This is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
Good guys, bad guys and explosions, as far as the eye can see
And only one will survive, I wonder who it will be
This is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
Good guys, bad guys and explosions, as far as the eye can see
And only one will survive, I wonder who it will be
This is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
— Chorus
"The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" (sometimes shortened to simply "The Ultimate Showdown") is a song by Lemon Demon from his 2006 album Dinosaurchestra, best known for its iconic Web Animation created by Shawn Vulliez for Newgrounds a year earlier, which can be seen here
.
The song and Animated Music Video tell the story of dozens of (mostly 20th century) fictional characters, historical figures and celebrities duking it out. It starts with Batman trying to stop Godzilla from destroying Tokyo before both are stopped by Shaquille O'Neal, and just gets crazier from there.
The song would prove to be Lemon Demon's Breakthrough Hit, repeatedly topping the Funny Five on the Dr. Demento radio show. In 2010, Lemon Demon would release a new version of the song for the Rock Band Network.
For the 15th anniversary of the original animation's posting, Blabberdookie and Warddraws hosted a Multi-Animator Project to create a new version of the original video, set to the RBN Mix. On October 22, 2021, the end results of this effort was released, which can be found here.
The song and animation have examples of the following tropes:
- Agony of the Feet: In the animated video, one of Godzilla's feet is wounded by a Bat Grenade. The kaiju clutches his wounded foot in pain while hopping on his other feet.
- Animated Music Video: For the Lemon Demon song.
- Adaptational Badass: Several "normal" celebrities and characters, like Shaquille O'Neal and a zombified Abraham Lincoln are suddenly capable of going toe to toe with Godzilla and Batman. The crowning example of this is Mr. Rogers, who outlasts everyone and wins the titular battle.
- Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Mr. Rogers stands victorious on top of a mountain of dead combatants in the battle as the song comes to an end. Even more noticeable in the redux animation.
- Batman Grabs a Gun: Literally! After being badly injured, Batman resorts to stealing Indiana Jones' gun and shooting at the other fighters.
- Bloody Hilarious: When Chuck Norris crushes Batman's head in Vulliez's animation, it explodes in a shower of red goop.
- Chromosome Casting: Apart from any females contained within the group of "every single Power Ranger," and possibly the Care Bear who attacks Abraham Lincoln and Jackie Chan, every combatant mentioned in the song and shown in the video is male, despite the amount of characters. Averted in the redux version, though.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Optimus Prime spends more time saving others than defending himself, which ultimately leads to his defeat.
- Cool vs. Awesome: It begins with Batman taking on Godzilla and only grows crazier from there.
- Decomposite Character: "Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White" are presented as different characters.
- Downer Ending: Everyone's dead by the end, with Mr. Rogers being Driven to Suicide. Though unlike other examples, this one is pretty lighthearted.
- Driven to Suicide: Mr. Rogers, who commits seppuku at the end of the animation, presumably from guilt over being the last survivor.
- Eyedscreen: Godzilla getting mad at Optimus Prime.
- Eyes Always Shut: Indiana Jones doesn't open his eyes, even when Chuck kicks him in the crotch. He doesn't need to aim his whip.
- Forever War: Apparently, the fight rages on "for a century" until Mr. Rogers is the only one left.
- Godzilla Threshold: Ironically, it isn't actually used to take down Godzilla despite him being in the fight. A large group of heroes and villains have to team up to take down Chuck Norris.
- Head Crushing: Upon Chuck Norris descending from the heavens and delivering a mighty Groin Attack to Indiana Jones, Batman attempts to disguise himself by undressing into Bruce Wayne. Chuck sees through this clever disguise and crushes Batman's head between his thighs.
- Last Survivor Suicide: At the end of the animated Newgrounds video, Mr. Rogers, the winner of the showdown, commits seppuku.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The song name drops no fewer than 31 pop culture icons, both fictional and real, most of whom from the mid- to late-20th century. The Newgrounds animation features dozens more. The final verse alone introduces at least 19 characters (and dozens more if you take "every single Power Ranger" as meaning every Power Ranger there has ever been). A full list can be found on The Other Wiki.
- Memetic Badass: Chuck Norris' status as one is acknowledged In-Universe. He arrives on the battlefield by descending from Heaven, with his entrance being accompanied by an Ethereal Choir, he manages to take out both Indiana Jones and Batman by himself, and it takes a large alliance of a lot of powerful (and some not-so-powerful) characters to take him down.
- Patter Song: As is to be expected for a song rattling off a long list of characters, Neil Cicierega manages to get an impressive number of syllables out in a few breaths.
- Rule 34: A porn parody called "The Ultimate Orgy," where the characters... ahem, "make love and not war," was created by a Newgrounds user named (appropriately enough) "Not Safe for Work", two years after the original.
- Shout-Out: A whole bunch during the chorus:
- Mario
versus Sonic the Hedgehog. - Santa Claus getting hit by the DeLorean time machine.
- A Jawa using C3PO to beat up R2-D2.
