Indian Outlaw is a song by Tim McGraw that has launched a misheard lyrics meme on TikTok. The 1994 single inspired users to make videos featuring captions listing the incorrect lyrics to the song's chorus and has been linked to the recent phenomenon of the "hawk tuah" girl who took over the platform last week.
There has also been some controversy over the song's actual lyrics, which present some incorrect information about McGraw's background.
The chorus to Indian Outlaw lists the ethnic background of the singer as well as his romantic partner, citing three Native American tribes.
I'm an Indian outlaw
Half Cherokee and Choctaw
My baby, she's a Chippewa
She's one of a kind
White Americans are well known for having difficulty recognizing and pronouncing words from Native American languages, even if they're the names of rather famous tribes. This has resulted in TikTok videos making use of the misheard lyrics meme format replacing the tribe names with something else while Indian Outlaw plays in the background.
One of the most popular versions of this meme lists the lyrics as "I'm an Indian outlaw, half parakeet and hot dog."
@spdrlegs Tf? ???? #spiderlegs ♬ Tim McGraw Indian Outlaw - Country Club ????????
Starting in June 2024, TikTok videos began to appear referencing the "hawk tuah" or "spit on that thing" girl while the song Indian Outlaw plays. This meme, from earlier the same month, surrounds a young woman who was approached by a street interviewer for an Instagram account who asked "What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?"
She responded with an answer in a distinct Southern accent that many found quite amusing.
"Oh, you gotta give him that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang," she said.
"Hawk tuah" was used as an onomatopoeia for the sound one might make when spitting real good. In the crossover meme with Indian Outlaw, TikTokers have been replacing the word "Choctaw" with "hawk tuah" in videos that show footage or a screenshot of the "spit on that thing" girl, or simply using a caption of the misheard lyrics over miscellaneous country-coded imagery.
@that.boycory I’m an Indian outlaw…. #fyp #country #countrymusic #foryou #countrytok #countrytiktok #timmcgraw #hawktuah #viral #fypツ ♬ original sound - Cory Uram
'Indian Outlaw' is a track from the Tim McGraw album Not a Moment Too Soon, which was released on January 22, 1994. It was written by Tommy Barnes, Jumpin' Gene Simmons, and John D. Loudermilk before being recorded by McGraw and became a breakthrough hit for the singer, earning a place in the Top 40 country songs.
The song was criticized for containing many Native American stereotypes. McGraw himself is white. Billboard's Larry Flick said that the track was "positively stuffed with lyrical and musical Native American cliches, from tomtoms to wigwams to peace pipes" that was likely to "set relations back 200 years" between Native Americans and U.S. colonizers.
Considering how people are now making a meme out of the Native American words in the lyrics, he may have been at least partially correct.
The first misheard lyrics TikTok meme video appears to be the one posted by @spdrlegs on February 4, 2024, with the caption "I'm an Indian outlaw, half parakeet and hot dog or whatever Tim McGraw said." On June 18, 2024, the account @tattoosandblueeyes posted a slideshow entry showing the "hawk tuah" girl with the misheard lyrics referencing her.
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