05X A Presses But First We Need To Talk About Parallel Universes

2016Viral video / catchphraseclassic

Also known as: Watch for Rolling Rocks · Parallel Universes Meme · 0.5 A Presses

"0.5x A Presses" is a legendary Super Mario 64 speedrunning video uploaded by pannenkoek2012 on January 12, 2016, where he collected a star using only half a press of the A button through an absurdly complex series of glitches. The narrated version of the video went viral thanks to the creator's deadpan explanation of concepts like "parallel universes," spawning one of the most quoted catchphrases in gaming meme history: "But first, we need to talk about parallel universes."

Overview

The video "SM64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x A Presses (Commentated)" is a narrated tool-assisted superplay (TAS) of Super Mario 64, in which pannenkoek2012 demonstrates how to collect the "Watch for Rolling Rocks" star from the Hazy Maze Cave level using only half of a press of the A button2. The "half press" works because the A button was already held down before Mario entered the level, so it only counts as a release, not a full press-and-release cycle.

What made the video iconic wasn't just the technical achievement. It was the narrator's matter-of-fact delivery of increasingly unhinged concepts. To explain the glitch route, pannenkoek2012 had to walk viewers through how Super Mario 64 handles collision detection, how building up speed for 12 hours straight could launch Mario through "parallel universes" (copies of the game's coordinate space far beyond the intended level boundaries), and why a specific enemy called a scuttlebug needed to be manipulated into an exact position1. The combination of dry, tutorial-style narration with utterly absurd content struck a nerve online.

On January 12, 2016, pannenkoek2012 uploaded two versions of the video to YouTube: a raw gameplay version and a fully narrated commentary version2. The narrated version explained, step by step, the exploits used in the run. The most notable exploit involved "parallel universes," which are faraway coordinate spaces where the game's collision detection repeats, allowing Mario to interact with level geometry that doesn't visually exist2.

The core method required manipulating a scuttlebug enemy into a precise position, then having Mario build up speed on a slope for approximately 12 hours straight1. This momentum would send Mario hurtling through a series of these parallel universes until he landed back in a position where he could bounce off the scuttlebug and reach the star. The narrated version picked up over 200,000 views in its first week, while the raw gameplay version gained around 13,000 views in the same period2.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (source video), 4chan /v/ (viral spread)
Key People
pannenkoek2012
Date
2016

On January 12, 2016, pannenkoek2012 uploaded two versions of the video to YouTube: a raw gameplay version and a fully narrated commentary version2. The narrated version explained, step by step, the exploits used in the run. The most notable exploit involved "parallel universes," which are faraway coordinate spaces where the game's collision detection repeats, allowing Mario to interact with level geometry that doesn't visually exist2.

The core method required manipulating a scuttlebug enemy into a precise position, then having Mario build up speed on a slope for approximately 12 hours straight1. This momentum would send Mario hurtling through a series of these parallel universes until he landed back in a position where he could bounce off the scuttlebug and reach the star. The narrated version picked up over 200,000 views in its first week, while the raw gameplay version gained around 13,000 views in the same period2.

How It Spread

The video hit 4chan's /v/ (video games) board the same day it was uploaded, January 12, 20162. Some users immediately latched onto the "parallel universes" quote, but the catchphrase didn't fully take off until a thread on January 17, where it was paired with a distorted image of Mario's head2. That thread racked up over 500 replies before being archived.

From there, /v/ was flooded with parallel universes jokes and related shitposts2. On January 18, YouTuber João Mostarda uploaded a voice remix titled "'Henry' builds speed for over 12 hours in order to cross the extent of QPUs to shitpost on Youtube," which gained over 2,000 views within a day2. The video also spread to Tumblr by late January 20162.

One of the video's other viral moments was pannenkoek2012's explanation of what counts as a "press." Early in the video, he addressed a commenter named TJ "Henry" Yoshi who had questioned the concept of half an A press, delivering the now-famous breakdown: an A press has three parts (the press, the hold, and the release), and if you already pressed A before entering the level, you only need the release, making it half a press1. TJ "Henry" Yoshi became a meme figure in his own right.

Over the following years, the narrated video accumulated nearly five million views1. The phrase "but first, we need to talk about parallel universes" became shorthand across gaming communities for any overly complex or tangential explanation.

How to Use This Meme

The meme is typically used in two main ways:

1

The catchphrase: Drop "but first, we need to talk about parallel universes" when someone goes on an extremely long tangent or provides a needlessly complex explanation for something simple. It works as a standalone quote or as a caption on images of someone looking confused or overwhelmed.

2

The format: Parody the video's structure by presenting a seemingly simple question, then pivoting into an absurdly technical deep-dive. The joke mirrors how pannenkoek2012 starts with "how do you get this star with fewer A presses?" and ends up explaining the fundamental nature of how Super Mario 64 processes coordinate space.

Cultural Impact

The 0.5x A Presses video became one of the most recognized artifacts of the Super Mario 64 speedrunning community and helped bring mainstream attention to the world of tool-assisted speedruns1. The concept of "parallel universes" in SM64 entered the broader gaming vocabulary, with many players learning about the game's quirky coordinate system for the first time through this video.

In 2017, pannenkoek2012 published a faster method for the same challenge that cut the required time from 14.8 hours to 5.4 hours, though it still relied on the same core mechanics: scuttlebug manipulation, speed building, and parallel universe traversal1.

The biggest update came on October 1, 2023, when pannenkoek2012 posted a completely new route1. With help from other speedrunners, a new glitch was discovered that let players glitch an elevator out of bounds and ride it to gain the necessary height, bypassing the parallel universes entirely. The scuttlebug was still involved, but the total time dropped from the original 14.8 hours to just six minutes1. GamesRadar called it "the most infamous meme in the history of Mario speedrunning" being "put to rest"1.

TJ "Henry" Yoshi, the commenter whose question about half A presses launched a thousand memes, acknowledged the 2023 breakthrough on Twitter, writing: "Hello yes, I know about watch for rolling being done in 0 a presses. You can stop flooding my notifs about it, thanks"1.

Fun Facts

The "half A press" concept works because pannenkoek2012 counts button states across the entire game, not individual levels. If A was already held before entering Hazy Maze Cave, the press "belongs" to a previous star2.

The 2023 route that eliminated parallel universes didn't actually save any A presses for a full 120-star run, since the original method only used half a press. The minimum A press count for completing SM64 still sits at 131.

The original video's explanation of "QPUs" (quarter parallel universes, the smallest unit of parallel universe distance) became its own sub-meme among technically minded fans2.

pannenkoek2012's channel is dedicated entirely to the "A Button Challenge," a long-running community project to beat Super Mario 64 with as few A presses as possible1.

Derivatives & Variations

TJ "Henry" Yoshi memes

The commenter who questioned what "half an A press" means became a recurring joke in the SM64 community, referenced whenever someone doesn't understand a complex concept[1].

"Building up speed for 12 hours" jokes

Used across gaming forums to describe any absurdly long preparation process, often with images of Mario running in place[2].

Voice remixes

João Mostarda's January 2016 remix was among the first, chopping up pannenkoek2012's narration into a shitpost-style edit[2].

Parallel universes image macros

The distorted Mario head paired with the catchphrase became a staple on /v/ and later spread to Reddit and other platforms[2].

Frequently Asked Questions

05X A Presses But First We Need To Talk About Parallel Universes

2016Viral video / catchphraseclassic

Also known as: Watch for Rolling Rocks · Parallel Universes Meme · 0.5 A Presses

"0.5x A Presses" is a legendary Super Mario 64 speedrunning video uploaded by pannenkoek2012 on January 12, 2016, where he collected a star using only half a press of the A button through an absurdly complex series of glitches. The narrated version of the video went viral thanks to the creator's deadpan explanation of concepts like "parallel universes," spawning one of the most quoted catchphrases in gaming meme history: "But first, we need to talk about parallel universes."

Overview

The video "SM64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x A Presses (Commentated)" is a narrated tool-assisted superplay (TAS) of Super Mario 64, in which pannenkoek2012 demonstrates how to collect the "Watch for Rolling Rocks" star from the Hazy Maze Cave level using only half of a press of the A button2. The "half press" works because the A button was already held down before Mario entered the level, so it only counts as a release, not a full press-and-release cycle.

What made the video iconic wasn't just the technical achievement. It was the narrator's matter-of-fact delivery of increasingly unhinged concepts. To explain the glitch route, pannenkoek2012 had to walk viewers through how Super Mario 64 handles collision detection, how building up speed for 12 hours straight could launch Mario through "parallel universes" (copies of the game's coordinate space far beyond the intended level boundaries), and why a specific enemy called a scuttlebug needed to be manipulated into an exact position1. The combination of dry, tutorial-style narration with utterly absurd content struck a nerve online.

On January 12, 2016, pannenkoek2012 uploaded two versions of the video to YouTube: a raw gameplay version and a fully narrated commentary version2. The narrated version explained, step by step, the exploits used in the run. The most notable exploit involved "parallel universes," which are faraway coordinate spaces where the game's collision detection repeats, allowing Mario to interact with level geometry that doesn't visually exist2.

The core method required manipulating a scuttlebug enemy into a precise position, then having Mario build up speed on a slope for approximately 12 hours straight1. This momentum would send Mario hurtling through a series of these parallel universes until he landed back in a position where he could bounce off the scuttlebug and reach the star. The narrated version picked up over 200,000 views in its first week, while the raw gameplay version gained around 13,000 views in the same period2.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (source video), 4chan /v/ (viral spread)
Key People
pannenkoek2012
Date
2016

On January 12, 2016, pannenkoek2012 uploaded two versions of the video to YouTube: a raw gameplay version and a fully narrated commentary version2. The narrated version explained, step by step, the exploits used in the run. The most notable exploit involved "parallel universes," which are faraway coordinate spaces where the game's collision detection repeats, allowing Mario to interact with level geometry that doesn't visually exist2.

