Guiles Theme Goes With Everything

2010Remix video / mashupclassic

Also known as: Guile Theme Fits All

Guile's Theme Goes With Everything is a 2010 YouTube mashup meme that overlays the Street Fighter II character Guile's upbeat military march theme over random video footage.

Guile's Theme Goes with Everything is a YouTube mashup meme where creators overlay the character theme of Guile from *Street Fighter II* (1991) onto random video footage, banking on the idea that the upbeat military march sounds good paired with literally anything. The format kicked off with early mashups in 2007, went viral in April 2010 through a dedicated YouTube channel, and became a staple of the "unfitting music" remix genre across the internet.

street fighter memesgoes with everything memesmashup video memesvideo game music memes

Overview

The premise is dead simple: take any video clip and drop Guile's Theme over it. The triumphant, high-energy track from *Street Fighter II* somehow manages to sound like it belongs over movie scenes, mundane security footage, nature documentaries, or just about anything else you throw at it. Guile, a U.S. Air Force pilot created by Capcom, debuted as one of eight playable characters in *Street Fighter II* in 19913. His theme was composed alongside other tracks by Yoko Shimomura, Isao Abe, and Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, and most mashup videos use the version from the Hyper Street Fighter II soundtrack2.

The meme taps into what TV Tropes categorizes as "Soundtrack Dissonance," where background music clashes with or unexpectedly enhances visual content5. Guile's Theme sits in the same tradition as Yakety Sax (the Benny Hill theme), both tracks that became internet shorthand for making any footage funnier or more dramatic through audio-visual mismatch5. A dedicated YouTube channel proved the concept at scale, mashing up the track with scenes from movies, games, and TV shows1.

The first known instance of someone slapping Guile's Theme onto unrelated footage appeared on December 19, 2007, when YouTuber MassEffect360 uploaded a mashup titled "The Real Street Fighter"4. That video used the music in an unconventional way, but it didn't spark a wider trend on its own.

The meme properly ignited on April 24, 2010, when YouTuber guilethemefitsall launched a channel dedicated entirely to the concept. The inaugural video paired Guile's Theme with a scene from the 1993 live-action *Super Mario Bros.* film, a notoriously panned movie where Mario tumbles into a parallel dimension7. With the triumphant military march blasting over Bob Hoskins falling through a portal, the comedic effect landed perfectly. The video racked up over 40,000 views in its first three months4.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube
Key People
guilethemefitsall, MassEffect360
Date
2010

The first known instance of someone slapping Guile's Theme onto unrelated footage appeared on December 19, 2007, when YouTuber MassEffect360 uploaded a mashup titled "The Real Street Fighter". That video used the music in an unconventional way, but it didn't spark a wider trend on its own.

The meme properly ignited on April 24, 2010, when YouTuber guilethemefitsall launched a channel dedicated entirely to the concept. The inaugural video paired Guile's Theme with a scene from the 1993 live-action *Super Mario Bros.* film, a notoriously panned movie where Mario tumbles into a parallel dimension. With the triumphant military march blasting over Bob Hoskins falling through a portal, the comedic effect landed perfectly. The video racked up over 40,000 views in its first three months.

How It Spread

The meme moved fast after the channel launched. On May 7, 2010, a user on the ScoreHero gaming forums shared a link to "Guile's Theme goes with the Lion King," declaring the theme "really does go with everything." GamesRadar picked it up shortly after, publishing an article that compared the trend to Keyboard Cat. Destructoid ran its own piece, noting that the theme "actually does fit" most situations and pointing readers to the growing YouTube channel.

Reddit got involved on June 11, 2010, when user 4erlik posted a mashup video to the Gaming subreddit. It earned 671 upvotes and pushed the meme to an even wider audience. From there, videos popped up on BuzzFeed and eBaum's World. The guilethemefitsall channel accumulated over 2.6 million total views, pulling roughly 4,000 views per day at its peak. By July 29, 2011, "Guile theme" had its own Urban Dictionary entry. Search interest for "Guile's Theme" climbed steadily from May 2010 through 2012.

