The Internet is a strange, strange place, and if you’ve been on it any time in the last few weeks, chances are you’ve been exposed to Powerful Shaggy, a meme so strange you might lose a few brain cells if you think about it too hard. According to Polygon, it actually started years ago and has ties to Dragon Ball Z. (No, really.) Shaggy as an all-powerful fighting god stems from the cartoon movie Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur, but that didn’t stop the viral kids of the world wide web from applying it to actor Matthew Lillard, who played Shaggy in the films Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and his worshipping co-stars. The results are… well, they’re something.
Shaggy is a powerful individual pic.twitter.com/LWN12UEdfQ
— green beans tomatoes potatoes chicken lamb ham (@Cooltaha3939) January 26, 2019
Always a good spot, Lillard responded enthusiastically to the meme, participating on Twitter and Instagram.
This is wrong. https://t.co/ntung0f75l
— matthew lillard (@MatthewLillard) January 26, 2019
Dear universe. Please never let this end. https://t.co/BStc2xhGYg @reddit is the best.
— matthew lillard (@MatthewLillard) January 27, 2019
Now, the Powerful Shaggy meme has been upgraded, with tabletop gaming supplier Wyrmwood tweeting out an image of Shaggy as he’d appear in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. It’s both hilarious and really artfully done!
Of all the times we’ve flipped through the pages of our Monster Manual, we’ve never noticed this page….. #shaggymemes #dnd5e @MatthewLillard @raikoart @Wizards_DnD pic.twitter.com/k3bnApkPcV
— Wyrmwood (@WyrmwoodGaming) February 1, 2019
If you zoom in, you can see all of the details from Shaggy’s faux Monster Manual page. His special qualities include an ability to be “in many places simultaneously” and bottomless hunger, though it does note that he is a reluctant fighter, and only flexes his powers when his “familiar,” Scooby-Doo, is in harm’s way.
Of course the Powerful Shaggy meme’s biggest fan, Matthew Lillard, saw the Monster Manual page and had a reaction, tweeting, “Behold my glory.”
Behold my glory.
The humans @WyrmwoodGaming are the best humans ever. @BeadleAndGrimm @Wizards_DnD
This should finish this moment in time. Thank you for playing. pic.twitter.com/y2J400KxzY
— matthew lillard (@MatthewLillard) February 2, 2019
He added, “This should finish this moment in time,” seemingly putting an end to the Powerful Shaggy memes. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures