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Kind: captions
Language: en
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So, if you were to ask me,
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one of the most notable
and interesting aspects
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regarding the fandom for My Little Pony:
Friendship is Magic
00:00:10.218 --> 00:00:16.523
it's all of the various memes or inside jokes
that have popped up throughout the years.
00:00:16.524 --> 00:00:20.898
From ancient demotivational poster images
made in 2011
00:00:20.899 --> 00:00:24.448
all the way up to...
...whatever modern-day memes are,
00:00:24.449 --> 00:00:30.681
the My Little Pony fandom has always loved
to make jokes regarding not only the show,
00:00:30.682 --> 00:00:34.923
but also stuff that's been going on in the fandom
in and of itself.
00:00:34.924 --> 00:00:40.882
Who could ever forget such classics
like Rainbow Dash saying "20% cooler",
00:00:40.883 --> 00:00:44.390
basically the entire character of Derpy Hooves
00:00:44.391 --> 00:00:47.132
or, if you want a more recent example,
00:00:47.140 --> 00:00:51.481
how about this photo of a mop
that got popular last year
00:00:51.482 --> 00:00:56.531
because some people noticed
it had a striking resemblance to Fluttershy?
00:00:56.973 --> 00:00:59.398
If you were to ask me, however,
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one of the most fascinating memes
to ever come out of the MLP fandom
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is one that originated from a certain
fan-made abridged series
00:01:08.999 --> 00:01:11.340
that you may or may not have heard of:
00:01:11.341 --> 00:01:14.806
My Little Pony: Friendship is Witchcraft.
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There's a lot of stuff that I could say about it,
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but all you need to know is that due to the series'
popularity withing the general MLP community
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there were actually several different pony memes
that got popular in the fandom solely because of it.
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And the one that I'm gonna be taking a look at today
is called Sweetie Bot.
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This meme is easily
one of the most intriguing phenomena
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to ever come out of the MLP fandom,
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primarily because of all the content regarding it
that has been made by MLP fans...
00:01:49.049 --> 00:01:51.248
...very devoted to the joke.
00:01:51.532 --> 00:01:56.040
So today I'm going to be taking
a quick retroactive look back
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at the history of Sweetie Bot,
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the MLP fandom's most interesting meme.
00:02:05.532 --> 00:02:06.398
So,
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before I actually talk more
about Sweetie Bot herself,
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I should probably give more context as to where
she actually originated from in the first place.
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For those that may not know,
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Witchcraft
was a comedic, fan-made abridged series
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which started in June 2011
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that parodied the actual original show
by taking clips from specific episodes
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and doing stuff like changing the dialogue
spoken by the characters
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or by also altering the narratives,
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which often resulted in downright bizarre
or absurd storylines
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that were...
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...very different from their source material
to say the least.
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The series in and of itself was created by a duo
named Sherclop Pones
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which was comprised of a guy named Griffin Lewis,
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who primarily wrote the dialogue and also composed
all of the original songs for the series,
00:03:07.466 --> 00:03:09.515
and Jenny Nicholson
00:03:09.516 --> 00:03:13.848
(yeah, the same Jenny Nicholson
who has a big YouTube channel nowadays)
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who did the majority of the voice acting/singing
in the series
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and also helped write it.
00:03:20.516 --> 00:03:23.832 line:20%
Now, truthfully,
there are a few aspects of the series
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that haven't exactly aged the best...
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But nevertheless, from its beginning in 2011
to its eventual official end later in January 2016,
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MLP:FiW was insanely popular
among the MLP/Brony fandom.
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There are a variety of
reasons that I could list here
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to explain why it was
so widespread back then,
00:03:49.391 --> 00:03:54.548
but, honestly,
most of them basically just boil down to the series,
00:03:54.549 --> 00:03:57.598
for a significant number of people back then
at least,
00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:04.440
being an all-around legitimately funny
and entertaining parody of MLP:FiM.
00:04:04.441 --> 00:04:05.789
However,
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one of the most notable parts of
Friendship is Witchcraft
00:04:09.674 --> 00:04:13.680
were all of the miscellaneous
inside jokes or memes
00:04:13.681 --> 00:04:17.123
that popped up within in the
MLP fandom because of it,
00:04:17.124 --> 00:04:20.865
which then now brings me
to the main topic of this video:
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Sweetie Bot.
