Austin Powers in Mass Effect works a little too well

Soul Bossa Nova makes everything better

As wary as I am of leaning too hard into memes, sometimes, I can’t resist — I’ve gotta share the latest dumb funny thing with this audience. If I’m laughing, I hope that means you’ll laugh, too. And this video from “meme maker” eli_handle_b․wav, in which Austin Powers is thawed out and let loose in the Mass Effect universe, is hilarious to me.

“Is that the kind of person we want protecting the galaxy?”

“That’s the only kind of person who can protect the galaxy.”

I couldn’t make it past that first exchange. The dramatic music and VO delivery got me.

I’m pretty out of the loop on these mashups — where someone goes to decent lengths to combine a popular live-action movie or show with an also-popular video game — but I can tell that my feed is about to be a flood of them now that I’ve cracked the door. Just the other day, Dan was showing us a Fallout: New Vegas scene with Tony Soprano.

This crossover makes me want to pick my Mass Effect Legendary Edition replay of ME1 back up *and* rewatch Austin Powers even though it’ll never be as funny now as it was when I was a kid. Job well done, video. You made me cherish these things a smidge more.

(The bit with the little vehicle getting stuck in a narrow tunnel will be Objectively Funny until the end of time. That imagery swirls around my brain like once a week.)

This gag actually deserves a part two

[Update: YouTube creator eli_handle_b․wav has come bearing another painstakingly edited “Austin Powers in Mass Effect” video to brighten up our day.]

I still haven’t gone back to rewatch any of these movies, but today, I got a second opinion from CJ — who say the first Austin Powers holds up, but the sequel is “way too reliant on references” — and Patrick, who thinks the original is “not as laugh out loud as I remember but still very good.” Something tells me this isn’t the last we’ve heard. For now, I’ll leave you with this very good tweet that I think about at least once a month, without fail.

Just found out Australia has some theme park called "movie world" and some guys job there is to do the Austin Powers dance. Probably multiple times a day. pic.twitter.com/XapL2lpcNl

— matt (@MattsBestTweets) August 3, 2021