Memetic Mutation in this series.
Seasons 1-4- Jack himself has quite a few memorable quotes:
- "AKUUUUUUUUU!!!!"ExplanationWhenever Jack spots Aku, it's always on sight with them. You can expect Jack to say this.
- "JUMP GOOD!" ExplanationIn "Jack Learns to Jump Good", Samurai Jack encounters a man living with monkeys who teaches him how to jump incredible heights, which is referred to as "jumping good"
- "When does the [X] begin? ...There is no [X], is there?" ExplanationIn the episode "Jack Tales", a giant two-headed worm monster tricks Jack into letting it eat him, by claiming that doing so will allow him a magic wish; leading Jack to excitedly say "When does the magic begin?", before realizing he's been tricked and saying with disappointment "There is no magic, is there?". When Season 5 aired, it became popular to post edits of this scene regarding incorrectly-predicted plot theories and other jokes, frequently accompanied by pictures of Jack smiling naively.
- "SHUT UP, I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" (scowl) ExplanationIn the episode "Aku's Fairy Tales," Jack, representing a Goldilocks-substitute in "The Three Bears" story, was woken up by the three bears and said this. A popular parody of this scene has the Daughters of Aku going to kill Jack when he says this line, causing them to run backwards
. - "OH YEAH! PORRIDGE!" ExplanationAlso in the episode "Aku's Fairy Tales," Jack, in the Three Bears story enthusiastically eats all of the porridge.
- Let's face it, pretty much anything that comes out of Aku's mouth is this.
- "Long ago, in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil! But a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now, the fool seeks to return to the past and undo the future that is Aku..."ExplanationAku's famous monologue from the opening sequence of most episodes is frequently parodied, usually as a meta-joke about how the Samurai Jack show was cancelled and (much later) revived by Cartoon Network and [adult swim] respectively.
- "FOOLISH SAMURAI!" ExplanationAku often exclaims this to Jack while gloating about the hero's slow progress in defeating him.
- "BEEF JERKY!" ExplanationIn "Aku's Fairy Tales," the children of the world are brought to Aku, who attempts to tell them stories so they may revere him; the first of these efforts paints him as a hero who defeated a space creature by throwing a spear at it, "transforming him into... BEEF JERKY!" The excess enthusiasm put into the phrase is what makes it memorable.
- "GREAT FLAMING EYEBROWS!" ExplanationFrom the same episode, Aku later tries telling the kids the story of Little Red Riding Hood, with himself cast as the title character. He opens by shouting the line.
- "EXTRA THICK!" (often misspelled as "EXTRA THICC!") ExplanationAs the page image would suggest, this is perhaps the most quoted of Aku's lines. Originally used when Aku ordered a large bounty hunter to seek out Jack (with the punchline that it was a bounty hunter he ordered and not a pizza like it initially seemed like), it's often used (with little or no context) wherever he is involved, or as a compliment on how sexy Ashi and her sisters are. After the Grand Finale, Greg Baldwin tweeted out a "parting gift", featuring him in the end saying "EXTRA THICK!" regarding the said meme. Later, he even included it in a song!
- "But, a foolish samurai warrior, wielding a magic sword, wielding a...(etc.)" ExplanationA video that makes an Overly Long Gag from a part of Aku's intro monologue. It depicts Jack wielding his sword, which happens to wielding something else, which is also wielding something (or someone) else, and so on.
- The Scotsman's 20-second-long insult, which gained a considerable degree of popularity upon the show's revival (see that section below).
Season 5It seems like Genndy went an extra mile to make every scene of Season 5 as memorable as possible. With the addition of thousands of hyped fans over the Internet, every episode produces something that gets shared
a lot.
- GUN ExplanationDue to Jack's usage of a gun early in Season 5, it's become memetic in the fandom for Jack to just solve every problem with just a gun instead of his sword, even Aku.
