About

Hank Finds Out Early refers to a series of memes that imagine Breaking Bad character Hank Schrader, portrayed by actor Dean Norris, figuring out that his brother-in-law Walter White is the wanted drug manufacturer Heisenberg at an earlier (or later) time than it happened in the series. The memes often use lines from Dean Norris' Sussy Baka Cameo video.

Origin

On September 2nd, 2012, episode eight "Gliding Over All" of the American crime drama series Breaking Bad premiered in the United States.^[1] In the episode, the character Hank Schrader (played by Dean Norris) comes to a realization that his brother-in-law, chemistry teacher Walter White, is the same person as wanted drug kingpin Heisenberg upon making a connection between a dedication written in a gifted book and a previous exchange with White (scene shown below).

On May 13th, 2021, YouTube^[2] user Wasda posted a Cameo video of Dean Norris calling Walter White a "sussy baka." The video received over 7.4 million views and appeared in multiple Hank Finds Out Early memes since.

On May 15th, 2021, YouTube^[3] user CallMeSully posted the earliest meme which imagined Hank finding out the identity of Heisenberg at an earlier point than in the series. The video (shown below, left) garnered over 50,000 views in three years.

On August 24th, 2022, YouTube^[4] user Chabooey posted a video titled "Hank finds out much earlier" in which Hank Schrader made the connection between Walter White and Heisenberg during an earlier scene. The video (shown below, right), titled "Hank finds out much earlier," received over 2.1 million views in two years, launching the format.

Spread

The trend saw initial development in October 2022, as on October 13th and 21st, YouTube users Chubs and Chabooey posted versions of the meme that received over 69,000 views and 3.3 million views, respectively, in two years (shown below, left and right).

Starting in November 2022 and through 2023, more videos that imagined Hank Schrader breaking the Heisenberg case at various points of the show, usually exploiting the lines from the "sussy baka" Cameo video, were posted to YouTube. For example, on March 8th, 2023, YouTube^[5] user The Brambleverse posted a video titled "Hank prevents Breaking Bad entirely" that gained over 1.4 million views in one year (shown below, left).

The trend continued in early 2024 as more versions were submitted on YouTube.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References