All your base are belong to us

The phrase as it appears in the introduction to Zero Wing.

"All your base are belong to us" (often shortened to "All Your Base", "AYBABTU", or simply "AYB") is a broken English phrase that became an Internet phenomenon or meme in 2000–2002. The text comes from the opening cutscene of the 1991 European Sega Mega Drive version of the video game Zero Wing^[1] by Toaplan, which was poorly translated from Japanese.

The meme developed from this as the result of a GIF animation depicting the opening text^[1] which was initially popularized on the Something Awful message forums,^[2] leading to a phenomenon of surreal altered images depicting the meme in everyday scenes, placement of the text in real world locations, and the text and images being set to hardcore techno music by the band The Laziest Men on Mars. Other Zero Wing phrases, including "For great justice!" and "Move zig!", popularized in the same animated GIF and video, also acquired some degree of notoriety and popular re-use within internet culture.^[3]

Transcript examples

• Wikiquote has a full transcript of the Zero wing introduction

Original script	Original English translation	More accurate English translation
機関士：何者かによって、爆発物が仕掛けられたようです。	Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.	Engineer: An unknown assailant has planted a bomb!
通信士：メインスクリーンにビジョンが来ます。	Operator: Main screen turn on.	Radio Operator: Video is being routed to the main screen.
CATS：連邦政府軍のご協力により、君達の基地は、全てCATSがいただいた。	CATS: All your base are belong to us.	CATS: With the help of Federation Forces, all of your bases have been taken over by CATS.
CATS：せいぜい残り少ない命を、大切にしたまえ・・・・。	CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.	CATS: Treasure what little time remains of your lives.
艦長：我々の未来に希望を・・・	Captain: For great justice.	Captain: Let's hope for our future...

References in mass media and elsewhere

The phrase on U.S. Route 50 in Nevada

The phrase or some variation of lines from the game has appeared in numerous articles, books, comics, clothing, movies, radio shows, songs, television shows, video games, webcomics, and websites. Notable mentions include:

In late 2000, Kansas City computer programmer and part-time DJ Jeffrey Ray Roberts of the Gabber band The Laziest Men on Mars made a techno dance track, "Invasion of the Gabber Robots", which remixed some of the Zero Wing video game music by Tatsuya Uemura with a voiceover phrase "All your base are belong to us."^[4]

On February 23, 2001, Wired provided an early report on the phenomenon, covering it from the Flash animation to its spread through e-mail and Internet forums to T-shirts bearing the phrase.^[5]

On April 1, 2003, in Sturgis, Michigan, seven people 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 claimed to be playing an April Fool's joke but most people who saw the signs were unfamiliar with the phrase. 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."^[6]

In February 2004, North Carolina State University students and members of TheWolfWeb in Raleigh, North Carolina exploited a web-based service provided for local schools and businesses to report a weather-related closing to display the phrase within a news ticker on a live news broadcast on News 14 Carolina.^[7]

On June 1, 2006, the video hosting website YouTube was taken down temporarily for maintenance. The phrase "ALL YOUR VIDEO ARE BELONG TO US" appeared below the YouTube logo as a placeholder while the site was down. Some users believed the site had been hacked, leading the host to add the message "No, we haven't been hacked. Get a sense of humor."^[8]

See also

Listen to this article (info/dl)

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More spoken articles

• Engrish
• Internet memes
• List of Internet phenomena

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Alex Tufty Ashman (2007-02-13). "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". h2g2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A19147205. Retrieved 2008-02-04. ""The GIF slowly started to spread across the Internet, but it wasn't until 2000 that it properly gained popularity. By the end of the year, altered images of various road signs, cereal packets and other photographs containing the words 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us' had started to appear, and by 2001 the phenomenon was in full swing."" 
2. ^ Julian Dibbell (2008-01-18). "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World". Wired. p. 2. http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons?currentPage=2. Retrieved 2008-01-18. 
3. ^ Examples:
   • In Search Engine Watch: Korman, Avril (2011-08-27). "Being Bad For Great Justice: A New Privacy Scandal Rocks Second Life". Search Engine Watch. http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2104970/Being-Bad-For-Great-Justice-A-New-Privacy-Scandal-Rocks-Second-Life. Retrieved October 12, 2011. 
   • Computer game review: iwanttobeamole (2008-04-04). "Gran Turismo 5 Prologue review". gameplanet.co.nz. http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/playstation/games/156246.Gran-Turismo-5-Prologue-Platinum-/reviews/131581.Gran-Turismo-5-Prologue/. Retrieved October 12, 2011. "An excellent opportunity to challenge your friends and whale on them for great justice." 
   • Ars Technica announcing release of a beta for Red Alert 3 : Caron, Frank (2008). "Red Alert 3 public beta begins, for great justice". arstechnica.com. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/07/red-alert-3-public-beta-begins-for-great-justice.ars. Retrieved October 12, 2011. 
   • Wired magazine commenting on a neighborhood story in San Francisco: Newitz, Annalee (2007-01-29). "Saga of the Robot Who Upset a Rich San Francisco Neighborhood". Wired. http://www.wired.com/table_of_malcontents/2007/01/naked_robot_dis/. Retrieved October 12, 2011. "I, for one, plan my walks across the city just to see Goliath... Let us fight for great justice" 
   • HWM, a major technology magazine in Singapore, discussing new technologies in January 2006 (p.91): "Hopefully this will be the year we can shout 'Move zig!' ".
4. ^ Taylor, Chris (2001-02-25). "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,100525,00.html. Retrieved 2007-06-29. 
5. ^ Benner, Jeffrey (2001-02-23). "When Gamer Humor Attacks". http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/02/42009. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
6. ^ Holly Doyle. "Men arrested for “All Your Base” prank". http://www.wwmt.com/news/sturgis-468-security-thought.html. Retrieved 2009-07-10. 
7. ^ Poulsen, Kevin (2004-03-05). "Wags hijack TV channel's on-screen ticker". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/05/wags_hijack_tv_channels_onscreen/. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
8. ^ Sandoval, Greg (2006-06-02). "YouTube: Our humor, not our hack". CNET News.com. http://news.cnet.com/YouTube-Humor,-not-hack/2100-1026_3-6079314.html. Retrieved 2006-06-02.