Lightning McGroomer

About

Lightning McGroomer refers to a series of humorous dubbed videos which imagine the Cars movies protagonist Lightning McQueen as a groomer who is facing criminal charges. Created by voice artist superduperwafflez, the videos received viral spread online and have been a frequent subject of references on social media.

Origin

On August 9th, 2023, voice actor and meme maker @superduperwafflez posted a humorous dub of a Cars scene in which the protagonist Lightning McQueen gets a call from his agent Harv. In the dub, Lightning McQueen's agent brings him the news that there are allegations of grooming minors being put against him, and loudly reproaches him. The video received over 369,000 likes on Instagram^[1] and over 431,000 views and 54,200 likes on TikTok^[2] in three months (shown below).

Oh, I don't know, maybe because you're obsessed with MIDDLE SCHOOLERS. Look at the fucking news, congratulations, you're not just famous for racing. […] "Lightning McGroomer"? Yeah, that's a new one. I've never heard that shit before. Oh wait! I've never heard that shit before because you've never groomed fucking children before. What the fuck is wrong with you, Lightning McQueen?
- They said they were 18!
- Who the fuck is 18 in the seventh grade? See you in court.

Spread

In the following weeks, @superduperwaffles continued the plot in more dubs of Cars scenes: for examples, an upload made on August 10th, 2023, received over 73,000 likes on Instagram^[3] and 60,500 views and 5,700 likes on TikTok^[4] in three months (shown below, left).

The first video in the series received viral spread online as it was reposted on X, iFunny and other platforms. For example, on September 27th, 2023, X^[4] user @autumnstays posted it, with the post garnering over 2,500 reposts and 15,000 likes in two months (shown below).

this fucking video dude the absolute PASSION when the other dude said "MIDDLE SCHOOLERS"

ALSO FUCKING. "LIGHTNING MCGROOMER" 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/OZwSfErHG7

— autumn 🏳️‍⚧️🍂 (@autumnstays) September 28, 2023

On November 6th, 2023, following the annoucnement that Lightning McQueen will appear in Rocket League, X^[5] user @CZonik07 posted a poster for Cars_, writing, "If you've seen this movie, prove it by quoting it." On the same day, X^[6] user @M1dasOW2 quoted the posted, commenting with a line from the Lightning McGroomer video. The post (shown below) received over 2,500 reposts and 53,000 likes in one day.

Following the post, in early November 2023, the video achieved notable popularity as a subject of references.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References