I was 6 years old in 2004 and I was also embarrassed by that song. I remember having the GBA Video cart (remember those things?) and turning the volume down during the intro. If that doesn't show how awful it is, I don't know what would. So we all know where the meme came from now, but why did it become one? Why does any meme become popular? Why did Shrek suddenly gain a really scary cult following? (The Shrek thing in particular is really annoying because everyone in school referenced it when it was "big" and it just didn't make any sense as to why it was so funny. I'd rather Paul Blart Mall Cop take its place, but that's just what I think.) The internet's the internet and there's not really much we can do about it, unfortunately. Kids in school really dictate that kind of stuff, and we all know how kids in middle/high school are (being my band's self-proclaimed "resident Sonic fan" has gone from just something some people knew to "Gotta Go Fast" and "Sanic" EVERYWHERE. I can't mention Sonic without hearing it from someone).
I honeslty don't know what makes a better story. A kid's awful attempt at art or this. EDIT: *ahem* Doing some digging, it seems the original post is a complete mystery, but it was reposted onto Sonic Central where people were saying the art was completely horrible. that was all going around in 2008, but that wasn't really a meme as much as a cult joke, mainly popular because of Sonic fans being sonic fans, hating the series they constantly defend. there were some parodies, this being the earliest as far as I can tell: Past that, the art REALLY took off when, of course, it got posted on tumblr. AH YES TUMBLR. THE MEME CONCOCTION OF THE CURRENT AGE [inlinespoiler]oi vey[/inlinespoiler] The post entered the website by way of now defunct "Fuck Yeah Terrible Art," which of course soon got reblogged by anyone on the site with an ironic sense of humor (so nearly everyone). The blog soon died off but the post was reblogged enough by people to be visible. http://fuckyeasonic.tumblr.com/post/1426008460/fuckyeahterribleart-gotta-go-fast (No notes are available, either because this reblog wasn't as popular or because the original post was deleated. Idk I don't know tumblr.) From then on it spread like wildfire. I can't seem to place exactly WHEN it became 1:1 synonymous with Sonic, but a Google trends analysis shows search results spiked around November 2011. http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-US#q=gotta+go+fast So oddly enough... it actually probably WAS Generations that got the name so popular! Why is that? The search results started off in 2010 but really didn't go anywhere until that spike, so we can only assume Generations is the cause. But Generations was good, wasn't it? That might be why the meme sprouted actually. My theory is that since Generations was actually pretty good (but also met some controversy with reviewers like Yatzee tearing it a new one), Sonic as a name popped up again, and people just started pinning the sprouting meme to the character either as an excuse to not touch the game with a 20 foot pole or as a mere jest, especially with how goddamn fast Modern Sonic is. So yeah, this is actually a more recent thing than I thought. Huh. Wonder why that is.... It should be noted that popularity sprouted up again during March of 2014 for some reason, probably because of Sonic Boom hype/fears.
