Haliey Welch, better known as “Hawk Tuah Girl,” grew in fame after a brief interview in which she was asked, “What move in bed makes a man go crazy?” She responded with, “You gotta give ’em that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang,” which shot her into internet fame and started a strange and often confusing career. Welch immediately capitalized on her fifteen minutes of fame, getting hired by talent agents and even appearing at a Zach Bryan concert.

With her fame beginning to sizzle out recently, Welch has now launched a new podcast, which she has advertised as having authentic “real conversations.” After listening to all currently released episodes, I can say they are indeed, unfortunately, real.

While it definitely feels like an actual conversation, the podcast is unstructured, unfunny, and uninteresting. As a viewer, it constantly felt like the conversations lacked context and substance to keep up. Ironically, you could find the same conversations if you sat at the bar at Applebees and overheard a group of slightly intoxicated strangers who have no idea what they’re even saying; it would also be more entertaining.

Additionally, Welch barely speaks in her own podcast, especially in episode one, as guest comedian Whitney Cummings is predominantly the main driver of the podcast. It was almost like Cummings was conducting the podcast more than Welch and ended up interviewing her.

Funnily enough, I went back and listened to the first five minutes of the podcast just to see how much Welch actually talked and realized that in the beginning, the editor censored most of the vulgarity and swearing until a little over five minutes in when they completely give up, and nothing is censored for the remainder of the show.

The most memorable part of the entire podcast was about thirty-three minutes into the first episode, where Welch and Cummings are talking about where they like to defecate when they have company over. This conversation lasts for six minutes. It is then followed by Welch talking about farts for another four minutes. Truly riveting.

To describe the whole podcast in a single word, empty is the only thing that comes to mind. It is a shallow show that is all over the place and revolves around a fictional character. Welch does not feel like an actual person; she is playing a character, which is what made her famous in the first place. She is not Haliey Welch anymore; she is the “Hawk Tuah Girl.” For someone who consistently wants to be known for more than a meme, she’s created her entire online personality around it.

After interviewing various students across campus, the general consciousness around the Hawk Tuah Girl and her respective podcast is poor, to say the least.

Makayla Otero, a freshman in Sports Communication and Media, described Welch as “someone getting famous for the wrong reasons” and “100% milking her fame while it lasts” and said she had little to no interest in listening to the podcast.

Chase Quijano, a sophomore majoring in Mechanical Engineering, was asked if it was more positive or negative that we live in a day and age where someone could go from just walking around on our campus to internet fame overnight. He said, “I think positive. I guess it can give people a voice in a way.”

Taylor Mullen, a junior in Writing Arts, described Welch as “an example of how people on the internet can rise to fame by doing normal things.” Mullen added, “If I was in her position, I would do the same thing. There’s a financial aspect. You could make money from it.” And it is easy to see why Welch did what she did to take advantage of her unique situation.

Overall, most students found Welch funny ironically but failed to see her continuing her fame for very much longer, and her podcast is a shining example of this. Welch’s podcast has a total of two episodes and already feels like it’s running out of ideas. Whether her career will continue is irrelevant at this point because the majority of people will have forgotten about her within a month. Internet fame is strange; it can give people voices and lift others up that would normally never be seen.

Then you have the “Hawk Tuah Girl,” a one-trick pony who has capitalized on a joke no one can remember anymore. She seems like an interesting person who, under different circumstances, could probably be an entertaining part of the internet. However, she seems more comfortable repeating the same joke repeatedly, playing a character that will ultimately fade away into obscurity.

It’s strange to think someone on our own campus here at Rowan has the capability to rise to Welch’s fame. All it takes is someone recording and a random student, and they could become an internet sensation overnight. Whether that is a good thing to think about while walking to your next class or a negative one is completely up to you.

Regardless, a student in your class or even someone you sit next to in the dining hall all have equal opportunities and abilities to rise to fame in today’s age. If that person will follow in Welch’s footsteps and create a podcast where they talk about flatulence for ten minutes or do something new and unique is completely up to them.

What’s important is that fifteen minutes of fame shouldn’t go on to define you; after all, we are all more than just one moment.

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