Media

How to Use This Meme

Making a Guile's Theme Goes with Everything video typically follows this pattern:

1

Find a video clip. It can be anything, but the format works best when the footage is either deeply mundane or dramatically intense in a way that contrasts with the music.

2

Layer the Guile's Theme track (usually the Hyper Street Fighter II version) over the video.

3

Time the music to start at a moment that creates maximum comedic or dramatic impact.

4

Title the video using the standard format: "Guile's Theme goes with [subject]."

Cultural Impact

Guile's Theme Goes with Everything pushed one piece of video game music far beyond the fighting game community and into general internet culture. Guile was already considered one of the most popular *Street Fighter* characters. His flat-top hairstyle, inspired by characters from *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*, and his gameplay built around just two special moves made him instantly recognizable. But the meme turned his background music into something separate from the character, a standalone internet commodity.

The trend also boosted the "unfitting music" genre on YouTube, where the humor comes entirely from soundtrack mismatches. GamesRadar's comparison to Keyboard Cat placed it in the lineage of simple, endlessly repeatable video formats that defined early 2010s YouTube. With Guile continuing to appear in new *Street Fighter* titles through *Street Fighter 6* in 2023, the character and his iconic theme stay in public view even as the mashup trend's peak years have passed.

Fun Facts

Guile's visual design was based on Rudol von Stroheim and Jean-Pierre Polnareff from the manga *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*.

The 1993 *Super Mario Bros.* film used in the original viral mashup grossed only $38.9 million against a $42-48 million budget but developed a cult following decades later.

Capcom developed Guile specifically to appeal to American audiences, and internally considered him the game's main character for Western markets.

*Street Fighter II* had been played by an estimated 25 million Americans by 1994, making Guile's Theme one of the most widely heard video game tracks of the 1990s.

The meme shares its core mechanic with Yakety Sax, another track that became an internet staple for overlaying onto random footage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Guiles Theme Goes With Everything

2010Remix video / mashupclassic

Also known as: Guile Theme Fits All

Guile's Theme Goes With Everything is a 2010 YouTube mashup meme that overlays the Street Fighter II character Guile's upbeat military march theme over random video footage.

Guile's Theme Goes with Everything is a YouTube mashup meme where creators overlay the character theme of Guile from *Street Fighter II* (1991) onto random video footage, banking on the idea that the upbeat military march sounds good paired with literally anything. The format kicked off with early mashups in 2007, went viral in April 2010 through a dedicated YouTube channel, and became a staple of the "unfitting music" remix genre across the internet.

street fighter memes goes with everything memes mashup video memes video game music memes

Overview

The premise is dead simple: take any video clip and drop Guile's Theme over it. The triumphant, high-energy track from *Street Fighter II* somehow manages to sound like it belongs over movie scenes, mundane security footage, nature documentaries, or just about anything else you throw at it. Guile, a U.S. Air Force pilot created by Capcom, debuted as one of eight playable characters in *Street Fighter II* in 1991. His theme was composed alongside other tracks by Yoko Shimomura, Isao Abe, and Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, and most mashup videos use the version from the Hyper Street Fighter II soundtrack.

The meme taps into what TV Tropes categorizes as "Soundtrack Dissonance," where background music clashes with or unexpectedly enhances visual content. Guile's Theme sits in the same tradition as Yakety Sax (the Benny Hill theme), both tracks that became internet shorthand for making any footage funnier or more dramatic through audio-visual mismatch. A dedicated YouTube channel proved the concept at scale, mashing up the track with scenes from movies, games, and TV shows.

The first known instance of someone slapping Guile's Theme onto unrelated footage appeared on December 19, 2007, when YouTuber MassEffect360 uploaded a mashup titled "The Real Street Fighter". That video used the music in an unconventional way, but it didn't spark a wider trend on its own.

