Set Us Up the Meme: The Strange Tale of All Your Base

Where did the “All Your Base Are Belong to Us” meme come from — and why did it break the early internet?

In this nostalgic deep dive, Matt explores the wackadoodle origin of one of the internet’s most gloriously awkward memes. Before “going viral” was even a phrase, this phrase from the 1992 Sega Genesis game Zero Wing somehow made its way from mistranslation to mass internet hysteria — with techno remixes, Flash videos, Photoshopped street signs, and even a nod from AOC herself.

Yes, this was real. And it was spectacular.

Whether you're an old-school web nerd or just want to understand why your coworker keeps saying “Set up us the bomb,” this one's for you.

🔹 What We Cover in This Episode:
🕹️ A breakdown of Zero Wing’s hilariously mistranslated intro
🎶 The techno remix and Flash video that made the meme explode
🧠 Why “All Your Base” became the blueprint for internet weird
📡 How meme culture has evolved from delightful chaos to... whatever’s happening now
🧑‍🚀 AOC’s legendary tweet that brought it all full circle

⏱️ Timestamps:

0:00 – Intro + Barry White podcast voice
 1:31 – What is the Ballmer Peak of memes?
 3:00 – The original Zero Wing translation trainwreck
4:32 – “Set up us the bomb”: the remix and Flash frenzy
6:15 – AOC, memes in politics, and nostalgia rebooted
8:00 – Final thoughts on the beauty of shared digital nonsense

🔗 Links & Resources:
🕹️ Original Zero Wing meme history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us#:~:text=%22All%20your%20base%20are%20belong,the%201989%20Japanese%20arcade%20game.

👾 The remix that started it all: Invasion of the GABA Robots: https://archive.org/details/invasion_of_the_gabber_rob

🧠 AOC’s legendary tweet: https://x.com/aoc/status/1086483485668319233

🛠️ Credits:
🎙️ Hosted, produced, and edited by Matt Johnson
🎵 Theme music by Ronnie Martin
🎧 Music interstitials by Zach Malm
🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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