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Now, if you haven't actually watched
Friendship is Witchcraft itself,
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without spoiling too much stuff,
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the context here is basically that,
within the series,
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the pony named Sweetie Belle is actually a robot,
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hence the name "Sweetie Bot".
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The main joke here is pretty much that,
despite very clearly not being an actual pony,
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like, she even has a robotic voice
which was done by Griffin Lewis
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through a voice changer,
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[Sweetie Bot]: The fun levels
will be at maximum efficiency!
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I shall acquire my yo-yo, hammer,
and other objects of fuuun!
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literally no other character seems to care
or are aware that she's a robot at all.
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She first appears
in the fourth episode of the series
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"Cute from the Hip"
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and makes a variety of appearances
until the last main episode
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"Seed No Evil".
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There are a fair amount of memorable jokes
or scenes from FiW containing Sweetie Bot
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that I could tell you about,
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but my personal favourite would probably be
this sequence in the fifth episode
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where an entire original song featuring her
appropriately named "Sweetie's Big Race"
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is played.
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And, honestly,
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considering that the voice singing the lyrics here
quite literally sounds like a robot,
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it surprisingly sounds pretty decent
and is fun to listen to, if you ask me.
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With that said, after Sweetie Bot first appeared
in Friendship is Witchcraft,
00:05:55.449 --> 00:06:00.865
she quickly became one of the most popular gags
to ever come out of the series
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with her starting to become
somewhat of a phenomenon within the MLP fandom:
00:06:06.673 --> 00:06:10.307
people where making stuff like memes
or image macros about her
00:06:10.308 --> 00:06:15.831
and she even eventually appeared on some MLP merch
made by WeLoveFine.
00:06:15.832 --> 00:06:17.907
In the process of all this though,
00:06:17.908 --> 00:06:22.857
some fans of FiW
also of course began making other stuff
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like fan art, animations,
and even stuff like original fan music
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all of which were about Sweetie Bot.
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And the most interesting thing
regarding all of this
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people weren't just making fan content
about Sweetie Bot in 2012 or 2013,
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sure, that time period was when the meme
was at its general peak of popularity,
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but ever since then there's always been
a somewhat slow but steady influx
00:06:52.299 --> 00:06:55.198
of new stuff featuring her being made.
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Even after literal years
Friendship is Witchcraft itself concluded
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and even still
up to the present day of 2023.
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Now, there is a bunch of cool, fan-made content
regarding Sweetie Bot
00:07:09.116 --> 00:07:11.540
that I could probably mention here,
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however I'll just quickly highlight the ones
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that I believe to be the most notable
or simply entertaining.
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There are a number of short animations
about Sweetie Bot out there,
00:07:23.791 --> 00:07:27.757
but the most popular ones
include these two videos
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which are basically scenes from FiW,
just reanimated.
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Aside from those, though,
00:07:34.516 --> 00:07:39.398
there's also other stuff like this animation
by a channel called BronyVids,
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of her informing us of an incoming...
00:07:42.298 --> 00:07:42.532
...
00:07:42.715 --> 00:07:43.165
...Uuh...
00:07:43.657 --> 00:07:45.140
...tactical nuke...
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...and also this other animation
made in Source FilmMaker
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by a channel called Optimus97
featuring Sweetie Bot's eyes.
00:07:55.132 --> 00:07:58.057
In terms of something like music, however,
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there's actually a surprising amount
of original My Little Pony fan songs
00:08:03.232 --> 00:08:05.456
all about Sweetie Bot.
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The genres of these songs do vary a fair bit,
00:08:08.999 --> 00:08:14.198
some of them lean into more of that early 2010s
dubstep or EDM sound,
00:08:14.199 --> 00:08:19.223
while others go for a more general chill/laid-back feel.
00:08:19.224 --> 00:08:24.315
However, my all-time favorite pieces of music
relating to Sweetie Bot
00:08:24.316 --> 00:08:27.406
is definitely the Destabilizedquadrilogy,
00:08:27.407 --> 00:08:32.157
which was made by an MLP fan musician
named PrinceWhatever.
00:08:32.158 --> 00:08:37.373
The Destabilize series of songs
is split up into four separate parts,
00:08:37.374 --> 00:08:42.240
with the first one having been released
all the way back in November 2013
00:08:42.241 --> 00:08:49.382
and the fourth and latest part being released
just earlier this year in April of 2023.