The meme properly ignited on April 24, 2010, when YouTuber guilethemefitsall launched a channel dedicated entirely to the concept. The inaugural video paired Guile's Theme with a scene from the 1993 live-action *Super Mario Bros.* film, a notoriously panned movie where Mario tumbles into a parallel dimension. With the triumphant military march blasting over Bob Hoskins falling through a portal, the comedic effect landed perfectly. The video racked up over 40,000 views in its first three months.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube
Key People
guilethemefitsall, MassEffect360
Date
2010

The first known instance of someone slapping Guile's Theme onto unrelated footage appeared on December 19, 2007, when YouTuber MassEffect360 uploaded a mashup titled "The Real Street Fighter". That video used the music in an unconventional way, but it didn't spark a wider trend on its own.

The meme properly ignited on April 24, 2010, when YouTuber guilethemefitsall launched a channel dedicated entirely to the concept. The inaugural video paired Guile's Theme with a scene from the 1993 live-action *Super Mario Bros.* film, a notoriously panned movie where Mario tumbles into a parallel dimension. With the triumphant military march blasting over Bob Hoskins falling through a portal, the comedic effect landed perfectly. The video racked up over 40,000 views in its first three months.

How It Spread

The meme moved fast after the channel launched. On May 7, 2010, a user on the ScoreHero gaming forums shared a link to "Guile's Theme goes with the Lion King," declaring the theme "really does go with everything." GamesRadar picked it up shortly after, publishing an article that compared the trend to Keyboard Cat. Destructoid ran its own piece, noting that the theme "actually does fit" most situations and pointing readers to the growing YouTube channel.

Reddit got involved on June 11, 2010, when user 4erlik posted a mashup video to the Gaming subreddit. It earned 671 upvotes and pushed the meme to an even wider audience. From there, videos popped up on BuzzFeed and eBaum's World. The guilethemefitsall channel accumulated over 2.6 million total views, pulling roughly 4,000 views per day at its peak. By July 29, 2011, "Guile theme" had its own Urban Dictionary entry. Search interest for "Guile's Theme" climbed steadily from May 2010 through 2012.

Media

How to Use This Meme

Making a Guile's Theme Goes with Everything video typically follows this pattern:

1

Find a video clip. It can be anything, but the format works best when the footage is either deeply mundane or dramatically intense in a way that contrasts with the music.

2

Layer the Guile's Theme track (usually the Hyper Street Fighter II version) over the video.

3

Time the music to start at a moment that creates maximum comedic or dramatic impact.

4

Title the video using the standard format: "Guile's Theme goes with [subject]."

Cultural Impact

Guile's Theme Goes with Everything pushed one piece of video game music far beyond the fighting game community and into general internet culture. Guile was already considered one of the most popular *Street Fighter* characters. His flat-top hairstyle, inspired by characters from *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*, and his gameplay built around just two special moves made him instantly recognizable. But the meme turned his background music into something separate from the character, a standalone internet commodity.

The trend also boosted the "unfitting music" genre on YouTube, where the humor comes entirely from soundtrack mismatches. GamesRadar's comparison to Keyboard Cat placed it in the lineage of simple, endlessly repeatable video formats that defined early 2010s YouTube. With Guile continuing to appear in new *Street Fighter* titles through *Street Fighter 6* in 2023, the character and his iconic theme stay in public view even as the mashup trend's peak years have passed.

Fun Facts

Guile's visual design was based on Rudol von Stroheim and Jean-Pierre Polnareff from the manga *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*.

The 1993 *Super Mario Bros.* film used in the original viral mashup grossed only $38.9 million against a $42-48 million budget but developed a cult following decades later.

Capcom developed Guile specifically to appeal to American audiences, and internally considered him the game's main character for Western markets.

*Street Fighter II* had been played by an estimated 25 million Americans by 1994, making Guile's Theme one of the most widely heard video game tracks of the 1990s.

The meme shares its core mechanic with Yakety Sax, another track that became an internet staple for overlaying onto random footage.

Frequently Asked Questions