About

Hell Yeah Simulator refers to a genre of POV videos, GIFs and images in which POV footage of drones, driving and extreme sports is combined with various filters, most notably the Sword and Cigarette animation and Chad Driver arms. The trend was started by the IRL CSGO Surfing videos, while the catchphrase, which references the Hell Yeah meme, originates from a viral 2024 My Summer Car meme. The trend achieved virality on TikTok in May 2025 with Tutorial (Beginner) memes.

Origin

Format

On December 2nd, 2021, the official X^[1] / Twitter account for the home improvement chain Home Depot posted drone footage filmed inside of its locations.

On December 4th, 2021, X^[2] user @oattsplease combined the video with a green-screen footage of the player examining a knife and slashing with it in Counter-Strike and with "Dreamscape" by 009 Sound System, making a reference to the typical "surf" gameplay videos.

https://t.co/VCWY2Bhxu1 pic.twitter.com/LxOSzEFCUJ

— oatt 🇵🇸 (@oattsplease) December 4, 2021

The meme was followed by more IRL CSGO Surfing memes on YouTube^[3][4] and other platforms in the following years.

Catchphrase

On January 30th, 2024, TikTok^[5] user @mysummer.car_ posted a gameplay clip of the protagonist riding a motorbike while smoking and drinking beer before crashing and sliding on the bike's side while continuing to smoke. The video garnered over 566,000 views and 121,000 likes in one year.

On March 3rd, 2024, TikTok user @Daytonnn commented on the video, "Hell yeah simulator," referencing the Hell Yeah memes and gaining over 1,900 likes. The comment (shown below) is the earliest found use of the expression online.

On March 13th, 2024, TikTok^[6] user @therealdziop combined the clip with the song "Be Quiet and Drive Away (Far Away)" by Deftones. The post garnered over 8.2 million views and 953,000 likes in one year.

Prior to March 15th, 2024, an unknown user added the caption, "Hell yeah simulator" to this edit. On March 15th, 2024, iFunny^[7] user WizardOfMagicMemes made the earliest discovered repost.

The captioned versions of the video saw viral spread online in the following months. Notably, a May 30th, 2024, repost by X^[8] account @weirddalle (shown below) received over 13,000 reposts and 138,000 likes in one year. A same-day post by TikTok^[9] user @kaitzsch.meme.plug received over 1.4 million likes in the same period.

pic.twitter.com/ZKOb5b2tbF

— no context memes (@weirddalle) May 29, 2024

Spread

On September 8th, 2024, 3D artist and TikTok user @digital_burial posted a 3D animation based on the Sword and Cigarette photograph, a popular caption format from May 2024. The video (shown below) garnered over one million views and 204,000 likes on TikTok^[10] in nine months.

On September 9th, TikToker^[11] @digital_burial posted a green-screen version of the video, adding it as an effect,^[12] titled "HellYeah" on September 14th.

In the following weeks, the video achieved popularity as a filter effect. For example, on September 18th, 2024, TikTok^[13] user @radiographymeme applied the effect to a recording of a radiology procedure, set to a guitar solo from Pantera's song "Floods." The video (shown below) garnered over 374,000 likes in nine months.

In late April 2025, TikTok^[14] user @9brickz started posting edits that combined POV footage of surfing and extreme sports and drone aerial footage with the Sword and Cigarette filter.

On May 14th, 2025, TikToker @9brickz started posting Hell Yeah Simulator memes titled "Beginner scooter trick tutorial" that superimposed Chad Driver arms holding scooter handlebars over similar footage.

That same day, @9bricks posted the first such video that garnered over 470,000 views and 58,000 likes on TikTok^[15] in one month (shown below).

In May 2025, multiple Hell Yeah Simulator POV videos were shared on TikTok, with the format also becoming known as "Tutorial (Beginner)."

For example, on May 24th, 2025, TikTok^[16] user @robintuttofficial posted a meme that garnered over 10.2 million views and 2.2 million likes in three weeks (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References