Classic Pokemon Team Rocket clip goes viral after hilarious discovery

Brent Koepp
team rocket pokemon

A clip from the 90s Pokemon anime went viral when a fan hilariously figured out why the scene was censored years later as an adult. The Team Rocket rhyme had the community in stitches. 

Pokemon made its 1998 debut in North America on the Game Boy and became an absolute cultural phenomena. Kids around the world couldn’t get enough of the Nintendo RPG and its addictive Gotta Catch ‘Em’ All gameplay.

The English version of the anime which released alongside the games was notorious for mediocre dubbing and censorship. A Reddit user went viral after discovering the true meaning of a Team Rocket scene years later.

ash pikachu pokemon
The classic Pokemon anime has scenes that have aged into memes decades later.

Classic Pokemon anime scene goes viral

The Pokemon anime has been airing since 1997 in Japan, and has spanned across eight generation of games and 23 seasons of episodes. Decades later, scenes from the English version of the show are now hilarious from today’s perspective.

This is what happened to Reddit user ‘g0dzilllla‘ who went viral after posting a classic clip from season four, episode eight of the anime called Hassle in the Castle. The user’s submission was titled “As a kid I always wondered why this didn’t rhyme, now I realize why… lmao.”

The video depicts Team Rocket launching into one of their iconic rhymes where James says, “So subscribe us some ointment on the double.” Jessie replies, “To protect us from all that chafing and itching” to which James ends with, “It might finally stop all of Jessie’s….. Complaining.”

Of course we now know the original line was meant to say “b**ching”, but for kids watching the show in the 90s, the hilarious censorship wouldn’t have been as obvious at the time.

The post blew up on Reddit, gaining over 3ok upvotes at the time of writing. Users on the forum loved the revelation such as ‘CoyMercury39329’ who exclaimed. “That slight pause between Jesse’s and complaining just makes this f**king amazing.”

Reddit found the Pokemon clip hilarious.

This isn’t the first time the classic Pokemon anime has seen moments find popularity decades later. The English version of the animation changed Brock’s rice balls line to “jelly filled doughnuts” which became a massive meme online.

While many children grew up with fond memories of the Nintendo series, some scenes have taken on a new meaning in adulthood such as Team Rocket’s now infamous ‘ointment’ rhyme.

Related Topics

About The Author

Brent is a former writer at Dexerto based in the United States, who covered topics such as Pokemon, Gaming, and online Entertainment.