Top 20 Dragonball Abridged Moments #18

And we’re back once again. Before we discuss our next entry, let’s talk a little bit about Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s infamous love of pun names. The name of every single character in the entire Dragon Ball Franchise is some kind of play on words. All the saiyans are named after vegetables, just as Frieza’s henchmen are named after fruit. The Namekians are all references to snails or slugs, save for Piccolo who was introduced to the series as the leader of a group of demons all named after musical instruments. I bring this up because when it came time to abridge Episode of Bardock, an entry in the series that isn’t exactly remembered fondly, TFS put their own spin on a Toriyama naming convention.

The thing you need to understand about episode of Bardock is that… it’s completely ridiculous. Bardock, Goku’s father from his home planet of Vegeta, gets sent back in time moments before his supposed death at the hands of Frieza and has to go Super Saiyan to fight one of Frieza’s ancestors. The whole thing sounds like a lame fan-fiction. Naturally, such a spectacle would be ripe for parody, and as such we got this gem. However, my favorite part out of this was the random choice to name the inhabitants of the planet after famous rappers.

18. Not now Ayes Qube

When the villains of the piece show posing as police officers, one of the goofy, purple inhabitants of planet plant (later revealed to be proto-saiyans) expresses his opinion of law enforcement. What can I say, I’m an NWA fan, and the reference to Ice Cube makes me laugh. It’s made all the more hilarious by TeamFourStar’s Lanipator, voice of Piccolo, Krillin, Vegeta and many, many others who voices all the little saiyan rappers with his best Kermit the Frog impression. I dare you, imagine Kermit the Frog quoting NWA lyrics and try not to laugh. You’ll soon find it cannot be done.