About

Shocked Imhotep is used as a meme format to react to ironic situations and dark humor. The meme usually contains an opening line that seems normal, but is turned on its head resulting in the reaction of Shocked Imhotep.

Origin

The format orignated from a still taken from the 1999 cult classic The Mummy. In this scene, Imhotep (played by Arnold Vosloo), is attempting to resurrect his mistress Anck-su-namun (played by Patricia Velásquez).

Ah! Ah! Ahmenophus!

JONATHAN
Yes,…I see.

The talons lift O’Connell up and start to CRUSH him.

JONATHAN
Hootash im Amenophus!

The giant statue of Anubis instantly freezes in it’s tracks and PETRIFIES. It’s off balance. Starts to fall. O’Connell slides free of it’s talons. Evelyn SHOVES Anck-su-namun away, Anck-su-namun looks up and opens her fetid mouth to scream just as Anubis CRASHES DOWN on top of her, SMASHING HER to powder and DRIVING her into the ground.

Imhotep SHRIEKS in rage and horror, then turns and angrily heads for Jonathan.

In the scene as it's seen on screen, the statue of Anubis is replaced with soldiers of the undead. The soldiers of the undead are commanded by Jonathan to kill Anck-su-namun, and they obey. The meme format is derived from the moment Imhotep reacts to watching the death of Anck-su-namun unfold.

Spread

Shocked Imhotep began making the rounds across multiple fan groups for Arnold Vosloo, Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and the Mummy Franchise. Thousands of die-hard Mummy fans everywhere have taken to the internet to create their own iterations of the meme, resulting in one of the most popular meme formats to come from the Mummy franchise.