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"All your base are belong to us" is a stock phrase arising from an
interesting translation used in the Sega Genesis version of the Japanese
video game Zero Wing (the arcade version of Zero Wing does not include the
quote). It is sometimes abbreviated AYBABTU.
The phrase is simply one line from the game's introductory cut scene,
which is subtitled and poorly translated. In late 2000 and early 2001 a huge
number of altered pictures, GIF animations, and Macromedia Flash animations
exploiting the popularity of this phrase swept over the Internet and just as
suddenly seemed to slow to a crawl. It has been used as a caption for almost
any photograph since the heavily overloaded word "base" (along with homonyms
such as bass and compounds like base pair) seemed to make the phrase mean
almost anything.
It is one of the most commonly quoted examples of Engrish, which is the
use of English-like phrases in Japanese.
The cut scene transcript goes as follows:
- In A.D. 2101
- War was beginning
- Captain: What happen?
- Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
- Operator: We get signal.
- Captain: What!
- Operator: Main screen turn on.
- Captain: It's You!!
- Cats: How are you gentlemen!!
- Cats: All your base are belong to us.
- Cats: You are on the way to destruction.
- Captain: What you say!!
- Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time.
- Cats: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....
- Captain: Take off every 'Zig'!!
- Operator: You know what you doing.
- Captain: Move 'Zig'.
- Captain: For great justice.
The final phrase "for great justice" appears also to have been adopted by
various groups as their slogan, and there is also some adoption of "move 'zig'"
(which resembles that of "Let's Roll" - a universal command to action) and
"Somebody set up us the bomb" (basically "uh-oh!").
The AYBABTU phenomenon is constantly declared dead, yet it is still seen
on the Internet. Some people who play multiplayer games like Counter-Strike
have been banned from servers for constantly repeating this phrase.
On April 1, 2003, in Sturgis, Michigan, seven men aged 17 to 20 placed
signs all over town that read "All your base are belong to us. You have no
chance to survive make your time." They said they were playing an April
Fools joke by mimicking the famous Flash animation which depicted the slogan
ubiquitously. Unfortunately for the young men, not many people got the joke.
Many residents were upset that the signs appeared while the U.S. was at war
with Iraq, and police chief Eugene Alli said the signs could be "a
borderline terrorist threat depending on what someone interprets it to
mean."
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