A newspaper obituary section from the Tampa Bay Times showing David W. Cummings with his decades-old biker nickname 'Pervert Dave' printed.

Pervert Dave

2014Viral obituary / news memedead

Published March 24, 2026

Pervert Dave is the viral nickname of David W. Cummings, a Florida resident and Air Force veteran whose April 2014 obituary exploded across the internet because it casually referred to him by his decades-old biker nickname. The obituary's matter-of-fact mention of "Pervert Dave" sparked widespread curiosity about how someone gets such a moniker, and a subsequent investigation revealed a life story far stranger than anyone expected.

accidental fame memes viral photo memes dark humor memes mystery memes

Overview

The Pervert Dave meme centers on a newspaper obituary for David W. Cummings that included his lifelong nickname without any explanation. The humor came from the jarring contrast between a solemn death notice and the casual, unexplained use of "Pervert Dave" as though it were a perfectly normal thing to call someone. A photo of the obituary circulated on Twitter and blogs, with people fixating on the obvious question nobody in Cummings's life apparently ever asked: how did he get that name?

Origin & Background

Platform
Tampa Bay Times (obituary), Twitter (viral spread)
Key People
@SlowSlownes, Karen Baker
Date
2014

On April 16, 2014, the Tampa Bay Times published a death notice for David W. Cummings that included his nickname "Pervert Dave"4. Cummings had died on April 13 in his sleep at the Crystal River, Florida home of his longtime friend Karen Baker1. The following day, a photo of the obituary was tweeted by the @SlowSlownes Twitter account, picking up over 140 retweets and 90 favorites in its first week4.

Baker, who had placed the obituary, later explained that the nickname was just part of who Cummings was. "He's had the nickname for 40 years or better," she told the Democrat and Chronicle. "Everybody just knew him as 'Pervert.'"1 She said she believed the name came from his motorcycle friends but admitted she never actually asked him about it1.

How It Spread

The same day the tweet went viral, the men's interest blog BroBible picked up the obituary photo, noting that while the notice was "well-written," it failed to address the nickname's origins, "leaving the imagination to run wild"2. On April 18, 2014, the Democrat and Chronicle published an interview with Baker that only deepened the mystery. She described Cummings as a beloved jokester who "would be the one sitting there telling the jokes" and "have everybody rolling on the floor laughing"1.

Over the next several days, the story spread to the Daily Dot, Guyism, Death and Taxes, Uproxx, and Gawker4. Each outlet approached it with the same mix of amusement and genuine curiosity about the nickname.

Then on April 21, the Tampa Bay Times published a deep investigative piece that revealed Cummings's life was far darker than the lighthearted obituary suggested3. The article disclosed that Cummings had been honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1970 for a "character disorder" and suffered from PTSD, claiming to have survived three plane shoot-downs in Vietnam3. More shocking: over a 13-month period in the late 1980s, Cummings killed two people. He shot his amputee roommate, known as "Wheelchair Skip" (Furman W. Toney III), six times during an argument over money, and separately caused the death of a woman named Dale Marie Williams, 31, by crashing into a tree while driving under the influence3. He served roughly two years for the murder and one year for DUI manslaughter3.

As for the nickname everyone wanted explained, Baker eventually offered a simpler answer to the Tampa Bay Times: "It's just something he came back with from Vietnam. It was just a nickname given to him"3.

How to Use This Meme

Pervert Dave isn't a template meme. People typically shared the obituary photo itself as a screenshot, often with commentary about the unexplained nickname. The humor works on its own without modification. When referenced, it's usually brought up as a prime example of an obituary that raises more questions than it answers, or as shorthand for the internet's ability to turn an ordinary local news item into a national talking point.

Cultural Impact

The Pervert Dave story became a brief case study in how the internet processes obituaries and death notices. The Democrat and Chronicle ended their article by asking readers to contact them if they knew how Cummings got his nickname1, turning a local newspaper piece into a crowdsourced mystery.

The Tampa Bay Times follow-up, written by Andrew Meacham (president of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers), turned what had been a comedy story into something much more complex3. The reveal of Cummings's violent history created an uncomfortable tonal shift, forcing people who had been laughing at the funny nickname to reckon with a genuinely troubled life. Cummings had been an Air Force veteran dealing with combat stress, a man who'd had three marriages, raised Paso Fino horses, and carved wood in rural Citrus County. He also had Hepatitis C and a fear of commercial air travel3.

The meme sits in an unusual space in internet history: a story that started as pure comedy and became, within five days, something closer to true crime journalism.

Fun Facts

Cummings was born on September 28, 1949, in Rochester, New York, and left the area in the early 1970s1.

His obituary asked that donations be made to the ASPCA or other animal welfare organizations in lieu of flowers1.

Baker described herself as Cummings's "kid sister in the metaphorical sense," having met him as a teenager through motorcycle riding1.

"Wheelchair Skip," the roommate Cummings killed, had his own violent history. Six months before his death, Toney had fired a sawed-off shotgun at an imaginary intruder and hit a 5-year-old girl in the face instead3.

Baker "good-naturedly handled the hordes of media inquiries" that followed the viral obituary3.

Frequently Asked Questions