American Chopper Argument

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About

American Chopper Argument refers to a scene from American reality TV show American Chopper in which Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr. get in a shouting match about Jr.'s tardiness. Since its original airing in 2009, the explosive scene has spawned an exploitable photocomic series that humorously illustrate various debates in pop culture fandom. In March 2018, the meme made its first breakout on Twitter.

Origin

The scene aired in the first episode of Season 6 of Discovery Channel's American Chopper, "NHL Bike B2 Bomber Bike," which aired April 9th, 2009^[1] (shown below). In the scene, the Teutuls get into a violent argument after Paul Sr. raises issue with Paul Jr.'s tardiness in the morning. By the end of the episode, Teutul Jr. gets fired from the shop.

Spread

The scene started becoming an exploitable comic in late 2011. A post to /r/funny on November 24th, 2012^[2] and made the dialogue wholesome gained over 1,300 upvotes (shown below, left). The post gained over 1,400 upvotes (shown below, right). Another variation was posted to fuckyeahdementia^[3] on December 10th, 2011 (shown below, right).

Hey, son. how are you today? EXT im great dad! do you need me to move that chair? ALL NEW RICAN CHOPPER EXT THURS. 98 Please do! my back is killing me There you go dad! NEXT THURS 9 Thanks, son. I love you

l believe this conference has reached an impasse Yes, Quite Igrow tired of your face ave gown dred tscair You are neither a gentlemen lor a scholar

Over the following several years, there were some variations in the meme, but the majority of posts with the template featured the wholesome edit shown above. In March of 2018, the format began seeing new popular variations. For example, a Twitter post by @_ericcurtain referencing the All Women Are Queens meme gained over 14,000 retweets and 47,000 likes (shown below, left). A post on /r/MemeEconomy from March 27th, 2018 referencing Garfield gained over 1,600 upvotes (shown below, right).

listen to me. all women are queens! you're wrong! if she breathes, shes a thot! ALL NEW CAN CHOPPER EXT THURS9 you idiot! you have no respect for women! they are ALL beautiful! oh yeah? name ONE beautiful grl AMERICAN NEXT THURS The girl reading this

Garfield is a good for nothing, lazy siob who doesn't contribute anything to society He provides snide commentary on the crazy world around him! HE CONSTANTLY MOCKS THE WORKING CLASS, CANINES, AND HE FAILURES OF JON ARBUCKLE! THE HUMOR COMES FROM THE CONTRAST BETWEEN HIM AND JON'S PERSONALITY JON ARBUCKLE IS A DECENT MAN JUST TRYING TO DO HIS BEST

Photoshop Parodies

As the meme continued to grow in volume of iterations, photoshop variations of the dialogue began appearing, featuring characters from other media franchises superimposed over the original American Chopper template. On March 31st, 2018, FunnyJunk ^[5] user lerky posted several variations of the format, including a Prequel Memes version featuring the "I have the higher ground" meme (shown below, left). On April 4th, 2018 Twitter^[6] user @markpopham posted a version based on a scene from the American television situational comedy Frasier (shown below, center), garnering more than 2,200 retweets and 8,300 likes in six days. On April 6th, Twitter^[7] user @notebooklines posted a recreation of the scene featuring Neon Genesis Evangelion characters (shown below, right), receiving more than 4,100 retweets and 8,700 likes in four days. On April 10th, Twitter user @grayflannelsuit^[4] uploaded a "twitter friendly" version of the meme featuring the frames side-by-side to shorten the length of the image to comply with Twitter's format.

It's over anakin I have the high ground EXT FROM MY POINT OF VIEW I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND! ALL NEW RICAN CHOPPER EXT THURS 9 WELL THEN YOU ARE LOST!!!! WELL NOW YOU HAVE THE CHAIR GROUND!!! CHAIR GROUND!!! A-ANAKIN?!STOP IT! STOP THROWING THE CHAIRS

People only like Frasier ironically Whart are you talking about? It's a classic com of sitcom of the mid-nineties, undergoing critical and cultural reappraisal But who cares? It's a show about two rich white guys living in luxury! Who can relate to Frasier? Frasier the character is is incidental to the central plot of "Frasier the show, which is of course the courtship of Niles and Daphne IT'S BOTHANOSTALGIA TRIP AND FANTASY OF AFFLUENCE FOR MILLENNIALS WHOSE ONLY KNOWLEDGE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH AND CULTURAL OPTIMISM WAS THE 9OS TECH BOOM DESPITE THEIR DIFFERENCES AND EMOTIONAL SHORTCOMINGS THE CRANE MEN LOVE EACH OTHER!

what did your dweeb-ass do to the format?! the tone and content are similar, even though the medium and genre are completely different! B-------! American Chopper and Neon Genesis Evangelion have NOTHING in common and you know it! Show me ONE similarity! GO PILOT YOUR MOM OR SOMETHING, J------- BOY

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the popularity of the meme, including Vice, ^[7] USA Today,^[8] Cnet,^[10] Slate,^[11] Mashable ^[12] and more.

