The Brief: "Chief Tannabok gets the news" memes transform a scene from the movie The Road To El Dorado into a versatile mashup meme format.
DEEP DIVE
This four-panel image macro meme comes from the 2000 Dreamworks animated movie The Road To El Dorado. These memes depict Chief Tannabok (Cheif Tanni) learning about the threat posed by Hernán Cortés’ army which is approaching his city. The exchange in the scene depicted, which is rarely included in these memes, went like this:
Man: Cheif Tanni! Chief Tanni! Approaching the city is an army of strangers!
Chief: We are safe here. They’ll never find the gate to the city.
Man: But, sire, they are being led by Tzekel-Kan.
Chief: He survived! Warriors, prepare yourselves for battle!
According to Know Your Meme, this format first appeared in the Facebook group The Road To El Dorado Goldposting in a post by Jo Kaplan in July 2019:
Posted by Jo Kaplan on Wednesday, July 10, 2019
From there, the meme spread within the group and beyond to Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and more. Chief Tannabok The Road To El Dorado memes had a resurgence in the spring of 2020 where they were particularly popular on Reddit in the form of mashup and crossover memes.
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Crossover & Meta Memes
The most popular iterations of these memes heavily edit the original scene to make jokes, bring in other meme formats, and create inside-jokes for those who are familiar with the format.
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Template
The Road To El Dorado Goldposting Facebook group has a template for “Chief Tannabook gets the news” memes in an album dedicated to meme templates from the movie:
CHIEF TANNABOK GETS THE NEWShttps://knowyourmeme.com/memes/chief-tannabok-gets-the-news
Posted by Louie Brennan on Friday, March 20, 2020