Samurai Jack

About

Samurai Jack is an animated action TV series created by Genndy Tartakovsky on Cartoon Network. The story follows a lone Samurai trapped in the future called Jack who seeks to defeat the evil being known as Aku and return to his timeline.

Premise

Long ago, a great evil known as Aku awakened from his temporary slumber and began his evil conquest to take over the world. To stop this evil, a Japanese lord sent his son away to train across the world and inherits him a mystical Katana that was forged by the Gods as the only weapon that can defeat Aku. Returning as a proud Samurai, the man that would later be known as Jack faces off against Aku, nearly defeating him. But before Jack could deliver the final blow, he was banished by Aku into the distant future where his reign of terror has become absolute. Determined to save the world, Jack embarks on a quest to defeat Aku and find a means to return back to his timeline.

History

Samurai Jack was first announced during a Cartoon Network press conference on February 21, 2001. The series ran from August 10th, 2001, to September 25th, 2004, with a total of 4 seasons or 52 episodes. On October 2013, IDW Publishing began to publish the Samurai Jack comic books series which takes place right after the end of episode 52. The comic was written by Jim Zub and drawn by Andy Suriano. The comic series ran on a monthly schedule that ended on May 2015, with a total of 20 issues. On December 2nd, 2015, Cartoon Network’s adult programming block, Adult Swim, announced via YouTube that Samurai Jack would return for a new season in 2016 (shown below, left). After delays, the first episode of the 5th season began airing on Adult Swim on March 11th, 2017.

Reception

Upon airing, Samurai Jack was met with positive acclaim, being nominated and winning in a number of award shows including the Annie, OIAF, Primetime Emmy, and TCA Awards between 2002 to 2005. The show currently holds an 8.3 user rating on IMDb^[1] and an 8.8 user rating on tv.com.^[2]

Online Presence

Discussions regarding Samurai Jack can be found on a number of websites including reddit,^[3] 4chan,^[4] and Tumblr.^[5] On March 28th, 2004, Urban dictionary user Dave submitted an entry regarding the show.^[6] The Samurai Jack Wiki has 223 pages regarding the series as of September, 2015.^[7] A Facebook page dedicated to the series has gathered over 167.200 likes as of September 2015.^[8] On February 21st, 2012, the Samurai Jack subreddit was launch which has gathered over 740 readers in 3 years.^[9] On Youtube, typing the keyword “Samurai Jack” would yield more than 84.500 results.^[10] On the art sharing site DeviantArt, typing the keyword “Samurai Jack” would yield more than 14.200 results worth of fanart.^[11]

Related Memes

Long Ago in A Distant Land

Long Ago in A Distant Land refers to the monologue uttered by the antagonist Aku during the intro of every episode in Samurai Jack. The monologue summarizes the events of the first episode leading up to Jack’s banishment to the future. The monologue has since become popular among fans the series, evolving into a copypasta with several derivatives replacing Jack and Aku with characters from various other media.^[11]

Extra Thicc

In the beginning of episode 48, “Jack vs. Aku,” Aku is shown ordering what sounds like a pizza over the telephone. The audience can only hear Aku’s part of the conversation. Towards the end, he demands that his order be “extra thick” (shown below).

The “extra thick” line later became fodder for remix, YouTube Poop style videos, playing on Thicc. One of the more popular examples with over 77,000 views was posted by Nepeta Leijon on October 9th, 2016 (shown below, top left).