Everything about what's happening around Adam—his work, his legacy, his death, and the ways he is remembered afterwards...is fascinating. It might stem from morbid curiosity, but since he lived much of his life in the public eye on YouTube and profited from it, all reflections on him, whether positive or negative, are fair game. He was in the right place at the right time, like others in the YouTube world 15 to 20 years ago. He found the right niche and balance, which allowed him to secure financial backing while doing relatively little.
I think about Rhett and Link from Good Mythical Entertainment, who worked incredibly hard to monetize their content and create a Hollywood-style business model on YouTube. Their efforts brought them fame and helped others by creating jobs and providing experience to many.
What Adam created was impressive to an extent, but it feels like Narnian Turkish Delight—appealing yet lacking substance. In today's environment, it's possible to create forms of entertainment that don't encourage any sort of virtuous growth. After more than 4,000 videos, I'm still unsure what Adam truly built for himself.
Regarding him as a person, he seemed unable to find peace. He developed a persona and placed all his faith in Adam the Wood, believing that this "character" could bring David Adam Williams the stability and peace he sought. This belief was unwise. It resembles a strange episode from Black Mirror; it feels like DAW and ATW were two opposing forces, with one draining life from the other. Perhaps he serves as a cautionary tale, much like the Victorian horror stories that inspired the Universal Monsters he admired.
I think the Adam the Woo saga is a cautionary tale about what happens to vloggers, particularly daily vloggers, and the pressure of trying to make money via Youtube. It is remarkably unhealthy the way Adam was going about his work and he was barely even aware of it! Had he only visited a doctor for a physical and maybe an EKG, he might still be alive.
Great points. I'm sure you'll get hammered for a variety of reasons, some I wouldn't expect, and mostly from Woovians who believe that their bestie David was above criticism and you should just not watch if you don't like it. They don't care that David monetized lazy content and enjoyed the spoils of that the past several years while seemingly looking down upon those that made it all possible. In their eyes, he is above reproach.
I've said that several times, the response to his death, from day 1 onward, has been fascinating. We might have expected a lot of it, but certainly not all of it.
A majority of his viewers are GenX and Boomers that can't handle the fact that we are aging and fallible. There is a price to pay for being an unchecked and undisciplined consumer of goods. God help us all for sure, but we all saw it and knew this was coming.
You mentioned Good Mythical putting in work to build their show and get to where they are. I feel like a lot of people either forget or simply leave out the fact that ATW couldn't have done what he did without his donation pages and links on his website to accept money to help him such as "fuel the woo" etc. YouTube wasn't paying his bills for a long time because he didn't drop the donations until not too long ago, even when he said he was going to or that he did, it was actually still up (shocker I know). He built everything he had and the foundation of his entire whatever you want to call it, off the financial support directly from everyone else, just as a church would. Sounds familiar. How did he get the RV? From fans. What happened to the money when he sold it? Kept it.
These are details that like I said, people gloss over or have forgotten about imo.
How many of his fans are able to just buy and sell a RV, a home in Celebration, own Disney DVC timeshare, electric golf cart (the price of a car?), travel around the world? Not me and probably not most people reading this. Collectively though they did help him get there.
No one could get away with putting out the low-level, poorly informed, poorly edited(if edited at all) content these days and be successful. Adam’s videos show a complete lack of effort.
There is an actual link now being studied on nostalgia and neurochemistry. His content really showcases how nostalgia can become what psychologists now call "maladaptive nostalgia," which is shown through persistent sadness and disconnection from the present and using nostalgia to avoid growth or uncertainty. This is what his videos showed. What you watch now on his channel is a "Truman Show" like tale of a two personalities vying for control with maladaptive nostalgia using the past as a retreat and not a resource.
He definitely found the right niche and balance to achieve material success and buy multiple DVC property memberships that he planned to enjoy longer after his YouTuber career was over. Just two months ago, he was showing off a penthouse stay at the Polynesian Village Resort. Unfortunately the calculus didn't priorizing health and now his family will inherit hefty annual dues that keep accumulating.
WHAT? Did Adam the Woo really own a property in a building that is VISIBLE from the entrance of Magic Kingdom? That convenience is awesome.
On the other hand, his residence in Celebration allowed him to go to Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, etc. on a whim. Of course, I'm surprised that being able to go at any time without the usual constraints (such as time and money) didn't take the fun out of it all. I figure that when you've unconsciously memorized the script for every attraction and can find your way around each of the theme parks blindfolded, the magic is lost.
Poetically written for a poetic situation.
