When you consider the very essence of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it's not hard to see that the characters are totally outrageous and lend themselves rather well to the meme art form. Heck, even Kevin Eastman admitted to The Comics Journal that the idea for the Turtles started out as a joke. "While we were working on that one night, I did a drawing to make Pete [Laird] laugh, of a turtle standing upright. He had a mask on. He had nunchucks strapped to his arms, and I put this Ninja Turtle logo on the top and flung it over to his desk. He laughed, thought it was funny, and did a drawing to top my drawing, changed some things, fixed some things, and then I had to top his drawing. So, I did four of them all standing together with different weapons, and when he inked it, he added 'Teenage Mutant' to the 'Ninja Turtle' part, and we had this one drawing."
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In tribute to this hilarious origin story for one of the longest-lasting franchises in pop culture, we've found some of the best funnies around. From the 1987 animated series to Michael Bay's CGI ogres, this is the quintessential Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meme collection. And remember, you're a bad friend if you aren't tagging your BFF in meme posts.
15 THAT'S HIM, DAD!
Back in the days of 8-bit gaming, your go-to games were likely anything related to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Super Mario Bros. Those Italian plumbers weren't exactly friends of PETA, though, and hopped on anything that looked like a Goomba or a Koopa Troopa. How rude!
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So, imagine how great it would be if those poor turtles could call on some backup from daddy dearest, who so happens to be the katana-wielding Leonardo? Mario could ingest all the mushrooms or touch as many flowerpots as he wants, but he would be no match for the Turtles' fearsome leader. Come to think of it: why hasn't Bowser thought about enlisting the Turtles as his henchmen yet? They'll do anything for free pizza and would be more imposing than the Troopas.
14 PIZZA RAT
If you think about it, Splinter is the ultimate dad goal. After being dumped with four baby turtles, he took them under his wing (or is it his tail?) and raised them as if they were his own flesh and blood. He's taught them how to speak a human language, turned them into martial arts experts, and put a roof over their heads.
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Nonetheless, the Great Recession hit him pretty hard as well – and life wasn't as carefree and easy as it was in the'80s and '90s. Now every penny counts more than ever. Suddenly, the pizza splurge isn't an everyday thing and desperate times call for desperate measures. Do you really blame him for stealing a slice of pizza for his four kids in this dreadful economy?
13 SHREDDER ROLLIN'
Here's the thing: the Shredder is a bad villain. He's really bad at what he does. Yeah, he looks cool and like someone who should cut you up into tiny, little pieces, but his execution isham-fistedat best. Maybe it's because he's holding onto all this anger and it's poisoning him on the inside?It's kind of like the internet fanboys and Star Wars: The Last Jedi right now… but we digress.
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So, it's rather apt that when he hops onto his sweet ride, which looks like a modified toilet from Bebop and Rocksteady's wing of the Technodrome, he's ready to prove all the haters wrong. He's the real O.G. here. How can anyone catch him tryin' to ride dirty when he's ridin' on water, huh? Genius stuff from the man once known as Oroku Saki!
12 NOW I'M A BELIEVER
When you consider some of the stuff that Michael Bay had planned for 2014's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we got off pretty easy in the end. Some of the ideas were insane and no one would've been surprised had Optimus Prime appeared and gone off on some exposition-heavy monologue about theTurtles being aliens.
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Instead, we received some odd CGI ogre-looking Turtles that made Shrek look like Chris Hemsworth before he's had his morning coffee and chocolate croissant. The creaturesmade us uneasy and were weird to look at, and they made us miss the days when Corey Feldmansaid stupid things for an actor in aTurtle suit from Jim Henson's Creature Shop. But hey, at least Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows was one heck of a fun time, right?
11 MY NAME IS OLIVER QUEEN
As generic as it's become, there's something comforting about hearing Arrow's opening monologue. It just wouldn't be the same if we didn't get a quick story all about how Oliver Queen's life got turned upside. That said, it's getting extremely difficult for Stephen Amell to shake off being known as "that guy from Arrow."
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Even when he portrayed Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, a lot of folks thought he was still playing the same role but under a different guise - hence the highly accurate meme above. To be completely honest, though, Amell failed to capture the goofy charm that Elias Koteas brought to the original film series. Jones is supposed to be tough as nails but thick as a doorstop as well.
10 KRANG FINDS HIS HEIR
By now, we've all seen the meme of Honey Boo Boo and her mom, June, looking like Krang and his exo-suit. It's a good one, but we needed something more current here – namely the likelihood of more Krangs running around in the world.
If you've been watching the 2012 Nickelodeon animated series, you're aware of the presence of the Kraang and how they pop up like houseflies on the show. But let's go back even earlier than that to the 1987 series and its infinite possibilities. General Krang spent a lot of time on Earth and was bound to have fallen in love somewhere down the line. April O'Neil's friend Irma Langinstein was obsessed with finding true love, so what are the odds that she and Krang had a secret love child who'd be roughly 30 years old by now?
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9 WHY WEAR MASKS?
If you think about it, Dick Grayson has a really stupid disguise with that domino mask of his. Seriously, did you for once not recognize it was Chris O'Donnell as Robin in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin? Mind you, O'Donnell probably wishes it was someone else in the latter movie as well.
Similarly, the Ninja Turtles' masks don't make any sense. Their superhero names are their real names – unless their birth parents were hippies and named them something like Leaf Chewer and Peace Shell. At the end of the day, the masks' colors only help Splinter (and all of us) differentiate which Turtle is which. Sure, in recent years, the Turtles have grown more distinct (such as Donatello having that massive Madonna-sized gap between his front teeth), but before that, those colors were the only way of identifying who's who.
