The 25 Funniest Video Game Memes (2024)

Your Princess Is In Another Castle

Origin:Super Mario Bros.

Mario goes through a lot for the woman he loves. Jumping over a bunch of stuff, hitting other stuff with his head, and then finally beating the king of all the stuff in the kingdom.

Needless to say, it's more than a little frustrating to get to what you think is the end of a game, onlyto find out the princess you'd been intent on saving was actually a little mushroom lackie all along.

The phrase made it's way around the internet as an expression of disappointment after chasing a seemingly wonderful goal.

Spy's Sappin' Mah Sentry!

Origin:Team Fortress 2

Few life-long feuds have raged as fiercly as the one between the Team Fortress 2Spy and Engineer. All the little Engineer wants to do is to create and protect his instruments of death, and that nasty Spy does nothing but sabotage his plans.

The panicked cries from an Engineer under duress can be heard through all of ctf_2fort as Spies slink off into the night only to return again to aggravate once more.

It's one of the best examples of trolling as a game mechanic, and has caused more than a few frustrated Engineers to ragequit.

You Have Died of Dysentery

Origin:The Oregon Trail

Pioneer life was no picnic, but that doesn't mean we can't laugh at their misfortunes! There's nothing more horrific than losing a loved one to a debilitating disease like dysentery, but as one of the few programmed ailments in The Oregon Trailit became a sticking point for gamers stuck playing the title during computer class in the 3rd grade.

If there's one thing that damned game taught us it's that a grueling pace will often lead to sudden and irreversable death.

Well Excuuuuuse Me, Princess

Origin:The Legend of Zelda

The Internet is full of useless opinions, spouted by overprivileged individuals with no real sense of how the real world works. Sometimes these individuals need a dose of perspective, and a catchphrase quote from the infamous Legend of Zeldacartoon is easily one of the best ways to issue a reality check.

There's nothing more degrading than a tunic-wearing, fairy-loving, elf-boy patronizing your plights in an exaggerated mock falsetto. You tell 'em Link!

Giant Enemy Crab

Origin:Genji: Days of the Blade

For all the spectacle put into the announcement of the PlayStation 3, Sony's 2006 E3 keynote was an outright embarrassment.

With honorable mentions for worst on stage quote of all-time laced through the presentation, things took a dramatic turn for the worse when a representative declared their new game, Genji: Days of the Bladewas based on real battles of feudal Japanese history before unveiling a giant enemy crab that needed to be flipped over and attacked for MASSIVE DAMAGE.

Naturally, this became a joke online and is still repeated to this day.

kekekeke

Origin:StarCraft

StarCraftand Korea go together like waffles and whipped cream, so it's no surprise that a few Koreanisms made their way into gaming vernacular.

Translated, "kekekeke" is the Korean equivalent to the English "lololol" and was confused by Western players as an imitation of the sound zerglings make when attacking.

The Korean laughter abbreviation became recognized as a Zerg battle cry and has since been misappropriated to images of all sorts of large armies taking an objective by force of numbers.

Grabbin' Peels

Origin:Left 4 Dead

Repeated phrases have a way of working their way deep into the gaming lexicon. Left 4 Deadleft its mark with Louis' constantly pointing out every time he found pills.

As his cure-all remedy for everything, his excitement bordered junkie status. It found its way around the Internet shortly after the game's release and became a catchphrase synonymous with the excitement of finding additional health.

So, I Heard You Like Mudkips...

Origin:Pokémon

Of all the nonsensical phrases to come out ofPokémon fandom, this one has always made the least sense. What started as a greentext story on 4chan quickly turned into a series of in-jokes with no bearing on the original tale.

To people who knew what the first post was actually about, the ubiquitous declaration of less informed meme followers that they "LOOOOOOOOOVE MUDKIPZ" was extra hilarious considering that premiere post was an account of a dude making sweet love to a plushie.

Weegee

Origin:Mario is Missing!

Luigi rarely gets first billing in his games, but maybe that's because he's secretly a socially awkward creep.