The core method required manipulating a scuttlebug enemy into a precise position, then having Mario build up speed on a slope for approximately 12 hours straight1. This momentum would send Mario hurtling through a series of these parallel universes until he landed back in a position where he could bounce off the scuttlebug and reach the star. The narrated version picked up over 200,000 views in its first week, while the raw gameplay version gained around 13,000 views in the same period2.

How It Spread

The video hit 4chan's /v/ (video games) board the same day it was uploaded, January 12, 20162. Some users immediately latched onto the "parallel universes" quote, but the catchphrase didn't fully take off until a thread on January 17, where it was paired with a distorted image of Mario's head2. That thread racked up over 500 replies before being archived.

From there, /v/ was flooded with parallel universes jokes and related shitposts2. On January 18, YouTuber João Mostarda uploaded a voice remix titled "'Henry' builds speed for over 12 hours in order to cross the extent of QPUs to shitpost on Youtube," which gained over 2,000 views within a day2. The video also spread to Tumblr by late January 20162.

One of the video's other viral moments was pannenkoek2012's explanation of what counts as a "press." Early in the video, he addressed a commenter named TJ "Henry" Yoshi who had questioned the concept of half an A press, delivering the now-famous breakdown: an A press has three parts (the press, the hold, and the release), and if you already pressed A before entering the level, you only need the release, making it half a press1. TJ "Henry" Yoshi became a meme figure in his own right.

Over the following years, the narrated video accumulated nearly five million views1. The phrase "but first, we need to talk about parallel universes" became shorthand across gaming communities for any overly complex or tangential explanation.

How to Use This Meme

The meme is typically used in two main ways:

1

The catchphrase: Drop "but first, we need to talk about parallel universes" when someone goes on an extremely long tangent or provides a needlessly complex explanation for something simple. It works as a standalone quote or as a caption on images of someone looking confused or overwhelmed.

2

The format: Parody the video's structure by presenting a seemingly simple question, then pivoting into an absurdly technical deep-dive. The joke mirrors how pannenkoek2012 starts with "how do you get this star with fewer A presses?" and ends up explaining the fundamental nature of how Super Mario 64 processes coordinate space.

Cultural Impact

The 0.5x A Presses video became one of the most recognized artifacts of the Super Mario 64 speedrunning community and helped bring mainstream attention to the world of tool-assisted speedruns1. The concept of "parallel universes" in SM64 entered the broader gaming vocabulary, with many players learning about the game's quirky coordinate system for the first time through this video.

In 2017, pannenkoek2012 published a faster method for the same challenge that cut the required time from 14.8 hours to 5.4 hours, though it still relied on the same core mechanics: scuttlebug manipulation, speed building, and parallel universe traversal1.

The biggest update came on October 1, 2023, when pannenkoek2012 posted a completely new route1. With help from other speedrunners, a new glitch was discovered that let players glitch an elevator out of bounds and ride it to gain the necessary height, bypassing the parallel universes entirely. The scuttlebug was still involved, but the total time dropped from the original 14.8 hours to just six minutes1. GamesRadar called it "the most infamous meme in the history of Mario speedrunning" being "put to rest"1.

TJ "Henry" Yoshi, the commenter whose question about half A presses launched a thousand memes, acknowledged the 2023 breakthrough on Twitter, writing: "Hello yes, I know about watch for rolling being done in 0 a presses. You can stop flooding my notifs about it, thanks"1.

Fun Facts

The "half A press" concept works because pannenkoek2012 counts button states across the entire game, not individual levels. If A was already held before entering Hazy Maze Cave, the press "belongs" to a previous star2.

The 2023 route that eliminated parallel universes didn't actually save any A presses for a full 120-star run, since the original method only used half a press. The minimum A press count for completing SM64 still sits at 131.

The original video's explanation of "QPUs" (quarter parallel universes, the smallest unit of parallel universe distance) became its own sub-meme among technically minded fans2.

pannenkoek2012's channel is dedicated entirely to the "A Button Challenge," a long-running community project to beat Super Mario 64 with as few A presses as possible1.

Derivatives & Variations

TJ "Henry" Yoshi memes

The commenter who questioned what "half an A press" means became a recurring joke in the SM64 community, referenced whenever someone doesn't understand a complex concept[1].

"Building up speed for 12 hours" jokes

Used across gaming forums to describe any absurdly long preparation process, often with images of Mario running in place[2].

Voice remixes

João Mostarda's January 2016 remix was among the first, chopping up pannenkoek2012's narration into a shitpost-style edit[2].

Parallel universes image macros

The distorted Mario head paired with the catchphrase became a staple on /v/ and later spread to Reddit and other platforms[2].

Frequently Asked Questions