About

Knuckles is a character from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. He is an echidna. After appearing as an antagonist to Sonic and Tails in 1994's Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Knuckles eventually became a recurring character in the Sonic franchise and has been the subject of several memes, including the & Knuckles series and Knuckles Sings.

Origin

Knuckles made his first appearance in 1994's Sonic the Hedgehog 3^[1] as an antagonist to Sonic and Tails, as he was tricked by the villainous Dr. Robotnik into thinking the characters were thieves. He became a playable character in Sonic & Knuckles, which was released later that year.

Spread

Knuckles has been a part of the Sonic franchise ever since, playing a larger and supporting role as Sonic's rival and friend. He has appeared in over two dozen Sonic games in the past twenty three years, and has made appearances in various Sonic animated series as well, debuting in episode 5 of Sonic X (shown below). He is also a major character in the Sonic Boom computer-animated series.

Knuckles has been generally well received by fans and critics alike, though some critics pointed out that the addition of Knuckles marked when they felt the Sonic franchise began to go "overboard" with additional characters.^[2]

Knuckles Glitches

In later Sonic games Sonic 06 and Sonic Boom , glitches involving Knuckles were popular and sometimes exploited by gamers and Let's Players. Game Grumps , a Let's Play channel which often plays Sonic games, have several notable examples of Knuckles glitches. While playing Sonic 06, Knuckles gets stuck to a wall, creating a memorable moment where Arin gets extremely angry at the game (shown below, left). The episode has gained over 3.2 million views and has several fan animations.^[3] In Sonic Boom, the pair discovered a glitch with Knuckles where when can jump infinitely if one pauses during Knuckles' jump animation, leading them to go to unfinished parts of the game (shown below, right).

Related Memes

& Knuckles

& Knuckles is a phrase originating when Steam released a bundle of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, as was the developers' original intent, naming it Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. The clunky title made it appear as though Knuckles was shoehorned into the original game. This led to jokes in which people mock special crossovers or editions of games, similar to Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series.

Knuckles Sings

Knuckles Sings refers to a series of animated videos in which a goofily animated drawing of Knuckles sings various songs. On February 20th, 2017, YouTube animator Gregzilla uploaded a video in which he reviewed Sonic Lost World (shown below, left). Early in the video, a goofily drawn Knuckles appears for a second. The review gained over 266,000 views. Two weeks later, he uploaded a video in which he has the character "sing" a part of "I Don't Want to Set The World On Fire" by The Ink Spots, gaining over 1.7 million views (shown below, right).

Over the following months, several other Knuckles Sings variations appeared on YouTube, with most of the popular versions created by YouTubers FrameRater and Sonic Plush. Popular edits created by other YouTubers find Knuckles singing "Suicide is Painless," created by Fanzy Kittenz and gaining over 390,000 views (shown below, left), and a version where Knuckles sings "September" by Earth, Wind, and Fire, uploaded by Fainter Streak and gaining over 117,000 views (shown below, right).

Ugandan Knuckles

Ugandan Knuckles is the nickname given to a depiction of Knuckles created by YouTuber Gregzilla, which is often used as an avatar by players in the multiplayer game VRChat who repeat phrases like "do you know the way" and memes associated with the country Uganda, most notably the film Who Killed Captain Alex?. The character is associated with the expression "do you know the way", which is typically spoken in a mock African accent and phonetically spelled as "do you know de wey."

Search Interest

External References