Fake Pokémon Battles

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About

Fake Pokémon Battles are a series of video and GIF animations parodying the cutscene sequence of a Pokémon battle in the Nintendo video game franchise. The parodies typically involve substituting Pokémon characters with custom sprites of non-Pokémon characters, such as celebrities or politicians, and altering the in-game messages to fit the battle into context.

Origin

The Pokémon battle sequence was first introduced with the release of Pokémon Red and Blue in February 1996 and has since remained a staple aspect of Nintendo's Pokémon videogames. The parody phenomenon seems to have started on the YTMND community with the earliest instance featuring a character sprite of GameFAQs founder CJayC in "GameFAQs CJayC Pokemon Battle!" uploaded on November 26th, 2005.

Spread

In the following years, dozens of parody sequences were uploaded onto YTMND^[1], the majority of which mimic the style of the cutscene sequence found in the video games. One of the first notable derivatives "Steve Irwin Pokemon Battle" was posted on September 19th, 2006.

A wide range of topics have been covered through parodies of Pokémon battle, including politics, celebrity feuds and well-known rivalries in popular culture. Oftentimes, iconic characters from other well-known video games and TV series are incorporated into the parodies for humorous effect. Beginning in 2006, additional derivatives began to appear in the format of videos on YouTube.^[2] The battle sequence was also adapted for satires of the 2008 presidential election, featuring John McCain, Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama as Pokémon characters.

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