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8 NINJA TURTLES VS. POWER RANGERS
Looking back at the early '90s, the Power Rangers was the franchise to finally stop the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles juggernaut. Before then, no one was capable of touching the lean, green shelled machine. Naturally, this brought a fan split over which franchise was better.
Now, stop us if we're wrong but the internet was built for arguing with complete strangers and trying to convince them why you're right. Stumble onto any thread and it'll be a debate about X being better than Y – and the console versus PC war is the absolute worst. So, to find two sets of fans agreeing on something is incredibly rare yet possible. Rather than argue, though, we should all shake on our differences and appreciate each other's different tastes – just as long as we allagree the PlayStation 4 is better than anything else.
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7 PUBESCENT FROG OF SILENT WAR
At every turn, there's always someone trying to make a buck off your ideas. Heck, the Ninja Turtles were victimsof some of the most covert forms of plagiarism – do you remember Street Sharks for example? But hey, at least the creators of the show changed the character type, names, and tried to pretend like it wasn't a blatant copy-and-paste of someone else's homework.
In the case of this costume… Oh man, it's priceless. It's literally an exact replica of a Ninja Turtles costume (with even the same font), but it's been renamed "Pubescent Frog of Silent War." Fortunately, we can't spot a hint of a shell on the cover, because that'll throw the whole frog angle out of the window here. Even so, do you think the Turtles appreciate being called frogs?
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6 SWAG NINJA TURTLES
For many, the Ninja Turtles were the apex of'90s culture. The clothing, the food, the music, the lingo – it's like a time capsule of that era. That's not to say this stuff is cringe-worthy or bad because we are living in a time that made Nickelback and Justin Bieber famous, so we have no room to criticize.
Come to think of it: maybe this is why therecent Ninja Turtles films fell flat, since they tried to update the Turtles to this current era. Like Stranger Things successfully brought back the nostalgia of the'80s to the mainstream, the Turtles could've done the same for the late '80s/early '90s. Who wouldn't want to see the four bros busting out a move to Vanilla Ice's "Ninja Rap" again?!
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5 TRASH-TALKING JUSTICE
While it's obvious that the Ninja Turtles love each other and share a strong brotherly bond, it doesn't mean theyare against sorting out their differences in a violent fashion. On more than one occasion, a throwdown hastaken place and their differences were resolved with fists and beatings. Maybe it's not the most civilized way to resolve differences, but it works for them.
Now, on the internet, it's a little more difficult than that. Instead of shooting down the information superhighway and slapping some sense into the cheeky mutt on the other end, you need to channel your chi and use your words as your weapons. Usually open letters seem to do the trick; otherwise, start a badly worded petition filled with libel and demands for a non-existent director's cut.
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4 SPIDEY JOINS TMNT
Spider-Man is one of the most beloved superheroes around, but he largely works alone. Sure, he's part of the Avengers once in a while, yet he spends the bulk of his time fighting the likes of the Green Goblin and Vulture on his lonesome. While we're sure that Deadpool would want to change this and become Spider-Pool, Peter Parker still walks a lonely road.
Considering he lives in New York, though, you have to wonder why he's never called up the Ninja Turtles for some assistance. Heck, we think that he and Mikey would become the best of friends, while Donatello would give his brain a decent workout, too. Additionally, Spidey seems to be a fan of deep-fried pizza, so that'll endear him to the rest of the gang. Makethis team-up happen, Marvel and IDW!
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3 SHREDDED PAPER
Anyone who works in an office knows there's always one guy who puts memes all over office equipment. Most times, they're lame and usually have some meta reference to TheLord of the Rings or Star Wars, but occasionally there's a diamond in the rough. These diamonds are the ones that are worth risking a disciplinary hearing for and printing in full color for everyone to share in on the laughs.
When it comes to the Shredder, the possibility for memes is infinite. From shredded cheese, shredded paper, to shredded riffs, there's a solid punchline for nearly everything. It also helps if you imagine the late James Avery's voice when you read the memes back to yourself. Sigh. They really don't make over-the-top villains like they used to…
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2 WHEN DID THIS...
There's a lot of debate regarding the use of CGI in movies nowadays. Judging by the reception to Justice League, the audience is growing tired of so many computer-generated characters (and mustache removals) and would prefer to see more practical effects being utilized.
Obviously, this raises the issue about actors in suits. Do we want to go back in that campy direction or is there another viable option available? If you look back at the receptionfor the original Ninja Turtles movies, everyone seemed to enjoy the Jim Henson-created costumes and felt it captured the nature of the source material – and at least looked better than the CGI ogres from the new films. Sure, the costume must've felt like a walking sauna for the actor, but that's why they're paid a lot of money, right?
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1 JOB OPENING
Imagine becoming the fifth Ninja Turtle. Well, there was one already: her name was Venus and she was a short-lived member of the team in Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. No one knows what happened to her, but her spot must've opened up and our shelled heroes are looking for someone else to join the cause.
Now, we're not sure what sort of medical insurance or pension plan they offer, but the working conditions are quite stressful. First off, you spend the bulk of your time in a sewer – that can't be too good for the sinuses or general cleanliness. Second, you'd need to sharpen up your martial arts skills, which means a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And finally, you'd have to share your pizza with four overgrown Turtles. Maybe this job doesn't sound so sweet after all…