Wavywebsurf

About

Wavywebsurf is an American YouTuber based in Nashville who makes content about internet lore and meme history. His videos are generally research-based and narrow in on the people behind the meme or the story behind a particular internet event. His most notable video series are "Whatever Happened To X" and "Your Merch Sucks." He started his YouTube channel in May 2016 and has roughly 800,000 subscribers as of August 2021.

Online History

Wavywebsurf claims to have made his first YouTube channel back in 2007 under a different name,^[1] but aside from a couple of YouTube Poops posted to the channel, he never took it anywhere specific. He began posting more serious content in 2016 after being inspired by the YouTube commentary community that had built momentum during that time.

Beef between channels like h3h3productions, LeafyIsHere and Idubbbz (among others) sparked his interest in making content about internet events and meme history.^[1] He posted his first video (shown below) on June 10th, 2016,^[2] which was a short, viral video-type clip about Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders.

His first video that reached over 500,000 views was posted on December 12th, 2016,^[3] called, "The Evolutionary History of Memes" (shown below). It has gained roughly 622,000 views over five years. Content like this shaped his channel's main focus and interests going forward. Existing in a time in history (2016) when memes had only been conceived of and developed less than a decade ago (2008-2010), wavywebsurf became fascinated with trying to understand this new history, which he was able to experience in real-time from surfing FunnyJunk in 2010 to posting to YouTube in 2016.

On October 18th, 2017,^[4] wavywebsurf posted his first video that received over 1 million views (shown below). Titled "How Does Nardwuar Know Everything?," the video focused on understanding the YouTube phenomenon surrounding Nardwaurmore who, at the time, was more enigmatic than ever because of the YouTube community's general interest in music personalities: mostly due to the popularity of channels like Anthony Fantano's The Needle Drop. This would be wavywebsurf's first foray into covering internet history more directly in his videos, pulling back the veil on internet phenomena that most didn't dig too deeply into.

"Whatever Happened To X?"

Wavywebsurf posted his first-ever "Whatever Happened To X" video on August 24th, 2018,^[5] titled "Whatever Happened to Froggy Fresh (Krispy Kreme)?" (shown below), which was made about YouTube meme-rap sensation Krispy Kreme who disappeared from the platform in 2016. Again, wavywebsurf began to see that these meme history-style videos were received better by his audience. He claims that his channel began to blow up around this time after he stopped making "Your Merch Sucks" videos, among other content.

Wavywebsurf's YouTube channel has grown a strong following over the years with roughly 800,000 subscribers as of August 2021. Some of his most notable and most viewed videos include histories and backstories of classic memes and internet mysteries like 9 + 10 = 21, Flappy Bird and Jones BBQ and Foot Massage, among others. His most viewed video is about Ricardo Milos (shown below, right), which was posted on April 3rd, 2019,^[6] and has gained roughly 5.8 million views and 157,000 likes over the course of roughly three years.

Interview with Know Your Meme

On July 30th, 2020, KYM interviewed wavywebsurf as part of their editorial series on YouTubers. In the interview, wavywebsurf talks about his early interest in the internet, his motivation and inspiration for his content and his intensive research techniques.

Search Interest

External References