Get In The Fucking Robot Shinji

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Part of a series on Neon Genesis Evangelion. [View Related Entries]

About

"Get In The Fucking Robot Shinji" is a catchphrase typically used by fans of the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion to mock the character Shinji Ikari's refusal to pilot the Evangelion Unit 01, one of the show's giant mecha. The phrase has also has been used to refer to characters that are forced to do stuff they dislike, but are too mentally weak to decline.

Origin

The earliest instance of the phrase can be found on a thread on 4chan's anime board /a/ created on June 11th, 2008. The thread features a picture of Gendo Ikari, Shinji's father, accompained with the message "Get in the fucking robot, Shinji".^[2]

Spread

The phrase remained dormant until July 11th, 2011, when a radio thread on /a/ featured a story where Bedford, a popular namefig on the board, shouts the catchphrase while being under the influence of peyote.^[3] The same thread featured various messages with the catchphrase, inspired by Bedford's story.^[4]^[1]

On April 27th, 2013, Tumblr user andieatplay posted a picture featuring various Evangelion characters with the captions "Get in the fucking robot" and "Don't get in the fucking robot" accompanied with the message "Eva 3.33 in a nutshell…", getting over 3,400 notes in two years.^[5] On May 4th, 2013, youtuber CodePhoenixVA uploaded a video titled "[Phoenix] Shinji Get In The Robot", featuring a version of “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” with humorous lyrics featuring the catchphrase. The video received over 14,000 views in two years.