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Why Is Wade Whipple Exclaiming 'The Flames Of Disaster!' Suddenly Everywhere? The 'Sonic' Fandom's Latest Meme Explained
Leave it to the Sonic fandom to essentially grab an old, random scene from the franchise and propel it into memedom in less than 24 hours.
That's what happened with "The Flames of Disaster!," a four-month-old line reading from the Knuckles TV series that basically went supernova in terms of memetic usage late last week.
Here is THE FLAMES OF DISASTER Blue Screen! https://t.co/RSkXiNsugs pic.twitter.com/E5SA9RHM3l
— Contendo (@ContendoYT) August 30, 2024
Confused? Here's how all this happened.
What Are "The Flames of Disaster"?
In the fourth episode of the Knuckles television series, which aired in April 2024 on Paramount+, the titular echidna (voiced by actor Idris Elba) uses a fire-based power-up, which his buddy Wade Whipple (played by actor Adam Pally) helpfully identifies as "The Flames of Disaster!"
The name of the power-up likely is a reference to Sonic 06, as the villain of that game, Iblis, was a fire demon who also goes by the name "The Flames of Disaster."
How Did "The Flames Of Disaster" Become A Meme?
While there had been some jokes about Adam Pally's line reading in the months following the episode, it exploded into memedom on August 27th, 2024, after Twitter / X user @Ultiknite posted a voice reading of a Twitter thread that ended with a user quoting the line.
I saw one of the replies from this tweet and thought it was funny to dub! https://t.co/L8nmKUbjoa pic.twitter.com/hHHHJ4ySC3
— UltiKnight (@ultiknite) August 28, 2024
From there, the meme spread like wildfire on Twitter, as users began editing Whipple into basically any scene in pop culture history that involved flames and destruction.
WAS THAT THE FLAMES OF DISASTER pic.twitter.com/jUr0jpYcLB
— Omunie Flowers🌺 (@OmunieFlowers) August 29, 2024
THE FLAMES OF DISASTER!!! pic.twitter.com/JOMltkTcTn
— Contendo (@ContendoYT) August 30, 2024
On August 30th, 2024, Twitter user @ContendoYT posted a blue screen edit, which significantly aided the creation of further video memes.
Terminator 2 if i made it pic.twitter.com/OdwE5cWLca
— Nova (@canaryvenom) August 31, 2024
Many of these posts have since racked up millions of views, plus tens of thousands of retweets and likes, all because Sonic fans all at once seemed to agree that Wade Whipple shouting, "The Flames of Disaster!" is very funny — and they're correct.
For the full history of The Flames of Disaster, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
