Summary
Gaming has been at the forefront of pop culture for what seems like an eternity at this point,spawning many fan-favorite characters, series, and referencesthat fans will likely parrot until the end of time, shout-out toSkyrim’s ‘arrow to the knee’ line. And, thanks to the popularity of memes, you will almost always see these humorous references out in the wild, even if you have yet to play the game yourself.
Unfortunately, some of the most popular and humorous gaming memes have lost a bit of steam over the years, making them increasingly rare to see online or hear about. And, the thing is, most of them still slap and deserve to remain in the gaming lexicon forever!
Waaay back in 2007, when memes were beginning to take the internet by storm, the popular ‘Can I Has Cheeseburger’ meme was shared by millions on blogs and other social media platforms, essentially kickstarting the ‘lolspeak’ image macros, which are still immensely popular, even today.
Coincidentally,Halo 3was also released that year, and everyone was clamoring for the Bungie employee-exclusive Recon Armor and the Bungie Chest Plat that granted your Spartan a Flaming Head. Thus, giving birth to the ‘I Can Haz Reconz?!’ meme, where players would repeatedly ask Bungie to provide them with the super-exclusive armor set.We miss these days of Halo and the sense of community dearly!
Sticking with the FPS genre, our next long-forgotten meme comes from the originalCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, released in 2009, where one Private First-Class Army Ranger, James Ramirez, was tasked with doing seemingly everything in the game, becoming one of the first memes in thelong-running and exhilarating series.
In-game, you would hear a loud ‘RAMIREZ’ being shouted over gunfire, followed by an order to complete an objective, such as getting to the rooftop, securing Burger Town, or even destroying enemy tanks.
Thanks to the ridiculousness of this, we got tons of memes, with people shouting ‘RAMIREZ,’ following it up with a challenging or impossible task, leading to some of the most hilarious Call of Duty memes of all time. However, as time passed, it eventually gave way to the ‘press F to pay respects’ meme, which is also a banger!
While you may still hear or read it from time to time, the classic ‘do a barrel roll’ line from ol' Peppy inStar Fox 64is seemingly becoming rarer and rarer to see referenced these days, which is quite sad, as it is easily one of our favorites.
Star Fox 64 remains an exceptionally fun game, and every time Peppy drops this zinger when we revisit it, we cannot help but laugh and think about all the times it was referenced or meme’d online or in other series. We hope this meme doesn’t fade away forever, but if it does, we will never forget the joy this one line has brought us over the years!
Next up is a bit of an obscure-ish one these days, as it originated in the OGFinal Fantasy 7, whenthe lovely ‘Aeris’drops the unforgettable line ‘This guy are sick.’ While it’s obviously an unfortunate translation error, we cannot deny how funny it is.
Not all that long ago, you would see this line referenced dang-near EVERYWHERE, especially if someone was sick or dealing with a common cold. These days, however, that is less so the case, which is a shame. We adore Aerith and this line, but understand if it fades into the background permanently due to the excellent Remake Trilogy!
Okay, we get it; this entry may seem bizarre if you’ve been online at all in the early to mid-2000s, but the classic Leeroy Jenkins meme has lost quite a bit of steam throughout the years, becoming much rarer to see referenced in the wild these days.
World of Warcraftgave birth to many iconic gems, but the 2005 footage of the legend Leeroy Jenkins shouting his name as a battle cry and charging into the boss’s arena will forever remain its funniest moment. While you will still hear some people yell ‘LEEEROOOY JEEENKIIINS’ before doing something risky, it’s not nearly as common, and that pains us dearly!
Lastly, another massively popular gaming meme that is becoming less and less relevant in pop culture isPortal’s esoteric joke that simply stated ‘the cake is a lie,’ which unsuspectingly took the internet by storm, becoming a meme that would be supported and referenced for years, even whenPortal 2delivered the cake at the end of its campaign.
Like some of the others on this list, you will still likely see this line referenced and posted online, but only in very, very specific instances. If you see a cake appear in another video game, you will likely see a few ‘the cake is a lie’ comments. Outside of that, not so much these days. We adored this meme to pieces, but it’s slowly fading away into obscurity!
