ASU students gather at Taco Bell to ‘Scream Like Goku’
The event started off as petty revenge and a joke by an ASU student who wasn’t pleased by Taco Bell’s service
What is a better way to spend a Friday night–more like Saturday morning– screaming at the top of your longs outside of Taco Bell?
The ‘Scream Like Goku’ event that was held at the Taco Bell on Apache and Rural was inspired by a social media phenomenon where fans of the 1990s anime Dragon Ball Z gather and imitate the signature scream of the main character ‘Goku’.
The event started off as a petty revenge and a joke by ASU math major, Viking Wadsworth, who wasn't please by the Taco Bell's, located on Rural and Apache, 2am service.
"Details: Aight so whenever I go to this Taco Bell at 2am the cashier always seems pissed to be taking my order so honestly they deserve to deal with a hundred college students yelling like goku we have enough stress already we don't need the extra stress of dealing with someone who looks like they hate me for ordering a cheesy gordita crunch like come on it's your job," the tweeted image posted by Wadsworth's account reads.
Although the event was originally created as a joke it gained a large following that attracted Dragon Ball Z fans, energized students, and less than impressed Tempe Police Officers. The event was expected to draw 927 people; however, only about 150 showed up-still an impressive number to gather to scream like Goku.
“My friends were reluctant to go at first because the event was scheduled at 2 am and they didn’t know if anyone was going to go,” ASU student, Jimmy Le, told The Tab. He continues to say that most of the ‘Goku Events’ only had about 8 to 13 people screaming and he was surprised by the turn out.
Although the night was relatively calm, the officers were concerned about students blocking the entrances to the Taco Bell parking lot and asked for students to move. When students were hesitant to reply, looking for some sort of direction from their leader, the police demanded that they move to the next parking lot over, into the McDonalds.
When asked about the move over to the next lot, Karen Hill, an Industrial Design major, expressed that it didn’t ruin the energy of the crowd but the move did confuse her at first.
“I’m curious as to why we were moved. Though it did make for a nicer and bigger area to collect in,” Hill tells The Tab.
After the move, the crowd began counting down and anxiously waiting for 2 am in order to collectively release a deafening scream in the parking lot.
Slowly, a circle began to form as a student decided to entertain the crowd by freestyle break dancing which hyped the crowd even more.
With the crowd still in a circle, at the 2 am mark, everyone gathered their energy and let out a wild scream.
After letting out their first round of screams and an impromptu stomping of a stuffed gorilla by a guy in a banana suit and his friends, the group ran back to the Taco Bell to run and continue their yelling there.
Police did not seem bothered by the movement as the crowd remained away from the main entrances to the parking lot.
The event, no longer than 15 minutes, ended with the crowd using Kamehameha, Goku’s signature finishing attack to end the night.
“It was an amazing closing to an amazing night,” Le says.
So, ASU, is it our turn to do a Naruto Run?