Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

About

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an animated children’s show from the late 1980s which follows four ninja turtles living in the sewers beneath New York City. Action figures and other forms of merchandise based on the show became popular in the late ’80s and early ’90s. A live action adaptation of the show ran in from 1997 to 1998, and the cartoon was resurected in 2012.

History

The original TMNT^[2] animated show premiered December 11, 1987, and ran for 10 seasons airing its series finale on November 2, 1996. The live action series, titled Saban’s Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation^[3], ran for one season premiering on September 12, 1997, and airing its series finale on March 20, 1998. The animated series returned for seven seasons on February 8th, 2003, and aired its finale on May 23rd, 2009. Its most recent incarnation^[5] premiered on Nickelodeon on September 29, 2012. As of March 2014, two seasons have aired. A feature length film^[7] starring Megan Fox and Will Arnett is scheduled to be released on August 8th, 2014.

Premise

The four teenage mutant ninja turtles are all named after famous renaissance artists: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. They live in the sewers beneath New York City with their adoptive father Splinter (a rat). They are sometimes joined in their adventures by former lab assistant April O’Neil, and they fight against their enemy, a rat and ninjutsu master called Shredder.

Reception

The original 1980s cartoon earned a score of 8 on IMDB, while the most recent cartoon earned a 8.3. The most recent cartoon’s premiere had over 3.9 million viewers^[6].

Accolades

Online Presence

As of March 2014, the Facebook page^[8] for TMNT has over 1.2 million likes and its Twitter account^[9] has over 11,000 followers. The five most recently aired episodes are available for subscribers on Hulu^[10], while the ’90s live action series is available for subscribers on Netflix.^[11]

Fandom

In addition to its official social media presence, fan sites for TMNT include The Technodrome^[21], a fan blog from the perspective of the TMNT villains, and ninjapizza^[22] which features news and updates about the franchise. Tumblr blogs dedicated to TMNT include tmnt-central^[22], tmntconfessions^[23], and tmntmaster.^[24] Popular tags used for the show on Tumblr include TMNT^[18] and #TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles.^[19] There are over 1,300 submission under Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Fanfiction.net^[16] and over 54,000 submission on DeviantArt.^[17]

Related Memes

Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses

Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses is a photoshop meme that involves drawing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mask over the tip of the subject’s nose, typically in photographs of celebrities.The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses” (TMNN) Tumblr^[1] page was created on October 2nd, 2011. The first image featured on the blog was a photo of a child with drawings on his face, including a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask on his nose.

Tributes and Parodies

On January 25th, 2006, comedy YouTube channel Smosh^[13] uploaded a skit based on TMNT and set to its theme song (below, left). As of March 2014, the video has gained over 10 million views. On December 9th, 2010, YouTuber Ploobers^[14] uploaded a video featuring a shot by shot live action recreation of the original TNMT’s opening theme (below, right). As of March 2014, the video has gained over 1.3 million views.

On July 13th, 2011, YouTuber nmckaig^[12] uploaded a capella cover of the TMNT theme song (below, left). As of March 2014, the video has gained over 160,000 views. On January 17th, 2004, YouTube comedy channel Annoying Orange^[15] uploaded a video titled “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turnips” (below, right). As of March 2014, the video has gained over 690,000.