It’s always been sadly ironic to me that his video behind the scenes at Universal rocketed him to stardom, but also got him a lifetime ban from UO parks that he could never get removed (despite being one of their biggest fans).
Even his last video with all the Grinch decorations and his friend Jim dressed in full Grinch costume and makeup spreading joy around Celebration indicates that ATW deeply desired to get his UO parks ban lifted.
I think the ban helped drive him deeper into obsession over movies and film, especially Universal films like Back to the Future.
ATW began as a way for him to escape the daily grind, but eventually became his prison.
He tried to pivot his content to travel vlogs, but it was one pivot too many and his views were declining.
He began jetsetting all over the world to try to feed the algorithm and his health took a toll (poor diet, exahaustion, etc.), there is a case to make that the guy died trying to feed the algorithm.
Beautifully written.
He probably could have petitioned Universal and got that ban lifted but he was too damn lazy to even try..heck he wouldn't even do the paperwork for media credentials..the ban from Disney got lifted because a friend lawyer did the paperwork for him..not because he did it. He even says that on the vlog after he got Disney's ban lifted.
That seems like an ADHD thing…not getting around to doing stuff that is necessary, while also being able to accomplish something that is a very daily routine of filming and publishing a video of some kind each day.
There is something significant about his upbringing with his father and mother that is key to all of this. He seems to have felt a strong connection to someone or something that he considers central to understanding his true self. While I acknowledge that some of this is speculative, his daily videos provide anyone with the opportunity to critique him in this way.
I agree, I watched him for over a decade off and on (didn’t care for the theme park content) and have my own theory.
His parents were featured in a lot of his videos and seem very kind, and my understanding is that his father is an evangelical pastor. I’ve known many “preacher’s sons” and daughters in my life and David/ATW definitely matches this personality profile.
The ATW persona that David created seemed like an embodiment of rebellion against his parents by someone who lived a very repressed yet praise-filled childhood. ATW was a character David portrayed who was living life to its fullest to try to make up for lost time.
ATW loved film, tattoos, punk rock, theme parks, and the paranormal. He “collaborated” with an OnlyFans adult content creator for a time, and now it appears that he may have had several female companions during his many travels. All of these could be very problematic for his evangelical parents, even though he was praised constantly by his Woovian fans for going deeper into all of these areas.
IMO, his parents conditioned him to seek constant praise, but as he grew his channel, he increasingly sought praise from his fans to replace the praise from his parents who may have been uncomfortable with some of his behavior (both on and off screen).
Eventually he became two people in one, both fighting for dominance and it became a “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” situation. He told his parents his antics were just for YouTube and went to great lengths to hide his many female companions because he couldn’t stand to upset or embarrass them, but at the same time he was leaning harder into his ATW persona for more praise from his fans and to fulfill repressed desires. Towards the end, ATW kind of became the seven deadly sins personified, and David seemed very conflicted in his identity.
Then he got lazy with his content and the views started dropping (along with the praise he longed for), so he launched into a series of travel vlogs which (in hindsight) were probably too hard on his already fragile health.Then he died unexpectedly and now a lot of new details are emerging about his life both on and off screen, and it is adding to the shock of his family, friends, and fans.
The one thing consistent throughout his story seems to be the need for constant praise from someone, and I think that began with his upbringing. He drank deep from the nostalgia well because he missed simpler times and he knew that focusing on nostalgia would garner even more praise from his fans. In the end, I’m not sure he knew who was David and who was ATW anymore, he seemed like a tortured soul. You can see it in his eyes the past few years that he seemed depressed.
I’ve seen similar stories play out with friends who grew up in religious families, I think David loved his family too much to break away completely and live life how he wanted, so he leveraged his YT personality to try to have his cake and eat it too.
Wholeheartedly agree
Portrait of Adam the Woo, instead of Dorian Gray
Such a great idea for more AI image slop. :)
I guess I liked his style of just checking things out to see where the wind took him, as opposed to going to “must see” places and then making some sort of travel guide for people. There's a lot of that out there already and I don't think I would've trusted him for information I needed if I wanted to visit, but I could put two and two together based on his experiences.
I think people wanted him to be more of something he was not. He just did what he wanted when he wanted to do it, but a LOT of people can't travel that way. I research trips and read forums and whatnot and there are so many folks who must have their travel plans all typed up in a spreadsheet. They've got a binder of information and they know where they are going at what time and that's not happening until 2027 or whatever. He just wasn't that kind of traveler. If you wanted to watch him, you pretty much had to accept that you're just along for the ride. Apparently, plenty of folks were fine with that concept.