Various Examples

How the f--- can Anakin be your favorite character? He kills children EXT He never did that! The Jedi framed him ALL NEW RICAN CHOPPER EXT THURS, 98 You clearly see him activate his lightsaber in front of them! Obi-Wan saw the holograms!! He couldn't watch anymore! It was Yoda and Windu and all those f------ who manipulated the tapes! I see through the lies of the Jedi NEXT THURS 9k Well then you are lost!!

Padme dies because she lost the will to live and a broken heart! Sheev used the dark s ide to drain her life force and give it to Anakin! ALL NEW RICAN CHOPPER EXT THURS. 98 No, the droid literally said "she's lost the will to live!" and why else would he say that one line!? How is a droid supposed to understand the nuances of a life being drained by the force? NEXT-THEIRS. It HAD because KENOBI would have SENSED something! to be a broken heart

How the f--- is my reputation supposed to go up if you keep downvoting me?! EXT Dad, that's what we do! It's nothing personal. Chill out! ALL NEW RICAN CHOPPER EXT THURS. 98 I spent 4 f------ hours on that OC and you ruined the whole thing! NEXT THURS 9 Those upvotes are FREE, you a------!

You're out there f------ this guy but you can't you're gay! trapS is not gSY She has b------- and a fat ass. Her feminine penis doesn't define her gender ALL NEW ICAN CHOPPER EXT THURS. 9c t's a HE a HE. H aving a penis makes your boyfriend a MAN. You are a f------ f-----. I'm not faget got dam m----------- pleb! Basement dwelling, neckbeard, fleshlight f------. newfag! NEXT THURS DON'T CALL ME A NEWFAG!

Lion is a little emo-looking sissy compared to Leman Russ. Lion was the one left standing after their fight.icAN C ALL NEW RICAN CHOPPER EXT THURS 9 That's because he cheap-shotted him when he had his guard down! Russ was mocking him like an a------! NEXT THURS 9c He's a piss-haired bitch and so are you!

Fandom

i'm so tired of hearing people ask why the hobbits didn't ride the giant eagles to mordor it's a plot hole! why wouldn't the ride them, it would have saved time AND lives ALL NEW THE EYE OF SAURON WOULD HAVE SEEN THEM COMING FROM MILES AWAY AND SENT HIS WINGED HELLBEASTS TO DESTROY THEM AND GOTTEN BACK THE RING YOU'RE JUST MAKING EXCUSES FOR POOR SCREENWRITING AMERCAN THE EAGLES WERE THEIR OWN PROUD RACE AND NOT A TAXI SERVICE FOR HOBBITS

For the last time, Natsuki, manga isn't iterature I wasn't the one whose boobs magically areww a size bigger as soon as MC showed'up! What the f--- is wrong with your head!? Look who's talking, you wannabe edgy bitch! ve you considered killing yourself?

Metahumor

Hey son, check out my new reddit post! EXT That's a f------ repost, dad! ALL NEW RICAN CHOPPER EXT THURS. 98c LOOK AT ALL THE F---- I DON'T GIVE! THIS IS WHAT I THINK OF YOUR GODDAMNED RESPOST NEXT THURS YEAH? WELL WAIT TIL YOU SEE HOW MANY UPVOTES IT GOT

It's fine ERICAN NEXT It's getting bigger! LL NEW OPPER RS.98 WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE WHITE BOXES!!! YOU CAN BARELY SEE ME IN THIS PANEL!!!

This meme makes it look like you're the one who escalated this argument. You were yelling at me from the moment I got in here! ALL NEW RICAN CHOPPER EXT TARS. 98c L. PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THE ORIGINAL CLIP HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING THAT!! IT TAKES LESS THAN A MINUTE TO FIND IT ON GOOGLE!! NEXT THURS WHO THE HELL IS GOING TO INVEST A MINUTE OF THEIR LIFE RESEARCHING A EME THAT PEOPLE WILL FORGET ABOUT IN A COUPLE WEEKS, AT BEST??

American Chopper memes are compelling rhetorical devices that could be taught in schools! They are impenetrable walls of text serving only as exceedingly dry in-jokes for the recherché subcultures already familiar with their subjects! They brilliantly employ American Chopper as a low-brow "carrier wave" to entice people to read about ideas they otherwise wouldn't! THEY HAVE NONE OF THE BREVITY AND ENERGY OF GOOD MEMES, AND THEY SUBSTITUTE FAUX-ACADEMIC LOGORRHEA FOR WIT! THIS IS THE ONLY MEME FORMAT THAT ACKNOWLEDGES THE EXISTENCE OF COMPETING INFORMATION, AND AS SUCH IT IS THE ONLY FORMAT SUITED TO THE COMPLEXITY OF OUR WORLD!

