Arnold Schwarzenegger

Submission 36,870

About

Arnold Schwarzenegger is an Austrian American actor, entrepreneur and former body builder who is known for starring in dozens of films over three decades and serving two terms as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011.

Online History

As early as December 1996, the site Schwarzenegger.com^[11] served as a website for Schwarzenegger's body building fans (shown below, left) until late October 1999, when it became the actors official website (shown below, middle). In August 2003, shortly after the public announcement of his candidacy in the California special gubernatorial election, the actor's official website was re-launched into his online campaign platform. Following his election to the office, Schwarzenegger inevitably became an easy target for political punditry and satires from his critics, opening up a new chapter of ironic internet fame for the actor-turned-governor (shown below, right).

On July 28th, 2006, a Schwarzenegger soundboard was submitted to the Internet humor site Ebaumsworld.^[10] On January 18th, 2007, YouTuber niinpaniin uploaded video footage of Schwarzenegger weight training at a gym (shown below, left). On February 7th, YouTuber Dizz Kim uploaded a prank call using a Schwarzenegger soundboard (shown below, right). In the next seven years, the videos received more than 22.4 million and 8.3 million views respectively.

On November 14th, the "GovSchwarzengger" YouTube^[3] channel was created, featuring videos uploaded by Schwarzenegger. On December 13th, the official Arnold Schwarzenegger Facebook^[2] page was launched, which gained over 5.1 million likes in the first six years. On March 29th, 2010, YouTuber hh1edits uploaded a montage of Schwarzenegger quotes from famous films, receiving upwards of 16.4 million views and 54,000 comments in the following four years.

On September 9th, Schwarzenegger posted a photo on his official Facebook page mocking a statement by former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin about seeing Russia from her home (shown below). The same day, Redditor patalap- submitted a screenshot of the post.^[4] In the next three years, the Facebook photo gathered upwards of 2,200 likes and the Reddit post accumulated more than 6,500 up votes.

AMA on Reddit

On January 15th, 2013, Schwarzenegger participated in an "ask me anything" (AMA) thread on the /r/IAmA^[5] subreddit, which gained over 82,000 up votes and 15,000 comments prior to being archived. On May 13th, a promotional video for YouTube Comedy Week starring Schwarzenegger was released, receiving upwards of 4.06 million views and 9,600 comments in the next five months.

On July 11th, Arnold commented on a post about cardio training in the /r/Fitness^[7] subreddit, where he scolded Redditors for arguing about the efficacy of different fitness routines. The same day, Redditor windjackass submitted Schwarzenegger's comment to the /r/bestof^[8] subreddit, where it garnered over 25,700 up votes and 1,400 comments in the first three months. On October 18th, Schwarzenegger submitted a post to the /r/movies^[9] subreddit, inviting Redditors to submit their favorite movie lines for him to perform. In the next four days, the post gathered more than 40,200 up votes and 6,400 comments, including several responses from Schwarzenegger linking to YouTube videos performing movie quotes (shown below). As of October 2013, Schwarzenegger has accumulated upwards of 2.9 million followers on Twitter.^[1]

Impressions

Schwarzenegger has frequently been impersonated by comedians due to his distinctive Austrian accent and many YouTubers have uploaded recordings of their impressions to the video-sharing site (shown below).

Get to the Choppa

"Get to the choppa" is a memorable quote uttered by Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the 1987 sci-fi action film Predator. Due to Schwarzenegger’s thick European accent, the line came off as a comical relief rather than exclamation of urgency and it eventually became one of the most celebrated quotes attributed to the actor.

"Put that cookie down!" is a quote from a scene in the 1996 holiday comedy film Jingle All The Way, in which the character Howard Langston (played by Schwarzenegger) orders the character Ted Maltin (played by Phil Hartman) to put down a cookie over the phone.

Commando

The 1985 action film Commando in which Schwarzenegger stars at the retired Delta Force Operative Colonel John Matrix became the subject of many parodies and MADs on the Japanese video website Nico Nico Douga.

Personal Life

Schwarzenegger was born on July 30th, 1947 in Thal, Austria and began body building at the age of 14. At 21 years of age, he moved to the United States to compete as a professional body builder and trained at the Gold's Gym in Los Angeles, California. In 1970, Schwarzenegger won his first Mr. Olympia body building competition in New York and subsequently won the title for the next seven years. In 1977, he starred in the body building documentary Pumping Iron, documenting his final Mr. Olympia competition. Following his retirement as a professional body builder, Schwarzenegger starred in many action movies in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. On October 7th, 2003, California Governor Gray Davis was removed from office during a recall election, which resulted in Schwarzenegger being elected the state's new governor. Schwarzenegger served as the Governor of California from November 17th, 2003 to January 3rd, 2011.