The Tonight Show / YouTube
Every so often a new meme comes along that’s so foolishly inane you can’t help but appreciate it for being true to the very essence of what makes memes enjoyable. One of those memes, the Mayan Rizzler meme, recently hit X (formerly Twitter) after someone re-watched the 2006 film Apocalypto directed by Mel Gibson, the film that created so much buzz as his major silver screen release following the success of The Passion of the Christ.
Most people haven’t watched Apocalypto in years because there was a long stretch where it was hard to find on streaming but the dog days are over. Someone on X found it over the weekend and watched it and during the film noticed this character who has been dubbed the ‘Mayan Rizzler’ as he bears a striking resemblance to Christian Joseph aka ‘The Rizzler’ who has exploded on social media over the past year and that led to a bunch of memes.
The Rizzler has 1.4 million followers on TikTok, 830K+ on Instagram, and multiple videos like this one which have raked in over 20 million views:
He also recently appeared on The Tonight Show alongside A.J. & Big Justice as they’ve hitched their wagons to one another:
What Are These Mayan Rizzler Memes All About?
The Mayan Rizzler memes can be traced back to this post on X from @klodust which has gone viral:
Watched Apocalypto this weekend and couldnt help but notice they had a Mayan Rizzler in that bih. pic.twitter.com/IcXnuqTIUV
— justin (@klodust) December 9, 2024
As you can see, Christian Joseph aka The Rizzler does bear an eerie resemblance to the Mayan Rizzler seen in the meme above. Given the nature of the film Apocalypto which is a supposed realistic (aka not realistic at all) look at what life was like in the Mayan empire, many have begun to speculate that time is a flat circle and the Mayan Rizzler is a real Mayan deity of some sort… These are all s–t posts, of course, but it’s the Internet and this is all in jest.
Jenny nailed it with “he returns to each generation for those who believe.”
he returns to each generation for those who believe
— Jenny (@jenny____r) December 10, 2024
The fear that the Mayan Rizzler must’ve instilled in those wandering through the Yucatan…
Imagine – you’ve angered the Gods. You’ve angered your chieftan. Got the whole tribe running after you. After many days of adrenaline filled desperation you think you got away. Buluc Chabtan is appeased? Then BOOM, you see this face in the the foliage up ahead. It’s over.
— lizardstate 🌭🦎 (@surmacruliuseau) December 11, 2024
It’s weird that like 50% of what I remember from Apocalytpo is human sacrifice-related:
Bringing the boom to the human sacrifice temple
— SammyH 🇻🇦 (@SammyH00) December 11, 2024
He’s bringing the boom. As one does.
— Blogutan (@Blogutan) December 11, 2024
Others joked that these Mayan Rizzler memes appeared “as the prophecy foretold” and that the Mayan Rizzler “exists in many forms throughout time.”
One thing is for certain, they bear a striking resemblance to one another.