About

"Hey, I know! I'll use my trusty frying pan as a drying pan!" is a memorable line of dialogue, spoken by the character Brock, from the English-language version of the feature-length special episode of the Pokémon anime, Mewtwo Returns.

Origin

Although originally broadcast in Japan on 30th December 2000, the English dub which contains the line was not released until a year later, direct-to-DVD on 5th December 2001.^[1]

On 1st March 2010, a YouTube user uploaded a clip of the line, which has received over 7 million views in that time.^[2]

Spread

The line has taken off as a meme in online subculture, particularly within the Pokémon fandom. The "Drying Pan", as it is affectionately known, is often featured in gifs, image macros and fanart featuring Brock and even in some cosplay (as displayed in the examples further down on this page).

Searching on Google for the term "drying pan" immediately links the embedded video as well as producing over 19,000,000 results. There has since been an entry added to Urban Dictionary which lists Pokémon as the source^[3], and many results are tagged under the term on Tumblr, featuring edits or captioned gifs of the scene in question.^[4]

Fanfiction.net has received a submission featuring a joke ship between Brock and his frying pan.^[5]

TV Tropes lists the quote on their meme sub-page for Pokemon^[6], as well as referring to it on their trope entry "Improvised Umbrella", wherein it is referred to as "Brock's infamous Drying Pan".^[7]

Examples

Search Interest

Google search interest for the term "drying pan" yields consistently strong results since mid-2011.

References