Metal Sonic debuted in Sonic CD in 1993 as a robotic rival built by Dr Eggman to outrun and defeat Sonic the Hedgehog. Unlike the talkative hero, the character is mostly silent in games, with voiced appearances in titles like Sonic Heroes giving him a distorted mechanical delivery. Short clips of him speaking spread through gaming forums, YouTube edits and soundboards, where fans isolated single words for memes. The contrast between the familiar name and the emotionless voice keeps the clip popular for villain edits.