F*** Yeah Seaking

About

Fuck Yeah Seaking is a photoshopping trend that involves superimposing a cutout of Seaking (a water Pokémon character) over the background images depicting various natural disasters and scenes of horror. While it has been often criticized as a largely forced meme on the imageboard site 4chan, it eventually gained a solid fanbase and spawned a number of rhyming derivatives in similar fashion to Haters Gonna Hate.

Origin

Seaking (Japanese: アズマオウ, Azumao) is a first-generation Water-type Pokémon originally introduced through the Fire/Red edition in 1996.

The photoshopping phenomenon reportedly began on 4chan^[1] with a picture of Seaking apparently ramming into the side of Titanic, while a passenger onboard can be seen cheering: “FUCK YEAH! Seaking!”

While the origin of snowclone “Fuck Yeah X” most likely precedes the release of 2004 action comedy film Team America: World Police, Google search interest suggests that the film played a vital role in propagating the colloquial usage of the phrase “Fuck Yeah.”

Spread

According to Lurkmore Wiki^[2], the meme started on 4chan’s /b/ board and gradually spread out to different forums. Seaking usually seeks to create disaster and cause mayhem, as he is seen quoting his catchphrase “FUCK YEAH!” in support of his destructive behaviors.

There are several derivative forms of “Fuck Yeah Seaking,” usually rhyming with another quote someone else has posted. Such image macros have been mostly used to evoke LOLWUT type of responses from other users

There are also 4chan’s /co/ (cosplay board) variants featuring Marvel’s Namor or DC’s Aquaman with the caption reading ‘FUCK YEAH! SEA KING!’, both characters being rulers of their respective universes’ oceans. A similar variant also pops up occassionally in /k/, using a military helicopter called the Sea King.

Notable Examples

On Tumblr

In addition, “Fuck Yeah Seaking” has been also identified as Tumblr’s very first single topic blog featuring the subdomain name “FuckYeah,” though the site itself only received a limited amount of online exposure. For more, please read KYM Blog – Interview with Ned Hepburn, the Pioneer of Fuck Yeah Tumblrs.

Trend

Google Insights^[3] shows that “Fuck Yeah Seaking” began to pick up search interest circa mid-2007.

Videos

External References

^[1] 4chan /b/ – screenshot / link unavailable

^[2] Lurkmore Wiki – "Seeking":www.lurkmore.com/wiki/Seaking_(FUCK_YEAH!)

^[3] Google Insights – Search Results for ‘Fuck Yeah Seaking’