That being said, I quit watching him after his Large Marge days and would just watch the occasional video that sounded interesting. Maybe he could've been more successful than he was if he had kept with what he had been doing, but who knows? I agree that it's kind of fascinating to see all the reactions. If I never see another picture of a coffee cup again, I'll be happy.
I also wonder if other fandoms have this kind of reaction to someone's death? Like if this is the reaction of a guy who didn't have a million subscribers, what would it be like for someone like Mr. Beast who has several million? Or is it different because ATW was a daily vlogger and Mr. Beast is…whatever genre he's considered to be?
That’s a great question and your insight is helpful. I wonder as well because this type of celebrity is more personal and consistent in our daily lives.
My adult daughter was sad when I told her he had died. She hasn't watched him since she was in high school, which has been several years now, and she was like “I don't know why I am even sad about this.” I think in her case, it was the nostalgia for a time in her life where he was someone we watched over supper every night. We went on road trips and stopped at oddball places like he did. His weird phrases and completely wrong use of certain words sparked conversations between both of my kids and I.
Out of the three of us, I was the only one who still watched his videos occasionally. I was looking forward to seeing what he'd do with his USA road trips he had planned. I've tried several of his spinoff people, but the only one I can watch out of them is Justin Scarred…which is so strange because I could not stand him to start with. He tosses out a video here and there, though, and that's an easy enough pace to keep up with. I don't really want to watch what one person does every day.
That’s beautiful and strikes at the center of why this feels so important and intriguing. What an amazingly odd time to be living.
I agree! Oddly enough, I feel like I've delved into the stories of the people who are so heartbroken over ATW in a similar fashion to when people like Queen Elizabeth and Jimmy Carter passed away. I don't know what that says about me but I've watched a few tributes, read some stories, and was thinking I was about done pondering anymore of it.
Well I can tell you personally what happens in another Fandom when a person passes away. As a member of the Neebs Gaming community, we lost a key member of the group just a couple of years ago. Thick44, Tony Schnur. He developed brain cancer and died suddenly. We mourned as a group. We are a close knit group that have our own chats groups on Facebook and Discord. The guys are not even involved in those. They just brought us together as a community. We go to live shows the group puts on in North Carolina, and while it's about the group, its more about us hanging out as friends from all over the world. Thick passed, we didnt ask for statues, or tributes, we just mourned together. A bunch of us have Thick44 tattoos and that's about as far as it goes. They have roughly 2.5 million subscribers on their main channel and we did not push for any memorials. You know what happened though? The folks at EA put a memorial up in Battlefield 2042 that said fly high recon, with his flag on display. You can craft thick44 flags in 7 days to die, they have a bunch of voice over work in different video games. Ark Survival Evolved and Conan Exiles both have tributes to thick. Its almost like if you add value to something or bring some kind of goodness or joy to this world people will honor you without being prompted to.
I don't know anything about gaming, but that sounds like an amazing way to honor someone prominent in that community.
I wonder if the demographic of the audience matters in the expectations of how someone is memorialized? Or if it is more like you say about adding value to something?
Clearly, there are some folks out there who seem to think ATW added value to their lives, which is apparently enough that they think he needs streets, and whatnot named after him. I've read some of their stories and there are folks who watched him during some low points of their lives and he seems to have brought them joy and something to look forward to. There were folks who were 70s and 80s saying he reminded them of their son who passed away, all the way down to people who said they were like 10 or 11 when they started watching him and they are adults now. That's a pretty wide range of folks.
I guess what I can't figure out, is why he was the only one some of these folks ever watched. I've seen a bunch of folks who said he was the only channel they had ever subscribed to. That in itself is kind of mind-boggling to me.
His net worth was around 2-4 million
He will fade into obscurity and his name will be forgotten. That's what will happen. No one will carry his name like a torch because he never had children and he never had a wife. As a matter of fact his YouTube channel will sit there, dormant forever until someone logs in and takes it down. Watch as his last video with the Grinch goes from ONE WEEK AGO to 1 year ago to 5 years ago
His parents will get the condolences but we will move on and forget. Just wait and see. All of his YouTubers friends already got their tribute video crying
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This is an honest, thought out opinion piece. Just because it doesn't paint Adam in a 100% perfect heavenly angel light does not =nuts. That's just truth.
I guess this sub got taken over by humorless mods, too?
Well most of us think you all are nuts. A statue and a star on the walk of fame? For no effort youtube videos? Oh and now I see you all want statues inside Disney, the place he was banned from. Its a delusional cult.
How about a park bench with a plaque? That seems much more appropriate and doable.
Ha. I agree we are all on some spectrum. Thanks
Likewise. 👍🏼