"I don't know where my father is!"

Peregrine has been saying this for months now. (Actually, it's "I no know my father is!" but it translates into the above.)

We have no idea what it means.

I have racked my brains to figure out what book or song or video he's quoting. I haven't figured it out.

The first couple of times he said it were out of the blue. Now he says it because he knows I (and everyone else) think it's funny.

But I've started answering him, because usually, there's a pretty straightforward answer. Like, you know, across the room or something like that.

We've even told him outright that Daddy is his father. It goes in one ear and out the other.

And while he says it now to be funny, his response to my answers is still completely spontaneous, hilarious, and mystifying. Like this one:

P: "I no know my father is!"
Me: "He's at work."
P, lighting up: "Oh! He with Daddy!"

He was so happy, too. Daddy and his father, buddying it up together at work.

Today, upon hearing the word father in some other context, Peregrine threw it out there again.

"I no know my father is!"

I told him his father was at work. To which he responded, in a tone that can only be described as theatrical exasperation:

"Daddy have him! Daddy give him back to Peregrine!"

I'm so confused.