About

Rocket Propelled Chainsaw, also known as Rocket Chainsaw and RPC M1B, is a fictional weapon that gained legendary status as one of the most advanced and awesome lethal piece of equipment ever conceived by the internet, with maximum efficiency against zombie creatures. On iFunny, Rocket Chainsaw has a status that of a mascot due to being one of the first images to be featured on the app.

Origin

On December 24th, 2005, MilitaryPhotos.net user "Sergey31" created a thread entitled "Rocket Propelled Chainsaw in Action"^[2] in which he presented a comic strip based on an idea by someone named "Mr. Skorotsnoy." The first panel of the comic showed a diagram representing a side view of a new concept of weaponry: The Rocket Propelled Chainsaw, labeled RPC M1B. The rest of the comic depicted its usage in a warzone, "Somewhere in Chechnya," supposedly against the Talibans.

From that comic, two panels showing the schematics of the weapon and the travel of the chainsaw projectile gained recognition.

Spread

The fictional blueprint from the weapon was featured on Herogames Forum^[3] and MoPo Forum^[4] in between October and November 2006, as well as getting spotlighted on CollegeHumor^[5] in February 2007 with the title "Rocket Propelled Chainsaw. Clearly the only way to defeat a bear that has sharks for arms."

In October 2007, the concept of Rocket Propelled Chainsaw became a popular topic on DeviantART^[20] and Facepunch Forum^[6], where users began creating 3D renderings of the weapon. The 3D drawings made a full circle when the original RPC artist Sergey31 picked up the links and re-introduced them in MilitaryPhotos Forum^[7][8], inspiring others to draw their own versions.

By the end of 2008, Rocket Propelled Chainsaw earned its own Urban Dictionary^[9] entry, as well as getting ranked by Uncyclopedia^[10] at #15 in the "List of Weapons That Shoot Other Weapons That Don't Exist, But Should"^[11].

In 2009, the schematic was adopted as a game item in Mutant Future RPG^[12] and an IRL concert poster by LiveJournal^[13] user "gainesvillegoth." In addition, several Facebook Groups^[14] were created in homage to the conceptual weapon

In 2010, multiple blogs began highlighting the weapon as the most efficient way to slice through a zombie apocalypse, notably via GeekoSystem^[15], Gadget Crave^[16], GreatWhiteSnark^[17], This Is Freaking Ridiculous^[18] and UnrealityMag^[19] among others.

YouTube Videos

That new weapon has been also reiterated through videogame MODs.

• Garry's Mod:

Soldat :

Cortex Command :

iFunny Relevance

On iFunny, a demotivational meme based on an image of Rocket Propelled Chainsaw, tagged "Holy shit a rocket chainsaw" was in the first set of images to be ever featured on the website on April 12th, 2011 (shown below, left). The image, introduced before login and comment features were added to the application, gained over 195,900 smiles and 42,000 comments since.^[22] Despite widespread belief that the image was the very first feature on iFunny, another demotivational meme posted on April 12th, 2011 was the first image in the feature set (shown below, right).^[23][24]

Following a commemorative post made by iFunny users FirstEver_2013 on December 15th, 2015 (shown below, left),^[25] Rocket Chainsaw grew to become a mascot image on the website, often referenced in posts and comments and mentioned as the first image to ever get featured on the website. On March 12th, 2019, iFunny user ThiccRobots included Rocket Chainsaw in their notable "iFunny major arcana" post which gained over 9,800 smiles and 820 comments on the website (shown below, center).^[26]

Search Interest

External References