About

"Long Ago in A Distant Land" is the introductory line from the monologue uttered by the character Aku in the Cartoon Network animated action series Samurai Jack. Online, the monologue has evolved into a copypasta by fans of the series which is often used as a form of shitposting or to describe the premise of a series by replacing Aku and Jack in the narration with characters from said series.

Origin

The monologue first appeared in the fourth episode of Samurai Jack which aired on August 13th, 2001. The monologue starts at the intro of each episode, where the main antagonist Aku summarizes the events of the first episode in the series leading up to main protagonist Jack's banishment into the distant future. On December 31st, 2012, Youtuber SimdoghallaHD submitted the intro online where it gathered over 844.000 views in 2 years.

Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shapeshifting master of darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil. But, a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to opposed me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future where my evil is law. Now, the fool seeks to return to the past and undo the future that is Aku.

Spread

One of the earliest recorded examples of the copypasta was in 4chan's /a/ thread on March 20th, 2008. In the thread, users discuss about the Naruto series, among them is a user by the name of The Young /co/mp/a/triot who proposed on how to fix the manga's plot.^[1]

Over the years, the copypasta became a popular form of shitposting on 4chan, appearing on other boards such as /co/, /tv/, and /tg/.^[2]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References