But Can He Beat Goku?

Submission 39,436

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

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.

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).