The Internet Turned Shaggy Into An Alpha Chad

Kids are having a blast playing this hot new game called Warner Bros Multiversus, a game that usually consists of seeing three-fifths of the Justice League getting their asses kicked by this phenomenal warrior called Shaggy as if that's a completely natural event. 

To everyone who's even a day older than 10, however, that scenario makes exactly as much sense as, uh, well, we can't think of any character that's canonically weaker and more cowardly than the Shaggy that has existed for the 50 years that came before 2021 so yeah, it's impossible to even draw a comparison. The simple answer to the question would be Internet memes, yes, but the complete transition of Shaggy from Stoner-coded scaredy-pants to absolute Chad deserves a deeper look because Warner Bros just proved that fans and companies can actually work together to create something meaningful – even when it all comes from a joke.

We'd like to invite our readers to look at the very short clip showcasing WB animation's new intro:

Oh, what's that? It's just Scorpion, one of the most respected fighters in the entire WB roster for once being the one getting pulled by a superior fighter. The one doing the pulling? A version of Shaggy who looks like he can easily rip out more than just Scorpion's mask. Where did all this come to be? Well, it all begins with the anime Dragon Ball Super. Below is a video that shows the moment when protagonist Goku finally masters a technique called Ultra Instinct.

It's admittedly a pretty hype moment – even for people who don't care for or understand anime, yes, but the moment when all hell broke loose was someone decided to add the ultra instinct song to a clip where Shaggy fights off an entire biker gang.

The song elevates the whole thing, sure, but the scene already existed, meaning that Shaggy was already becoming kind of a badass – or at least finally revealing the badass that he had been all along. The Ultra Instinct Shaggy trend started rolling so fast that we began seeing all sorts of memes claiming that Shaggy wasn't just merely strong. Shaggy had all sorts of powers.

scary powers.

At first, Matthew Lillard, the legendarily underrated actor who played Shaggy in the Scooby Doo films, claimed that the memes were wrong.

But was he really worried about upsetting the carefully maintained Scooby-Doo canon, or was he afraid that he'd awaken Shaggy's true power? We believe it's the former, as he quickly began to embrace the awesomeness of it all.

It's important to note that the memes didn't just result in great jokes, but also in great art – that also contains good jokes. Look at this glorious pic from artist Raiko that shows Shaggy in his “Ultra Instinct” form, the most powerful form in current Dragon Ball canon (warning: chances are the previous sentence will be outdated to anyone reading this anything over a month after publication).

Here's hoping they do Big Chungus next. Don't know who Big Chungus is? Well, that's fair since Big Chungus wasn't even recognized as a character for over 70 years. Big Chungus is the name that the internet chose for a new character that was originally just Bugs Bunny impersonating Elmer Fudd. It gained so much traction that this new non-existent character became more popular in internet circles than Bugs and Fudd combined.

 Confused? Allow Liquid Snake to make it clearer:

Fans do have the unfortunate tendency to mess it all up, but we never miss a chance to give them crap for it, so it's only fair that we congratulate them when they do it right. It's also especially heartwarming to see a big company such as Warner Bros using that to enrich their already great game. Nintendo better take notice, because Multiversus is going for the party game crown – and it has a Shaggy.

Top Image: Warner Bros