10 Famous Gaming Memes Explained

Are you familiar with the popular expression "I'll go on one foot and come back on the other"? In Japan, the equivalent of this expression comes straight from Super Mario Bros. "B Dash" or "Bダッシュ" can mean "to run", "to go running", "to go in a hurry", and is used as a casual expression, like "I'll run over there". The term has existed since the 80s, originating among gamers because of Super Mario where, to run, you had to hold down the B button on your 8-bit Nintendo controller.

The term became so relevant that it was even published in Japanese dictionaries and is still used today, even now that the B button is no longer the button that makes Mario run. But it's very interesting to see how a game became part of a country's popular culture. There are probably young Japanese people today who say "Bidasshu" without even knowing where the expression came from, just as there are young people who think a floppy disk is a 3D print of the 'Save' icon.

This one is a bit more recent than the previous one and comes straight from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and was said by several guards as they passed you. The phrase "I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee" seemed like just a lament from someone who missed their days as a great adventurer and exploring the frozen lands of northern Tamriel, and is now relegated to being just a city guard.

Between 2011 and 2015, the meme spread across the internet in various videos, among influencers and others who altered the phrase to "I used to be this and that, but then I took an arrow to the knee". There were also those who said that the term "arrow to the knee" was a way for the ancient Norse or Vikings to explain that they got married and, therefore, could no longer go on journeys or wars, as if the arrow to the knee had left them unable to fight. Now, with the amount of arrows and fireballs, sword blows and lightning bolts that the Dragonborn takes during the adventure, if an arrow to the knee incapacitated him, Alduin would’ve easily won and destroyed the world.

The phrase "The cake is a lie" from the game Portal was uttered by the villain GLaDOS to trick the protagonist and try to prevent her from escaping the experiment complex with the Portal Gun. Of course, GLaDOS didn't actually intend to give the protagonist any cake, and it's quite likely she didn't believe the story, but regardless, the meme stuck.

The phrase quickly became a meme on the internet in general: people started using it whenever someone offered something tempting or promising that wasn't going to happen. "The cake is a lie" became a recurring joke in forums and social networks, parodied in images and videos. Here in Brazil, sometimes the phrase was the response to another famous meme: "stay, we’re having cake".

Portal is a puzzle and action game by Valve where you’re a person trying to escape a scientific testing complex and flee from an evil AI using a weapon that can open portals from one point to another in a room. Furthermore, references to the cake appear in Portal 2 and in Valve's own games, reinforcing its legacy.

Another meme that remained quite relevant for several years and even made it to Sonic's official Twitter account. This one originated from the official Sonic & Knuckles game cartridge, released in 1994. It came with a novelty called Lock On technology, which allowed you to place another Sonic game on top of the cartridge and modify it. If you put in Sonic 3, it became "Sonic 3 & Knuckles" and played the complete game as it was planned for release. If it was Sonic 2, it became "Sonic 2 & Knuckles" and you played the original game levels with the echidna.

On August 21, 2010, video game critic SomecallmeJohnny published a joke review of the fictional game 'Sonic the Hedgehog 3CD & Knuckles & Knuckles'. Although the "& Knuckles" meme hasn't become popular yet, the repeated use of "& Knuckles" and jokes about lock-on technology could make it a precursor to the meme.

On June 12, 2015, the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account challenged fans to create images related to "& Knuckles". In the following hours, they retweeted several examples submitted by users of the site after the tweet received over 2,900 likes and 1,000 replies in about five and a half years.

This one is still available online to this day.

Released for PlayStation 2 and later for PC/Xbox/PS3 and other platforms, it's set in a fictional state inspired by three Californian cities. The protagonist, Carl "CJ" Johnson, returns to Los Santos after his mother's death and becomes involved once again in gang conflicts, corruption, and crime.

It's not hard to find images of the GTA: San Andreas CJ meme with his back turned, saying the phrase. It appears in the first few minutes of the game and shows that CJ already knows that the situation in the city he returns to after years away hasn't changed and that all the problems he thought he'd left behind are still there, just waiting for him to come back and solve them.

The meme exploded in 2019 and perfectly captures CJ's feelings when confronted with a repetitive and endless situation, or when you're about to do something you promised yourself you wouldn't do again but simply can't avoid.

Another one from Skyrim, but a bit more recent than the previous one. The phrase appears right at the beginning of the game. You, the Dragonborn, were arrested trying to cross the Skyrim border after the start of the civil war between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks. Then, you wake up in a cart, tied up and being taken to the city of Helgen, where you’ll be executed along with the rebellion leader Ulfric Stormcloak and other soldiers, even though you had nothing to do with the matter.

It became really popular in TikTok, mainly those related to people falling and hitting their heads. The video shows the accident, generally in first person, the screen going black and the 'fade in' effect brightening, and the image of the Stormcloak soldier Ralof greeting you with the iconic phrase. Imagine taking such a hard hit that you end up in Skyrim in the cart with Ulfric Stormcloak?

Here, the meme comes from two different franchises, but both basically have the same context. You somehow end up dying! The screen with a dark background with 'Wasted' written in red or turning completely black and saying 'You Died' comes from GTA V and Dark Souls, respectively, and both appear when your character dies in the game. With this context, it's possible to imagine what kind of videos and images are related to it.

Painful falls, hard knocks, and accidents are the main context in which these memes are used, but not only those. Videos where someone is showing off in some way, like speeding in a car and then we see that the car has been stopped by the police and the confident driver is being fined, are also excellent for using the ‘Wasted’ meme. And it must be admitted: seeing someone who likes to show off getting “wasted” is very satisfying.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was released for PlayStation 3/4, Xbox 360/One, and PC and is set in the year 2054, with the game following soldier Jack Mitchell in the Atlas Corporation. Mitchell fights in South Korea and loses his childhood friend Will Irons, who sacrifices himself to save him. In a later scene, Mitchell attends Will's funeral, and during the funeral, the game displays the message "Press F to Pay Respects" above the coffin.

It's a QTE (quick time event) where the player has to press a button for the character to hug their friend's coffin. Although the scene was intended to be emotional, the moment ended up being forced and became a meme. But, unlike others, the meme here isn't just for mockery, but to genuinely indicate that people are paying their respects to the deceased in some way.

It could be an 'F' for 'my condolences to the family of the deceased' or an 'F', which is simply to say that the person died, or even an 'F' to say that the person died and it doesn't matter, life goes on. In short, a single letter has gained various meanings.

It's also a bit old, but it became very popular on the internet. Originating from Age of Empires, Wololo is the sound effect made by clerics when trying to convert an enemy unit into an ally.

It spread in 2005 and remained on the web for a long time, with videos of the game's priest appearing before something unexpected happened and images of the priest appearing and turning friends into enemies, changing colors or other completely random and often nonsensical things, which generated humor simply due to the lack of logic. Wololo is no longer remembered, but it generated some very good comics in its time. Well, not every meme is eternal.