Shoop Da Whoop

Content Warning: This entry discusses material with origins in problematic racial imagery.

"Shoop Da Whoop" stands as one of the internet's most recognizable early memes, transforming a simple phrase into a cultural phenomenon that bridged anime fandom, image editing culture, and viral video entertainment. The meme's journey from anonymous 4chan post to mainstream internet recognition illustrates the rapid evolution of digital humor in the mid-2000s.

While the exact origin of "Shoop da Whoop" remains unclear, Encyclopedia Dramatica claims it originated from a flash animation called "Syntax Error #2" posted on 4chan's /b/ board, which featured an edited image of the Dragon Ball Z character Cell with the caption "I'M A' FIRIN' MAH LAZER!!" (Know Your Meme, 2009). The original creation involved controversial imagery that reflected the provocative culture of 4chan's early era, where users frequently created content designed to shock or transgress social boundaries.

The earliest documented version of the meme was posted by DeviantArt user CrabPope on October 19th, 2006, showing Dragon Ball sprites edited for the meme format. Within 15 years, this image received more than 9,000 views, demonstrating sustained interest in the meme's visual elements (Know Your Meme, 2009). The character Cell's distinctive wide-mouthed expression from the anime series provided the perfect visual foundation for depicting someone "charging" or "firing" an energy beam.

The meme's format typically featured three key textual components: "SHOOP DA WHOOP," "IMMA CHARGIN' MAH LAZER," and "IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZER." Sometimes variations included "OOPS I SWALLOWED MAH LAZER," where the character appeared to be exploding rather than firing outward (Lurkmore Wiki, 2022). The intentional misspellings and phonetic speech patterns became integral to the meme's identity, reflecting the vernacular style common in early internet culture.

The meme achieved mainstream viral status through YouTube, particularly with DominicFear's (Dom Fera) "THE LAZER COLLECTION" series. On January 29th, 2007, DominicFear uploaded the first video in what would become a highly successful series. The video garnered over 11 million views, significantly expanding the meme's reach beyond its original 4chan audience (NamuWiki, 2025). Fera's adaptation transformed the static image meme into dynamic animated content, featuring various characters and objects firing lasers in increasingly absurd situations.

The Lazer Collection series became a cultural phenomenon in its own right, spanning multiple episodes from 2007 to 2015. According to TV Tropes, the series format consisted of "a disjointed series of shorts, each of which inevitably ends with a lazer being fired from someone or something." The series introduced new characters like "Dr. Octogonapus" (based on Spider-Man's Doctor Octopus) while maintaining the core "Shoop Da Whoop" aesthetic and catchphrases.

The meme's linguistic impact extended beyond its original context. According to Lurkmore Wiki, "Due to the popularity of the SHOOP DA WHOOP meme, some people started calling shops shoops," referring to image edits done in any program. This semantic shift demonstrated how successful memes could influence broader internet vocabulary and practices.

The cultural penetration of "Shoop Da Whoop" was evidenced by its appearance across multiple platforms and contexts. On December 21st, 2008, YouTuber Mannails published a video titled "Shoop da whoop," which received more than 3 million views within 13 years, indicating sustained audience interest well beyond the meme's initial peak (Know Your Meme, 2009).

"Shoop Da Whoop" exemplified the collaborative and transformative nature of early internet meme culture, where anonymous creators could take existing media properties and completely recontextualize them for humorous effect. The meme's success demonstrated how internet communities could create shared cultural references that transcended their original sources, becoming part of a broader digital vernacular.