Chief Tannabok Gets the News

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Part of a series on The Road to El Dorado. [View Related Entries]

About

Chief Tannabok Gets the News refers to a scene from the 2000 animated film The Road to El Dorado in which character Chief Tannabok learns about a Spanish expedition heading for the city of El Dorado. Starting in July 2019, a four-panel meme format based on the scene has been circulated online, with memes imagining humorous dialogues between the characters, or them reading a copypasta, a text from an advertisement or singing a song.

Origin

On March 31st, 2000, animated film The Road to El Dorado premiered.^[1] In one scene of the film, character Chief Tannabok (Cheif Tanni) learns about a Spanish expedition led by Hernán Cortés drawing close upon the city. Believing that the expedition won't be able to find the city, Tannabok initially dismisses the news, but gets convinced of the danger upon learning that the expedition is guided by character Tzekel-Kan (four-panel image based on the scene shown below).

- Cheif Tanni! Chief Tanni! Approaching the city is an army of strangers!
- We are safe here. They'll never find the gate to the city.
- But, sire, they are being led by Tzekel-Kan.
- He survived! Warriors, prepare yourselves for battle!

On July 10th, 2019, Facebook^[2] user Jo Kaplan used a four-panel image based on the scene in a My Brand meme posted to The Road to El Dorado Goldposting Facebook group. The post received over 1,000 reactions and 8,300 shares in eight months (shown below)

Spread

In the following weeks, the format gained a notable spread within The Road to El Dorado Goldposting community. On July 11th, 2019, Facebook^[3] user Amalia May Elrod posted the first known derivative of the meme, gaining over 50 reactions in eight months (shown below, left). A July 14th They Did Surgery on a Grape post^[4] by Pierre-Louis Mercourt received over 440 reactions (shown below, center). A July 16th meme^[5] by Wyatt Skala received over 1,000 reactions (shown below, right).

The format did not see a significant spread outside Facebook until on July 26th, 2019, Twitter^[6] user @tak_eo posted a four-panel meme based on the scene, making a joke about artists accidentally drawing on a wrong layer (shown below). The tweet received over 27,000 retweets and 70,800 shares in eight months.

In the following days, the image was respoted to Reddit^[7] (9,400 upvotes), Tumblr^[9] (91,800 notes), Imgur^[8] (4,600 points) and other sites.

Prior to late February 2020, the format saw a limited spread on Facebook,^[10]^[11] with posts utilizing the template primarily being contained in The Road to El Dorado Goldposting community. On February 25th, 2020, Facebook^[12] user Josh Hockel shared an Actual Hannibal Shia Labeouf meme that received over 2,300 reactions and 2,700 shares in the group in three weeks (shown below).

In the following days, the image was reposted to iFunny^[13] and Reddit,^[14] where it received over and 50,800 upvotes in three weeks, respectively. The post prompted a significant surge in popularity of the format on Facebook and Reddit in the following weeks. On March 19th, the format was temporarily banned in The El Dorado Goldposing^[15] group due to overuse.