- Samuel L. Jackson getting tackled by snakes.
- Lowtax punching Eric Bauman in the face.
- Blue Man Tobias.
- Goku riding the Flying Nimbus.
- Mario
- Single Tear: Indy sheds a single tear after Chuck Norris kicks him in the groin. The victor, Mr. Rogers sheds one for the dead.
- Staring Kid: The little kid with the ice cream cone, looking on "in total awe".
- Stealth Pun: Aaron Carter beats up Shaquille O'Neal. That's how he beat Shaq.
- Super-Reflexes: Jackie Chan is able to deflect a bullet with his fist.
- There Can Be Only One: The chorus states "only one will survive". The Ultimate Showdown, in fact, does goes on until only one combatant is left standing, with Mr. Rogers emerging the sole survivor and the victor of the showdown.
- Two Decades Behind: While there are plenty of references to 2000s pop culture (like Gandalf appearing as he does in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings), the majority of references are to pop culture from the '70s, '80s and '90s, like Pee-wee's Playhouse, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and actor Chuck Norris as Walker, Texas Ranger.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Indiana Jones saves Batman's life from Abraham Lincoln. As thanks, Batman steals Indy's gun and tries to shoot at the other fighters. Averted in this sprite-animated version, where Jones attacks Batman after tripping Lincoln, meaning he wasn't saving Batman here, but he and Lincoln were just in his path.
- Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Where do you think the name came from?
- Victory by Endurance: Implied to be how Mr. Rogers won.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In the video, the DeLorean time machine time travels away after running Santa down, and we never see it again.
The 2021 redux animation has examples of: (Spoilers)
- Actor Allusion: Among the scenes of various characters fighting near the end, Michael Myers is killed by Austin Powers, who is played by actor Mike Myers.
- Adaptation Expansion: The redux animation at times goes into more details than the original. One of the more noticeable examples is how more of Chuck Norris's defeat is shown.
- There are many more scenes of random characters duking it out, including many who didn't exist when the original animation was made, such as the version of Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse replacing the normal one.
- The redux makes use of the RBN Mix, which repeats the chorus four times in increasing intensity, giving the animators ample opportunity to work in even more extra fighting scenes and cameos. Prominent examples include a scene in which Pickle Rick gets stepped on by Mt. Lady and one where Mob incinerates Garfield and Jenny).
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: The kid with the ice cream cone gets blood splattered on his face the first time we see him now.
- Bowdlerize: Sort of, but ultimately for a less controversial manner. During Robin's cameo 'before [Batman went] back to the Batcave', he's portrayed to be in his full suit dozing off on the couch, instead of just his undies (formerly to poke fun of the homoerotic subtext between the Dynamic Duo in the Silver Age, which wouldn't fly in the modern era).
- The Cameo: Boyfriend and Monster, the latter (incorrectly) assumed to be a reference to Lemon Demon, appear on posters at one point.
- Defiant to the End: Jenny goes down trying to shoot at Mob.
- Drop the Cow: Among the scenes of various characters fighting near the end, Gabe Newell drops onto Little Mac and Ryu, leaving a massive crater.
- Gainax Ending: In the final scene, Mr. Rogers, having stabbed himself... abruptly stands up and dances the running man. He then flosses and does the Carlton and the Peanut Butter Jelly Time dance before flying into the sky and exploding in a shower of gore, with a smile on his face.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: not quite equal, but averts the original version's Chromosome Casting by adding several female characters.note
- Kill It Through Its Stomach: Among the scenes of various characters fighting near the end, Fat Albert drinks Master Shake, seemingly killing him, but his own stomach explodes immediately afterward.
- Power Floats: In the redux animation, Shaq is now capable of this when he confronts Godzilla.
- Rule of Three: Sergeant John appears three separate times, the first time alongside other Newgrounds characters, and twice more punching the YouTube logo in the face.
- Running Gag: Superman is consistently portrayed as the version of the character from the unproduced film Superman Lives.
- Scenery Gorn: Jomun's take on Mr. Rogers committing suicide has him surrounded by corpses.
- Shout-Out/The Cameo: Too many to list this time!
- Spared by the Adaptation: Subverted. Optimus Prime originally died by getting his head bitten off by Godzilla, but when Abraham Lincoln tried to polefault on him (eventually clashing with Jackie Chan before getting hit with a Care Bear Stare), Optimus Prime is shown alive and well, with his head and all, meaning he survived Godzilla's chewing (Or got rebuilt in time to rejoin). However, it's also implied that he'll eventually die with the rest so Mr. Rogers will still be the only survivor.
- Likewise with the above, Jackie Chan survived the Care Bear stare as he's seen trying to resume his duel with Shaquille O'Neal when Chuck Norris arrives at the scene.
- Sphere of Destruction: Mob makes one against Jenny and Garfield.
- Trampled Underfoot: Among the scenes of various characters fighting near the end, Pickle Rick gets squashed by Mt. Lady.
