U Can't Touch This

"U Can't Touch This"
Song

"U Can't Touch This" is MC Hammer's most well-known single, from his 1990 album Please, Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em. The album was commercially successful at the time, eventually selling over ten million copies. The song heavily samples Rick James's "Super Freak"; James is accordingly credited as a co-author. The lyrics were written entirely by Hammer.

They describe the rapper as having "toured around the world, from London to the Bay" and as being "magic on the mic", which Hammer says combines with Rick James's "beat that you can't touch". While some critics, especially in the gangsta rap community, disliked the song, enough people approved of it to secure the Grammy Awards for Best R&B Song and Best Rap Solo Performance in 1991, a brand new category at the time. The song also did well on the charts, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the chart in Australia. It also reached #3 on the UK singles chart as well as numerous other charts around the world.

In 2008, it was ranked number 26 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.

Song's occurrences in the media

Commercials

• Anti-bacterial hand cream Purell.
• Insurance firm Nationwide in a commercial. Hammer himself also starred in the commercial, which spoofs his bankruptcy.
• Connecticut Light and Power's television and radio ads, where "U can't touch this!" is used whenever power lines are mentioned (visually or verbally).
• Diet Pepsi/Pepsi One commercial, "I wanna kick it old school".
• Toyota commercial.
• Target Corporation commercials in the late '90's. "Target Time" was used in place of "Hammer Time".
• Hand sanitizer commercial for Lysol (U Can't Touch Germs!)
• Lay's chips
• Acura 3.2 TL commercial
• Citibank TV commercial for credit account. Aired in Norway 2006
• Renault French TV commercial for Renault engines
• Hallmark Father's Day card commercial. Hammer was voiced by a father.
• Nissan TV Commercial for Nissan Serena, Presage, Elgrand and Lafesta Highway Star Minivans. Aired in Japan 2007
• Argos 2008 Christmas Catalogue commercial

Movies

• Class Act (1992)
• Hot Shots! (1991)
• The Super
• Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) One of the main characters, Crazy Legs, is asked if he has a dream. He thinks about the question for a second then the film dissolves into a dream sequence that features the crippled Crazy Legs performing a long, choreographed dance sequence wearing parachute pants to an instrumental version of "U Can't Touch This".
• The Right Connections (1997) (TV)
• The Master of Disguise (2002)
• Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)
• Shark Tale (2004) is frequently sung throughout the film, and at the end of the bonus movie Club Oscar calling it "Oscar time".
• White Chicks
• Racing Stripes sung briefly by Scuzz
• Bubble Boy
• Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
• Eurotrip In Bratislava, the old man says "Stop, Hammertime!"
• American Dreamz (2006)
• Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
• Uglydoll Gets Down (2007)
• Into the Wild (2007)
• Tropic Thunder (2008)

Other

• The Youtube video, Evolution of Dance contained the song, and went on to become the most viewed video on Youtube, a position it held for over two years.
• Performed live at the MTV Video Music Awards 2005]
• A Whac-A-Mole arcade game released in Japan.
• Some Cambridge United fans sing the tune and then replace "U Can't Touch This" with star striker's name: "Lee Boylan".
• A skill in the PC MMORPG Video Game Guild Wars.
• Gröûp X Made a parody of the song called "Down't Touch That (I Demand)".
• Flash Animation by Mark Zaverhuka called "Resident Cactuar".
• Paul Orndorff used the song for his entrance music in the Herb Abrams-owned UWF.
• The German translation Halt! Hammerzeit is a known internet meme.
• A 1990 compilation album of then-current chart hits was released in Australia by EMI under this title, which also featured the song as the first track.
• In episode 106 of I Survived a Japanese Game Show, Romu Kandu says "Can't touch this" then starts dancing about the time the Yellow Penguins started the team game.
• The song is playable in the North American PlayStation 2 version of Dance Dance Revolution X.
• "The Pounder" a shock site
• Male Orcs in the video game World of Warcraft can perform MC Hammer's dance from the music video by using their "/dance" emote.

Uses of the word "hammertime!"

