Thanos Beatbox / Cartoon Beatbox Battles

About

Cartoon Beatbox Battles refer to the animated YouTube series by beatboxer Verbal Ase in which various cartoon, comic and film characters take part in beatbox battles against each other. Launched in March 2016, the series gained a significant following online and, starting in December 2019, have been used in meme edits on iFunny, Twitter and Instagram, with a clip of Thanos beatboxing gaining particular popularity. The meme is closely associated with Morshu.

History

On March 19th, 2016, beatboxer Verbal Ase uploaded the first episode of the Cartoon Beatbox Battles series titled "Mickey Mouse vs SpongeBob Squarepants – Cartoon Beatbox Battle," animated by Busy Mouse Animations, to his YouTube channel.^[1] The video, which featured Mickey Mouse and SpongeBob SquarePants, both voiced by Verbal Ase, engaged in a beatbox battle judged by a cartoon version of Verbal Ase, received over 13.3 million views in four years (shown below).

As of January 29th, 2020, Verbal Ase created a total of nine Cartoon Beatbox Battles episodes, most of them animated by Daylight Animation Studio, featuring characters such as Mickey Mouse, Joker, Deadpool, Thanos, Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog and others. The majority of the episodes accumulated over 10 million views each on YouTube. The episode "Pennywise VS The Joker – Cartoon Beatbox Battles," released on April 29th, 2018, received over 50 million views in two years (shown below, left).^[2]

Let me show you how to scratch it!

In addition to the main series, Verbal Ase also uploaded live episodes in which he performs beatbox battles between various characters. He also uploaded several popular beatbox solos from the episodes.

Use in Memes

On December 6th, 2019, iFunny^[3] user Blazblue posted a shorter clip of Sonic "going supersonic" to the platform, where it gained over 4,200 smiles in two months (shown below, left). On December 7th, iFunny^[4] user florky posted an extended version of that clip (shown below, right), gaining over 2,000 smiles in the same period.

In the following weeks, clips from this and other Cartoon Beatbox Battles gained viral spread on the platform, with users debating whether the videos are cringy and posting GIF captions and other memes based on and referencing the clips (examples shown below). For example, a December 8th, 2019, post by iFunny^[5] user BrotherBear received over 450 smiles in two months (shown below, left).

On December 23rd, 2019, iFunny^[6] user AskAdam posted a clip of Thanos beatboxing from the March 2019 "Darkseid Vs Thanos – Cartoon Beatbox Battles" episode (shown below, left), gaining over 2,000 smiles. In the following days, GIF captions and video edits based on the clip of Thanos beatboxing while maintaining an infinity gem suspended in the air gained popularity, particularly in connection to Brap memes (examples shown below, center and right).

In addition to iFunny, starting in December 2019 memes based on the series appeared on Instagram, Twitter and other online platforms.

Related Memes

Morshu

Morshu is a minor character in the 1993 video game Link: The Faces of Evil who owns a general store in Goronu area. In the late 2000s, Morshu's cutscenes gained significant popularity in YouTube Poops along with other scenes from the Zelda CD-i games, particularly due to his dialogue line "Sorry, Link, I can't give credit! Come back when you're a little – mmmm – richer." In early 2020, GIFs of the character regained popularity in ironic memes.

On February 24th, 2020, iFunny^[7] user Drift posted a Thanos Beatbox meme based on Morshu's GIF which received over 1,900 smiles in two days (shown below). A similar edit was posted by iFunny^[8] user Necrophilia on February 25th.

Following this edit, Morshu and Thanos Beatbox has been often used together in memes.

Search Interest

External References