It's Over 9000! (2006)NSFW

About

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール Doragon Bōru?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. With the ending of Dragon Ball, Toei Animation quickly released a second anime television series, Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボールZ（ゼット） Doragon Bōru Zetto, commonly abbreviated DBZ). Picking up where the first left off, Dragon Ball Z is adapted from the final twenty-six volumes of the manga series. It premiered in Japan on April 26, 1989 and ran for 291 episodes until January 31, 1996.

In the original Japanese dub of the series, and in both the Japanese and English language mangas, Vegeta states that Goku’s level is actually “over 8000.” This can be seen in this scan from the manga.

On October 17th, 2006, 4Channer and Youtube user Kajetokun uploaded the video “9000!! NINE THOUSAAAAANDD!” Today, the video has over five million views.

Modern Usage

As early as 2007, the number 7 has been wordfiltered on 4chan to turn into “Over 9000.”

The phrase adopted from Dragon Ball Z is now used in place of saying “Like a million!” or “Tons!” when talking about a relatively large amount. Example dialogue:

Person one: How many people were at the dorm room party last night?
Person two: “Over NINE THOUSAAAAAAAND!”

Spread

The original “9000” video quickly drew attention from DBZ fans, and inspired remix videos right from the start. The meme quickly spread to YTMND within days.

On YTMND, there had already been a HAL9000 fad, centered around the computer from the famous Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. But on December 24th, 2006, YTMNDer CyrisMustang created “How much will the PS4 retail for?”

YTMND’s surrounding both HAL9000 and “Over 9000” were created through 2007, but by 2008 nearly all YTMND’s containing the number 9000 were in reference to the famous DBZ line.

Furthermore, overall Google searches for the obscure “Over 9000” DBZ reference also surpassed all searches for the wellknown “HAL9000” from Kubrick’s film.

Press

In April of 2008, Kajetokun was interviewed by Cybernetic Tigerz of Japanator.com. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

J: When you made the Dragon Ball cutup, did you have any idea it would go on to become such a huge phenomenon over the Internet? Or was it just something that you made for a small group of friends?

K:I had no idea it was going to get this big. Really it was just a small little something I made as an inside joke for my friends. My friend Patrick posted it on /b/ and then I ended up having like 20,000 views the next day.Then Scott from VGcats front page linked my video and I woke up to 200,000 views.

J: Now that you’ve created an immensely popular meme, do you feel like you understand how they work better? Looking from the inside out, could you identify an element that makes a meme successful with the general public? Or is it all completely random?

K:Honestly I never intended any of my videos to produce memes. They’re just movies that were made to be funny. I guess a successful meme is just something that’s funny.

J: Tell me now, is 4chan the organization behind the scenes that controls you, or is it something more sinister?

K:4Chan influences my type of humor and some of the things I watch, sure, but rarely did they ever influence what actual goes into the video (with the exception of over 9000 which originated from an obscure image on 4chan.) That usual comes about from screwing around with my friends and cracking jokes as we watch old shows.

• Read the FULL INTERVIEW on Japanator.com

4Chan trolls Oprah

Over 9000 struck a chord with 4Chan early on, but in September of 2008, one particular Anonymous troll left a message on Oprah Winfrey’s message board, claiming to represent an organized network of pedophiles. Oprah took the bait, and read the post to her audience.

Considering the power and influence that Oprah has, this was viewed by many Anon’s as an “Epic Win.” Oprah had fallen for it, and was very disturbed.

The original video of Oprah’s message to her audience was quickly removed due to a copyright claim by Harpo, Inc.

Despite that fact, many “Oprah 9000” remix videos followed. These videos can be viewed on Youtube.