Dancing With The Stars fans are no strangers to picking favorites — and this season, Connor Wood is climbing the ranks. ICYMI, the comedian, podcaster, and content creator is one of the breakout stars of Season 35 due to his charming personality and sweet partnership with pro dancer, Riley Arnold. But with many DWTS fans entering the Connor Wood fandom a little later, there are bound to be some questions. The biggest one? Why do we call Connor Wood… “papa?”
If a Connor Wood fan is posting their support for the star on their Instagram Story, or cheering him on in the comments section, there’s a 98% chance they’ll refer to him as “papa.” But it’s not just fans: Under a Sept. 16 TikTok of his Week 1 dance, Walmart even commented “papa got moves” and Goodwill wrote, “PAPA DID SO WELL.” But they’re not calling Wood “papa” because he’s a father. (Wood is currently single and has no children… that we know of.) In fact, the nickname came from a June 2024 podcast episode. And a conversation around legumes.
In a June 2024 episode of his podcast Brooke And Connor Make A Podcast (co-hosted by Brooke Averick) titled “Welcome To The Bozo Bar,” Averick asks Wood where he thinks beans come from. Wood responds, saying “legumes” in an indistinguishable accent — something that, after watching several TikToks during my investigation, I realize he does pretty often.
After that, Wood and Averick begin riffing in (what sounds like) French accents, saying things like “bonjour legume” and “ciao legume” before Wood says the now-famous phrase: “Do you have any beans for papa, legume?”
@bncmap oui oui & such @Connor Wood 🐸 @Brooke Averick @TMG Studios ♬ original sound – Brooke & Connor Make a Podcast
But that’s not where the conversation ends. Averick then asks Wood who is “legume” and who is “papa” in this scenario. Wood explains that papa is not a “father figure,” saying, “Any man can be a father, it takes a special man to be a papa.”
After this, the bit continued to be referenced in future podcast episodes, and fans adopted “papa” as a nickname for Wood. Why? Well, why not?
The duo even revisited the “papa lore” in a September 2026 episode of their podcast, where Averick and Wood did a deep dive to find the origins of the nickname. “There are brands in my DMs [saying], ‘Hi papa,'” Wood said. “Every brand, by the way, is [writing] ‘Hey papa! Hey papa!'”
Wood doesn’t seem to mind the nickname, though. In fact, he’s embraced it. “Papa [is] touching the beans of America,” he said in the podcast. Well, the more you know, I guess.