00:00Are you happy now?
00:03Yes!
00:04Are you happy?
00:05A series of WSpeed moments are popping up online, and most of them are ironic.
00:10It's because of earnest edits that dramatize every move the streamer makes.
00:14Let's explain further.
00:15The trend started when internet users began screenshotting the iShowSpeed edits from one YouTube Shorts creator,
00:19notably after he made an edit in which Speed picks up water.
00:22The screenshot spread as a reaction image soon after, which has led to a slew of WSpeed images online.
00:27But where did the WSpeed meme come from?
00:29There's an editor on YouTube named DeegsShorts, who mostly clips iShowSpeed's streams.
00:34Whoever they are, their edits generally adhere to two modes.
00:36Either they make a based edit of Speed, using funk music and the skull emoji,
00:40showing the streamer breaking social norms like pranking his brother Jamal,
00:43or they go the wholesome route by highlighting moments when Speed shows respect,
00:46like giving a fan a picture or an autograph.
00:48The YouTuber ends many of the wholesome edits with WSpeed written in green text overlay.
00:52For instance, earlier this year, DeegsShorts posted a short about Speed,
00:55promising to take a picture with his Waffle House waiter only if he tastes the food
00:58and enjoys it.
00:59He ends up doing both of those things, as noted by the edit's captions.
01:02A few months later, ex-user at Gucci Thelion posted a screenshot from the edit,
01:05in which Speed tastes the food.
01:07The tweet only received 80 likes, but it's the first instance of a WSpeed meme that we could find.
01:12A few days later, at Ramona Balls shared a screenshot of the picks up water video.
01:15The tweet received a whopping 114,000 likes in a week.
01:19The moment occurred during Speed's currently ongoing America tour,
01:22which is about him traveling to every American state,
01:24similar to his international streams, like when he visited China earlier this year.
01:27The streamer's WSpeed moments are becoming more and more ironic.
01:30Many of the YouTuber's shorts receive multi-million view counts.
01:33The memes making fun of the editor's edits find it funny that each one of Speed's actions is romanticized,
01:37akin to the slang term glazing.
01:39When every little thing can be a WSpeed moment,
01:41the opportunities to subvert and satirize the distinction become endless.
01:44The success of the WSpeed meme can also be attributed to two precursor trends
01:48that have cemented edit screenshots as a new form of reaction images.
01:51There's one song that's being used in most of the ironic WSpeed edits on TikTok,
01:55and it's called Blue by Young Kai.
01:57The soft boy guitar ballad about falling in love and stargazing seems to perfectly capture the fake,
02:01wholesome energy of the WSpeed memes.
02:03On YouTube, the song's music video has over 184 million views.
02:08Young Kai even reacted to all of the memes.
02:10He posted a TikTok of himself lip-dubbing the track with WSpeed written in text overlay this week.
02:15Like this video and make sure to follow us for more information on memes and internet culture.
Comments