Released December 22, 2005 Label Bandung Recordings | Length 3:33 Writer(s) Neil Cicierega | |
Genre Nerdcore, comedy hip hop, bitpop, comedy rock, rap rock, alternative rock Producer(s) Neil Cicierega, Shawn Vulliez | ||
"The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", often shortened to "The Ultimate Showdown", is a comical song and video released on December 22, 2005. The song was written and performed by Neil Cicierega under the pseudonym "Lemon Demon", with art and Flash animation by Shawn Vulliez.
"The Ultimate Showdown" is a massive, city-wide battle set in Tokyo started by Godzilla and Batman ultimately involving dozens of pop-culture icons, fictional and otherwise, ending with Mr. Rogers emerging victorious and then committing seppuku. It gained a large cult following among web enthusiasts and became the "User's Choice" on December 28, 2005 on Newgrounds, where it has been viewed over 18 million times. It appeared on several other websites including Albino Blacksheep, YouTube, Transbuddha, and Weebl's Stuff. In 2006 it was included on Lemon Demon's fifth album Dinosaurchestra. As of December 2015, it had over 16 million views on YouTube.
The song topped the "Funny Five" on The Dr. Demento Show for several weeks and was the #1 Request for 2006. The video has since been parodied and referenced repeatedly in other flash videos. A new version of the song was later recorded specifically for the Rock Band Network and was released for the service on July 6, 2010 under the title The Ultimate Showdown (RBN Mix). In 2009, the song was rerecorded with a full band, and this track was included in Lemon Demon's 2011 EP "Live (Only Not)".
Characters
The song mentions a long list of characters, both real and fictional. They are shown in the following order:
Characters not mentioned in the song, but seen in the video include Robin; Samuel L. Jackson (being attacked by snakes); Mario fighting Sonic the Hedgehog; Phil Eggtree from the Riddle School series; Santa Claus being run over by the DeLorean time machine; Goku; R2-D2 and C-3PO being taken apart by a Jawa; Tobias Fünke; Han Solo (encased in carbonite); and Pac-Man. McGruff the Crime Dog is mentioned in the song, but not seen in the video.