Hello internet! and welcome to behind the meme!
Today we have a look at ugandan knuckles
Damn!
This one has been everywhere lately!
From pewdiepie to even that damn elders react series!
Where a bunch of old people were confused as hell with it!
“What’s it suppose to mean?
I mean what’s the purpose”
Sooooo…
How did it all happen?
It starts in the 1990s like most great things do
Yeah…that shits gonna be stuck in your head for the rest of the day, I’m sorry.
the character Knuckles is originally from the sonic the hedgehog series of video games
You know those video games where the main character runs around like he just drank a
bunch of soda, coffee and cocaine.
and if you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say that I’m talking about
the video game where you’re a blue guy who collects gold rings
This is the original knuckles video game character who by the way is suppose to be an animal
called an echidna which looks like this.
Dude, don’t ask me how they got this character from this animal.
Sega must have been high as hell back in the 90s.
SEGA!!!
So how did this become this
Well,The answer is surprisingly short.
Kinda like my dic-tionary reading abilities.
Yeah that’s totally what I was gonna say
It all started on the channel of youtuber Gregzilla.
Who all the way back in the distant year of 2013 uploaded a video of himself reviewing
one of the newer sonic games “Sonic Lost World”.
In the review he had the very brief animation of what we now know as uganda knuckles.
“So without further echidna!
Oh no! lets take a look at sonic lost worlds”
That brief 1 second clip was the origin of the meme phenomenon that we now know and love
today!
I know what you’re thinking and I agree.
Lauren southern is total proof that god is real.
Beauty and brains in one package, I mean cmon
Oh…wait…you weren’t thinking that?
Right, you were wondering how a video uploaded all the way back in 2013 was able to create
a new meme in 2018.
That’s a good question!
A very good question
Well along with the image of ugandan knuckles the meme is closely associated with the term
”Do you know the way?” and by that I mean “dew u no de wey?”
But of course being a meme on the internet in 2018 the phrase is much more complex than
a simple question, instead being said in a stereotypical ugandian accent.
You see in the world of video game streaming a common joke has been for people to use sound
clips of ugandian warriors or soldiers or people or whatever it is they have in uganda.
You know what?
I don’t know anything about uganda and I’m not gonna act like i do.
So lets see….
It’s in africa… okay….
This is what their flag looks like.
kinda cool, kinda cool
And one of their biggest exports is coffee…
So There we go.
We learned something about uganda!
“I make learning fun.
Incredibly fun”
Remember how I was talking about the accent and sound effects of ugandan soldiers?”
Dew yew know de way” Well it just so happens that another export of uganda is action movies!
Thats right!
America has the fast and furious series, Mission impossible, John wick, terminator.
the list goes on and on.
Well uganda has movies that are pretty amazing in their own right.
Movies like “who killed captain alex”.
Now normally I would try to explain what makes who killed captain alex so amazing but…words
cannot do it justice sooooo…. have a look for yourself.
The phrase commonly associated with the meme is believed to have originated from this piece
of cinema history which was released in 2010 and made with a budget of only 200 dollars!
There are various low budget ugandian films that may be the origin of the term.
But that scene you just saw comes the closet from what I can tell.
So we have all the elements of the meme!
The origin,The art, the phrase, but we’re missing one thing that all memes have.
The popularity! how in the hell did it become so popular?
The meme made the jump from simple art to virtual reality avatar in September of 2017,
when the deviantart artist “Tidiestflyer” created a 3d model!
along with his post, he offered a link for individuals to download his work which gave
them the capabilities to use it within video games.
“Do you like video games?”
You see certain video games allow you to create a custom avatar that represents you in the
virtual world.
Tidiestflyer’s model began to be heavily used in a video game that does just that.
VRchat.
In late 2017 the game VRchat started to become very popular on twitch and on youtube amongst
video game channels.
The game is simple.
You pop on a virtual reality headset and talk to other people in a virtual world.
It wasn’t long before videos of players having a ton of fun trolling other players
as the character made their way to youtube where they have been viewed thousands of times
and helped propel the meme to the next level of popularity.
Now the meme has become the most popular meme of 2018 and has been used in so many different
ways that have expanded beyond it’s use as a simple animation and a video game avatar.
With uganda knuckles being used in more traditional meme formulas and within basic photo based
memes.
2018 has only just begun and it’s already off to a pretty interesting start.
So there you have it!
What started off as a beloved video game character got mixed with some interesting elements before
eventually catching the internet’s attention!
But hey!
That’s the internet for you and on the internet memes are king!
Thank you all so very much for watching!
Make sure to subscribe so you can catch my next video and stay up to date on all your
favorite memes and trends!
Much love and appreciation!
I’ll catch you beautiful people next time