General

• Historical characters rapping? It Will Never Catch On.

Adolf Hitler vs. Darth Vader

• Vader tells Hitler (played by Lloyd) that he has a Napoleon dick. Lloyd later plays the French man himself in a later video.
  • In the same video, Vader moonwalks. He was played by NicePeter, as was the adult Michael Jackson in season two.
• In the rematch, Vader comments that he's "on the leader of your limp-dicked Luftwaffe" before making a reference to Lucas's other famous production, Indiana Jones. Then another Lucas production about pilots taking down the Luftwaffe came out.
• In the third installment, Hitler tells Vader "I beat you twice you sellout and now you bow down to Mickey Mouse.". Now, Maker Studios, the company that produces Epic Rap Battles of History, does as well.
  • Even funnier now that ERB is independent of Maker.
• DEATH BATTLE! has made a fight of Darth Vader facing another European dictator Dr. Doom. From the looks of it, Adolf will be very happy with Doom by now.
• This battle has EpicLLOYD make fun of a fictional villain's "burnt-ass face". The same happened 70 battles later in "Freddy Kruger vs Wolverine", although this time Lloyd played a fictional hero, rather than a real-life villain.

Sarah Palin vs. Lady Gaga

• Lady Gaga makes a reference to the Jackson 5. 15 episodes later, The King of Pop himself (with a short appearance by his sibs) takes a shot at the mic. Both Gaga and Adult!MJ are played by Nice Peter to boot.

Kim Jong-Il vs. The Mega Powers - Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage

• Kim Jong-Il opens by saying he's got a "license to ill", one of the more well-known aspects of James Bond. Season 5 has James Bond appear... 58 episodes after this line.

Justin Bieber vs. Ludwig van Beethoven

• Bieber says he's the next Michael Jackson. MJ himself appears later.

Albert Einstein vs. Stephen Hawking

• The line "I'm the Snoop Dogg of science". Snoop Dogg appears as Moses in a later episode.

Genghis Khan vs. The Easter Bunny

• Genghis Khan tells the Easter Bunny that he's about to feel Wrath of Khan before Captain Kirk appeared in a rap.

Benjamin Franklin vs. Billy Mays

• The line "Call me Arthur Miller, son..." becomes funnier considering the wife of Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe, would appear as a rapping contestant later on.
• "Your Boy George chopped down trees" said by Vince Offer (played by Peter), before George Washington (also played by Peter) appears in a battle.

Gandalf vs Dumbledore

• Gandalf and Dumbledore would later cross over again... as LEGO minifigures.

Nice Peter vs. Epic Lloyd

• Kassem G is named in Cleopatra vs. Marilyn Monroe (he also appears there) and appears as one of the soldiers in the third Hitler vs. Vader.
• Note the winged wolf that Kassem G appears with. What's the only winged wolf from a TV show at the time? Silverbolt in Beast Wars Transformers. It took them four movies, but the man himself finally cameoed in one.
• The Stinger for Season 2 has a quote from Vladimir Putin appears, saying that he will kill Nice Peter if Season 2 does not have a Russian character. The Season 2 finale has five Russian characters, one of which is Putin (played by, you guessed it, Nice Peter).
• The second installment has Epic Lloyd noting that Nice Peter could be interpreted as a euphemism for the male genitalia. A year later, Peter reveals that he is expecting a baby.

Wright Bros. vs. Mario Bros.

• The Mario Bros. have the line "You may fly like a hawk, but you fight like a kitty." Fight like a kitty, you say?
• The first thing we see Luigi doing is a Death Glare, very reminiscent of the Luigi Death Stare that would later become memetic.

Michael Jackson vs. Elvis Presley

• Elvis to MJ: "you like to grab your own wanger". In the Season 2 finale, Mikhail Gorbachev does just that ("I got the balls to let Baryshnikov dance, playa!"). Both are played by Lloyd.

Cleopatra vs Marilyn Monroe

• The line "overthrows pharaohs who oppose me like Moses". Moses himself later appears in Moses vs. Santa Claus.
• Marilyn mentions how Cleopatra once "[tossed] Caesar's salad". Julius himself would later appear in Shaka Zulu vs. Julius Caesar, where Shaka Zulu hurls a Cleopatra-centered insult at him.

Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs

• One of the lines from Bill Gates is, "I'm a God! Own X Box!" Along comes Xbox One...
• From the same battle, HAL 9000's line "Hasta la vista, like the Terminator told ya." The Terminator himself appeared later in Terminator vs RoboCop, with a cameo by Arnie himself, no less, and he does indeed tell his opponent "Hasta la vista".

Frank Sinatra vs. Freddie Mercury

• Freddie claims Frank was "in the pocket of The Mafia". Lloyd, who played Frank, later portrayed the best known face of the Mafia, Al Capone. So much for plausible deniability.

Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney

• The two's face-off can bring some chuckles to this day, especially since in the 2016 election they would find themselves on the same side against Donald Trump.

Doc Emmett Brown vs. The Doctor

• Doc Brown and The Doctor would later crossover again... as LEGO minifgures.
• Doc Brown closes the rap (at least before Ten Time Travels) by telling the Doctor "You're not a cat with nine lives, you're a pussy with thirteen!". Five years after this, the thirteenth doctor becomes the first female incarnation of the character.
• They show the Tenth Doctor (aka David Tennant) regenerating into the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker), which at the time was just representing the franchise with the most popular ones, but "The Day of the Doctor" heavily implies that the Doctor can not only go back to one of his past regenerations upon "retirement", but went with the Fourth Doctor eventually!

Batman vs. Sherlock Holmes

• Pairing up the modern Darker and Edgier Batman with an even more Always Camp classic Robin seemed like an odd choice at the time, but would you believe an official Batman movie would take this and run with it as the premise?

Babe Ruth vs. Lance Armstrong

• In the behind the scenes, Peter says Lance Armstrong (who he plays) is like Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead. Peter later raps as Rick in Rick Grimes vs Walter White.

Grigori Rasputin vs. Josef Stalin

• The line "If you're the Man of Steel I spit Kryptonite" from the former to the latter (played by Lloyd). Superman himself appears later in "Goku vs. Superman" and is also played by Lloyd.

Blackbeard vs Al Capone

• Blackbeard refers to himself as "the high seas Caesar". Not only did Caesar himself appear in a later battle, he was given a similar voice to Blackbeard!

Bob Ross vs. Pablo Picasso

• Pablo called himself "the greatest, the modern art Muhammad Ali". What's the next rap battle? Michael Jordan vs Muhammad Ali.
• In his first verse, Picasso mocks Bob by telling him that even his dog, Lump, can make better paintings than him, and in the second verse, he mocks Bob's name (which is rather unimpressive compared to Picasso's Overly Long Name). The BTS video reveals that the dog who plays Lump is actually named Bob.

Donald Trump vs. Ebenezer Scrooge

• Trump's appearance in this video feels almost premature these days, since he ended up running for president in 2016, and it's safe to say that Trump has offered a ton of material to work with, as evident in the election-themed Hilary Clinton vs Trump battle where he seems like a totally different character.
• Trump brings the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come to the White House as well.
• Trump and Kanye West both rap against Scrooge. Years later, Kanye would become a Trump supporter.

Goku vs. Superman

• Superman's line about "Just one punch / and over nine thousand screams" becomes more hilarious after One-Punch Man gains popularity.
• Goku's line about "You got your ass beat / by a bat with no power" also becomes more hilarious after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came out, and just like in the comic it's based on, Superman did get his ass beat by Batman.
• Goku's line "Defeat me with heat beams, you're crazy" is this to those who have seen the second matchup between these two characters by DEATH BATTLE!, in which Superman deals the finishing blow by focussing his heat-vision through Goku's eyes to incinerate his brain.

Stephen King vs. Edgar Allan Poe

• In his first verse, Edgar calls Stephen King a "joker". This line becomes doubly hilarious in season 6, where one of King's characters, Pennywise, gets to battle The Joker. Not only that, The Joker's raps actually roasts Stephen King almost as much as Pennywise himself.

