# End of the World Flash > End of the World Flash is a 2003 Flash animation by Jason Windsor depicting satirical nuclear annihilation, famous for viral catchphrases "But I am le tired" and "FIRE ZE MISSILES! "End of the World" (originally titled "End of Ze World") is a Flash animation created by teenager Jason Windsor in 2003 that depicts a satirical scenario of global nuclear annihilation. Often called one of the internet's first viral videos, the crude animation spread across pre-YouTube platforms like Albino Blacksheep and eBaum's World, spawning iconic catchphrases like "But I am le tired" and "FIRE ZE MISSILES!" that defined early internet humor for a generation. ## Origin The animation grew out of a late-night hangout session in Tracy, California, sometime in 2003. Jason Windsor had just graduated high school, and he and his friends were sitting in a park discussing the state of the world[3]. The United States had invaded Iraq, and the group of self-described nerds felt uneasy about the geopolitical situation. They started drawing missiles in the tanbark on the sidewalk, sketching out scenarios of countries attacking each other[3]. Windsor, who had been working with Adobe Flash and other design software since age 16 thanks to his mother's job in the school system, decided to turn those sidewalk doodles into an animation[6]. The distinctive nasally accent was borrowed from a running joke among his friends about a character in the movie *Rounders* who spoke in a "vaguely Slavic" voice[6]. Windsor recorded the voiceover himself and drew the crude Flash illustrations to match[3]. The finished video was never meant for public consumption. Windsor sent it to a few friends, one of whom was involved in the file-sharing and hacker scene of the early 2000s[3]. That friend passed it along through overseas contacts, and someone eventually uploaded it to the web. The Flash video first appeared on Albino Blacksheep on October 30, 2003, credited to user "Fluid," Windsor's online handle[4]. - **Platform:** Albino Blacksheep (first upload), eBaum's World (viral spread) - **Creator:** Jason Windsor (animator, voice actor) - **Date:** 2003 ## Overview "End of the World" is a 90-second Flash animation featuring crude, colorful drawings of the Earth and its nations, narrated in an exaggerated pseudo-Slavic accent. The video walks through a hypothetical chain reaction of nuclear strikes between world powers, with each country launching missiles at another in escalating absurdity. The animation style is deliberately rough, with simple circle-shaped countries, stick-figure leaders, and wobbly hand-drawn missiles flying across the screen. The video's humor comes from the contrast between its goofy presentation and its genuinely dark subject matter. George W. Bush is shown cuddling a pile of nuclear weapons, France decides to launch missiles but first needs a nap ("But I am le tired"), and Australia remains blissfully unaware of the chaos ("WTF, mate?"). The whole thing wraps up with the narrator cheerfully announcing the end of civilization while a meteor hits for good measure. ## How It Spread The video took off fast. It hit eBaum's World and FunnyJunk, sitting atop FunnyJunk's trending chart for several weeks[4]. In the pre-YouTube landscape, these aggregator sites were the primary distribution channels for viral content, and "End of Ze World" became one of their biggest draws[1]. Windsor's name wasn't attached to the video, and he had no way to monetize or even track its spread. "There's 1,000 hits on this thing already, and I didn't realize it," he recalled to Mic[3]. The video's catchphrases leaked into everyday internet conversation. "But I am le tired," "FIRE ZE MISSILES!", "Hokay, so," and "WTF, mate?" all entered the vocabulary of early web culture[3]. Several of these phrases were added to Urban Dictionary in the mid-2000s[4]. The script was posted to Rooster Teeth's forums in 2005[4]. After YouTube launched, the video was re-uploaded and picked up a new wave of viewers. A YouTube version accumulated over 16 million views over the following decade[6]. Multiple news outlets, including Gizmodo, would later refer to the video as one of the first viral videos ever made[2]. Windsor's anonymity didn't last forever. A creative director at advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy tracked him down around 2004 through what Windsor called "Internet magic," connecting him to his personal portfolio site[3]. That connection led to freelance work on Nike spots, effectively launching Windsor's professional career in animation[3]. He described a "tug-of-war" in his early career between clients who wanted the crude Flash style and his own ambitions to do polished design work[3]. ## How to Use "End of the World" isn't a meme template in the traditional sense. It's a self-contained video that people typically share whole rather than remix. Common usage includes: - **Quoting catchphrases** in conversation or comment sections: "But I am le tired," "FIRE ZE MISSILES!", "Hokay, so here's the Earth," and "WTF, mate?" are all deployed as standalone reactions. - **Referencing the video** when discussing geopolitical tensions, nuclear threats, or any situation that feels like everything is falling apart. The video often resurfaces during moments of international crisis. - **Nostalgia sharing**, where users post the link as a "remember this?" moment to