About

"tommy wright i creep at night" (intentionally stylized in all lowercase) refers to a song that plays in a series of disconnected YouTube videos made by a variety of different creators sharing the same title, wherein any popular video game character (usually from an RPG or some type of open world game), moves around the game world in a very fast and odd way while the song "On Da Creep" by Tommy Wright III plays.

Origin

Tommy Wright III's "On Da Creep" was uploaded to YouTube on May 17th, 2010 by YouTuber PsychopathicSavage^[1] (shown below).

On December 7th, 2013, YouTuber TheLastSliceOfPie uploaded a video that displays the "Insurance Fraud"^[2] mini-game from the videogame Saints Row 4, with On Da Creep playing in the background. In this mini-game, the player is able to control the movement of their character as a ragdoll with the goal of injuring their character as much as possible within a given time limit. The video garnered moderate meme success, gaining over 52,000 views in ten years (shown below).

Spread

The style didn't start becoming a popular meme until nearly a decade later. On May 13th, 2022,^[4] YouTuber nelly uploaded a version that gained over 133,000 views in just under two years (shown below).

Though few videos in the style have grown popular, there is a vast amount of videos in this vein on YouTube with view counts between 10,000 and 50,000 views. Although originally appearing in Saints Row 4, the trend has been re-enacted in many open-world or RPG-type games, such as the GTA and Skate series, as well as Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Half-Life. For example, on November 11th, 2023, YouTuber Slark uploaded a version from Skate, gaining over 59,000 views in two months (shown below, left). On December 19th, user HalfWitHalfHam made a version using Fallout: New Vegas, gaining over 18,000 views in two weeks (shown below, right).

Various Examples

External References