00:08:49.737 --> 00:08:52.404
I won't spoil too much about them,
00:08:52.405 --> 00:08:57.629
but I will say that I think
all four installments in this series are very good
00:08:57.630 --> 00:09:01.678
and you'll probably like them too,
especially if you're a metalhead,
00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:04.528
or just into rock music in general.
00:09:05.036 --> 00:09:06.295
With that said,
00:09:06.296 --> 00:09:09.015
all these different fan works
about Sweetie Bot
00:09:09.016 --> 00:09:13.140
are definitely very cool and impressive
in their on ways,
00:09:13.141 --> 00:09:14.123
however,
00:09:14.124 --> 00:09:17.856
there is one more type of fan content regarding
Sweetie Bot
00:09:17.857 --> 00:09:20.690
that I haven't mentioned yet,
so...
00:09:20.691 --> 00:09:22.215
...well, here it is.
00:09:22.698 --> 00:09:24.090
And if you're wondering,
00:09:24.091 --> 00:09:27.915
no, your eyes are currently *not* deceiving you,
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you are looking at an actual, real-life physical
Sweetie Bot robot.
00:09:33.232 --> 00:09:34.431
So, yeah.
00:09:34.432 --> 00:09:39.256
A select few people within the MLP fandom
are so dedicated to the meme
00:09:39.257 --> 00:09:46.300
that they are willing to try to engineer
an actual pony robot based around Sweetie Bot.
00:09:46.748 --> 00:09:49.223
So, for some extra context,
00:09:49.224 --> 00:09:56.515
back in 2014 a small team of Russian bronies,
who just so happened to be also engineers,
00:09:56.516 --> 00:10:01.090
decided to start the appropriately named
Sweetie Bot project
00:10:01.091 --> 00:10:07.116
with the ultimate goal of creating
a fully functioning pony robot of Sweetie Bot.
00:10:07.424 --> 00:10:12.966
So, later in March 2016,
they started to release some videos
00:10:12.967 --> 00:10:15.839
giving occasional updates on the progress
00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:18.906
and things seemed to be going pretty well.
00:10:18.907 --> 00:10:24.723
By 2017, the team behind it even started
showing off some prototypes of the robot
00:10:24.724 --> 00:10:27.965
at various My Little Pony conventions.
00:10:27.966 --> 00:10:28.739
I won't lie,
00:10:28.740 --> 00:10:32.740
there's definitely technical stuff here
that I don't fully understand,
00:10:32.741 --> 00:10:36.332
I'm not an engineer specialized in robotics,
whatever,
00:10:36.333 --> 00:10:41.131
but a lot of what they were showing off
nevertheless looked very impressive.
00:10:41.132 --> 00:10:43.632
As 2019 came around, though,
00:10:43.633 --> 00:10:48.448
it seems as though progress updates
regarding the Sweetie Bot project
00:10:48.449 --> 00:10:52.323
did start to slowly become a bit more infrequent.
00:10:52.324 --> 00:10:56.074
The last video
they ever uploaded to their YouTube channel
00:10:56.075 --> 00:10:58.683
was in September of 2019,
00:10:58.684 --> 00:11:04.381
this clip of a cat being slightly concerned
over the robot's presence.
00:11:04.382 --> 00:11:08.381
However, despite the team
being less active online,
00:11:08.382 --> 00:11:10.915
it seems like they've never truly stopped,
00:11:10.916 --> 00:11:13.615
because, despite a while of silence,
00:11:13.616 --> 00:11:18.023
they resumed giving some updates
earlier in May of 2023.
00:11:18.024 --> 00:11:22.740
So, it looks like the project
is still doing fine nowadays.
00:11:23.156 --> 00:11:25.156
And also, believe it or not,
00:11:25.157 --> 00:11:29.882
but there was actually a second
real-life Sweetie Bot project
00:11:29.883 --> 00:11:33.398
which was also first revealed earlier this year.
00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:39.473
And, as you can see, it is quite different
from the other project started in 2014
00:11:39.474 --> 00:11:44.256
both in terms of its actual functionality
and visual appearance,
00:11:44.257 --> 00:11:47.832
but it nonetheless looks pretty impressive.
00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:50.464
It'll definitely be interesting to see
what happens
00:11:50.465 --> 00:11:53.039
with both of these projects in the future,
00:11:53.040 --> 00:11:55.290
and so, I wish them luck,
00:11:55.291 --> 00:12:00.415
because what they're doing is certainly not easy
to say the least.
