WEBVTT - Tech Memes 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in text with technology with text Stuff from how 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:14.880 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:19.120 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland, senior writer for how Stuffed 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:21.680 works dot Com. I was trying to come up with 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.800 a topic that would be appropriate for April Fools since 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:29.400 this episode were published shortly before April Fools Day. Luckily 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.800 I didn't have to come up with it on my own. Today, 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.960 our topic comes to us courtesy of a little listener mail. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:42.560 Dan writes in with all your base or belonged to us, 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.280 I would love to hear your take on the history 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:50.640 of this ancient meme. And indeed, the Babylonians in their 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.760 writings did talk of the one who would bring note 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.440 it's not that ancient, I mean, I guess in the 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:00.880 terms of technology, it's kind of old. I told Dan 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:05.679 that this particular story, while great, wouldn't quite merit a 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.120 full episode by itself. So we're gonna look at a 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:11.160 few different memes that tie in with technology in general 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.080 and video games in particular. I'll probably do more episodes 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.360 about big tech memes and where they came from in 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.720 the future, but today we'll just examine a few. So 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:25.120 where do some of the most famous video game memes 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.200 come from, and how did they spread around and what 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.640 do they mean? Well, first things first, let's define what 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.360 a meme is. And the nice thing is we don't 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:38.840 really have to because Richard Dawkins did it for us 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:43.039 in a book called The Selfish Gene Now. Dawkins proposed 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.119 the idea of a meme meme being something we would 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.320 use to describe an idea that spreads quickly throughout a 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.840 population of people. That population, by the way, does not 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:54.680 have to be regional. You know, you don't have to 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.400 say the population of a town or the population of 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:02.080 a country. That population could be uh any group of 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:07.360 like minded individuals within a particular subculture. And the Internet 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:12.840 makes it possible for memes to spread globally rapidly. It's 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.200 important to point out that memes don't have to be 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.240 on the Internet at all. They that's one of the 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:22.400 ways that we encounter memes, but that's just one method 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:26.280 of distribution. A meme is an idea. The method Internet 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.320 is just a handy way of getting those ideas spread 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:31.720 throughout the globe. So while an image with a funny 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:36.399 joke on it is a meme, not all memes are 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.000 images with a funny joke on them. It's just one 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.000 single type of meme. It's kind of one of those 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.239 all Dalmatians are dogs, but not all dogs are Dalmatians 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:51.800 kind of thing. Some memes spread primarily through a specific culture. Culture, 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.799 so gamers are a good example. We're gonna talk a 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:56.799 lot about video games, and a lot of these memes 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.080 spread at least at first primarily through gamers, some of 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:04.639 which then ended up going into mainstream. So that's where 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:06.880 I'm going to start with this discussion, and I'm going 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.680 to answer Dan's question first. I'm not gonna make him wait. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:14.520 The meme all your base are belonged to us as 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.239 part of a group of memes that all originate from 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:21.280 the same source material, and that source is a video 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:25.440 game called Zero Wing, which came out in nineteen nine. 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:28.720 It's a side scrolling game in which the player controls 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:33.639 a spaceship called a Zig, blasting through various enemies. Now 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:39.160 those enemies are robotic aliens called cats C. A T. S. 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.280 And in the very beginning of the game, it's revealed 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.760 that this group of aliens had recently signed a peace 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:50.000 treaty with Earth, but are now betraying that treaty. And 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.680 if you understand Japanese and you play the original game, 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.160 all of this is very very clear. It's a little 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.160 less clear in other version. You see, the game started 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.240 out as an arcade game in Japan, and it was 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.240 really really popular, so it was one of the ones 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.800 that was chosen to be ported over to home video 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:13.560 game systems in Japan. It was also ported to the 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.640 Sega Mega Drive in Europe. Here in the United States 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.560 we called the Mega Drive the Sega Genesis. It's the 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:25.599 same machine, but two different names. So the European version 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:30.360 of the Zero Wing game featured some poorly translated dialogue 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:35.440 in which the original Japanese was transformed into mangled English. 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:40.120 And what follows is a reading of the transcript of 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:44.000 the first part of this game in the Mega Drive version. 0:04:46.839 --> 0:05:00.480 What happened? What turn on you? How are your allonged us? 