Haliey Welch has now made a dramatic return to social media after finding herself at the centre of a cryptocurrency scandal.
The 22-year-old, better known as Hawk Tuah Girl thanks to her notorious catchphrase, has now resurfaced online after being silent for months.
She shared a bizarre skit to her Instagram page poking fun at the rumours that have been circulating about her online, as well as announcing her latest surprise venture.
Take a look at this:
For those who don’t know, Welch seemingly went into hiding after she became embroiled in a cryptocurrency nightmare with the ‘$HAWK token’.
Essentially, it skyrocketed in value when it became available on 4 December last year – but hours later, it plummeted in value by more than 90 percent, according to CoinTelegraph.
Welch was accused of endorsing a ‘pump and dump’ scheme by frustrated fans, who launched a lawsuit against the crypto coin’s creators in the US, even though she only fronted the $HAWK token.
She tried to address the controversy a couple of times, but that seemed to backfire too, so it looks like she might have now opted to take a different approach.
In the clip shared to social media on Tuesday (25 March), Welch referenced a host of rumours – such as her being dead, in prison or pregnant – which have been shared about her since she appeared to go underground.
Welch made a dramatic return to social media while announcing her next venture (Instagram/@hay_welch)
The video shows her feigning sleep and appearing to have ‘nightmares’ about each of these scenarios, before jolting awake each time and realising it’s all a dream.
Welch really amped up the dramatics with eerie music, props – including a fake pregnancy bump fashioned out of a balloon – and costumes, as she sported an orange jumpsuit in one scene.
She even included snaps of some of the strange headlines which have been written about her, as well as clips of the likes of talk show host Stephen Colbert and podcaster Joe Rogan discussing her on their respective shows.
At the end of the clip, her pal from the infamous ‘Hawk Tuah’ video wakes her up and says: “Hey, get your ass up. We got stuff to do.”
In reference to her online absence since the crypto chaos, Welch captioned the clip: “What’d I miss?”
The video gained a mixed reaction from people online, as while one hailed it as a ‘pretty legendary comeback post’, another asked: “When she gonna quit on this thang?”
Well, turns out that this was also some kind of ‘trailer’ for an upcoming documentary – or in Welch’s words, ‘DocTuah’ – about her journey to becoming a viral star.
She also took the mick out of pregnancy rumours (Instagram/hay_welch)
Bungalow Media + Entertainment – who are behind shows such as Surviving Jeffrey Epstein and Cyber Sleuths: The Idaho Murders – have a Hawk Tuah programme in the pipeline, Deadline reports.
It is set to ‘chronicle how Welch, a young woman from a small-town with no active social media presence, unknowingly created a viral moment that gave way into a global phenomenon’, the project’s description reads.
Bungalow Media + Entertainment CEO Bob Friedman said Welch, from Tennessee, had ‘cemented her status in the pop culture lexicon’ with the video which went viral last year.
“There are very few people who know what it is like to achieve this level of fame and live under the 24/7 microscope known as social media,” he told Deadline.
The Hawk Tuah Girl is set to star in a documentary about her rise to viral fame (Instagram/@hay_welch)
“This documentary will serve as both an inspiring and entertaining story of Haliey’s journey, and a lens into what it means to navigate the risks and rewards that come with living in the public’s eye.”
So, what has Welch got to say about being the subject of a documentary?
“I hope y’all been enjoying the crazy stories about ‘my life’ unfold on social media,” the online star joked. “First, I was dead. Then pregnant. Now I’m wanted by Interpol and in jail! Luckily, we’ve been working with Bungalow to start spilling the tea and the truth is actually even more bizarre than you think.”
A release date for the documentary – which will feature Welch as well as her nearest and dearest – hasn’t been confirmed yet, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated.