You’ve heard it. You might have even yelled it at a friend across a crowded room. Hey hey hey whats going on is one of those rare phrases that managed to bridge the gap between 1970s Saturday morning cartoons and the chaotic world of 21st-century cryptocurrency scams. It’s weird. It’s loud. It’s a sonic signature that instantly identifies whether you grew up watching Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids or if you spent too much time on Bitcointalk forums in 2017.
Memes usually have a shelf life of about two weeks. They burn bright, they get annoying, and they vanish into the digital graveyard. But this phrase is different because it keeps mutating. It’s like a linguistic virus. It started as a catchphrase for a character meant to teach kids life lessons and somehow ended up as the soundtrack to one of the biggest financial collapses in the history of the internet. Honestly, if you look at the trajectory of this one sentence, you’re basically looking at a map of how pop culture actually works. It's messy. It’s rarely logical.
The Origin Story Nobody Wants to Talk About
Before it was a remix, it was Fat Albert. Created by Bill Cosby, the character of Fat Albert was the leader of a group of boys in North Philadelphia. He would burst onto the screen and drop that iconic line. For decades, it was just a piece of nostalgia. If you said "Hey hey hey" in the 80s or 90s, people knew exactly what you were referencing. It was wholesome. Or at least, it was meant to be.
Then the internet happened.
Cultural artifacts don't stay in their original boxes anymore. When YouTube culture began to peak in the late 2000s, creators started digging through old media to find "weird" or "cringe" content to repurpose. The deep, booming voice of the character was ripe for remixing. But the phrase didn't truly explode into its modern, chaotic form until it collided with the world of finance. Specifically, BitConnect.
Carlos Matos and the BitConnect Explosion
If you were online in 2017, you couldn't escape Carlos Matos. He was an investor in BitConnect, a cryptocurrency investment platform that many experts—including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin—warned was a Ponzi scheme. During a promotional event in Thailand, Matos took the stage with an energy that can only be described as "electrifyingly frantic."
He didn't just say the line. He screamed it. "HEY HEY HEY... HEY HEY HEY... WAAASSSUPPP BITCONNECT!" It was a car crash you couldn't look away from. The way he dragged out the vowels and the sheer, unbridled confidence he projected while standing in front of a giant digital screen became the definitive version of the meme. It was no longer about a cartoon character. It was now the unofficial anthem of "getting rich quick" and the subsequent disaster that follows.
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When BitConnect eventually shut down in early 2018, losing investors billions of dollars, the meme didn't die. It got funnier—in a dark, twisted way. Every time a new crypto project failed or a "rug pull" occurred, the internet reached for Matos. They reached for that specific, high-energy greeting. It became shorthand for "you’re about to lose all your money."
Why the Brain Latches Onto It
There’s actually some science behind why this specific phrase sticks. It’s called an earworm, but it’s also about phonetics. The repetitive "H" sounds followed by the hard "G" in "going" creates a rhythmic cadence.
- It’s percussive.
- It demands attention immediately.
- It has a built-in "drop" like an EDM track.
Music producers jumped on this. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of remixes on SoundCloud and YouTube that take the BitConnect "Hey hey hey" and layer it over heavy basslines. It works because the original delivery by Matos was inherently musical. He was unintentionally performing.
The He-Man Connection (The Other "What's Going On")
We have to clear something up because people get these two things confused constantly. There is another massive meme involving the phrase "What's going on."
I’m talking about the 4 Non Blondes song "What's Up?" which was famously synced to a video of He-Man. You know the one—"And I say, HEY-EY-EY-EY-EY, HEY-EY-EY!" While it sounds similar, it’s a totally different beast. The Fat Albert/BitConnect version is about a greeting; the He-Man version is about an existential scream.
However, because the internet is a giant blender, these two often get mashed together. You’ll find mashups where Carlos Matos’s "Hey hey hey" is pitched to match the 4 Non Blondes melody. It’s a beautiful, terrifying mess. This is how digital folklore evolves. One person makes a joke, another person misinterprets it, a third person combines the mistake with the original, and suddenly you have a new cultural staple.
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Is It Still Relevant in 2026?
You might think a meme from 2017 would be ancient history by now. In internet years, it should be a fossil. But it keeps popping up in weird places.
We see it in Twitch chats during live streams. When a streamer walks into a new area or starts a broadcast, the chat often floods with "HEY HEY HEY." It’s a way of signaling that the "show" has started. It’s also become a permanent fixture in the "Cringe Culture" hall of fame. People use it ironically to mock influencers who are being too loud or too fake.
There’s also the aspect of "vocal fry" and pitch. Matos's delivery was so unique that it’s almost impossible to replicate perfectly, which makes it a challenge for voice actors and TikTokers. It’s a vocal "fingerprint."
The Real Impact of the BitConnect Fallout
It’s easy to laugh at the meme, but the reality behind the Carlos Matos version is pretty grim. BitConnect was a massive fraud. According to the Department of Justice, the scheme cheated thousands of victims out of over $2 billion.
- The platform used a "volatility software bot" that didn't actually exist.
- Investors were promised 1% daily returns, which is mathematically impossible over the long term.
- The "Hey hey hey" speech was a distraction—pure theater designed to build hype.
The meme serves as a weird kind of historical marker. It reminds us of a time when the "Wild West" of crypto was at its peak. Every time someone posts that clip today, it carries a subconscious warning: if it sounds too good to be true, and the guy on stage is screaming "Hey hey hey," you should probably run the other direction.
How to Identify a "Hey Hey Hey" Moment in the Wild
So, how do you use this knowledge? Recognizing the nuance between the versions tells people you actually know your internet history.
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If you’re at a retro party and someone says it with a deep, gravelly voice, they’re talking about the 70s. They probably like bell-bottoms and vinyl records. If they say it with a high-pitched, frantic energy and follow it up with "What's going on!" while waving their hands, they’re a degenerate from the 2017 crypto era.
It’s a shibboleth. A word or custom that determines whether you belong to a particular group.
Actionable Takeaways for Content Creators
If you're trying to use this meme in your own content, don't just copy it. The internet hates stale jokes. You have to subvert it.
- Contrast is key. Use the high-energy "Hey hey hey" in a situation that is incredibly boring, like waiting in line at the DMV.
- Audio layering. If you're editing video, don't use the original audio; use a slowed-down or "reverb + school bathroom" version to give it a modern, "liminal space" feel.
- Know your audience. Gen Z might know the BitConnect version, but Gen Alpha is already moving on to newer, weirder sounds. If you're targeting older Millennials, the Fat Albert reference might actually land better.
The most important thing to remember about hey hey hey whats going on is that it’s about energy. It’s a greeting that takes up all the air in the room. Whether it’s a cartoon character or a guy at a tech conference, the goal is the same: to be heard.
To stay ahead of the curve, keep an eye on how these phrases are being sampled in AI-generated music. We’re starting to see "Hey hey hey" being used as a prompt for AI voice models to test their range. It’s a rigorous test because of the varying pitches and emotional intensity.
If you want to dive deeper into this kind of internet archaeology, start looking into the "Wassup" Budweiser commercials from the 90s. There’s a direct line between those ads, the Fat Albert catchphrase, and Carlos Matos. It’s all one long, loud conversation that the world has been having for fifty years.
To use this effectively in 2026, keep your references short and your irony levels high. The moment you explain the joke is the moment the joke dies. Just drop the line, wait for the recognition, and move on. That’s how you handle a legacy meme without looking like you’re trying too hard.