AI-Generated Celebrity Mortal Kombat

About

AI-Generated Celebrity Mortal Kombat refers to a viral video created via the artificial intelligence art system Midjourney V4 that imagines a Mortal Kombat style game in which all the fighters are celebrities or public figures, such as Joe Biden and Pope Francis. The trend began in early August 2023 on Twitter by user interdimensional.tv, spreading across multiple social media platforms in the following days.

Origin

On August 6th, 2023, Twitter^[1] user @n_reruns shared a video in which he reveals an AI-generated project titled "Celebrity Mortal Kombat." The video was created using the AI art tools Midjourney V4, Runwayml and ElevenLabs. In just four days, the post amassed more than 98,700 views and 991 likes (shown below).

Celebrity Mortal Kombat 🥊💥Quite possibly my favorite thing I’ve made with AI so far. Which fighter would you choose?Full video: https://t.co/k8V4VoH6P4Made with:runwayml</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gen2?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Gen2</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/midjourney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">midjourney @elevenlabsio #AIart #midjourney #MortalKombat pic.twitter.com/fDJlBQYCeG

— interdimensional.tv (@n_reruns) August 6, 2023

The creator also uploaded an extended version of the "Celebrity Mortal Kombat" on YouTube,^[2] which features personalities like U.S. President Joe Biden, Beyoncé, Pope Francis and many other celebrities and well-known individuals. The video (shown below) garnered over 83,000 views and 2,900 likes in four days.

Spread

Over the following days, the video continued to spread to multiple social media platforms. For instance, on August 7th, 2023, Twitter^[3] user JADE4MK1 asked about the addition of rapper Nicki Minaj as a playable character. The post (shown below, left) received roughly 1,230 likes and 40 retweets in three days. Also that day, Twitter^[4] user shared a still image of Snoop Dog's character design (shown below, right) paired with the caption "Fatality with weed," which garnered roughly six likes in three days.

The video also made its way to TikTok as people reacted to the celebrities appearing in the parody Mortal Kombat game. For example, on August 9th, TikToker^[5] @themarvelousmarc2.0 posted a video reacting to the AI-generated content (shown below, left), which garnered over 429,000 plays and 38,200 likes in one day. TikToker^[6] @fgdalmeida posted a similar reaction video on August 7th, which received over 291,000 plays and 24,500 likes in three days. (shown below, right)

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References