Now if you're not familiar with Dragon Ball Z, first I just gotta say SHAME ON YOU!!! How could you not have even heard of one of the greatest anime series of all time?! Ok, ok, you're forgiven. But really, if you haven't heard of it it's the story of the life (and afterlife) of Son Goku and the many many battles he and his friends face usually defending the Earth. Goku is a strange visitor from a distant planet with powers and abilities beyond those of mortal me...what? You've heard something like this before? Who the fuck is Superman?! LOL! Just kidding. Yes, Superman was indeed an inspiration for the character and shares many of his traits as as well as an otherworldly origin. I should point out that Dragon Ball Z is the second of three series. The first, Dragon Ball, follows Goku from boyhood to adolescence. In Z, he's married, grown up and has a son (he ultimately has another later in the series). The series culminates with Dragon Ball GT where through the meddling of a character he was adversarial with in the original series he finds himself a young boy again. The Dragon Ball series is worldwide one of the best known manga and anime and has served as an inspiration to many in the craft.
Now, on to the memes. I'll be taking these in order of appearance.
IT'S OVER 9000!!!!
Here's the video that started it all:
This video was uploaded via YouTube to a popular messageboard called 4chan garnering millions of views and almost instantly spawned remixes. The phrase "It's Over 9000!!!" has been used in the context of describing something huge without measure. In a way it's like saying "lots" or "a ton".
The meme became infamous when someone trolling Oprah Winfrey's message board left her a comment citing the meme. Oprah took the bait and read the comment to her audience. Here it is:
Heh heh, pwned. One particular remix of this that I find hilarious uses another meme (Pedobear) to create a music video.
Consider yourself officially let in on the joke.
Ok, on to the next meme:
I'mma Firin' Mah Lazer/Shoop Da Whoop
This one comes much later in the series. We're introduced to a villian by the name of Cell. He's sort of a bio-engineered android with the simple goal of becoming the most complete he he can be...and destroying everyone and everything just to show off how powerful he is.
The meme started as a result of this scene where Vegeta (the Over 9000 guy) engages him. What what ensues:
So somebody gets the idea to exaggerate Cell a bit and do this with it:
Ok, admittedly some may get the impression that the blackface bit might be racist but only if you haven't seen the original video (which I carefully provided). The meme is exploited simply by adding the googly eyes and the open lips firing a laser to someone's face on an image or in a video. Here are some examples:
By hbombvi at 2012-01-04
Yes, you read that right. I did that last image. You're welcome. And consider yourself officially let in on the joke.
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