Isaac Newton vs. Bill Nye

• A mere month and a half after the battle was published, the cover of the September 2014 issue of Popular Science has Nye appearing in a boxing pose.
• Both "Weird Al" Yankovic (who plays Isaac Newton here) and the real Neil deGrasse Tyson would later be featured as guest voice actors on Gravity Falls.
• Isaac Newton mocks Bill Nye's show by asking if his own rap would need "a bleep or a bloop or some other wacky sound effect". Some years later, Weird Al would release the "Hamilton Polka", where he basically pulls out all the stops by throwing in as many wacky sound effects as he can muster.
• Newton refers to Nye as "Beaker in a bow tie". Not only did Jim Henson himself appear in a later battle, Peter gave him a similar voice to Nye!

Ghostbusters vs. Mythbusters

• The BTS for the season 3 finale has Peter appearing 'in a box' ie. an inset as he was out of town at the time. The BTS for the start of season 4 has Peter playing around in a box, the one the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man costume came in!
• It's also mentioned that they got a mascot suit actor to be in the Stay Puft suit, which is funny now that there's a movie with a mascot and a tubby white guy as heroes.
• One insult towards the Ghostbusters is "come harder than Ray [Stantz] when that ghost popped his cherry". Having your cherry popped is a term for losing your virginity, but is typically applied only to females, making it a dig at Stantz's masculinity. Then Ghostbusters (2016) actually turned the titular group into girls, and suddenly the line is more applicable.
• Another one concerning the new movie - the Mythbusters' first verse involves Peter and Lloyd doing a particularly complicated hand-slap-dance that took a while to practice, while in the new movie, Abby and Holtzmann have an even more complicated Secret Handshake that they pull off swimmingly.

Jack the Ripper vs Hannibal Lecter

• Jack the Ripper claims that Hannibal is forgotten and that nowadays people watch Dexter. Dexter's series finale ended in September 2013 while Hannibal premiered in May 2013. At the time this rap battle premiered, Hannibal had garnered enough popularity to warrant a third season on NBC. However, before the fourth season of ERB was over, NBC had cancelled Hannibal. Maybe Jack the Ripper was right after all...

Lewis And Clark vs Bill & Ted

• Ted says he's heard better insults from Socrates' anus. Socrates did appear two battles later in "Eastern Philosophers vs Western Philosophers", which is foreshadowed by Lloyd appearing dressed as Socrates in this video.
• Lewis & Clark are played by Rhett & Link, who previously rapped alongside Smosh in "Artists vs Turtles". In the Bill & Ted films, Bill was played by Alex Winter, who would later work with Smosh himself by directing Smosh: The Movie. Kinda makes you wonder just whose side Rhett & Link are on.
• Rufus makes a brief appearance during Bill and Ted's verse. His actor George Carlin himself appeared in Season 6, and is even mockingly called Rufus.

Terminator vs Robocop

• Unsatisfied that we never see the fight that happens after the rap battle? Well, now you can recreate that fight in Mortal Kombat 11!

Eastern Philosophers vs Western Philosophers

• A Confucius rap song really does exist!
• Friedrich Nietzsche was played by NicePeter, who had earlier in the season played Jamie Hyneman. Now it's clear they have much more of a resemblance than before.
• Nietzsche also isn't the first serious, explosively intense German man played by NicePeter who gets a "[NAME], MOTHERFUCKER!" line in the series. Maybe Nietzsche and Beethoven are related in the ERB world?
• It's either this or Harsher in Hindsight, but Sun Tzu's line about Asians spitting sick and SARS has become much more relevant after the recent outbreak of Coronavirus, which originated in China.

Stan Lee vs. Jim Henson

• Henson's line "the Four will always be Fantastic" was proven wrong the very same week of the battle's upload, as the Fantastic Four reboot opened a few days later and performed terribly with critics and audiences, not to mention Marvel cancelling their comic the same year this battle came out!
• Walt's line "In fact I own this whole series!" made sense at the time because Maker Studios, which ERB worked with at the time to make their videos, was bought out by Disney in 2014. However, the trailer for season 6 includes "100% Independent", indicating that ERB will no longer be tied to Maker Studios and therefore Disney. "I own this whole series!"? Not anymore you don't.
  • Even funnier, ERB seemed to realize this. Hence why the season 6 trailer contains Stock Footage for Disney's "whole series" line.

