Fried Rice Prank — Man in kitchen holding spatula next to a wok with a giant wave of fried rice

Fried Rice Prank

2019photoshop memeclassic

Published August 20, 2026

Fried Rice Prank is a viral 2019 image showing Japanese YouTuber Kanta appearing to toss a massive wave of fried rice, thanks to an artificial prop wave used in a MTV Tokyo fried rice guys prank video. After a screenshot hit Twitter, users turned the shot into a Photoshop battle comparing it to Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

photoshop memes japanese internet memes prank memes viral photo memes fine art memes

Overview

Fried Rice Prank is a viral image of Japanese YouTuber Kanta standing over a pan while what looks like an enormous, cresting wave of fried rice hangs in mid-air behind him1. The wave is actually an artificial prop built for a prank on his cooking partner Tommy, but the still frame reads as though Kanta somehow flipped a mountain of rice with a single motion2.

The image took off because it looks impossible and instantly recognizable, which is why Twitter users started editing it into other scenes1. The most common template compares Kanta's rice wave to Katsushika Hokusai's woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa, either dropping the painting's wave into the kitchen or dropping Kanta into the painting3. Mashable covered the edits as they picked up steam2.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (source) / Twitter (viral spread)
Creator
Kanta
Date
2019

The source video was uploaded on January 19th, 2019 by the YouTube channel MTV Tokyo fried rice guys, tied to the Japanese channel Mizutamari Bond3. In it, Kanta tells Tommy they are filming a fried rice video late at night, then cooks progressively more elaborate batches before revealing a giant fried rice replica that he claims cost around $3,9382.

According to Mashable, Kanta returned the rice wave prop online after the shoot wrapped, so the physical wave itself only existed for the length of the prank2. The video passed 5.5 million views on YouTube3.

How It Spread

On January 22nd, 2019, Twitter user @YS_Bomb11 posted the video's thumbnail with the caption "What a pic," and the tweet pulled in more than 40,000 retweets and 180,000 likes4. That single screenshot, stripped from the video context, is what most people saw first2.

A Photoshop battle followed within days. User @royojo dropped Hokusai's wave into the kitchen shot for over 1,100 retweets and 7,800 likes, while @bettinamak flipped the joke and placed Kanta inside The Great Wave off Kanagawa for around 1,700 retweets and 8,300 likes3. Other edits leaned further from the Hokusai gag, including @Panini_Bread's Waves hairstyle version at roughly 2,000 retweets and 9,000 likes and @_eigenheit's Sasuke choke edit at about 70 retweets and 220 likes3.

Kanta and Tommy replied to the thread with a photo of themselves standing in front of the actual rice wave prop, thanking people for the edits2. Mashable's write-up cemented the meme outside Japanese Twitter and pushed it to English-speaking audiences2.

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How to Use This Meme

The typical edit keeps Kanta and the pan in the foreground and swaps or overlays the fried rice wave with something else, most often Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa3. Common conventions include placing Kanta into a famous painting instead, or replacing the wave with unrelated shapes like hair waves or anime scenes for a visual pun3.

Frequently Asked Questions