The Unmatched Power Of The Sun — Nighttime police dashcam footage of a hooded figure glowing brightly next to a parked car.

The Unmatched Power Of The Sun

2020catchphraseclassic

Published October 18, 2026

"The Unmatched Power Of The Sun" is a catchphrase paired with image macros and video edits in which someone unleashes a blinding burst of light that vaporizes a victim, usually a cop. The joke began on Instagram in August 2020 with an edited Rage Comic and spiked again in 2021 after memers stitched a 2007 promo clip from the TV series "The 4400" onto the comic. By mid-2021, iFunny and Tumblr reposts of that mashup were leaving viewers confused about whether the dash-cam footage was real.

catchphrase memes rage comics hoax memes mashup video memes exploitable templates

Overview

Posts in the format pair the line "the unmatched power of the sun" with any character or scenario that justifies a comic-book-style blast of white light. Early versions kept the Rage Comic layout, with a drunk driver smiting the traffic cop in the final panel1. Later remixes swapped the characters for Breaking Bad's Jesse Pinkman5 or Mario holding a lightning bolt power-up7, grafting the setup onto whatever pop-culture scene fit.

The humor leans on sudden escalation. A mundane confrontation flips without warning into a vaporizing beam of light, and the caption treats the destruction like a casual flex6. The 2021 wave added an extra layer because the clip memers started attaching, pulled from a 2007 promo for the Sci-Fi Channel series "The 4400," looked uncomfortably like real cruiser-cam footage3. Viewers reposting it on iFunny and Tumblr often thought they were watching a genuine incident9.

Origin & Background

Platform
Instagram (origin) / Tumblr and YouTube (viral spread)
Date
2020

On August 31st, 2020, Instagram user @half_____price posted an edited Rage Comic in which a drunk driver demonstrates "the unmatched power of the sun" to the officer pulling him over, who is vaporized on contact1. The post drew about 1,500 likes, and the comic migrated to Tumblr the next day via user @photo-frier, where it drew more than 2,700 notes2. Whether @half_____price drew the comic or sourced it elsewhere is unclear6.

The police clip later fused with the joke predates the meme by over a decade. YouTube channel BanPromicin2477 uploaded "Promicin Freak Kills Cop" on June 11th, 2007, a staged piece of cruiser-cam footage promoting the fourth season of "The 4400"3. In the show's lore, a drug called Promicin either kills a user or grants superpowers at a 50/50 rate, and the clip dramatizes a successful dose on an unlucky officer.

How It Spread

Through late 2020, memers glued the catchphrase onto unrelated webcomics and screenshots. On September 4th, 2020, Instagram user @pensivemoji released an edit of a Breaking Bad webcomic in which Jesse channels the sun's power, drawing more than 2,000 likes5. Weeks later, on September 23rd, YouTube channel The Meme Archives uploaded a mashup that attached the 2007 police clip as a final panel to the original comic, which drew more than 10,800 views and became the version most people saw4.

Across 2021, the mashup moved between platforms stripped of context. On January 1st, Instagram account @harvested.memes posted a Mario Kart clip of Mario firing a lightning bolt, captioned "Mario wields the unmatched power of the Sun like a little kid who found his dads' gun"7. Reposts of the raw 4400 clip reached iFunny8 and Tumblr9, where commenters argued over whether the dash-cam video was real police footage or a staged bit. That confusion kept the joke in circulation well after the Rage Comic itself had faded.

Instagram repost accounts also kept the format alive later in 2021, trimming the setup and leaning on the sudden vaporization payoff10.

Timeline

2007-06-11

YouTube channel BanPromicin2477 uploads "Promicin Freak Kills Cop," a staged dash-cam promo for the fourth season of "The 4400."

2020-08-31

Instagram user @half_____price posts the edited Rage Comic coining "the unmatched power of the sun."

2020-09-01

Tumblr user @photo-frier reposts the comic, which draws more than 2,700 notes.

2020-09-04

Instagram user @pensivemoji releases a Breaking Bad edit featuring Jesse Pinkman.

2020-09-23

YouTube channel The Meme Archives uploads a mashup that attaches the 2007 police clip to the Rage Comic as its final panel.

2021-01-01

Instagram account @harvested.memes posts a Mario Kart lightning-bolt edit using the catchphrase.

2021

The 4400 clip spreads context-free on iFunny and Tumblr, with many viewers unsure if the police footage is real.

How to Use This Meme

A typical post plants the catchphrase into a scene that calls for an impossible light-based attack, then cuts to the burst that incinerates the target. Common conventions include preserving the Rage Comic drunk-driver setup, swapping in a familiar character from TV or games, and ending the sequence with the 2007 "Promicin Freak Kills Cop" clip as a mock-serious punchline4.

Frequently Asked Questions