- Many jokes have been made about the Daughters of Aku cult and their seeming ignorance of how easy Aku is to contact. Aku's seeming ignorance of their existence only makes it funnier.Explanation The cult considers Aku to be a god of creation, and constantly worship him in the hopes of earning his favor and him appearing before them again, something that apparently hasn't happened in years, possibly decades. This is contrasted with Scaramouche literally calling Aku on a cell phone in the first episode of Season 5, and a group of worshipers and scientists visiting him in his palace/fortress/lair in the very next episode. However, it was completely averted by the end.
- YOU SWORD LOSIN'... ExplanationA homage to the Scotsman's legendary insult, entire threads have been created consisting of long-winded rants directed at Jack, Aku, or others.
- "And I care, because?"Explanation In the second episode of season 5, a group of scientists show Aku the "Ultimate Version of the Beetle Drone," and Aku responds with a deadpan question about why should he care about it. Fans have used that line as a response to many things that they’re not interested in, such as social media drama, politics, and other stuff.
- "Hey, isn't that the guy who just slayed the embodiment of evil a couple of years ago? Let's mug him!" Explanation In a flashback, Jack's dad curbstomps a couple of bandits that tried to kill him and his wife and child. While the joke did not originate from this show, it was made to further mock overconfident bandits in other media, such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
- The still shot of Jack carrying a kanabō has gotten a lot of edits.
- The pose that Ashi strikes in S5 E4 has become quite popular.ExplanationWhen Jack and Ashi fall into the bowels of a massive creature, Ashi, who is bound in chains and on her knees, throws her upper body to the ground in elation due to her belief that Jack will die in the belly of the beast, thus completing her mission. Her Spy Catsuit makes it so that her ass is quite well-outlined. Often crosses over with the "Extra Thick" meme. Of course, given what we learn about the catsuit a couple episodes later, it loses a little bit of its attractiveness.
- "Whip it out!" ExplanationA line said by Scaramouche in the premiere that quickly became infamous for the Double Entendre.
- "What a freak! Looked like a talking penis!" Explanation Despite being moved to Adult Swim, Season 5 mostly used their lack of censorship just for more graphic violence; so when Scaramouche said this in "XCVII," saying it caught pretty much every viewer off-guard is an understatement, because the season was six episodes in and the show as a whole had never crossed the bridge into pure obscenities until now, not even in small increments to acclimate the viewing crowd, making a flying leap in that one moment. However, the single episode had a few uses of damn and ass and nothing since then.
- "The Daughters of Aku were naked the whole time?" ExplanationA lot of viewers were surprised to learn that the Daughters of Aku weren't wearing catsuits, but black soot/ash/tar stuck to their skin, meaning Ashi has been nude for most of the season (And possibly her entire life).
- The image of child Ashi screaming after falling on the rocks has become one in terms of Black Comedy.
- The "S" symbol the rave people give for symbolizing Samurai Jack.
- Scaramouche is the Scatman. ExplanationOne of a few music videos of Scaramouche singing along to one of Scatman John's songs.
- The cat aliens from Episode 8 have written letters on their uniforms, leading fans to make some amusing edits.
- Samurai on Motorcycles ExplanationAn offshoot of "Card Games on Motorcycles," a famous joke first lampooned by LittleKuriboh with his Abridged Series of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. It made fun of the fact Jack was now riding a cool motorbike in the first few episodes of the season, but was humorously exaggerated to describe Season 5 at large, even after the fact Jack's bike was forcefully taken out of the picture two episodes into the season. Also, one of the characters of 5Ds is named Jack Atlas, which compounded the funny coincidences and inspired some witty fanart.
- Ashi owes Jack a new bike. ExplanationA joke pointing back to the infamous Running Gag started in the first episode of Pokémon: The Series, where Ash's Pikachu is the Kryptonite to girl protagonists' bikes, starting when Ash accidentally got Misty's bicycle trashed in the act of forcefully borrowing it to find care for his ailing Pikachu, and she ended up tagging along with him, holding the loss of her bike over his head. In a reverse situation, the Daughters of Aku were responsible for causing Jack's bike to get destroyed, and Ashi ended up tagging along with Jack. Needless to say, some fans did not like the loss of the epic bike and drew a parallel, blaming Ashi.