An example of hammertime being used in a humorous form of vandalism

The word "hammertime" from the song ("Stop! (one-beat pause) Hammertime!") has appeared in numerous other contexts:

Sports

• In 1990, players and fans of the Cincinnati Reds adopted "U Can't Touch This" as an unofficial anthem, in particular with reference to the Nasty Boys, the team's trio of ace relief pitchers.
• The Detroit Pistons basketball team used "hammertime" as their slogan during their repeat NBA championships in 1989 and 1990. "U Can't Touch This" referring to their championship.
• Skateboarders use the term to refer to a particularly courageous and extreme manoeuvre, also called "throwing down a hammer".
• The Tampa Bay Lightning published a poster featuring defenceman Roman Hamrlík with the tag line "Hamr Time"
• The Hamilton Tigercats, from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada which is often referred to as "The Hammer", have given away "Hammer Time" Ticats signs.

Video games

• In the Half-Life mod The Specialists there is a level called "Hammertime". The song plays from a radio in the level.
• In the MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing, one of the adventures involves a man coming up to the player carrying a hammer and saying, "Hey, man, it's hammer time!"
• In the video game Super Mario RPG, the Hammer Bros. boss uses an attack called Hammer Time.
• In the video game Beyond Good and Evil, attacking a foe may prompt your partner to cry "Hammertime!"
• In the MMORPG "Runescape", when examining the anvil in the Lumbridge mine, it will say "Stop! Hammer time!"
• In the MMORPG "Guild Wars", there is an NPC called "Mac Snowhammer" who says "Snowhammer, don't hurt 'em!", "You can't dodge this!", and "Stop! Snowhammer time!" And there is a skill called "Can't touch this!"
• In the 1990 arcade game "Hammering Harry", a sample of MC Hammer saying "Hammertime!" proceeds each level.
• In the Shark Tale video game you have to dance in a dance-mat style to "U can't touch this" to complete one of the levels.
• In the Adventure Game "Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine" when randomly using a hammer.
• In Halo 3, there is a game mode named Hammerzeit. "Zeit" means "time" in German. On this game mode, all players only use "Gravity Hammers" to score points.
• In "Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos", clicking on Uther the Lightbringer in the Human Campaign enough times will result in him saying "It's Hammertime." The Mountain King hero in the game also says "It's Hammertime" when ordered to attack another unit.
• In 'The Impossible Quiz', Question 18 has the word 'Stop' then various objects around a clock face. The correct answer is to click on the hammer.

Movies

• In the 3D animation Shark Tale, when at a meeting with the sharks, the main character, Oscar, sings a line of "U Can't Touch This", and finishes by saying "Stop! Oscar-time!".
• Eurotrip
• The song is featured in the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3.
• The phrase "Stop! Hammertime!" is used in Futurama movie Bender's Game, when the robot therapist announces the beginning of the group relaxation therapy which involves hammers.

