I'll Make A Man Out of You

Submission 31,624

Part of a series on Disney. [View Related Entries]

About

"I'll Make A Man Out of You" is a song from the 1998 Disney movie "Mulan." The song has inspired covers and parodies online as well as becoming a meme. The meme involves the lyrics of the song to be used either as the theme of an image, or as the punchline of a joke.

Origins

"I'll Make A Man Out of You" was made for the movie Mulan by Disney in 1998, written by David Zippel and Matthew Wilder. The song was well received and is considered to be one of the best training montage songs by many. ^[1]

Lyrics

Let's get down to business
To defeat the Huns.
Did they send me daughters
When I asked for sons?

You're the saddest bunch I ever met
But you can bet before we're through
Mister, I'll make a man
Out of you.

Tranquil as a forest
But on fire within.
Once you find your center
You are sure to win.

You're a spineless, pale pathetic lot
And you haven't got a clue.
Somehow I'll make a man
Out of you.

Chien-po: I'm never gonna catch my breath
Yao: Say goodbye to those who knew me
Ling: Boy, was I a fool in school for cutting gym
Mushu: This guy's got them scared to death
Mulan: Hope he doesn't see right through me
Chien-po: Now I really wish that I knew how to swim

[men] BE A MAN
We must be swift as a coursing river
[men] BE A MAN
With all the force of a great typhoon
[men] BE A MAN
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon

Time is racing toward us
'til the Huns arrive.
Heed my every order
And you might survive.

You're unsuited for the rage of war
So pack up, go home you're through
How could I make a man
Out of you?

[men] BE A MAN
We must be swift as a coursing river
[men] BE A MAN
With all the force of a great typhoon
[men] BE A MAN
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon

A MAN

We must be swift as a coursing river
BE A MAN
With all the force of a great typhoon
BE A MAN
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon
Hoo-ah! ^[2]

Spread

The song has spread throughout the internet, especially YouTube. A search for the song will bring up over 600,000 results^[3]. The original version of the song has 42 million views. Multiple users have made covers of the song in various different styles. A mere post of the song on /r/Music board on Reddit got over 1300 up votes^[4]. On Tumblr, some posts of gifs and pictures of the song matched with some of the lyrics gain over 72,000 notes^[5]. Elsewhere, images that refer to the song's lyrics one way or another have been made.

Various examples

Covers

Many youtubers, popular and not, have made covers of the Mulan song. Some of the covers have gotten over 500,000 views.

Parodies

Parodies of the song, and the training montage scene with it have parodied. Team Four Stars parodie of has reach over 6,000,000 million views, and others range from 100,000 to over 1,000,000.