What is Now This Is Podracing?

It's a catchphrase and image macro built around Anakin Skywalker's line from Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, used to caption anything absurd, chaotic, or accidentally spectacular.

Where did Now This Is Podracing come from?

The line is from the 1999 film, spoken by Jake Lloyd during a starfighter sequence. The image macro form traces to a November 1, 2010 YouTube upload by Donny Estee that paired the quote with an Anakin picture and audio from the scene.

What does Now This Is Podracing mean?

It's used sarcastically to react to something wildly off-topic or over-the-top, often as a two-panel "Now this is / [something else]" split. It also carries a layer of mockery aimed at Lloyd's flat delivery in the film.

How do you use Now This Is Podracing?

Common convention is to slap the quote over an image of something absurd, or use the split-caption format like the r/meirl "Now this is / shitposting" edit. Polandball comics have also used the exact title as a genre gag.

Is Now This Is Podracing still popular?

It's a classic prequel-meme staple that resurfaces alongside broader Star Wars prequel humor, and got a durable second life after Jake Lloyd's 2015 arrest became a real-world callback to the joke.

Now This Is Podracing

1999catchphraseclassic

Published September 10, 2026

"Now This Is Podracing" is the awkward line Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) delivers during a starfighter escape in 1999's Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. Fans spent years dunking on the delivery, and it grew into a long-running image macro that hit peak absurdity when Lloyd's own 2015 arrest turned the quote into a real-world punchline.

internet memes

Overview

The joke works on two levels. People use "Now This Is Podracing" as a straight quote caption dropped over any image where something spectacular, chaotic, or completely off-topic is happening1. The other layer is meta-mockery of Jake Lloyd's flat, kid-actor line reading, which was folded into wider prequel-hating discourse by the late 2000s3.

The visual template is loose. Some posts pair Anakin's face with a wildly unrelated scene, and others split the line across two panels in a "Now this is / [something else]" format, as with the r/meirl "shitposting" edit3. Polandball comics also adopted the exact title as a recurring genre gag4. The format holds up because the base quote is short, absurd on its own, and comes from a scene awkward enough that saying it already implies the joke.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Film (Star Wars: Episode I) / YouTube (image macro spread)

Date

1999

The line comes from Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, released May 19, 1999, where a nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker (played by Jake Lloyd) says "Now this is podracing" while dogfighting Trade Federation ships during the Naboo battle sequence2. It was written as a callback to Anakin's earlier podrace on Tatooine, but the delivery and the general awkwardness of the moment made it an easy target for prequel-era mockery3.

The image macro form is traceable to November 1, 2010, when YouTuber Donny Estee uploaded a video pairing an Anakin picture captioned "Now This / Is Podracing" with audio from the Phantom Menace scene1. That upload set the split-caption template most later posts followed.

How It Spread

On May 25, 2012, a clean cut of the Phantom Menace scene titled "Now This is Podracing" was uploaded to YouTube and became the reference clip people linked when explaining the joke2. iFunny users picked it up next: on November 16, 2013, the site posted an image of a woman herding two cattle with the "Now This / Is Podracing" caption, an early example of pairing the line with a real-world absurdity3.

Reddit pushed the format further. On July 26, 2015, u/koleye posted a Polandball comic titled "Now this is podracing" to r/polandball, where it hit around 4,600 upvotes (93 percent upvoted) with 360 comments before archival4. On January 12, 2016, u/Bacon_is_not_france posted an Anakin macro captioned "Now this is / shitposting" to r/meirl5, a variant that had been circulating on 4chan's /pol/ since a May 26, 2014 thread3.

The line's biggest crossover moment came June 21, 2015, when TMZ reported that Jake Lloyd himself had been arrested after a multi-mile car chase that ended with him driving into trees3. A Tumblr user posted Lloyd's mugshot captioned "Now THIS is podracing" the same day, picking up more than 2,700 notes over the following eight months, and Twitter piled on with podracing jokes about the crash. The arrest gave the format a real-life anchor that kept it in rotation well after the initial 2010s wave.

Timeline

1999-05-19

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace releases, with Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) delivering the "Now this is podracing" line during the Naboo starfighter battle.

2010-11-01

YouTuber Donny Estee uploads a video pairing an Anakin image macro captioned "Now This / Is Podracing" with audio from the Phantom Menace scene.

2012-05-25

A clean cut of the Phantom Menace scene titled "Now This is Podracing" is uploaded to YouTube.

2013-11-16

IFunny posts an image of a woman herding two cattle captioned "Now This / Is Podracing."

2014-05-26

First registered use of the "Now this is / shitposting" Anakin macro variant on 4chan's /pol/.

2015-06-21

TMZ reports Jake Lloyd's arrest after a multi-mile car chase ending in trees; a Tumblr user posts his mugshot captioned "Now THIS is podracing," which passes 2,700 notes in the following eight months.

2015-07-26

Redditor u/koleye posts a Polandball comic titled "Now this is podracing" to r/polandball, hitting roughly 4,600 upvotes and 360 comments.

2016-01-12

Redditor u/Bacon_is_not_france posts the "Now this is / shitposting" Anakin macro to r/meirl.

How to Use This Meme

Typically the format is either a straight quote caption slapped over an image of something spectacular, chaotic, or completely off-topic, or a two-panel split reading "Now this is / [something else]"3. Common convention pairs it with an Anakin face, but the line often stands on its own without an accompanying image.