At the end of 2017, Uganda Knuckles was a meme that the internet was OBSESSED with.
For those of you unaware, it started off as an animated parody character in a video review
of Sonic Lost World by YouTuber Gregzilla.
The character was then made into a 3D model by Deviant Art user tidiestflyer, and then,
somehow, it began being used online, primarily in VRChat, as an avatar in which users came
together as a Tribe.
This tribe would all repeat similar pieces of dialogue, most of
which was taken from super low budget Ugandan action film Who Killed Captain Alex. Naturally,
a meme of this popularity spawned spin off memes, none of which really caught on, but
aided in perpetuating the joke.
So today, we’re taking a look at some of those spin offs with the top 10 alternate
Ugandan versions of Sonic Characters.
Before we begin, we just wanted to acknowledge that many of you out there may feel that Uganda
Knuckles is a racist meme.
So it’s worth noting that we’re just looking at examples that are strictly artwork and
models rather than avatars that went around clicking their tongues at people in VRChat.
With that in mind, let’s jump in.
10 Eggman Doctor Robotnik is perhaps the most plausibly
adaptable character to the well-known rounded shape of the meme.
In this interpretation by artist Ry-Spirit, Robotnik’s proportions are already pretty
fitting, just shrink the size of his limbs!
This Eggman feels right at home in this physical body type, and still boasts the iconic qualities
we’re all so accustomed with – that big pink nose and bushy walrus mustache.
9 Silver Another one crafted by RySpirit, Uganda Silver
is pretty much everything you’d expect it to be.
He’s still got his trademark glowing gloves and bracelets, and his white fur.
To be honest, we kind of like this version of Silver more so than the original – it
seems more bearable.
Jokes aside, you can also get all of these characters on merch from RySpirit, including
t-shirts, sweaters, phone cases and even pillows, if that tickles your Silver fancy.
8 Tails There’s a few other versions of Uganda Tails
kicking around on the interwebs – since this list, in case you haven’t noticed,
is primarily reliant on the brilliant artistry of illustrators who have posted their work
online.
This one by artist Anaz, whose twitter handle is @LoopyGc, is by far our favourite.
They tweeted this amazing piece of Uganda Tails, with big squishy eyes and tiny little
fingers.
7 Danganronpa Knuckles Slightly cheating a bit at this number, let’s
take a look at a different variation of Knuckles that appeared during the Uganda Knuckles craze
– one inspired by Danganronpa.
So if you don’t know what that is, Danganronpa is a murder mystery visual novel franchise
that revolves around an elite high school.
Monokuma is a stuffed robotic bear whose body is divided in half and is the self-proclaimed
head master of the school who has a desire for despair and instigates killing games.
So someone decided to explore ‘do you know da despair?” and create a knuck;es inspired
version out of Gregzilla’s original artwork.
6 Amy Rose In a video uploaded by youtuber Angry Sonic
titled Sonic Characters as Ugandan Knuckles, we get exactly that.
Except the Amy Rose version is comically bad.
While RySpirit does a really good take on Amy Rose – which you guys should check out
– we really wanted to include this derpy version of her that looks like it was drafted
up in MS Paint, colouring over top of a version of the Original Uganda Knuckles – you can
even see the spikes still on her fist.
And for some reason, one of her eyes is totally blacked out.
5 Metal Sonic Another entry on our list from artist RySpirit,
here we have Uganda Metal Sonic.
And it’s brilliant.
It’s like a chubby little robot, with all of Metal Sonic’s classic details included.
It’s got little robotic arms.
A sharpe nose.
Those red sinister eyes.
And that circular yellow depression on his chest.
What’s not to love?
4 Rouge the Bat According to the caption that RySpirit, Rouge
the Bat is “actually de real kween”.
And let’s be honest, in the world of Sonic, she might as well be.
Aside from the debauchery of sexualized fan art when it comes to Rouge, she’s by far
the most badass female Sonic character out there.
This version of Rouge, once again by the talented RySpirit, is a hilarious ball of a character,
with the heart on her chest oversized to fit her entire circular body.
3 Sonic There’s been a lot of examples of a Uganda
Sonic kicking around online ever since the original Knuckles meme came out.
But none of them really caught on.
Mainly because blue versions of Uganda Knuckles were often springing up on VRChat.
It’s okay Sonic, you don’t always have to steal everyone’s thunder.
That being said, there’s still some pretty good versions of the character available,
with fans of the meme having made their own Sonic model – along with other characters
– to have as their avatar in the game.
But there’s one illustration in particular that’s pretty swell.
By DeviantArt user RayenBox123, also known more simply as RayenBox, here we have a Sonic
modeled after Gregzilla’s original Knuckles parody artwork.
It’s got some serious sanci vibes, opting out for adorable instead of disturbing.
And having seen our fair share of disturbing Sonic content online, we’re very okay with
its existence.
2.
Uganda Shadow Shadow often gets a bad rep for being ‘edgy’.
When the character was first character back in 2001 and appeared in Sonic Adventure 2,
he was meant to be a foil to Sonic that died by the end of the game.
But due to his popularity, he was brought back, and even got his own spin off game,
which is notably one of most cringe worthy Sonic games of all time, mainly because of
the excessive attempts by Sega to make it more ‘dark’, which included giving Shadow
guns to wield.
It was a really weird time.
Anyway, the most popular Uganda Shadow that has appeared online really takes that era
to heart – crafted by artist Ry-Spirit, Shadow is holding a gun.
1 Knuckles Of course the OG Ugandan Sonic character had
to make our top spot.
From the time that Gregzilla had posted that review back in Feb of 2017, Uganda Knuckles
had a slow comedic rise before blasting into internet infamy in December of 2017.
He is the reason why we’re making this list FFS.
The avatar with the most popularity, users who play together as part of the Ugandan Knuckles
Tribe run around asking “do you know the way?” and often spit at intruders or threats,
hence the saying “spit on the nonbelievers”.
They sometimes even have a big ol orange leader version of the avatar, known as Gaztons, who
has his name written on his stomach.
Oh, and who can forget the clicking of their tongues.
The meme even leaked into the press a lot for being questionably racist, and Twitter
exploded with opinions of whether or not it was.
Ah, the internet drama.
There we have it friends!
Which of these is your favourite?
Do you wish that it had been one of these other Uganda versions of Sonic characters
that blew up instead of Knuckles?
Let us know your thoughts in those comments below.
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