Wouldn't You Like to Know, Weather Boy?

About

Wouldn't You Like to Know, Weather Boy? refers to a viral skit that appeared on Fox 5 News in which a meteorologist asks a young boy what the best firework to buy is, and he aggressively answers, "wouldn't you like to know, weather boy?"

Origin

On June 28th, 2017, Fireattack142 uploaded a video to YouTube,^[1] recorded directly off his television screen with a camera, in which Fox 5 News Vegas' chief meteorologist Ted Pretty is doing a story on fireworks for the 4th of July. Pretty approaches a young boy standing outside a firework store and asks him, "What's the best kind of firework to buy?" The boy then says in a cold tone, "Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy?" leaving Pretty speechless (shown below). The video went viral, gaining over 2.3 million views in roughly 3 years and being reposted around the web countless times.

On the same day, LVNative90 uploaded an extended version of the clip to Twitter^[6] (shown below).

Many viewers believe the video to be real, but it was quickly revealed to be fake. On the day the video was uploaded, Pretty tweeted,^[3] "You really have to question his upbringing! #myson," in response to a user calling the boy rude, revealing the video as a prank (shown below).

On August 20th, 2020, Basauri uploaded a video to YouTube^[2] titled, "Weather Boy Skit Explanation" in which the Fox 5 News team, including Pretty, explain that the video is fake (shown below). The boy in the video is Pretty's son. It's unknown when this segment originally aired.

Spread

On June 28th, 2017, AidantheAidan posted the clip to /r/videos,^[4] where it received over 31,000 upvotes in 3 years. On July 13th, nervantes uploaded a video to YouTube^[15] of another fake encounter where Pretty is told "I'm eating, don't bother me, weather boy" by a young girl (shown below).

On June 29th, AEIOU posted one of the first edits of the video to YouTube^[5] (shown below, left). On June 29th, TIME,^[9] and Esquire^[10] reported on the video. On June 30th, Alx DeCarlo uploaded a remix of the video to YouTube^[7] garnering over 243,000 views in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

On January 17th, 2018, Big Bird Boi re-uploaded LVNative90's extended clip of the segment to YouTube,^[8] gaining over 8.6 million views in just under 3 years. A screenshot from the video began being used in image macros around 2019. On April 7th, 2019, MarvelDiva posted an image macro using a subtitled screenshot of the kid saying "wouldn't you like to know, weather boy" to iFunny^[12] (shown below, left). On April 26th, spacemakeouts posted another image macro using the screenshot to Tumblr^[11] along with the top-text, "Ant-man trying to figure out what happened: Bicycle kid:" garnering over 6,400 notes in a year (shown below, right).

On July 27th, lolmaro posted an image macro using the weather boy screenshot to /r/dankmemes,^[13] garnering over 22,000 upvotes in just over a year (shown below, left). On February 22nd, 2020, FreskyFlowers posted another image macro to /r/HistoryMemes^[14] using the screenshot, garnering over 45,800 upvotes in 10 months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References