About

Dick Kickem is a nickname for video game character Duke Nukem associated with various video edits, in particular one where an impersonator reads a variation of the phrase I'm Here To Kick Ass And Chew Bubblegum in Duke's voice.

Origin

On October 30th, 2012, an anonymous /v/ user posted, "ITT: Your favorite vidya quotes. "It's time to chew ass." Dick Kickem" along with an image of Duke Nukem. The image was uploaded to Know Your Meme on on August 4th, 2015, where it received over 39,000 views in 8 years.^[1] This is the earliest known use of the nickname.

Spread

On November 21st, 2016, The Meme Maker posted a video to YouTube^[2] showing a still image of Duke Nukem drawn in Microsoft Paint while an impersonator says, "It's time to kick gum and chew ass. And I'm all out of ass" (shown below). The video gained over 3.3 million views in roughly 4 years.

The Meme Maker credits YouTuber Brendaniel for the original video, however, Brendaniel denied making it in a tweet^[3] on February 22nd, 2017, posting, "Pretty sure the Dick Kickem thing from that one Pewdiepie video was not me. I don't remember ever making that." It's likely he made the mistake based on a 2013 video^[9] by Brendaniel reading a Duke Nukem fan-fiction (shown below).

The video has been reacted to by a number of YouTubers, including PewDiePie, and Markiplier. On September 20th, 2017, Random Content Maker posted a video compiling various reactions to the video, garnering over 416,000 views in roughly 3 months (shown below).

The nickname spread through reposts of the video. On June 26th, 2017, Bluehaired Kona posted a video titled "Dick Kickem" to YouTube,^[7] garnering over 66,000 views in roughly 3 years (shown below, left). On June 27th, Saleee posted an animated version of The Meme Maker's video to YouTube,^[8] garnering over 5,900 views in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

On September 29th, 2018, Redditor /u/throwthatwhere9001 posted The Meme Maker's video to /r/Youtubehaiku,^[4] garnering over 3,000 upvotes in roughly 2 years. The next day, /u/aceoflame commented^[5] asking for context, sparking a debate about it being Brendaniel.

On October 3rd, /u/bisley19^[6] commented claiming to have interacted with the original creator on a previous post of the video, along with an Imgur link containing screenshots of the comments, describing the creation of the video (shown below, left and right). They explain creating the video in 2016 and sharing it on Discord, where it was re-shared on 4chan and spread from there.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References