About

lukeywes1234 is the online moniker for Luke Taylor(age unknown), of Wichita, KS, who since July 11, 2009, has been posting videos to his channel at youtube.com/lukeywes1234. In his profile, he lists video games, Star Wars, and Harry Potter as his favorite Hobby, Movie and Books, respectively.

Luke's videos consist primarily of him using Super Mario Brothers action figures to act out unscripted shows, usually lasting between 3 and 5 minutes. The content was little more than a child recording his play sessions and posting them online. In one video, he also mentioned that Luigi is also called "Weegee" on the internet.

Also uploaded, featuring a much younger Luke, was a video called "gHOST hUNTERS" in which the boy recreates a scenario similar to the Ghost Hunters television show. On December 31st 2009, each videos' view counts had hovered between 5 and 15 views each. There were 11 subscribers to his channel.

Lukeywes1234 Gets Discovered

On the evening of 12/31/2009, an anonymous user on 4chan posted a link to a video that lukeywes1234 had uploaded on that same day, referencing the “hacking of youtube” on Christmas Day. In this video, Luke requested that his viewers, should they have any information regarding the hacking of youtube, contact him, and he will then contact YouTube on their behalf.

A certain number of 4chan users who followed the link proceeded to fill the comment box with hateful remarks referencing Luke's weight and the content of his video. This video was deleted by lukeywes1234 the morning of 1/1/2010, presumably due to the feedback he received by the users from 4chan. There are no known copies or reposts of this video, but there is a cached version.

"We Need 50 Subbers by Feb." video

The activity of lukeywes1234’s account had returned to its previous, mostly dormant state.
On 1/2/2010, the same anonymous user who had initially posted a link to Luke’s videos two days prior, created a new thread on 4chan linking to a video that lukeywes1234 had uploaded on 12/27/2009.

Repost of lukeywes1234's Original Plea for 50 Subscribers

In this video, lukeywes1234 expresses a desire to increase the subscriber count on his youtube channel to 50 by February, as well as offer sincere thanks to his existing subscribers. 4chan users reacted differently to this video. Instead of hateful comments, the comments left for Luke were predominantly filled with words of praise and encouragement. Within minutes, Luke’s subscriber count exceeded his goal of 50.

Forum Reactions

This was only the beginning as numerous threads were created within 4chan, requesting users to subscribe to Luke Taylor’s videos. These threads carried on into the evening as his subscriber count quickly exceeded 300. That night, lukeywes1234 posted a new video, his first since the 31st. He expresses disbelief and amazement at his increase in subscribers, from 11 the previous day, to 328, which he proudly displays on his monitor during the video.

Repost of lukeywes1234's Original Reaction to 300+ Subscribers

By the morning of the 3rd, lukeywes1234 had accumulated over 5,000 subscribers. The threads on 4chan were now referencing a goal of over 9000 subscribers, thus playing into another meme popular on 4chan.

Hours later, as the total number of subscribers increased, Luke posted another video thanking his new subscribers and promising more content immediately.

Repost of lukeywes1234's Original Video Promising New Content (7000+ Subscribers)

Once his subscriber count reached 9000, a faction of users called for a stop to the subscription push, claiming their mission had been accomplished. Momentum quickly carried the subscriber count of lukeywes1234 past 10,000, but not before Luke posted a new video on the morning of the 4th, referencing the fact that he had “over 9000 subscribers”.

Luke Taylor's YouTube channel continued accumulating subscribers through the morning of January 4th, exceeding 15,000. At approximately 11:00AM, YouTube suspended the account of lukeywes1234.

It is believed the suspension was due to the fact that Luke did not meet the YouTube's age requirement of 13 years old. His profile stated he was 15.

Multiple YouTube accounts were created in place of lukeywes1234, reposting the videos in an effort to attract users searching for Luke's videos. YouTube has since also suspended any accounts reposting the original lukeywes1234 videos.

Youtube Porn Raid

In protest of Luke's suspension, some pro-Lukey Anons have declared January 6th, 2010 another Youtube Porn Day. The story caught the attention of a number of blogs and news sites on January 5th and 6th.

• NPR
• Salon
• Village Thinker Wordpress Blog
• Asylum
• Switched
• Geek.com
• The Guardian

Luke's Age

Luke Taylor's accurate age remains in question, as does whether or not his videos constitute a YouTube Terms of Service violation. In his video entitled "gHOST hUNTERS", lukeywes1234 notes in an annotation that the video was made when he was 7 years old, but only recently uploaded to YouTube.

His more recent videos, uploaded in Jan, 2010, appear to show Luke having matured considerably. It is presumed he is now older than 7 but not yet 13, leading to the supposed reason for lukeywes1234's channel suspension.

Impact

lukeywes1234 was the most buzzed about topic on buzzfeed.com for the date of 1/5/2010 LINK
The topic of lukeywes1234, as of 1/6/2010, is now considered the most "viral" in the Buzzfeed.com Top 20 for the last week LINK

Various users of YouTube have created tribute videos declaring lukeywes1234 the King of the Internet as well as expressing outrage that his account has been suspended.

UPDATE Jan 7th – LUKEY IS BACK

On January 7th, 2009, Lukey's mother created a new account for her son under the username 4myson100. As of 9:24 PM Eastern, the account has been closed.