Smash Z

> "Can't Bash the Smash"
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>

> *~ Smash's cool catchphrase*
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>

**Smash Z** (usually referred to as just **Smash**) is a veteran Generation 2 tagger and the resident Sheldon J. Plankton of TF2Tags. Though an active presence on the site in many capacities, he is mostly known for his trademark meme, "Maximum Overdrive", first witnessed during the second Taggening.

## History

### Humble Beginnings

Smash discovered TF2Tags on May 27th, 2015 after his friend showed him a tag that he/she planned on using for one of his own in-game items. Smash took interest in the community this website seemed to have, and decided to join in and check things out. His very first day saw him witness one of the numerous Relk\_Cehi and Ulysses feuds. Ignoring this, Smash made his first post, which he named after his own Strange Construction PDA. He would then start to post regularly starting in July.

### The Taggening

Smash Z would regularly submit tags throughout the latter half of 2015, but his presence on the site didn't truly come into being until November, when the Taggening struck TF2Tags. Smash held a significant role in the first two Taggenings. In the first, he jokingly attempted to get Expand lynched to appease the site into resetting the submission limits as it once did. He reasoned that Expand was behind the Taggenings, as he stated in a previous submission that the community has ran out of jokes. He posited that Dr. Dos saw this and realized Expand was correct, and thus made it so that the submission limits would not reset. The effort to lynch Expand was eventually disbanded when people came to their senses.

Smash's actions during the second Taggening are his most well-known, as it spawned his most signature running meme for the remainder of his tagging career. Seeing that the submission limits were once again not resetting, Smash decided to go out with a bang and rapidly use the rest of his submissions repeating the same joke over and over again. This gag, the first time he shifted into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, was the stuff of legends, and would quickly become a favorite meme on the site.

### Attack of the Clones

Following the Taggening, Smash would continue being an active member of the TF2Tags community, the Maximum Overdrive becoming a key part of his Tagging repertoire and accumulating around 3000 points in total by February 2016. During that month, the infamous Attack of the Clones shitstorm occurred, where the then-unknown Shitposter of 2016 went around making burner accounts to impersonate several taggers. Of the taggers "cloned", Smash Z was undoubtedly the most copied, most likely on account of Maximum Overdrive. However, despite the reaction of everyone else who was cloned, Smash was actually overjoyed to have so many impersonators, and would constantly egg them on throughout the ordeal to keep copying him. He was saddened when the culprit was eventually banned.

### The Rest

Following Attack of the Clones, Smash would continue to be active throughout 2016. He would partake in various site events, such as signing up for TF2Tags Survivor (in which he placed 8th of 16), and using some detective work to discover the identity of an anonymous tagger. He would continue to partake in Taggers Against Humanity games and would continue to win handily. However, in October of 2016 Smash took a long hiatus from the site. He would briefly return in February of 2017, but after February 18th he would leave once again, tagging only 4 more times for the rest of the year. Any records of his activity in 2018 are lost, as was any reaction to the Tagpocalypse. Smash has since left the community altogether.

## Style

Though Smash Z has his fair share of tags that follow no particular style, he has probably one of the most consistent styles among the Taggers. Smash is well-known for making Spongebob Squarepants jokes (including his signature), often taking memorable quotes and transforming them into tags or editing them to fit TF2. Earlier in his career, he would also post tags relating to famed YouTuber Jontron, though he replaced these jokes with tags about *The Nightmare Before Christmas*.

Smash Z is also known for making long sets, usually in the form of songs. These song sets started out as merely the lyrics themselves represented through TF2 items, but eventually Smash began to parody songs in the style of TF2 or the TF2Tags community. These song parodies are often quite positively received. Smash Z's longest set was no a song parody, however. Instead, it was a parody of the official TF2 SFM film Expiration Date, starring the Taggers instead of the TF2 mercs. For a brief period, this set was the longest in TF2Tags history, though it was eventually overcome several times over by other Taggers.

### MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is Smash Z's signature, a meme he birthed on the site entirely on his own during the Taggening. Shifting into Maximum Overdrive is an art that only Smash himself has truly mastered. Executing a Maximum Overdrive is a deceptively simple process that follows two steps:

1. Make a joke using the following quotation: "You'll never catch me, Krabs! NOT WHEN I SHIFT INTO MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE!"
2. Make several versions of this joke in extremely rapid succession, covering entire pages.

In total, Smash Z went on 4 Maximum Overdrive sprees in his Tagging career. He went on a similar spree between the first and second, this time using jokes about Bill Nye The Science Guy. He also made several singular Maximum Overdrive jokes without a subsequent spree.

## Relationships

Smash Z had a generally favorable relationship with the TF2Tags community during his time on the site. It was shown that he has had a good relationship with Taggers such as Blast and Egg-Z. He was known to be particularly good friends with Makin' Bacon, and he was the only Tagger to have Smash friended on the platform. He was also apparently trusted enough by Floro Sapiens to allow for him to deliver Floro's video to the rest of the community following his permanent ban. Expand trusted him enough to allow him to do one entry of the TF2Tags Nightly News Network. He had a friendly rivalry with TGRobert for a bit to see who would have the longest set on TF2Tags.

In general, he got along well with everyone, and often found his way to play a large part in community events, but ultimately formed little long-term ties with the community. When he left the site, he left the community behind as well, not partaking in the Discord servers or Tags.tf.

## Gallery

### Normal Stuff

The tag Smash Z's friend showed him that made him discover TF2Tags.Smash Z's first tag.Smash Z's first song set, a rendition of famous Queen hit, Bohemian Rhapsody.A tag referencing Pit from Kid Icarus, Smash's profile picture on TF2Tags.Smash Z's second hit cover: Holding Out For A Hero by Bonnie Tyler.Smash Z covering This Is Halloween, from his favorite film, The Nightmare Before Christmas.Smash Z's first song parody, parodying The Mob Song from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. This was part of his attempt to (jokingly) blame Expand for the Taggening.Smash Z making a tag in the style of A Fucking Idiot.A string of Sponebob Jokes by Smash Z.Another song parody, this time of All I Want For Christmas Is You, except it's what Heavy wants.Another song parody, another song from The Nightmare Before Christmas, a discovering TF2Tags version of What's This?Smash Z's second best Tag.Smash Z's best tag, with a whopping 50 crits.Another parody of a Nightmare Before Christmas song, this time kidnapping Dr. Dos instead of the Sandy Claws.Smash Z's longest and most ambitious set, a TF2Tags version of the SFM movie Expiration Date (cut into two images due to size).Second part of TF2Tags Expiration Date.A parody of Meet the Heavy, with Smash inserting himself as the Heavy.Smash Z asserting dominance over the other Taggers for his insane win rate in Taggers Against Humanity.Smash Z relaying a video from Floro Sapiens following the latter's unjust permaban.A final song parody, this time of the Kirby: Right Back At Ya! theme song, starring himself.
### MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

The first MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE joke. Little did people know what would be born a few tags later...The tagging spree that sparked one of the greatest memes in tagging history.The final tag of the original MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, with comments.The end of the first MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE.Smash Z going on a similar spree, this time with Bill Nye: The Science Guy jokes.Smash Z making a new MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE joke, which despite only being the one caused a couple taggers to panic that a new spree was coming.Fancytag, summoning a new MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE spree, to the horror of other taggers.MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE 2: GOT THE TURBO BOOGALOOAs Waluigi is not in Smash Bros, Smash Z runs away from the Wahfia.Construct A debuting the NTF2Tags variant of MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE: minimum underdrive.An even more minimum underdrive.MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE 3: OH HELL NOSmash Z getting cucked by Sqwid.MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE 4: THE HYPERDRIVE
## Trivia

* Smash is the king of CAH, winning 99% of games that he stays until the end of. He is currently on a 5 game streak.
* Smash is actually the elder of his people, Maximum Overdrivius, which is why he can shift into Maximum Overdrive with ease.
* He once held the record for the most items in one item set. The set was "TF2Tags Expiration Date" with 211 items. TGRobert, Makin' Bacon, and Le Tryhard Hunter would eventually blow past this number numerous times.
* Smash's favorite movie is *The Nightmare Before Christmas.*