a can opener.
"So, yesterday my daughter (9) was hungry and I was doing a jigsaw puzzle so I said over my shoulder “make some baked beans,'" the tweet thread begins. "She said, 'How?' like all kids do when they want YOU to do it, so I said, 'Open a can and put it in pot.' She brought me the can and said Open it how?'"
After many hours and a lot of finagling, the can was opened. The thread has become a lightning rod on Twitter, as threads are wont to do, with some saying it's a fine way to teach your kid how to use a can opener and others wondering why he didn't just open the damn can for her.
https://twitter.com/johnroderick/status/1345820966513905665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The Long Winters haven't released an album since 2006. Nowadays, Roderick mostly hosts podcasts, including Omnibus with Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings.
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UPDATE: Roderick deleted his Twitter account on Sunday after old tweets using racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic language were dug up. The podcast My Brother, My Brother, & Me -- which used a song that Roderick wrote for its theme music -- announced that they would no longer be using Roderick's music on the show.
We appreciate John letting us use one of his songs as the theme for MBMBaM for nearly a decade, but his response to today’s situation is emblematic of a pattern of behavior that is antithetical to the energy we try to bring to the things we do, and so it’s time for us to move on.
— MBMBaM (@MBMBaM) January 3, 2021
Here's the full tweet thread for posterity's sake:
In case you missed Bean Dad aka john roderick before he deleted his Twitter account, this is what started it all. pic.twitter.com/KCKRP3099c
— ManiacalV (ColinT) (@ManiacalV) January 3, 2021
His podcast co-host Ken Jennings has been defending Roderick on Twitter.