00:12:01.280 --> 00:12:03.797
So, with all that now said,
00:12:03.798 --> 00:12:06.990
you might be wondering
what should be the main takeaway
00:12:06.991 --> 00:12:09.398
from all of this stuff about Sweetie Bot.
00:12:10.015 --> 00:12:10.857
Uhm...
00:12:10.858 --> 00:12:12.332
Truthfully, I don't know.
00:12:12.333 --> 00:12:16.007
Don't mess with MLP fans,
we are clinically insane,
00:12:16.008 --> 00:12:16.931
and we'll build
00:12:17.007 --> 00:12:17.615
irl
00:12:17.748 --> 00:12:18.448
functioning
00:12:18.498 --> 00:12:20.331
pony robots, I guess.
00:12:20.499 --> 00:12:21.757
Jokes aside though,
00:12:21.758 --> 00:12:24.590
I think the actual takeaway from all of this
00:12:24.591 --> 00:12:28.032
should be that everything made
regarding Sweetie Bot
00:12:28.033 --> 00:12:30.732
throughout the years since 2012
00:12:30.733 --> 00:12:33.548
is pretty fascinating to look back on,
00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:38.498
both for the sake of nostalgia
and also for what it means nowadays.
00:12:38.756 --> 00:12:43.531
Considering that there was new content
regarding this over decade-old meme
00:12:43.532 --> 00:12:46.665
still being occasionally made and shown off,
00:12:46.666 --> 00:12:51.090
I would say it is a very good example
of a fandom in general
00:12:51.091 --> 00:12:56.648
being passionate about something
and continuing to be so for quite a long time.
00:12:57.048 --> 00:12:58.715
So, because of that,
00:12:58.716 --> 00:13:05.406
I believe Sweetie Bot is a relatively small
but nevertheless very interesting part
00:13:05.407 --> 00:13:07.323
of My Little Pony history.
00:13:07.615 --> 00:13:09.656
I could say a lot of things about it,
00:13:09.657 --> 00:13:16.606
but I think the most important aspect is that
it really goes to show the dedication and love
00:13:16.607 --> 00:13:21.323
that MLP fans have not only to something like
Friendship is Witchcraft,
00:13:21.324 --> 00:13:26.886
but also of course to My Little Pony:
Friendship is Magic as a whole,
00:13:27.102 --> 00:13:30.190
and, honestly, I think that's great.
00:13:30.191 --> 00:13:34.016
Especially even more so
now that it's been several years
00:13:34.017 --> 00:13:37.316
since the actual show itself has ended.
00:13:38.107 --> 00:13:41.798
So, with everything about that
now being said,
00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:45.940
that has been this retroactive look back
at Sweetie Bot.
00:13:46.590 --> 00:13:48.456
Thanks for watching.
00:13:52.923 --> 00:13:54.290
Anyways however,
00:13:54.291 --> 00:13:59.448
if you have any cool memories or general thoughts
regarding the Sweetie Bot meme
00:13:59.458 --> 00:14:03.615
then you go ahead and put them
down in the comments below,
00:14:03.616 --> 00:14:07.382
I would definitely love to hear
what you guys have to say.
00:14:07.614 --> 00:14:12.939
Anyway, this video was a bit shorter
than what I usually make
00:14:12.940 --> 00:14:17.523
but that's mainly because
I've been working on some other stuff as of late
00:14:17.524 --> 00:14:18.815
so, yeah.
00:14:19.339 --> 00:14:23.506
With that said,
this is pretty much the end of the video now.
00:14:23.781 --> 00:14:28.573
So, if you liked it
then consider doing all of the normal stuff
00:14:28.574 --> 00:14:33.715
leaving a like and/or sharing it with your friends
are some of the best ways to support me
00:14:33.716 --> 00:14:37.223
so it is of course always very appreciated.
00:14:37.690 --> 00:14:41.815
Well, I don't think I have
anything else notable enough to say here now,
00:14:42.073 --> 00:14:43.207
so...
00:14:43.208 --> 00:14:44.693
...I will see you...
00:14:44.694 --> 00:14:46.310
...whenever I see you.
00:14:46.311 --> 00:14:49.568
[Subtitles by Mister Pino]