Michael Willis Heard, Influencer Behind the Yes King Sound on TikTok, Is Dead at 53

The internet is a huge place where every corner is occupied by a person doing something for someone. We realize that's vague, but how else can one describe Michael Willis Heard, a social media influencer whose messages managed to find just about anyone who needed them? This is a man whose legacy includes dropping the Yes King sound on TikTok, and boy, is it not safe for work.

According to Michael's Facebook, he was kind of a jack of all trades. He was a father, counselor, life coach, sex health advocate, the man behind LoveAndLightTV, and an overcomer. Michael's more than 13,000 followers were always deeply appreciative of his motivational messages. Sadly, the digital content creator passed away at the age of 53. Here's what we know about his cause of death.

In a Nov. 9 post to Facebook, Michael's daughter Mykel Crumbie shared the heartbreaking news of his death. A cause of death has not been revealed at this time. Mykel wrote that she was going to miss her father so much and acknowledged that he was thought of as a controversial person. "IDC who didn’t love my father and didn’t like his lifestyle and WISHED DEATH ON HIM," she said. "THIS WAS THE GREATEST MAN TO LIVE ON THIS EARTH!"

Mykel went on to say that this was a difficult time for her family, but she knows her dad is "up in glory having an amazing time." She also referenced the number of people Michael touched with his compassion and love. This can be seen in the comments section, which was filled with thoughts, prayers, and condolences. Several people echoed Mykel's statement, doubling down on the fact that Michael was loved by many.

A content creator named Nick Peterson shared a possible update on Instagram, claiming in his video that Michael had an asthma attack that caused a heart attack. Nick went on to say that Michael was pronounced brain dead after that. This is an unconfirmed report.

The Yes King meme began with a pornographic video Michael posted back in March 2023, per Meme Decoder. In the video, Michael is essentially asking the person he is sleeping with a series of questions that are answered with the same phrase: Yes King.

Normally, a video like this wouldn't jump genres, but Meme Decoder noted that toward the end of 2024 and into early 2025, the audio was clipped and applied to very banal content. Most of the time, the very explicit audio was used over pretty tame footage, such as dipping various foods into different sauces.

Evidently, the Yes King meme is part of a larger internet phenomenon known as thugposting. "It's basically a genre of memes where hyper masculine, aggressive, and gangster imagery gets combined with homoerotic undertones," per Meme Decoder.