Gary Toulia

An example of Gary Toulia (in this instance, Gary Toulia is not the user's actual name).

Gary Toulia (/toʊliə/; also spelled Gary Tolia, Garrett Tolia, Gerald Tolia) is a general online term for a person from Garetolia or an ethnicGaretolian]]. It has become the subject of many memes and jokes such as the flag of garetolia. Because of its obsessive usage in Garetolian culture, and because of its meaning, the Garetolian Government and YouTube have started to take down channels and videos that use the name in a harmful way. This caused controversy when a British man whose name was Gary Toulia's channel was taken down due to harmful content.

It is estimated that there are around 300 people with the name Gary Toulia living in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Garetolia combined, and that only 14 of them have YouTube channels, even though there are about 500-600 users on YouTube with the username "Gary Toulia". 32 people that were born with the name have changed them since the meme kicked off.

History

The name "Gary Toulia" was coined by a Wikipedia user by the name of Yeety McYeetstuff in March 2019. It first gained significant popularity on the online nation-simulating game NationStates, where it was posted on a region's Regional Message Board.