Deadpool vs. Boba Fett

• Fett says that Deadpool "should have ditched the prick from Van Wilder." Shortly afterward, the Deadpool (2016) film showed that Ryan Reynolds could in fact be tremendously successful in the role once he was actually allowed to play a version faithful to the comics.
• Just the fact that Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool (2016)) and Temuera Morrison (The Other Darrin for Boba Fett) were in a movie together.

J.R.R. Tolkien vs George R.R. Martin

• One of George R.R. Martin's first disses against Tolkien was complaining about how all of "[Tolkien's] bad guys and guys die and [his] good guys survive," is amusing when, in the wake of the ending of Game of Thrones, almost all of the main good guys live and all but two villains die.

Gordon Ramsay vs Julia Child

• Ramsay compares Child to both Shrek and Big Bird. When Big Bird appeared in the "Flash in the Pan Hip Hop Conflicts" subseries, he also compared his opponent to Shrek!!!

James Bond vs Austin Powers

• Just the fact that Sean Connery!Bond is an unapologetic "rug-wearing misogynist", considering that Lloyd would later play Donald Trump.

Bruce Banner vs Bruce Jenner

• Banner compares Jenner to "the Flash, especially in the 100m ditch-your-wife dash". As of season 3 of The Flash (2014), Barry Allen has basically run himself back into the friendzone, twice.
• Jenner points out that Banner "can't go back to protect your mom from your dad". While Banner is clearly based on the Mark Ruffalo MCU incarnation and this line was more of a reference to the backstory of Eric Bana's Hulk, it's funny now that MCU Banner is the one that helped develop time travel!

Donald Trump vs Hilary Clinton

• After complaints that nearly every video with a female rapper devolved into Slut-Shaming, it's worth noting that this one has Hilary (and her actress was guilty of this as Marilyn Monroe previously) targeting Donald with a different sort of slut shaming.

Wonder Woman vs Stevie Wonder

• The mention of Stevie having "nine different kids with five different mothers", considering that T-Pain, who plays Stevie, once famously declared "I fucked a mermaid!"
• Stevie making several Take That! to the DC Extended Universe during the rap since Wonder Woman's solo movie eventually becomes the film franchise's most acclaimed work.

Wayne Gretzky vs Tony Hawk

• Wayne's very brief Leaning on the Fourth Wall. Clearly it's a Canadian thing, eh?
• Tony starting off by describing it as "Wayne vs Birdman", now that the real Tony Hawk appeared on Whose Line Is It Anyway? alongside Wayne Brady.
• One of the first things Tony does is make a Gag Nose joke about Wayne. The real Tony would later appear on The Masked Singer as the Elephant.

Theodore Roosevelt vs Winston Churchill

• Winston calling Teddy an "overgrown Boy Scout", considering that Lloyd once played THE Big Blue Boy Scout.
• In this battle, EpicLLOYD plays Theodore Roosevelt. Only six battles later, he would play the guy who played Roosevelt in Night at the Museum.

Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg

• Three and a half months after a rap battle with Elon Musk being released, Elon Musk releases his own rap song, "RIP Harambe".

Guy Fawkes vs Che Guevara

• This rather infamous fan-made epic rap battle featured Guy Fawkes years before he would be featured in an official one.

Ronald McDonald vs The Burger King

• Burger King dissing Ronald with: "You look like you just ate somebody's brother in a storm drain", referencing It. 5 months later, Pennywise himself would end up in his own rap battle against The Joker. Even more ironic is how Lloyd, who played The Burger King and thus made that insult, would play that very clown in said battle.

The Joker vs Pennywise

• Joker derides Pennywise for having been "beaten by the kid from Stranger Things". Someone must have taken it as advice, since Finn Wolfhard will be up against his third old-fashioned supernatural threat to date.
• This aforementioned fan-made epic rap battle featured Guy Fawkes against the Joker. Season 6 of ERB now features both Guy Fawkes and the Joker. Even better, they are both played by the same person!
• Pennywise saying that "I'll beat you like you beat Harley Quinn", considering how the Joker movie beat the Harley Quinn movie commercially.

Thanos vs J Robert Oppenheimer

• The audio for the battle was officially released on Youtube, a few days before the video came out, which means we got to hear Oppenheimer's "it must leave you enraged when you compare our talents" line before comparing the underwhelming Thanos costume to the nearly-universally praised Oppenheimer.