13 Iconic Memes That Came From Video Games

Summary

• Don't be fooled by the positivity on workplace posters - the rise of demotivational art brought a sarcastic anti-establishment twist.
• Gaming memes have taken the internet by storm, showcasing iconic phrases and moments from popular video games in unexpected ways.
• From Call of Duty to GTA, Super Smash Bros to Undertale, these gaming memes transcend the gaming community, creating a shared internet culture.

Once upon a time in the late 20th century, a company called Despair Inc. started an unintentional revolution. Creating parodies and spoofs of typical workplace posters, particularly the classic format of an image (of something beautiful like a mountain) against a black background and some vague positive mantra to boost the morale of office-bound employees, the art form known as demotivational posters became increasingly popular.

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One thing led to another from these sarcastic, anti-establishment posters, spawning an array of online characters, cat videos, epic fails, "owned" compilations, and more upon the internet. Today, internet humor continues to deepen and spiral out of control, becoming so meta to the point where, a few years ago, the letter "E" was a joke. Here, we look at a handful of iconic memes that stemmed one way or another from video games.

Updated April 29, 2024 by Jason Wojnar: The thing about popular memes is that people who use them might not even understand their origins. Those sharing these gaming-inspired memes below could very well not be gamers in the slightest. That's why lists like these are important; to give credit where credit is due. To that end, we updated it with a few more classic memes to let you all know where they came from.

There are some light spoilers for Portal and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in this list, but we would hope your backlog isn't stretched all the way back to 2007 and 2009.

13 Ramirez: Do Everything/Defend Burgertown

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Modern Warfare 2's story is as serious as a heart attack, but it's impossible not to laugh about the over-the-top stakes. Once World War 3 breaks out, you control James Ramirez, a soldier defending the US from invading Russian forces.

One mission places special emphasis on defending a fictional fast food restaurant, Burger Town. Fans really ran with this, acting as if defending Burger Town was tantamount to winning the war. They also joked about how Sergeant Foley, voiced by Keith David, constantly commands Ramirez by shouting his name before giving the order. He does it so much, it just turned into him asking Ramirez to do everything.

You don't need to plug in a PS3 or Xbox 360 to experience this, since the Modern Warfare 2 Remaster is playable on modern consoles and is an excellent way to experience this 2009 classic.

12 The Cake Is A Lie

Portal

Throughout the entirety of Portal, GLaDOS constantly promises Chell a cake at the end of the test. Of course, all that awaits the protagonist is certain death. Even after Chell escapes the trap and tries to turn the tables on the malicious AI, GLaDOS still tries to entice her with cake.

The game's popularity led to the "Cake is a lie" phrase and the companion cube being used in various memes in 2007 and for a few years afterward. If Portal ever comes back, will the meme also make a comeback or will it be seen as a tired bit of humor?

11 Press F To Pay Respects

Call Of Duty: Advance Warfare

The Call of Duty series is known for levels and sequences that take place outside of warzones and infiltration missions. The interactivity in these levels leads to some humorous moments, like when it told players to press F to pay respects in front of a fallen heroe's casket in Advanced Warfare.

Did the developers know how humorous most of the gaming community would find this? Regardless of what they thought, the Internet took the idea and ran with it, putting it into any meme about failure or disappointment.

10 Do A Barrel Roll!

Star Fox

To this day, if you enter "do a barrel roll" into Google and hit search, you're in for a neat surprise. The phrase, which refers to the aerial act of rotating a vehicle 360 degrees to evade gunfire, was a widespread meme in the mid-2000s, with the quote often pitted against images of upside-down cars or fallen ships: "Do a barrel roll! You're doing it wrong".

The 1997 game Star Fox 64 is where the meme comes from, with air commander Peppy Hare to blame for bringing the phrase back into popularity, instructing you to barrel roll your way to safety.

9 Ah Sh*t, Here We Go Again…

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Some meme templates just write themselves. On his return to Grove Street, CJ walks down an empty street and says to himself those famous lines, the empty space to the left of the screen left vacant for an unending number of meme interpretations and Photoshop opportunities.

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Usually bordering on or fully embracing the pessimistic, such as "when you wake up and go to work," this is one of GTA San Andreas' more accessible and consequently more widespread memes. The image, clip, and soundbite are now used as staple reactions, particularly in gaming when a difficult section or boss fight is encountered.

8 Falcon, PUNCH!

Super Smash Bros.

As the years go by without a new F-Zero title since 2004, it's safe to assume that the Nintendo racing series is no more. But extensively worthy of being in the Meme Hall of Fame (if ever such a thing exists) is the iconic Falcon Punch meme.

Made legendary by the spandex-donning Captain Falcon in the Super Smash Bros. series, the slow but immensely powerful Falcon Punch was accompanied by him stating those lines, narrating his fight moves to dramatic effect. As expected, any video of anyone getting punched was being edited with the iconic "Falcon… Punch!" with a flash of lightning for extra attention to detail.

7 Baka Mitai

Yakuza 5

When voice actor Takaya Kuroda sang Baka Mitai for Yakuza 5, little did he know that the karaoke anthem would be immortalized online in meme form. The song, a playable karaoke track in the quick-time-event minigames in the Yakuza series, captured the hearts and imaginations of players worldwide.

The tragic-yet-uplifting ballad is often bass-boosted at the triumphant climax of the song, typically paired with fail videos at the prime moments of misfortune. Usually, the screen will pause and zoom in on the incident as the track plays, used similarly to the classic "It was at this moment he knew, he f*cked up" meme.

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6 All We Had To Do, Was Follow The Damn Train, CJ!

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Infinitely quotable and equally meme-able, Big Smoke is a gem within the GTA San Andreas goldmine. This particular quote is in reference to the seminal game's notoriously difficult mission entitled Wrong Side of The Tracks, in which Los Santos gangsters CJ and Big Smoke must chase down a train and gun down the fleeing Vagos Gang members.

Upon failing the mission, Big Smoke will chastise CJ and yell the memorable quote. The meme gained such notoriety that even Rockstar referenced it in GTA 5 with a trophy called "Better than CJ" in a train-centric mission called Derailed.

5 Sus

Among Us

Unless it has already, "sus" is a safe bet for meme terms soon to be added to the dictionary. The incredibly widespread three-letter word is short for "suspicious" and became a staple internet term in late 2020. Popularised by the online multiplayer murder mystery sensation Among Us, players are tasked with identifying an impostor crewmate in their band of astronauts.

Players would direct their suspicions by calling out "sussy" players with the abbreviated word. It's uncommon now to find the word in areas of the web unrelated to the game at all, commonly paired next to images and clips of people or pets acting unusual in any way, shape or form.

4 You Died

Souls Games

A generally self-explanatory meme format, You Died utilizes the all too familiar death screen, message, and sound effects from the Dark Souls series. The spine-tingling shimmer of noise and a deathly message indicating that you have, once again, died has been applied to a vast number of videos primarily involving failure or injury.

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It's certainly not the only usage of iconic video game death sequences, but it is one of the most universally recognized. Others include "Wasted" from the GTA series, Mario's classic Game Over theme, Pac-Man's depressing death cry when he's obliterated by ghosts, and Minecraft's jarring "You Died!" screen paired with its distinctly calm music.

Dark Souls fans should be well acquainted with this message, since the series is notoriously difficult and anybody who plays it will surely have died at least once.