signal early internet credibility or bond over shared 2000s web culture. The humor works best when dropped casually into serious conversations about world events, mirroring the video's own approach of wrapping genuine anxiety in absurd comedy. ## Cultural Impact The video helped define what "going viral" meant before the term was widely used. Multiple publications, including Gizmodo, have called it one of the first viral videos ever created[2]. It preceded YouTube by two years, spreading entirely through Flash animation aggregator sites and peer-to-peer sharing[3]. Windsor's career trajectory illustrates an early version of the meme-to-career pipeline. His work on "End of the World" directly led to a freelance gig with Wieden+Kennedy creating Nike advertisements, one of the advertising industry's most prestigious agencies[3]. This happened at a time when marketers were just beginning to understand viral content as a tool, and Windsor's crude animation style was exactly what they wanted to replicate[3]. The 2018 sequel received coverage from The Verge[1], Gizmodo[2], New York Magazine[6], and Mic[3], treated not just as a callback to internet nostalgia but as a legitimate piece of political commentary. eBaum's World featured it in their "From The Past Friday" retrospective series[5]. ## Fun Facts - Windsor's friends originally developed the "vaguely Slavic" accent as an impression of a character from the 1998 poker film *Rounders*, not as anything related to geopolitics[6]. - The entire concept started as literal dirt drawings. Windsor and his friends used tanbark to sketch missiles on a sidewalk at a park in Tracy, California[3]. - Windsor never intended to post the video online. A friend involved in the file-sharing and piracy scene distributed it through overseas contacts without Windsor's knowledge[3]. - Windsor's mother was "horrified at all the foul language" when she first saw the video[3]. - The original video doesn't have Windsor's name on it anywhere. He didn't attach his identity to it because monetizing internet content wasn't really a thing yet in 2003[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is End of the World Flash? "End of the World" (or "End of Ze World") is a 2003 Flash animation by Jason Windsor depicting a humorous scenario of global nuclear destruction, narrated in a fake accent with crude drawings[4]. ### Where did End of the World come from? Jason Windsor created it after a late-night conversation with friends in Tracy, California, where they drew missiles in the dirt while discussing post-9/11 geopolitics. It was first uploaded to Albino Blacksheep on October 30, 2003[3][4]. ### What does End of the World mean? The video satirizes the absurdity of nuclear proliferation and international conflict, using over-the-top stereotypes and goofy animation to process real fears about the state of the world in the early 2000s[6]. ### How do you use End of the World? People typically share the video link, quote its catchphrases ("But I am le tired," "FIRE ZE MISSILES!"), or reference it during discussions of global crises as a way to process anxiety through humor[3]. ### Is End of the World still popular? The video is widely recognized as a classic of early internet culture. Its YouTube upload has over 16 million views, and it received renewed attention when Windsor released a sequel in January 2018[6][4]. ### Who created End of the World? Jason Windsor, who was a recent high school graduate in Tracy, California, at the time. He went by the handle "Fluid" online and later built a career as a professional animator and art director[3][6]. ### What is "But I am le tired" from? It's a line from the video where France is told to fire its missiles but responds that it needs to take a nap first. The line became one of the most quoted catchphrases from early internet culture[3]. ### Was End of the World really the first viral video? Several publications, including Gizmodo, have described it as such, though other contenders like "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" and the Numa Numa video exist from the same era[2][3]. ### Did the creator make money from End of the World? Not directly from the video itself, as it predated content monetization. However, Windsor landed freelance animation work with Wieden+Kennedy on Nike advertisements because a creative director there tracked him down after seeing the video[3]. ### Is there a sequel to End of the World? Yes. Windsor released "End of Ze World... Probably for Real This Time" on January 20, 2018, addressing Trump, climate change, white nationalism, and the refugee crisis[1][2]. ### What inspired the accent in the video? Windsor and his friends used to do impressions of a "vaguely Slavic" accent from a character in the 1998 film *Rounders*. Windsor adopted that voice for the narration[6]. ## References 1. [End of Ze World gets a sequel more than a decade later | The Verge]() 2. [Here's the Sequel to 'End of Ze World,' the First Viral Video Ever]() 3. [12 Years Later, Here's What Happened to the Viral Mastermind Behind 'The End of the World']() 4. [End of the World Flash - Know Your Meme]() 5. [List of Internet phenomena]() 6. [FTPF - End Of Ze World | eBaum's World]() 7. [‘End of the World’ Viral Video Sequel by Jason Windsor]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/end-of-the-world Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library