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The Men Who Filmed ‘Hawk Tuah’ Think They Should Be Famous, Too

The Men Who Filmed ‘Hawk Tuah’ Think They Should Be Famous, Too
Jonathan Bernstein
By Jonathan BernsteinJul 04, 2024
Jonathan Bernstein
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Tim Dickerson and DeArius Marlow just want some damn credit. In a recent interview with The New York Times, the two men who filmed the now-viral “Hawk Tuah Girl” for their YouTube channel “Tim & Dee TV” described the bewildering and, at times, frustrating past 10 days since posting their infamous video in downtown Nashville.

“At the end of the day, nobody would know who she was if we didn’t bring it to light and post it,” Marlow, 24, told the Times of Haliey Welch, who has now become known by the nickname “Hawk Tuah Girl.”

“A lot of the audience who hadn’t seen us before think we grew off this one clip,” he continued. “People were treating it like we’re nobodies and didn’t already have a platform.”

In the interview, the Nashville duo recall Welch requesting that they “spice up the questions” after they interviewed her and her friend as part of their fratty man-on-the-street interview series. Dickerson, 25, told the Times that after Welch uttered her instantly famous catchphrase, he thought to himself, “Oh yeah, that’s going to be a good one.”

The difference in attention between Welch and the men who filmed her speaks to some of the complex and implicit racial and gender dynamics embedded in Dickerson and Marlow’s raunchy Q&A videos of drunk young women captured amidst partying on Lower Broadway, one of the country’s most infamous streets. While the duo regularly interviews both men and women in their series, it’s typically the women that end up taking center stage.

“It’s mostly just jokes,” Dickerson said. “We’re not pressuring nobody or nothing — we’re just capturing the vibe. That’s what we do best.”

While the viral moment instantly catapulted Welch into overnight internet fame (and all its accompanying consequences), spawned countless memes, landed her sought-after media appearances and on stadium-size concert stages, and resulted in her assembling a team of managers and lawyers, such notoriety (and, crucially, financial windfalls) have not been so forthcoming for the two men who filmed, edited, and set the stage for Welch’s moment.

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