Of all of the memes spawned by former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, there are none quite as famous or enduring as “My Body Is Ready” from E3 2004.

In an interview with Present Value Podcast, Reggie revealed the true origins of this iconic line. According to Reggie, “My Body Is Ready” was but one of many wisecracks he made while rehearsing for Nintendo’s Wii Balance Board presentation, one that resonated with creator Shigeru Miyamoto and eventually made it to the final broadcast.

You can listen to Reggie recounting the story on the podcast here, or read an excerpt below:

The ‘My body is ready statement’ – when you’re preparing for an E3 presentation, there’s lots of rehearsals. We make sure everything is going to go right. And for this introduction of Wii Fit and the Wii Balance Board, it was myself, Shigeru Miyamoto – our most well-known game creator – and his translator, a good friend of mine by the name of Bill Trinen, and we were rehearsing this over the course of a couple three days.

It got to be a little monotonous. And every time I would go to step on the Balance Board, I would be making some sort of wise crack or another. And late in the rehearsals, I said: ‘My body is ready.’ And it was the first time that I actually got Mr. Miyamoto to laugh – he thought that statement was pretty funny. So it was, ‘Hey, I got a winner here.’

And we continued to practice and I continued to do different things, so no one on stage knew what I was going to say. And yet here we are, the experience is being video taped, we’re broadcasting it out, and I made that statement. And yes, it’s a meme out there.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.