All hail the Shirley Temple King, a viral internet sensation who has taken the hearts of the world by storm. Going restaurant to restaurant, the adorable 6-year-old reviews Shirley Temples with scathing critiques, posting the videos onto his ever-growing Instagram.
Real name Leo Kelly, the Shirley Temple King is a bright-eyed and blissfully innocent elementary schooler who has an absolution fascination with the Shirley Temple. Non-alcoholic of course, this drink is the combination of ginger ale and grenadine. Sometimes the ginger ale is replaced with Sprite or 7-Up, but the King respects them nonetheless. In reviewing these drinks, which usually have cherries in them, Leo Kelly rose fame.
With brutally honest reviews, the King will not show mercy to anyone. If you fail to make the perfect Shirley Temple, then you will be told so. Growing to such popular heights in the span of such a small time, (just a week ago he had around 90k followers and now sits at 200k), it would come as no surprise to see the little legend debut on a television show like Ellen in no time.
A King was born when People Food Editor Shay Spence tweeted one of Leo’s videos on January 28, adding, “It’s so pure and I love him so much.” Chrissy Teigen replied as she usually does, and then the clip quickly passed 3 million views. The young legend’s follower count has been increasing ever since.
The young King doesn’t ever outline a specific grading rubric, but the reviews make his priorities clear:
- You have to have cherries. No cherries is a big failure on your end.
- It’s just gotta be fizzy.
- Avoid plastic cups if you can. The King appreciates glass.
- You can’t have too much grenadine or ginger ale. Aim for balance.
The popular account, however, isn’t run by Leo. His parents kickstarted the whole thing back in August 2019, and introduced the world to the scathing reviews of this amazing young kid who we support wholeheartedly.
Leo, whose parents started the account for him back in August, isn’t afraid to eviscerate a restaurant’s weak attempt at a Shirley Temple. Working from a 10-point scale that’s beautifully vague, he’s already handed out two flat zeros.
