My Name Is Craig Tucker Copypasta

Submission 32,029

Part of a series on South Park. [View Related Entries]

About

My Name Is Craig Tucker, continued Last Week Was My Birthday, is a copypasta recited by the South Park character Craig Tucker in a 2008 episode of the show called "Pandemic 2: The Startling." The quote is about him getting $100 from his grandma for his birthday but then being duped by Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny into investing his money to become a Peruvian flute band with them, ultimately resulting in them being deported to Peru. The speech then turned into a copypasta in early 2023 as many TikTok users also made video content and memes that used the original audio.

Origin

On October 29th, 2008, season 12, episode 11 of South Park titled "Pandemic 2: The Startling" aired on American television.^[1] The episode opened with a monologue by Craig, explaining what had happened in the previous episode "Pandemic."^[2] Craig's monologue included a powerpoint-like slideshow and gentle, Peruvian flute music playing in the background. His speech and the ultimate "My Name Is Craig Tucker" copypasta reads:

My name is Craig Tucker. Last week was my birthday. My grandma gave me a check for $100. I was so happy. But then, four kids from school came to my house and said I should use my $100 to invest in becoming a Peruvian flute band. They promised I would double my money in one afternoon, but the government arrested us along with all the other Peruvian flute bands and took us to an intern camp in Miami. We begged to go home, but instead, the government told us they were sending us to Peru. And so, that is why I am now in Peru. If I die, let it be known that it is because four guys I don't even like from school lied to me and took my birthday money.

Craig's monologue scene was first uploaded to YouTube^[3] on January 30th, 2021, by YouTuber Colladius. The video was a compilation of Criag-related moments from the two "Pandemic" episodes. Over the course of two years, the video received roughly 48,800 views and 1,800 likes. At the 1:29-minute mark, Craig's monologue that the copypasta is from starts (shown below).

On August 8th, 2013, the copypasta was first written in a post uploaded to Tumblr^[4] by the blog thegrouchyfiles, earning over 60 notes in 10 years (shown below).

Spread

On November 29th, 2015, the copypasta was posted by the Tumblr^[5] blog sanguinepetal, earning over 260 notes in eight years. On January 25th, 2021, the scene was referenced by Twitter^[6] user @DailyCraigs, earning over 270 likes in two years.

Starting in late 2021, the copypasta and audio were used for "text prank" videos on TikTok. The first discovered instance was uploaded by TikToker^[7] @maddmonty on December 29th, 2021, earning roughly 108,200 plays and 21,600 likes in a year and a half (shown below, left). On the same day, TikToker^[8] @kennyballoon uploaded a low-quality meme compilation using the same audio, earning roughly 255,900 plays and 65,600 likes in the same time period (shown below, right).

Going into 2022, the copypasta and audio became increasingly prevalent online. For instance, on April 13th, 2022, TikToker^[9] @kennyshalllive posted the original scene, gaining roughly 605,000 plays and 72,100 likes in 11 months (shown below, left). Multiple TikTokers used the sound of the aforementioned video going into 2023. For instance, on March 9th, 2023, TikToker^[10] @nathan_isgay used the sound and showed an original PowerPoint set to Craig's monologue, earning roughly 1.1 million plays and 213,700 likes in 20 days (shown below, right).

On February 17th, 2023, the copypasta was added to /r/copypasta^[11] by Redditor Over-Toe-8821, earning over 130 upvotes in one month.