What is A Man Has Fallen Into The River In Lego City?

It is a copypasta made from the narration of a 2009 Lego City Rescue Helicopter commercial, pasted into unrelated comics and videos as a shitposting joke[3].

Where did A Man Has Fallen Into The River In Lego City come from?

The source ad was uploaded to YouTube on May 11, 2009 by the channel Transu99, and the copypasta version was popularized in January 2020 after Twitter user @ifollowincels put the dialogue into a parody comic[3].

What does A Man Has Fallen Into The River In Lego City mean?

It does not mean anything on its own. The humor comes from the ad's over-the-top urgency about rescuing a plastic minifigure being transplanted into contexts where it makes no sense[1].

How do you use A Man Has Fallen Into The River In Lego City?

Take an unrelated image, comic, or video and overlay the ad's script, usually starting with "A man has fallen into the river in LEGO City! H E Y!" and the call to start the rescue helicopter[2].

Is A Man Has Fallen Into The River In Lego City still popular?

It peaked in January 2020 across Twitter, Reddit, iFunny, Instagram, and YouTube, and is still recognized as a classic copypasta from that era[3].

A Man Has Fallen Into The River In Lego City

2020copypastaclassic

A Man Has Fallen Into The River In Lego City is a copypasta taken from the narration of a 2009 Lego City Rescue Helicopter commercial. In January 2020 the block of text got pasted into unrelated Twitter comics, Reddit posts, and video edits, turning a toy ad script into a shitposting template.

copypasta memes advertising memes absurdist humor memes 2020 memes delayed virality memes

Overview

A Man Has Fallen Into The River In Lego City is a copypasta lifted from the narration of a 2009 Lego commercial promoting the City Rescue Helicopter set3. The script races through starting the helicopter, preparing the lifeline, lowering the stretcher, and making the rescue of a plastic minifigure who fell into a river2.

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In early 2020 the whole block of dialogue turned into a shitposting template. People stopped caring about the actual helicopter and started dropping the lines into unrelated comics, political cartoons, and video edits, where the ad's frantic urgency read as absurd next to whatever image it was pasted on1.

How It Spread

From the @highcipe repost the clip jumped fast to iFunny, Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit3. On January 3, 2020 the video was cross-posted to /r/copypasta and pulled over 360 upvotes, which is where a lot of Reddit users first ran into the script3.

Once the text was floating around on its own, it broke out of straight video reposts. Redditor Joe-lolz pasted the lines into an /r/okbuddyretard comic that hit more than 5,700 upvotes, and user R_E_D_D_I_T dropped the script over a political cartoon for another 3,800+ points3. Video edits followed the same pattern, with posts by AdventureWetpaint and Billy Willy Banana Nana Fo Filly overlaying the narration on unrelated clips and pulling 9,200 and 15,000+ views1.

The copypasta slotted into an existing 2020 trend of editing commercial scripts and song lyrics into dialogue, which is a big part of why it spread so quickly instead of staying a one-off joke3.

How to Use This Meme

The format is simple: take any image, comic panel, video, or screenshot that has nothing to do with Lego, and overlay the ad's dialogue as if the characters are saying it. Common openings are "A man has fallen into the river in LEGO City!" followed by "H E Y!" and the call to start the rescue helicopter2. People often typeset the H E Y with spaced letters to mimic the way the narrator shouts it in the original ad.

Frequently Asked Questions

References (3)