About

Can't Stop the Rock is a series of YTMNDs based on an exploitable scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, wherein Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is chased by a huge boulder rolling behind him. Originally paired with Apollo 440's Stop the Rock, the humorous juxtaposition of audio/video content was well received in the community and spawned an interesting batch of derivative sites.

Origin

On September 18, 2005, YTMND user Fooliano created the site Indiana Jones Can't Stop the Rock. To date, this site has more than 500,000 views, putting it on the third page of YTMND's most viewed sites of all time, and has become a YTMND mod favorite. Reflecting its community-wide popularity, the song "Stop the Rock" was also featured on Volume IV of the YTMND soundtrack.

Meanwhile, the original scene from the movie was inspired by "The Seven Cities of Cibola," an Uncle Scrooge comic drawn by Carl Banks. Apparently, the boulder used in the scene was made of fiberglass and was 22 feet in diameter.

Spread

Many variations of "Can't Stop the Rock" soon followed on the site, typically featuring other celebrities being chased by the boulder in the same scene, such as Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a "The Rock") for example.

Site Error: Hulkster in Heaven

As the meme took off in the latter half of 2005, Fooliano decided to replace the background music with Hulkster in Heaven by Hulk Hogan and the Wrestling Boot Band. But around the same time, YTMND founder Max Goldberg took some measures to conserve the disk space by merging all the duplicate audio files uploaded within the same fad. This action briefly led to a moment of chaos on YTMND, when users found out their "Can't Stop the Rock" contributions were modified with "Hulkster in Heaven". Later on, Fooliano reverted the B/G music back to the original song by Apollo 440, but the derivative works had to be updated manually.

Notable Examples

There are over 240 creative iterations of "Can't Stop the Rock" on YTMND|, using popular TV and videogame characters in replacement of Indiana Jones and/or the Rock.

Pop Culture & Cross-Meme References

• Weird Al Can't Stop the Rock
• Nickelback Can't Stop the Rock
• AlphaQuest (Sesame Street) Can't Stop the Rock
• David Bowie Can't Stop the Rock
• Earl (My Name is Earl) Can't Stop the Rock
• Chuck Norris Can't Stop the Rock
• Can't Stop What the Rock is Cooking
• Windows 95 Can't Stop the Rock
• Brian Peppers Can't Stop the Rock (*)
• Medieval Jones CSTR (*)

Animations

• Poketrainer Can't Stop the Geodude
• Bart Can't Stop the Homer
• The Incredible Hulk Can't Stop the Rock
• Yu Gi Oh Can't Stop the Rock

Videogames

• Mario (Nintendo 64 ver) Can't Stop the Rock
• Master Higgins (Adventure Island) CAN Stop the Rock
• Indiana Jones (Super Nintendo ver) Can't Stop the Rock
• Leon (Resident Evil) Can't Stop the Rock
• Katamari Damacy & Apollo 440 Remix
• Link (Legend of Zelda) Can't Stop the Rock
• Luke Skywalker (Star Wars) Can't Stop the Rock
• Crash (Crash Bandicoot) Can't Stop the Rock