In Mario is Missing!players take control of the other brother in an educational search around the world for everyone's favourite super plumber. For some reason though, the animators gave him an odd idle stance that has Luigi standing perfectly erect with his bulging eyes staring forward in an unblinking trance.

Naturally, the Internet delighted in putting the creepy face next to all sorts of situations, reflecting their own incredible inner awkwardness.

Falcon Punch

Origin:Super Smash Bros.

Captain Falcon commands a mean power attack with his Falcon Punch. Able to do more damage in a single blow than almost every other melee attack, it has become the ire of many sloppy Smash Bros.players.

It's the moment of hesitation, designed to give players a chance to escape, that makes it the go-to power move for those seeking a little drama in their violence. It makes the perfect caption to any devastating blow that hangs a moment before impact, and has become the go-to warcry for gamers who really don't know anything about fighting in real life.

Poképuns

Origin:Pokémon

Pokémon have some pretty weird names, but they make wonderful puns when repurposed as song lyrics or popular phrases.

Replacing a few key words with an image of a Pokémon with a similar sounding name produces great results, as it takes just long enough to click before the laughs kick in.

It takes some keen understanding of language and a clever use of phrasing to make these work sometimes but when they do, they're comedy gold.

im in ur base killin ur doods

Origin: StarCraft

Strategy game fans are notorious for their bravado, taunting each other while decimating entire armies in the name of glory. Nothing is more horrifying than knowing your opponent has infiltrated your fortifications and is destroying your forces.

Of course, this is made all the more embarrassing when your enemy makes you aware of this with an annoying 1337speak phrase. The phrase hit memetic levels when it started getting repurposed for all sorts of actions.

Guile Theme Goes With Everything

Origin:Street Fighter II

It's no secret that Street Fighter II had some of the best music of the 16-bit era, but what few realized at the time was how the theme to Guile's stage could instantly turn any situation into an epic event.

Broken free of it's life as a soundtrack to his overly-contested airfield, Guile's theme was added to a string of video clips that instantly became 100% better thanks to the new music.

If you doubt any of this, just stick it on your iPod next time you're grocery shopping and see if you don't feel like a badass picking up some milk.

Ramirez, Do Everything!

Origin:Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

First person shooters have a tendancy to overaccentuate the hero's ability to get things done. During part of the campaign where players lived through the eyes of US soldier Private James Ramirez, they were tasked with nearly every objective critical to saving the country.

While this brought about a whole new meaning to the term on-man-army, it became the laughing stock of the Internet as meme fans constantly tried to one-up each other with increasingly absurd an impossible tasks for the single soldier to complete.

It's Dangerous to Go Alone

Origin:The Legend of Zelda

We all need a little protection sometimes, just a little something to keep us safe from the world's dangers. For Link, that was a sword given to him by a kindly - and just a little creepy - old man living in a random cave.

The brilliance of this meme is that the sword can be supplanted with anything and the viewer instantly begins imagining defending themselves from monsters and demons with it, no matter how absurd that may be.

Geddan

Origin:Goldeneye

What originally started as a routine practice in the glitching community, the effects of cartridge tilting a copy of Goldeneyefor the Nintendo 64 yielded some legendary results. As the character models spazzed out and contorted rapidly into impossible poses, it captured attention.

When set to music it became a strange new tecnhology-driven dance that used hundreds of still images stitched together, showing the subject floating about reality in bizarre stances.

Unfortunately, the meme is largely dead thanks to some guy named Victor claiming ownership over the popular song, silencing hundreds of homemade YouTube videos in the process.

Do A Barrel Roll

Origin:StarFox

A simple command made funny thanks to one intrepid hare's repetition was made even funnier by the constant repetition from the Internet en masse.

What started as a simple measure to dodge incoming enemy fire turned into a way to deflect any conversation into outright hysterics.

Though it took almost a decade between the game's release and the meme's creation, it has become one of the most ubiquitously recognized memes in video game history. For a little extra fun, try typing the phrase into Google; you won't be disappointed.