A Wal-Mart Worker and the Future of Identity (and Memes)
What to think in the aftermath of Gail Lewis
Gail Lewis, a Wal-Mart employee from Morris, Illinois, quit her job last year after ten years and quickly went viral.
I first encountered her videos on YouTube, the main social media site that I use, a carryover from my high school and college days where I watched (and made) videos since I didn’t have cable. Though originally, she had posted the video on TikTok. The news spread fast and people made videos. By the time I saw it on YouTube, it was probably a few days old and yet, I saw hundreds of spoofs, parodies, stitches, and tributes. Most were random, out-of-sync, seemingly inside jokes, the kind of things popular in the early internet days. Eventually, which really just means more than a week into the news cycle, even major news networks picked it up, including Inside Edition and the New York Post.
The original video alone has more than 36 million views and 4 million likes. There’s no easy way to tell how many combined likes all of the Gail Lewis clipped, linked, and inspired videos have in total.
She became a symbol. Then, a meme. But, unlike others thrust into sudden virality, her name wasn’t separate from journey.
What’s interesting about the journey of Gail Lewis becoming a meme is that this felt different than past memes. Memes used to take an individual to represent a concept; now the memes are representing a concept with an individual. Gail Lewis has come to represent possibilities, internet humor, and hyperbole. But it feels good-natured, as of now, similar to Ken Bone (who was often referred to as “red sweater guy”) before his concerning past made headlines.
Famous (and infamous) memes in the past were usually using a likeness of an individual whose personhood remained anonymous. Buzzfeed has many "I Accidentally Became A Meme" videos to highlight the people behind famous images. It’s noteworthy that Gail Lewis’ name automatically was associated with her image, and it offers a new insight into the prescient Andy Warhol line, “In the future everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes.”
It’s also relevant that the Gail Lewis memes embody the video world, rather than simply stock images. As I stated, I saw her first on YouTube but her videos were on every social media platform that I encountered, and every video I saw of her was randomly recommended to me.
What is refreshing, for me at least, is that many of the videos about her don’t seem mocking, with many comparing her to other great legends, usually famous sports superstars.
The actual video, just shy of one minute long, is quite emotional. Gail Lewis begins the video saying, “Attention Wal-Mart: This is Gail Lewis.” She signs out for the last time after a decade at the store. Then, the video cuts to her in the car, where she tearfully states, “Today was the end of an era for me.” Though she’s getting a better job, she says the people at her Wal-Mart became like family.
Class dynamics are obviously an underlying message in this whole scenario. A decade’s worth of work still isn’t enough to ensure someone is comfortable. Workers have to make lateral and upward job changes instead of being able to rely on being rewarded for loyalty.
But ultimately, the world more or less moved on. It has been about five months since I’ve seen interviews with her in any major publication. I also haven’t seen any of her videos recommended anymore in quite a while. And while the world got to know Gail Lewis for a few seconds, I can’t say I really know her at all, and I’m not vouching for her either. I’m simply analyzing the things I saw in the video that impacted millions.
Will other people’s fifteen minutes of fame follow suit? Will images and likenesses be attached to names forever? Should they? Would most people want that at all?
Recently, I saw a viral video from someone I knew in college. It has more views than Gail Lewis’ video by about 20 million. It was a peculiar sensation to view such viral video of someone who I had known in real life. It reiterated for me how different the internet is from the real world. (Even now, as I write, I often find it easier to think of strangers reading this—or anything—than picturing someone I know.)
Gail Lewis shared with the world a moment. The video has tens of millions of views, the view count etched onto the video, measuring impact concretely. Yet, the moment was also ephemeral, too, having came and went. But, at least as long as TikTok exists, the views are forever there, even when most memories have faded for the viewers.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out my recent work. I had a humor piece, The Wedding Countdown for the Couple You Vaguely Knew in College Starts Now, in Points in Case. I also had a short story, Ice Cream Social, in KGB Lit Mag.