Chief Tannabok Gets the News

Origin

The panels are taken from the 2000 animated film The Road to El Dorado, in a scene where Chief Tannabok reacts to news that a Spanish expedition is approaching the city. Starting in 2019, a four-panel arrangement of the exchange began circulating as an exploitable template on Facebook and Reddit. The sequence captures his facial expression shifting across the panels.

Meaning & usage

Users caption the character’s changing expression so that he appears to react to shocking, absurd, or unbelievable news delivered panel by panel. Because there are multiple panels, the format also works to “read” a copypasta, a song lyric, or a slow-building reveal, with Tannabok’s reaction escalating as the text unfolds. The tone is comic disbelief, and the animation’s expressive, slightly exaggerated faces make each beat land. It rewards a strong punchline in the final panel.

Notable examples

Typical edits stage a setup across the first panels and a shocking or ridiculous payoff in the last. Some versions use the panels to lip-sync or “narrate” a song. The format overlaps with other multi-panel “reacting to news” exploitables drawn from animated films.