Evil Dan

About

Evil Dan refers to a series of video edits and pictures of the character Dan Lewis, portrayed by John Bishop, a companion from the British sci-fi series Doctor Who. "Evil Dan" was a term that was given to the character after video parodies and pictures were made of him in response to promotional content released ahead of the thirteenth season of Doctor Who, entitled Flux. Most of the content shows Dan's character stealing soup and candy from children, as well as hitting and killing people with a wok.

Origin

John Bishop was announced as a new companion on Doctor Who at the end of the 2021 new year special, Revolution of the Daleks, where he was revealed in a short minisode that introduced his character (shown below).

His first proper appearance in Doctor Who was the first episode of the thirteenth season, The Halloween Apocalypse. The meme originated from a series of videos created by users on Twitter and YouTube, most prominently, "Doctor Who Poop." On November 2nd, 2021, the account posted its first Evil Dan video on Twitter, gaining over 300 retweets and 1,300 likes.^[1] On November 11th, 2021, they uploaded their first 'Evil Dan' video to YouTube, gaining over 144,000 views (shown below).

Spread

Doctor Who Poop proved to be one of the most prominent spreaders of the "Evil Dan" meme. Over the following several months, they released multiple videos featuring the character. For example, on November 7th, 2021, Doctor Who Poop uploaded another video, creating a title sequence for "Evil Dan," which parodied the Doctor Who title sequence (see below).

Here's the EVIL DAN title sequence which is about to feature in today's episode! #DoctorWhoFlux https://t.co/UX2JeykgbN pic.twitter.com/4GCEFMyXDK

— Doctor Who Poop (@DWPoop) November 7, 2021

After the second episode of Flux aired, Doctor Who Poop released a video of Dan killing Sontarans with a wok (see below).

Evil Dan takes out the entire Sontaran war effort with a wok #DoctorWhoFlux pic.twitter.com/Zgl3GZlkDX

— Doctor Who Poop (@DWPoop) November 7, 2021

On November 13th, 2021, John Bishop^[2] tweeted that he loved a Doctor Who Poop edit of "Evil Dan," gaining over 490 retweets and 4,000 likes (shown below).

On November 24th, 2021, the website Screenrant^[3] wrote an article on the best Doctor Who Poop memes with Evil Dan ranking first.

YouTube Channel

A YouTube Channel called "Evil Dan"^[4] was created in November 2021, which included other videos created by fans that expanded on the original template. Key elements of the parodies are Dan saying the line, "What's the point of being alive?" In the first episode of the season, Dan says, "What's the point in being alive if it's not to make others happy?" Some of the videos are edited to have Dan say, "What's the point in being alive if it's not to make others die?" Edits also feature Dan with a wok, taken from a promotional picture ahead of the series release.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External Links