About

The Cartel Loves Dragon Ball, also known as Cartel Activity Drops When Dragon Ball Content Is Released, refers to a conspiracy theory that drug Cartel activity in Mexico and South America significantly drops when new Dragon Ball episodes and movies are released. A meme with the character Goku reading, "Goku Fun Fact" trended online in late 2023 and 2024, originally from Reddit and iFunny. TikTok users also made memes about telling a Cartel member that "Goku wouldn't like this," pretending that the idea would stop the man from committing a heinous act because Goku would be disappointed. Overall, the meme plays on the cliché that Mexican and South American people love Dragon Ball.

Origin

The first known meme to reference the Cartel loving Dragon Ball was a GIF caption posted by Twitter / X^[1] user @Stick_AA on January 9th, 2023, that showed Goku coming towards the viewer, reading, "Goku stepping into Mexico to end the war between the Cartel and the Mexican government." The post received over 2,400 likes in a year (shown below). It is currently the first known meme of its kind.

Cartel Activity Drops When Dragon Ball Content Is Released

On December 24th, 2023, iFunnier^[2] @UltraTransphobic posted a meme with Goku, reading, "Fun Goku fact! Whenever new Dragon Ball content is released, cartel activity drops significantly for about two days." The meme received over 38,400 smiles in two months (shown below). It is currently the first known upload of the image. Its claim that cartel activity drops due to new Dragon Ball content is currently unfounded.

Spread

After the iFunny^[2] post went viral, the meme was reposted across social media platforms. For instance, X^[3] user @ShitpostRock reposted it on December 24th, 2023, gaining over 71,000 likes in two months. On December 24th, it was reposted to /r/Ningen,^[4] gaining roughly 15,800 upvotes during the same timeframe.

On December 26th, TikToker^[5] @standmgftcs posted a Vince McMahon Crying meme, reading, "The cartel member about to execute me when I remind him that Goku would be disappointed in him for doing this," gaining over 30,500 plays and 2,200 likes in two months (shown below, left).

On December 28th, 2023, TikToker^[6] @sterlizii posted a video about Cartel activity dropping due to Dragon Ball, receiving over 55,900 plays and 3,000 likes in two months (shown below, right).

The memes and jokes became increasingly viral in early 2024. For instance, on January 2nd, 2024, X^[7] user @ShitpostRock posted a meme (originally from iFunnier^[8] @SmileFuel) that gained over 7,300 likes in a month (shown below, left).

On February 6th, 2024, X^[9] user @RevivalOfPotara tweeted a GIF with a captioned reading, "The mexican cartel member when he sees Goku on my keychain," earning over 50,000 likes in 10 days (shown below, right).

Viral memes a part of the trend persisted on TikTok^[10] in February 2024.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References