Pingas, sometimes mistaken for “Penish,” is a meme derived from a famous misheard phrase attributed to Dr. Ivo Robotnik (voiced by Long John Baldry) on the TV show The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Since its emergence in 2007, the meme has been a source for YouTube Poop and fan art.
How did PINGAS originate?
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog first aired on September 6th, 1993. It was a first-run syndication show, appearing daily in the afternoon around the time kids got home from school. The first and only season ran 65 episodes. The Pingas meme came from the thirteenth episode of the series.
In what episode does Robotnik say PINGAS?
The Pingas meme came from the thirteenth episode (and 27th overall segment) of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, “Boogey-Mania,” written by Rowby Goren, which was one-half of the two-story 30-minute block. It aired on September 22, 1993.
Why does Robotnik say PINGAS?
Well, he doesn’t. The plot of the “Boogey-Mania” segment involves Dr. Robotnik bringing his Boogey-Man out of his dreams and into the real world, where it rampages and causes havoc. At one point during the episode, Dr. Robotnik catches his two robotic sidekicks eavesdropping on his conversation. At this moment, Robotnik says “snooping as usual, I see.”
PINGAS meme origin
On May 27th, 2007, Stegblob posted a YouTube Poop video (basically an edit of existing media to transform it into something baffling, obscene, or both), called “Robotnik Has a Viagra Overdose,” which involved a re-edit of the “snooping as usual, I see!” line to sound like the word for a male member, which sounded more like “pingas.” The clip garnered over 137k views over the next nine years before being taken down for copyright violations. User youtubepoops reposted the video in 2017.
Stegblob (who goes by Mari) later explained her inspiration: “When it comes to creating a video, I don’t really plan anything ahead,” she said. “I will normally just throw a bunch of Sonic episodes into my video-editing software and then just see where it takes me. The only real thought process that I have is ‘If it doesn’t make me laugh, it won’t make anyone laugh.’”
PINGAS spread
On December 15th, 2008, YouTube user McMaNGOS uploaded a video titled “THIS VIDEO CONTAINS WIN” featuring Dr. Robotnik. With the spread of this video, the popularity of PINGAS increased substantially. The video also serves as the source of a separate meme called THIS VIDEO CONTAINS X, which features an image of Dr. Robotnik (usually with his face superimposed) to create a song based on the phrase.
In the world of YouTube Poops, PINGAS was the first popular phrase to be used, which led to its widespread use across several internet forums and subcultures.
Of particular note is PINGAS’s popularity among the deviantART community, where the meme that began as a sound effect has made the transition into thousands of illustrations by fans.
2024 Resurgence
A new glut of PINGAS videos began spreading on X and TikTok starting in late 2023, perhaps due to the renewed interest in Sonic from the popular film series. One of the initial memes of this era was on December 26th, 2023, when X user @chronakey used a video of a kid screaming for his vape, but replacing the word with “Pingas.” The tweet received over 13k likes.
The trend was carried on by the same user in the following days, leading to variations from others in early 2024. For example, on April 11th, 2024, @NintendoGCN posted a PINGAS video on X which received over 3.9k likes in a single day.
On April 12th, 2024, @chronakey explained his reasoning behind bringing back PINGAS, stating in a reply that “I never really thought of it as something ironic, I just thought the fusion of old and new was pretty funny. I feel most of the people making them now are doing it out of appreciation for it as well.”
Five Nights at Pingas game
The popularity of PINGAS even made the leap to the world of parody video games, with Five Nights at Pingas. The game, a parody of Five Nights at Freddy’s (obviously), was developed by AnimatorXP and released on March 16th, 2015. The gameplay will be pretty familiar to anyone who’s played Five Nights at Freddy’s, but with Robotnik, Sanic, and Scratch as the potential player options. The game also spawned an entire series, with five games in total so far.
Meme examples
