The Wendy's Sorcerer

Submission 1,375

About

The Wendy's Sorcerer refers to an older Black man and Wendy's employee who posted videos to TikTok with filters that made him look like a powerful sorcerer wielding fire and magic. The videos went viral in late 2023 and inspired numerous memes that often powerscaled him with the Homeless Man Doing Karate, also referencing the phrase "Domain expansion." The memes also referenced the Throwing a Microwaved Honey Bun at a Homeless Man concept, calling both men "Honey Bun survivors." The Wendy's Sorcerer's real account is @gerardwoods3 on TikTok and he started posting videos as early as 2018.

Origin

TikToker^[1] @gerardwoods3 posted videos as early as September 2018, using the same filters that would later earn him the nickname "Wendy's Sorcerer." His first viral TikTok^[2] was posted on June 20th, 2022, showing him in the bathroom, wearing his Wendy's uniform and summoning a sword. Over one year, the video gained roughly 365,600 plays and 73,000 likes (shown below).

Spread

Going into 2022, @gerardwoods3 continued to gain virality on TikTok.^[3] This continued in 2023, evident in a TikTok^[4] he shared on August 11th, 2023, which received roughly 550,500 plays and 98,600 likes in four months (shown below, left). On September 12th, he posted a similar TikTok^[5] with him wielding fire, gaining roughly 1.5 million plays and 260,500 likes in three months (shown below, right).

His September 12th TikTok^[5] received numerous reposts in the days that followed, like one posted by Instagram^[6] user @kringecorpjr on September 13th, 2023, that received roughly 201,100 likes in three months.

On November 9th, 2023, TikToker^[7] @dinopopcop reposted the video and replaced the audio with a Playboi Carti song, gaining roughly 8.1 million plays and 1.1 million likes in a month (shown below).

On November 24th, 2023, TikToker^[8] @codenamesticks posted a photo slideshow that pinned the so-called "first Honey bun survivor" (aka the Homeless Man Doing Karate) against him, gaining roughly 3.4 million plays and 675,700 likes in 13 days.

Thereafter, many made powerscaling edits that compared the duo, such as TikToker^[9] @alex_660_ on November 24th, 2023, whose edit earned over 179,600 plays and 5,400 likes in 13 days (shown below).