TV

• In Mock the Week "Scenes we'd like to see" the subject is "Unlikely things to see on a road sign" where Frankie Boyle comes in and says, "Stop! Hammertime!"
• "It's Hammer Time" is the title of a Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive episode.
• In the New Zealand Film "Sione's Wedding" the line "Stop!... Bolo Time" was used, followed by a little dance.
• In an episode of Kenan and Kel, Kenan says to Kel "C'mon, It's Hammer time!" and Kel replies "Kenan? Kenan? It hasn't been Hammertime for five years!"
• In the Seinfeld episode "The Baby Shower", Kramer convinces Jerry to steal cable TV by saying "Man, it's the nineties... It's Hammer time!"
• In the South Park episode "Simpsons Already Did It", while the boys search the lab for their "sea-men", Tweek guards the door with the code word being "Hammertime". However he forgets this, and starts singing the song to remember before screaming "Hammertime!"
• The phrase "And now, it's Hammer time!" was used by the title character in the satirical police sitcom Sledge Hammer! a full three years before "U Can't Touch This" was released (in the episode "State of Sledge", which aired January 10, 1987).
• In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Carlton attempts to gain Will's acceptance by offering a high-five and saying "When the going gets tough, the tough get going. It's hammer time.".
• In a David Letterman show, "It's hammer time!" is depicted as a possible thought of the president George W. Bush while a picture, showing him unable to correctly hang a hammer, was taken.
• In The Simpsons, the episode "Behind the Laughter" shows Homer purchasing M.C. Hammer's house, with "Hammertime" on the front gate. Homer then removes an "m" and bends the "a" so it spells "Homertime". Episode 381, the 3rd episode of the 18th season, is called "Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em..." which is a reference to the album title.
• In the Family Guy episode "E Peterbus Unum", Peter sings "U Can't Touch Me", a very similar musical outline to "U Can't Touch This". Peter says "Peter-Time". MC Hammer also features in this song and Peter does his characteristic "fall on back".
• In the Scrubs episode "My Tormented Mentor" (Season 3), Doctor Miller turns off Turk's hip-hop music, saying "There's no music in my OR Hammer." To which Turk responds "First of all, Hammer dances like this...", proceeds to dance in a similar style to MC Hammer, and ends by pointing to his wrist-watch and stating "Hammer Time!"
• On MythBusters, on the myth of the Exploding Trousers, Robert Lee, the American narrator said, "It's hammer time." This was when the Build Team were testing impact as an ignition source via a robotic hammer.
• In the Simpsons episode "Bart Gets Famous", Bart popularized the song with his short-lived catchphrase "I didn't do it", which replaces "Can't touch this" in the song.
• In an episode of The PJs, Thurgood, the building superindent, is desperately trying to exterminate a single rat. While swinging a sledgehammer around madly while trying to smash the rat à la Whack-a-Mole, he cries out "Please Hammer hurt 'em!"
• In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy where their school becomes a school of rap, Irwin (in attempts to be "hip" and "The Mack Daddy") dresses up like M.C. Hammer and begins to dance like him, while a sample remix of the song plays in the background.
• In the next chapter of Yin-Yang-Yo!, Zarnot's girlfriend, at the end Yang is punished by Yo using some golden pants that the force do a dance "Ridicule", a clear reference of this song (Note: this chapter has already been seen in Jetix Latinamerica)
• In an episode of The IT Crowd, Douglas Reynholm is trapped in a room with two (male) employees, having taken an aphrodisiac, and the episode ends with the words "Pucker up boys, it's hammer time!".
• In an episode of The Cosby Show, while renovating the kitchen, Cliff notices a nail sticking out. He takes out his hammer and says "Hammertime".
• In one episode of BBC's Top Gear, presenter James May described a Cadillac prototype car as "Hammertime". He was referring to its American origin and flamboyancy.

Music

• Comedian Jimmy Fallon's The Bathroom Wall album features a song called "Hammertime" that cobbles together lyrics from several unrelated songs.
• In the Eminem song "Just Lose It" the line "Stop!... Pajama time!" is used (Eminem also parodies MC Hammer's dancing style in the song's music video).
• "Weird Al" Yankovic has parodied as I Can't Watch This
• The humor band Gröûp X made a parody of the song called Don't Touch That
• Parodied by Camo J's track "Can't Code This".
• Mentioned unfavorably by Ice Cube in "Check Yo Self".
• Parodied by Family Guy character Peter Griffin's song "Can't Touch Me" in the episode E Peterbus Unum (18th episode of 2nd season).

Computers

• On AMD K8-based microprocessors such as Athlon64 and Opteron, CPUID function 0x8FFFFFFF returns the string "IT'S HAMMER TIME" in registers EAX, EBX, ECX, and EDX. The K8 project was codenamed "Hammer" when in development at AMD.
• A Stop! Hammertime! extension for the Firefox web browser that causes the computer to respond "Stop, Hammertime!" whenever a custom "Stop" button is pressed or when "Esc"/"Escape" is pressed.[1]
• In the internet game The Impossible Quiz, the eighteenth question is a direct reference to hammertime. The question says "Stop..." and then shows a clock in which one must click on the hammer on the clock (hammertime) to get the correct answer.

Stickers

• Various HAMMERTIME stickers can be found, in stop-sign red colour, with the disclaimer that they are "Not Intended To Be Used On Stop Signs".