My Name is Walter Hartwell White Confession Copypasta

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About

My Name is Walter Hartwell White Copypasta, also known as the Walter White Confession Copypasta or the Walter White Address Copypasta, refers to a copypasta and meme taken from the confession tape monologue uttered by Breaking Bad character Walter White (portrayed by Bryan Cranston) in which he falsely incriminates his brother-in-law of murdering him and running a drug empire. Since the mid-2010s, the monologue has been used as a copypasta in which people introduce themselves the same way the character did and also use the text to accuse others of plotting against them, with the scene also inspiring fan cams, video captions and other memes.

Origin

On August 13th, 2013, season five, episode 11 of the drama television series Breaking Bad, entitled "Confessions," premiered.^[1] In the episode, the character Walter White leaves a DVD containing his apparent confession to Hank, his brother-in-law. When Hank and his wife play the DVD, however, they find that the "confession" is a ploy to incriminate them for Walter's Crimes. YouTube^[2] user TheCheat_1337 uploaded the clip to their channel on April 28th, 2020, where the scene received more than 1.1 million views in three years (shown below, left; alternate version shown below, right).

My name is Walter Hartwell White. I live at 308 Negra Arroyo Lane, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87104. This is my confession. If you're watching this tape, I'm probably dead- murdered by my brother-in-law, Hank Schrader. Hank has been building a meth empire for over a year now, and using me as his chemist. Shortly after my 50th birthday, he asked that I use my chemistry knowledge to cook methamphetamine, which he would then sell using connections that he made through his career with the DEA. I was… astounded. I… I always thought Hank was a very moral man, and I was particularly vulnerable at the time – something he knew and took advantage of. I was reeling from a cancer diagnosis that was poised to bankrupt my family. Hank took me in on a ride-along and showed me just how much money even a small meth operation could make. And I was weak. I didn't want my family to go into financial ruin, so I agreed. Hank had a partner, a businessman named Gustavo Fring. Hank sold me into servitude to this man. And when I tried to quit, Fring threatened my family. I didn't know where to turn. Eventually, Hank and Fring had a falling out. Things escalated. Fring was able to arrange – uh, I guess… I guess you call it a "hit" – on Hank, and failed, but Hank was seriously injured. And I wound up paying his medical bills, which amounted to a little over $177,000. Upon recovery, Hank was bent on revenge. Working with a man named Hector Salamanca, he plotted to kill Fring. The bomb that he used was built by me, and he gave me no option in it. I have often contemplated s-icide, but I'm a coward. I wanted to go to the police, but I was frightened. Hank had risen to become the head of the Albuquerque DEA. To keep me in line, he took my children. For three months, he kept them. My wife had no idea of my criminal activities, and was horrified to learn what I had done. I was in hell. I hated myself for what I had brought upon my family. Recently, I tried once again to quit, and in response, he gave me this. [Walt points to the bruise on his face left by Hank in "Blood Money."] I can't take this anymore. I live in fear every day that Hank will kill me, or worse, hurt my family. All I could think to do was to make this video and hope that the world will finally see this man for what he really is.

On September 13th, 2013, a Facebook^[3] page inspired by the TV show's character theoriginalHeisenberg posted the monologue, receiving 1,800 likes and 194 retweets in a decade (see below).

Spread

The copypasta, while occasionally posted by fans since 2013, gained viral interest in 2019. On June 13th, 2019, Reddit^[5] user u/GayTeenSupreme posted the first phrases of the monologue on /r/okbuddychicanery, igniting other users to share the full copypasta in the post comment section. The copypasta kept being shared especially on Reddit, with users posting memes with Walter White's face on the platform.^[4]

Other Use in Memes

Around mid-2022, the copypasta resurfaced on other social media sites, inspiring video remixes, video caption memes and image macros. YouTube^[6] user Imnotsupposedtomeme posted on September 23rd, 2022 a split-screen video showing Walter White's monologue alongside a Spotify playlist message, garnering 2.6 million views and 170,000 likes in six months (shown below).

Over the following years, the monologue became part of fan cam videos of Walter White on TikTok.^[7] User @lofi.aep uploaded a fan cam edit on February 7th, 2023, garnering 133,000 views and 23,100 likes in two weeks (seen below).