Masters Of The Universe Makes A He-Man Meme Reference, But TMNT Did It Better – SlashFilm

The “He-Man Sings” meme started its life in 2005 as a music video constructed by a pair of animators at Slackcircus Studios. The video matched animated footage from the Nineteen Eighties “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” animated sequence with an operatic, barely distorted model of 4 Non Blondes’ 1993 hit single “What’s Up?” This video was titled “Fabulous Secret Powers,” and it started with a really stereotypically queer He-Man giving a lispy rendition of the “Masters of the Universe” opening earlier than breaking into music. On the time, the web was welcoming “random” humor with open arms, and the video shortly turned very fashionable. It was successful on web sites like One thing Terrible and eBaum’s World (which had been common within the mid-2000s).

“Fabulous Secret Powers” assured that He-Man and “What’s Up?” could be inextricably linked, so it might not shock any readers on the market to study that “What’s Up?” is a featured monitor in Travis Knight’s 2026 function movie adaptation of “Masters of the Universe.” No, He-Man (Nicholas Galitzine) would not sing an operatic model of the music within the film, however its presence on the soundtrack might be sufficient to present Millennials some nostalgic heat-fuzzies. 

Of course, that is however certainly one of a number of situations of web memes working their approach again into the franchises that impressed them, or a minimum of into the material of flicks on the whole. Certainly, the “Fabulous Secret Powers” model of “What’s Up?” was already expertly inserted into the 2023 animated movie “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” It was combined right into a van chase scene whereby the titular turtles, from the again of a van, power their mutant animal captors to be thrown out. The continuing driving sequence performs the dance remix of “What’s Up?” as loud as life. It will get factors for novelty. 

In “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” the Ninja Turtles are at the back of a van being pushed by different mutant animals that they’re wholly uncomfortable with. (For these , we ranked each mutant in “Mutant Mayhem” right here.) The mutants, led by Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd), are prompted to sing, and so they thumb by means of their music participant, ultimately selecting the 4 Non Blondes model of “What’s Up?” They then start to sing the “Hey ya” refrain on the prime of their mutant lungs. When the turtles handle to halt the van, eject the mutants, and take management, the music shifts into the “Fabulous Secret Powers” remix of “What’s Up?” It’s an important “pump up” second in a film bursting with enjoyable motion and superb animation.

Of course, using the “What’s Up?” remix in “Mutant Mayhem” merely faucets into a well-known and strange musical development culled from on-line life. Therefore, the music’s placement in “Masters of the Universe” is perhaps extra applicable, even when “Mutant Mayhem” makes higher use of the tune. The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie additionally makes use of much more of the music, with the driving sequence lasting a full two-and-a-half minutes. 

Memes, in fact, have change into a default second language to many Millennials, and plenty of popular culture figures have been remixed by means of somewhat little bit of enjoyable on-line tradition jamming. One would possibly recall the 2006 meme extrapolated from the 1992 “X-Males” animated sequence the place the character Juggernaut is re-dubbed to scream, “I am the Juggernaut, b***h!” In a weird inventive alternative, the Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones) even yells that line of dialogue in Brett Ratner’s “X-Males: The Final Stand,” which got here out the identical 12 months.

And memes have been creeping into mainstream leisure for some time. For instance, someday in 2011, intelligent web customers discovered a body from the Sixties “Spider-Man” animated sequence episode “Double Identification” and started spreading it round. The body options two Spider-Males in an identical costumes pointing at one another. Within the episode, a villain is merely impersonating Spider-Man, however the absurdity of the picture made for improbable meme fodder. 

As such, throughout an finish credit sequence for the 2018 animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” the character Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac) jumps right into a parallel universe the place he finds himself within the above-described scene. This makes for a enjoyable tip of the hat to meme lords and individuals who spend an excessive amount of time on-line on the whole (which, actually, is all of us). 

And who may overlook Huge Chungus? This one will be traced again to the 1941 Bob Clampett brief “Wabbit Twouble,” wherein Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc) distorts his personal physique to match the pear-formed physique of Elmer Fudd (Arthur Q. Bryan). After venturing throughout the trenches of 4Chan and touchdown on Tumblr, this model of Bugs Bunny turned related to the phrase “Huge Chungus.” And would not you recognize it, the Huge Chungus meme made its approach right into a scene in 2021’s “Area Jam: A New Legacy.” 

And on condition that 2026 has seen viral YouTube sequence like “The Backrooms” being tailored into huge display hits, the language of memes is probably going the place the way forward for cinema is headed. The “What’s Up?” needle-drop in “Masters of the Universe” is a passing reference, but it surely alludes to the place a complete era would possibly’ve discovered about He-Man within the first place.

“Masters of the Universe” is now taking part in in theaters.