He Man Sings

2005viral videoclassic

Published March 10, 2026 · Updated August 6, 2026

He Man Sings is a 2005 animated music video mashup that pairs footage of the 1980s cartoon superhero He-Man with 4 Non Blondes' 1992 hit 'What's Up.' Created by Slackcircus Studios and shared as 'Fabulous Secret Powers,' the clip became a widely used bait-and-switch prank link, similar to the Rickroll.

he man memesbait and switch memesmashup video memessomething awful memesearly internet memes

Overview

He Man Sings is an animated music video that layers clips of the 1980s cartoon superhero He-Man over 4 Non Blondes' 1992 song 'What's Up'1. Prince Adam and his castle companions lip-sync and dance to the track, with looped animation frames giving the edit a woozy, hypnotic feel2. The video became a favorite bait-and-switch trolling link, sent to friends in place of a promised clip in the same way as the Rickroll4.

The most shared cut is titled 'HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA,' a rough phonetic take on the song's warbled opening syllables4. That trimmed upload passed 30.8 million views on YouTube by February 20134.

Origin & Background

Platform
Something Awful (upload) / YouTube (viral spread)
Creator
Slackcircus Studios
Date
2005

Two animators at Slackcircus Studios put the mashup together after seeing Eric Fensler's G.I. Joe PSA remixes, cutting He-Man scenes to 4 Non Blondes' 'What's Up'4. The original file went up on the Something Awful forums on May 8th, 2005 under the title 'Fabulous Secret Powers'5. That same month, the creators launched a spoof blog written from Prince Adam's point of view and backdated to 19954.

How It Spread

The clip jumped to eBaum's World on May 22nd, 2005, retitled 'He-Man Sings a Gay Song'6. On February 11th, 2006, someone uploaded it to YouTube as 'He-Man does 4 non-blondes,' and reuploads kept multiplying across the site for years afterward4. Later in 2006, another creator followed up with a second He-Man cartoon mashup set to Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'4.

Between 2006 and 2009, threads about the video kept appearing on TheSite.org, BodyBuilding.com and MetaFilter, alongside write-ups on Regrettable Music and Buzzfeed32. Comics Alliance called it a 'hyper-articulated dance cover' of the 4 Non Blondes track in a feature piece1. In January 2010, Slackcircus reposted the video to Vimeo, where it pulled in about 257,000 views by early 20137.

In November 2010, the trimmed 'HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA' cut, with the intro, outro and dialogue stripped out, appeared on YouTube4. That two-minute version is the one most people shared as a prank link, and it drove He Man Sings into the same bait-and-switch category as the Rickroll4.

How to Use This Meme

The typical use of He Man Sings is a bait-and-switch link. Someone promises a friend a specific video, article or download, then swaps in the YouTube 'HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA' upload so the target lands on Prince Adam dance-singing 'What's Up' instead4. The common convention is to pick the trimmed two-minute cut, since it drops straight into the singing rather than the He-Man intro sequence4.

Frequently Asked Questions