Michelangelo Open-Mouthed Stare Reaction

About

Michelangelo Open-Mouthed Stare Reaction refers to a reaction image macro of the fictional character Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle with his mouth and eyes wide open. The image is used to signify intense anger, surprise or frustration. Additionally, the image has been used as a vibrating GIF, and in the memes What Rhymes With Rape and "Cowabunga It Is."

Origin

The original image is rumored to have come from the fourth episode of the television series Power Rangers in Space, a crossover episode between the Power Rangers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which aired on February 27th, 1998 (portions of episode below, left).^[1][2]

On August 6th, 2012, an anonymous 4chan ^[3] user posted a vibrating GIF of the image in a thread about the anime series Space Battleship Yamato (shown below, right),

Spread

Over the next year, the image was used an image macro that reads "You know what rhymes with 'turtle?' Rape." The earliest known usage of the image was posted by Imgur ^[4] user THAjuice on July 11th, 2013. The post received more than 500 view in less than six years.

¿Quieres pene?

¿Quieres pene? is a series of image macros popular in Spanish-speaking communities during mid to late 2015, and used by chat users as a troll response after baiting others into thinking they had a genuine question or query (example shown below, left).

Cowabunga It Is

On November 27th, 2018, Redditor ^[5] PopeBigWilly used the image as the punchline a joke about Germany's reaction to the end of World War II in the /r/HistoryMemes subreddit (shown below, left). In this case, the image featured the subtitle "Cowabunga It Is," referring to the Ninja Turtles infamous expression of victory "Cowabunga." The post was later posted on the /r/dankmemes ^[6] subreddit, where it received more than 42,000 points (92% upvoted) and 370 comments in 24 hours.

Over the next 24 hours, various memes featuring the image were posted, using the phrase "Cowabunga It Is" as a punchline (example below, center). That day, Redditor^[7] posted a text blackout version featuring a joke about veganism. The post received more than 10,000 points (96% upvoted) and 45 comments in 24 hours (shown below, right).

Various Examples

External References