Get Dunked On | Know Your Meme

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In League of Legends

The first recorded widespread use (under the form “Get dunked”, omitting the “on”) on the Internet stems from the “pro as heck guide to master yi”, a video guide created by YouTube user “notue” pretending to explain how to use the League Of Legends character Master Yi, but instead gives incorrect and ridiculous info along with making up new names for items and monsters. Whenever he kills someone, the catchphrase “Get dunked!” is used.

Several of League Of Legends‘ champions reference the “pro as heck guide to master yi” video, one outright shouting “Get dunked!” when using her ultimate ability. The word “Dunking” also became a common term when speaking about champions with a damaging leap ability. There also have been official references to “Dunking” in the form of the “Dunkmaster Bundle”, which includes champions with leaping abilities, along with a “Dunkmaster Darius” skin, depicting the champion Darius as a basketball player.

In Undertale

Undertale is a RPG video game released in September 2015 where players can win battles against monsters without having to kill them. However, if the player decides to kill every monster that can be encountered in the game, the player will achieve the Genocide Route (also called No Mercy route) and several events in the game will change, most notably Sans being fought at the end of the game, something that never happens in the other routes. The battle against Sans is considered to be one of the most memorable of the game due to its high difficulty.

After a few turns of fighting, Sans will comment on the player’s behavior and offer to “Spare” him, which is the action normally used to end a fight in Undertale without having to kill the enemy. If the player chooses to Spare Sans, Sans will use an unavoidable attack that will kill the player in a few seconds.

Instead of the usual Game Over screen telling the player to “stay determined”, the music will be different, being a sped-up version of another song and Sans will address the player, starting with the now memetic quote, “Get Dunked On.”

The quote has also seen spread in the Undertale fandom as an euphemism for brutal defeat, either against Sans, or for failure at something, and is also strongly associated with Sans as a whole. Due to the term “dunked on” and some of Sans’ attacks often being equated to slamming the player against the floor and/or wall, Sans is often associated with basketball and, sometimes, by extension with the song “Dunked On” by Froggy Fresh. These are particularly popular on Tumblr.