Academic

Gordon Lish's influence, while still considerable, is at this point a product of his cult of personality He made Raymond Carver! ALL NEW ICAN CHOPPER Lish certainly catapuled him to stardom, but he overstepped his editorial bounds! HE SHAPED THE CONTOURS OF NEW AMERICAN MINIMALISM, WHICH REMAINS THE DOMINANT MODE IN LITERARY FICTION MERICAN MINIMALISM-A GENRE LIKE ANY OTHER-IS CHARACTERIZED BY FORMAL AUSTERITY, BUT LISH'S EDITS ALSO EXCISE CARVER'S GENEROSITY. WHICH IS THE ANIMATING FORCE OF HIS FICTION

CHOMSKY SAYS LANGUAGE IS A PRODUCT OF THE MIND EVERETT SAYS LANGUAGE IS A PRODUCT OF CULTURE Language reflects culture but it required a certain level of human cognition before it could start That's a fair and balanced point of view. I don't know why we were arguing Jteve the vagabond

The New Hollywood was a product of profound legal change within the industry that sought to use contract negotiation to allign the incentives of business minded studios and artistic driven individuals The New Hollywood was more of a cultural shift, in which the actual aesthetic changes still reflected most of the production practices of the previous era. and it was only the generational shitts toward youth culture and censorship that changed. ALL NE The ability for the youth culture to gain control of the system only happened through a profound change in industrial relations that began in the 1950s, one that reinvented studio business strategy to allow creatives to take more stake but maintain their financial position Those changes only happened because the studios recognized that the youth generation was the only viable audience in the postwar era following the dual influences of European Art Cinema and Exploitation Films! The changes were only able to influence through the legal contract industry made such fims viable as product that could satisty both independent producers and bakers! The legal system paved the way for such cultural production first

-Anthropology is a means of reproducing the "Orient" for the Western observer! see Said 1979) here is still valuable knowledge o be gleaned from classic ethnographies and our encounters w/ those encounters (Jackson 2017 knowledge which is inseparable from the powe dynamic producing it we can decolonize anthropology!or work with interlocutors to mend problems of representation decolonization" without changes in terial conditions is liberal politics serving only the colonizer Coulthard 2014, Tuck&Yang2012)

Political Discourse

Some of have found the meme has various implications in class, politics and gender. Writing for Vox^[9], Matthew Yglesias writes:

"Part of what makes the meme work is that you don’t actually need to be familiar with the show to read the facial hair and cap as class signifiers. At the same time, the dispute is clearly taking place in an office setting -- reflecting the reality that the Teutuls are wealthy business owners and television stars rather than struggling workers.

This dichotomy between economic status and the sociocultural aspects of “class” has become a hallmark of the Trump years, in which political disagreements between white Americans have come to be deeply polarized between the more and less educated even while the policy orientation of the GOP remains overwhelmingly focused on the wealthy.

The Teutuls are, in this sense, the perfect Trump-era Republicans -- a couple of lowbrow regular guys who happen to be incredibly rich business owners who’d probably appreciate a big tax cut for pass-through income. They’re the social and political antithesis of the young, debt-burdened recent college graduates living in expensive cities and struggling to make a living in creative fields -- the sort of people who’ve been enthusiastically creating and sharing the Chopper meme.

Search Interest

External References

^[1] Wikipedia – Season 6

^[2] Reddit – /r/funny

^[3] fuckyeahdementia – Gentleman and Scholar

^[4] Twitter – @grayflannelsuit's Tweet

^[5] FunnyJunk – Hi I'm here to destroy this meme

^[6] Twitter – @markpopham's Tweet

^[7] Vice – This Angry ‘American Chopper’ Meme Is Our New Favorite Meme

^[8] USA Today – The 'American Chopper' meme featuring Paul Teutul and son, explained

^[9] Vox – The American Chopper meme, explained

^[10] CNet – American Chopper argument revs Twitter with resurgent meme

^[11] Slate- How the American Chopper Meme American-Chopped Its Way Into Our Hearts

^[12] Mashable – The 'American Chopper' meme is perfect for when you have too many feelings

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Top Comments

Walrus the Tree

Mar 28, 2018 at 11:07PM EDT

God, I hope this catches on. In its current form, it's one of the most effortful memes I've seen in a long time. You actually have to argue two sides. Even if you're making one look stupid in the process, not only could it go either way with who you choose, but you actually have to write out full complete sentences in a back-and-forth dialogue.

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