We Weren't Expecting Special Forces

About

We Weren't Expecting Special Forces refers to a scene from the reveal trailer for 2017's Star Wars Battlefront II in which a stormtrooper says the titular line, followed by another trooper saying, "That's the point, Sergeant." A screenshot of the stormtrooper saying the line became the subject of image macros shortly after the trailer premiered, increasing in use over the following years. It is used both mockingly and endearingly to call things "special."

Origin

On April 15th, 2017, the EA Star Wars YouTube^[1] channel posted a reveal trailer for Star Wars Battlefront II (shown below). In one scene of the trailer, a group of stormtroopers is fighting in the woods. At one point, a stormtrooper says "We weren't expecting special forces," followed by another trooper in black saying, "That's the point, Sergeant." The Death Star then explodes in the sky. The trailer gained over 16 million views in four years.

Spread

One of the earliest available memes using the screenshot of the stormtrooper saying "we weren't expecting special forces" was posted to iFunny^[2] on June 12th, 2017, with the top text, "when a big account repubs my meme," gaining over 88,400 smiles in four years (shown below). The screenshot was used in a number of offensive memes referencing people with disabilities that year.^[3][4]

On June 5th, Instagram^[5] user @mememanmyles posted an image macro attaching the image to one showing a protestor holding a sign reading "it's so bad even the introverst showed up," garnering over 41,000 likes in a year (shown below).

On August 20th, 2020, Redditor u/jojn posted a meme to /r/memes^[6] attaching the image to a screenshot of a news article about 4chan banning images of the controversial film Cuties, gaining over 77,500 upvotes in a year (shown below).

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References