If you’re into sports, you’ve probably heard “What’s up, bro?” on your feed. And you may have heard it from one of your favorite athletes, like Luka Doncic or a middle-aged GM of the Tampa Bay Bucs.
You would be forgiven if you had zero I have no idea what’s going on. TL;DR: It refers to a streamer named Sketch who has become extremely popular in esports. He’s a video game streamer with a very specific style – an alter ego, actually – and a variety of catchphrases like the aforementioned: “What’s up, bro?” He took off online and now seems to be a big one as his career grows thing to be.
Here are the basics and background of Sketch.
Who is Sketch?
Since I’m not a big fan of streamers, I first came across Sketch via TikTok – real name Kylie Cox, about 25 years old.
He has a distinctive appearance and a distinct voice. He typically wears a Houston Texans jersey, over-ear headphones, glasses, and a buzzcut. His Twitch page, thesketchreal, has more than 700,000 followers as of Friday. He is bigger on TikTok with over 1.6 million followers. Each of his videos is viewed millions of times. You can often stream him live on TikTok and play the NFL game Driving me crazy.
Since his explosion, he’s been everywhere: popular podcasts, celebrity streams, everything. He’s also received the TikTok treatment, where fans clip and repost almost everything he does.
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Why is he popular?
In short, he’s popular because he’s pretty entertaining. Honestly, I don’t realize how good he is at games. I’m not a big player so it’s difficult to judge. But that’s not why people tune in and share his clips. It’s more his personality and personality. He’s both over-the-top – he yells, curses and screams football play calls at his virtual players – while maintaining a monotone, high-pitched speaking voice. It’s a strange mix of pranksters, nerdy jokes and class clowns. He’s also quick-witted in a nervous way and has developed a kind of specific language.
Here are some of his catchphrases:
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“What’s up brother?” – a greeting usually said in a high voice and a number one in the air
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“Special teams. Special moves. Special players.” – compliments to his virtual team
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“Tuesday! Tuesday!” – this is football that speaks for speed and tells its players to hurry up
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[Janky bird-esque flapping] – a random thing he does while “play-calling.”
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“I’m sorry I swore.” – He says this often because he has a tendency to swear
He is popular because he is special. He blinks and gestures and twitches. You see Sketch, you remember him. When looking through clips, he’s also popular because he says some things from his own pocket. Crassness works, especially online.
Who is he popular with?
Sketch has become extremely popular and has become, for lack of a better term, mainstream in the world of men’s sports. There was a trend on TikTok where one partner, usually a woman, would say to the other, usually a man, “What’s up, bro?” Many men responded in sketch voice, “What’s up, bro!”
This trend has been adopted by countless professional sports teams and players, such as the Dallas Mavericks, Tennessee Titans, March Madness Final Four teams, the NFL, and countless others.
There was still another trend that started with Sketch telling fellow streamer Jynxi that he’s been moving “since birth.”
Athletes like Bryce Harper celebrated like Sketch and he was mentioned at the opening of SportsCenter. Sketch makes videos of himself playing real football with the IRL Houston Texans.
In short, this kid has taken over the sports internet. So much so that real athletes reference him almost every day. We’ll see if Sketch can turn his virality into a long-term streaming career.
But right now it’s as big as it gets in the streaming world. That’s it, brother.