But Can He Beat Goku?

Submission 43,093

Part of a series on Son Goku. [View Related Entries]

And who the goddamn f--- are you suppose to be? I AM THE PROTECTOR OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS! NICHTMARE TO YOU! Okay Son? First off, they're nanomachines! Pfft whatever you gotta tell yourself buddy... Don't interupt me boy! Second... No. 999. 495 95 I AM THE HOPE OF PERSECUTED I AM THE HUMANITY IN THE SOCIETY! Oh goody.... Another evil traitor to the United States that must be destroyed. YOU DON'T F--- DON'T FU WITH A SENATORI! Ⓒ I AM THE ANSWER TO ALL OTHER ETHNICITIES THAT CRY OUT FOR EQUALITY! u ALLY TO LGBT!! 5 Take your best shot, you overblown Steroid Abuser. STAMON HERE PREMES Geezus cripes I think even THE PILAF GANG could beat this punk! And people idolize him?! To be frank it's mostly that song doing all the heavy lifting.

DB FAN so yeath this anime has this strong new character and it ha... STRONG. CHARACTER ..? CAN IT BEAT GOKU THO

tali @cavareez MY MOM BEAT CANCER!!!! 16:24 15/07/2022. Twitter for iPhone 3,038 Retweets 403 Quote Tweets 73.2K Likes 22 Kushy @Kushyv2.23m Replying to @cavareez She can't beat goku tho 27 ←]

Me escaping heaven after telling God he can't beat goku IG: ULTIMATE FLEXXX

View All 27 Images

About

But Can He Beat Goku refers to a catchphrase that has been used by some fans of the anime/manga series Dragon Ball to represent the strength of the main character Son Goku, asking if a given subject could beat him in a fight. It's also used as exploitable, for example, changing a character's dialogue to ask the question. The earliest known use of the phrase is a 2018 meme on 9GAG.

Origin

It is unknown when the phrase was first used online. The earliest recorded usage was on June 14th, 2018 by 9GAG^[1] user stoney_stonface in which the user expressed their dismay at how Dragon Ball fans will often proclaim the strength of series 'main character Goku when discussing the strength of characters from other franchises.

stoney_stonface 91 points - 14 Jun 18 Any strong character: *exists* DB Fans: "BuT CaN hE BEAT GoKu?!" But rages when the character can actually beat goku. Would you guys shut up for once? So f------ what if a character is strong or not? This is Bob, he can do anything his writer says he can, and he can beat anyone from anywhere at anytime. There. Easy. Reply

Spread

On March 8th, 2021, an Average Fan vs. Average Enjoyer meme featuring the catchphrase was posted to iFunny ^[2] by casualfan, and garnered over 420 smiles in 2 years (shown below, left). On August 14th, 2021, Twitter^[3]^[4] user @SupaChronicles posted a screenshot from an article stating that a St. Louis priest, Father Johnathan Samson, admitted that Goku would beat Jesus in a fight (shown below, right). The tweet received over 130 likes and 11 retweets in two years.

On March 27th, 2022, a meme mocking Goku fans was posted on FunnyJunk ^[5] by fappafappafap and received over 25 thumbs up in a year (shown below, left). On July 29th, 2022, Redditor DerekSH230307 posted a reaction image of Goku with the iconic catchphrase on r/DeathBattleMatchups^[6] and garnered over 145 points in 11 months (shown below, right).

On October 17th, 2022, Death Battle host Boomstick referenced the meme in the "SpongeBob VS Aquaman" episode on YouTube,^[7] claiming that SpongeBob SquarePants could beat Goku (shown below).