Piccolo Lightning Strike

About

Piccolo Lightning Strike, also known as Piccolo In Thunderstorm, is an image of Dragon Ball character Piccolo standing in what seems to be a rainstorm with a lightning bolt flashing behind him. The image macro is often paired with a caption to portray a person who is devastated or angered by the situation or scenario that the caption outlines.

Origin

The Dragon Ball episode that the screencap used in the meme format was taken from is episode 143, titled "Kono yo no unmei o kakete!" (originally aired on February 1st, 1989).^[3] In the scene, Piccolo had just defeated his other half, Kami (YouTube^[4] upload shown below).

On July 11th, 2022, Instagram^[1] user @brutreek posted a meme that showed Piccolo from Dragon Ball standing in a rainy thunderstorm with a lightning strike going off behind him and a top caption reading, "Sir that will be 2.99 / Broke niggas:" (shown below). Over the course of 10 months, the post gained 29 likes. It is currently the first-known posting of the image. Days later, on July 15th, Instagram^[2] user then @halfvampirehalfsuccubus gained roughly 5,300 likes for posting the same meme with a wider crop.

Spread

Going into 2022, the format gained additional variations. Currently, the first-known one was posted by Twitter^[5] user @roselerai on August 28th, 2022, portraying white people after hearing someone insult Scott the Woz, earning roughly 5,700 likes in nine months (shown below, left). On September 8th, Redditor spockphysics then posted an iteration to the /r/okbuddyretard subreddit,^[6] gaining roughly 4,300 upvotes in eight months (shown below, right).

Going into early 2023, viral iterations of the format continued to spread. One of the most notable that was widely reposted portrayed Chainsaw Man fans as "porn addicts" (shown below). Currently, its first-discovered upload was on December 3rd, 2022, by Instagram^[7] user @garbled.circuits, gaining over 70 likes in five months.

As stated, the Chainsaw Man iteration received multiple, viral reposts going into early 2023, such as a tweet from Twitter^[8] user @ascinhiding on April 19th, 2023, that gained roughly 12,800 likes in one month. In May 2023, iFunnier^[9][10] @Nimitz19 then posted multiple memes that followed the format, which were subsequently featured on the platform.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References