- Ashi killing the High Priestess has led to jokes about how Timmy Turner "finally killed Vicky" ExplanationTimmy and Ashi are both voiced by Tara Strong, while Vicky and the High Priestess are both voiced by Grey DeLisle.
- Ashi's appearance in Episode 8 has sprung up◊ some memes◊. This one◊ based on the final episode Cross the Line Twice.
- Fans have been making jokes about the similarities between Season 5 and Berserk, although later on fans are getting increasingly concerned on how the season is slowly becoming ''Berserk'' and are also getting increasingly concerned about the fate of the characters and the direction the show is going, specifically the equivalent of the Eclipse happening in Samurai Jack. To the point that when somebody makes parallels between the characters between Samurai Jack and Berserk it's almost always replied by fans posting comments or reaction images that show their concern.
- Looks like you got your father-daughter relationship after all. ExplanationA frequent comment by Jack/Ashi shippers to people who would have preferred Ashi to be like a daughter to Jack, following the reveal that Ashi is actually Aku's biological daughter.
- They pulled a Nia on us again.ExplanationThe ending of the final episode is almost identical to the finale of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Specifically, comparisons have been made between Ashi's death at her wedding ceremony and Jack being left alone to the way Nia died at her wedding to Simon. The way this happens and circumstances of the death are almost spot on with how Nia was also born, corrupted, and controlled by a black mass of evil (as well as forced to don a black skintight suit in the process), released from its grasp, and then that evil was ultimately destroyed for the greater good in a massive explosion followed by a lull during the aftermath... only to find out she relied on said evil to exist and without it to sustain her existence, and eventually Disappears into Light, which happens mere moments after being married- the only difference here being that Ashi didn't even make it to the altar and the marriage didn't officiate. Both Ashi and Nia also got to share one and only one kiss with their sweethearts before they met their end over the course of their respective series. Also, Samurai Jack and TTGL have aired on the revival-era Toonami alike, hence why the connection is easy to make for those who saw both shows on the block. On top of this, the finale of Samurai Jack was 10 years after Gurren Lagann ended on its anniversary. Contrived Coincidence or History Repeats? It's open to interpretation.
- DAMN YOU, TARTAKOVSKY!ExplanationA knee-jerk reaction to the Bittersweet Ending of the series, which caused a Broken Base among the fandom for robbing Jack of a much-overdue Happily Ever After scenario at the last possible moment.
- Jokes about how Genndy Tartakovsky keeps doing everything in his power to ensure that Jack always loses a shirt.
- Now do Sym-Bionic Titan!ExplanationAnother series which Genndy Tartakovsky helmed, Cut Short at 20 episodes due to poor cohesion between the production team and lack of solid toy merchandising to help pay for its development. Fans are clamoring for Tartakovsky to finish this series as well, even though it has been given a financial write-off that has scuttled the show from airing on television in reruns. Genndy himself has hinted that this might still be a possibility, or at least that he hopes it is, so only time will tell at this point.
- EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY... ExplanationJack and Ashi's Big Damn Kiss after brutally killing a monster has the hilariously upbeat Dean Martin song "Everybody Loves Somebody" play over it and through the whole credit sequence of that episode. Needless to say the song stuck in many peoples' heads.
- THAT'S FORTUNE COOKIE NONSENSE! ExplanationInner Jack yells this in response to advice Jack is given during the ritual to be deemed worthy to wield his sword again.
- Aku may have been your father, but he wasn't your daddy. Explanation Ashi declares to Aku he isn't her father even though he is biologically, but he is not what one would call a dad due to his cruelty. This line was taken from Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 referring to how Star-Lord's biological father was not a true, loving dad, and comparisons have been made between Ashi and Star-Lord with regards to their origins and the natures of their fathers.
- WHERE DO YOU THINK WE ARE!!!Explanation Part of Jack's rant to Ashi in episode 4. Used like the "First time?" meme to indicate that it's time to become Conditioned to Accept Horror. For example, this meme quickly became a banner on 4chan.
Video Games