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:13.400 You are destruction? What do you say? You captain? You 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:19.680 know what you're doing? Move zick for great justice. It's 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:23.080 really moving, isn't it. It's a kind of gets you. Yeah, 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.719 it's it's like the Braveheart speech. Really is it's really 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.960 what it comes down to. So interesting fact, the United 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:32.559 States never got that version of the game, at least 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.479 not officially. People might have ordered an import, but the 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:39.040 official version with the terrible translation came from the European market, 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.599 not the US market. And it's a bit surprising that 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.920 this meme even took off at all because the game's 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.960 release preceded the Worldwide Web. The earliest known examples of 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:54.440 the memes appearing online date to n Now, that is 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.760 pretty ancient for Internet memes, because most of them kind 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.120 of surface and then maybe they're popular for a few 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:03.080 months or a little over a year, and then they 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:05.560 kind of fade away. But you also have to remember 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.320 nearly a decade had passed since the game came out 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.240 before it even showed up on the Internet in the 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.960 first place, so it's pretty incredible now. Despite the long 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:18.640 amount of time between the game's release and its celebration online, 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:23.760 the meme did take off. Various forums, particularly on gaming sites, 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:28.040 saw the phrase popping up in discussions and profiles. Some 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:32.640 musicians and other creators began to incorporate phrases and references 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:37.080 in their works, popularizing it even more. By two thousand one, 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.600 Wired had covered the story, and soon it got the 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:43.200 attention of other mainstream outlets like The Guardian, the San 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:48.040 Francisco Chronicle, and USA Today. The phrases from this translation 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:50.880 live on to this day. You will often hear people 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.200 refer to or see references to all your base are 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.599 belonged to us. And this really shows you the power 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.120 of memes. The good ones catch on quickly and spread 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:05.360 rapidly through various groups and stick around. They don't just 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.880 get really popular and then disappear. Uh. It's it's an 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.560 interesting kind of pop culture in a way. Some of 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.200 them can break free of their origins have become mainstream 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:19.520 pop culture and not just stay in those little enclaves 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.120 that they began in. But some of those might be 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:27.400 stuck in smaller niches. For example, do a barrel roll? 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.200 That could be one of those Hey, Dylan, do you 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:34.560 recognize do a barrel roll? Dylan does recognize? Do a 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.880 barrel roll. This meme comes from a Nintendo sixty four 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.520 game called Star Fox sixty four, which in itself was 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.200 a popular sequel to an earlier Super Nintendo game simply 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:50.400 called Star Fox. Now. In both games, you pilot a 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:54.440 spaceship and you can dodge incoming enemy laser fire by 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.360 doing a barrel roll. But in Star Fox sixty four 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.880 the maneuver received special attention. And there's a point when 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.640 you're heading toward the stationary turrets that are firing on you, 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:10.400 and that's when a character I think he's a donkey 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.880 pops up. His name is Peppy Hair, and he shouts 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.280 do a barrel roll, just as Dylan did earlier. And 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.560 thus a meme was born. By the Worldwide Web was 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:23.680 becoming a household name. It would take a few more 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.280 years for it to develop its cheeky side, and on 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:31.240 January two thousand four, someone created a definition of do 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:37.520 a barrel roll on the Urban Dictionary, that great repository 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:43.200 of information both entertaining and incredibly base. And in two 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:46.080 thousand and six, a group of four chan pranksters began 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:48.760 to call Tom Green during his talk show and they 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.080 would just shout do a barrel roll over the phone. Now, 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:54.520 to be fair, this was not a case of people 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.319 being unsolicited mischief makers, because Tom Green's career was based 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.200 off of hosting Collin shows in which most of the 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.800 calls were some sort of prank. So it's not like 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.000 Tom Green was new to this kind of experience. It 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:12.360 was just a very specific implementation. The meme found its 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:15.600 way on numerous images and animated gifts on the Internet. 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.160 And yes, I pronounce it gifts. I know that the 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.840 creator of the format says Jeff's but he's wrong. Gift 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.280 is how it should be said. I'm planting my flag 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:29.800 on this one. Not my flag anyway. There are plenty 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.920 of examples of this meme online, usually involving animations of 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:37.079 people or animals flipping over accompanied by the text do 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:41.600 a barrel roll and even if you Easter eggs, So 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.600 here's one. If you want an Easter egg, go to Google, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.120 just Google dot com and do a search for do 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.040 a barrel roll. Go ahead, give it a shot. It's 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.320 pretty cute. All right. I got a several more memes 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.280 I want to talk about, but before I do, let's 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:10.080 take a quick break to thank sponsor. All Right, we're back, 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.360 and the next meme I want to talk about is 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:16.839 the zerg rush. Dylan, do you know this one? Dylan 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:19.079 does not know this one. This refers to a tactic 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.360 in the game StarCraft. So StarCraft is a real time 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.400 strategy game with the science fiction theme, and you play 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:30.280 one of three different factions in the game. You control 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.959 various units and methods of production, and you participate in 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.480 strategic battles in order to control essentially what is a board. 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.440 So you build various facilities which allow you to create units, 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:44.680 and you use those units to try and defeat the 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.520 other player. So one of those three species are the Zurg, 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:51.640 and that's of course in the original StarCraft game, and 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:56.360 they are insect like critters. Their main advantage is that 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.120 you can make an awful lot of them relatively quickly. 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.720 So the individual units, particularly the starting ones, aren't very strong, 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.360 but sheer numbers can make up for it. Because your 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.400 production time is so short, you can produce a lot 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.480 more units as Zerg than people playing the other factions 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.760 in the game. So one go to strategy is just 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.200 to ramp up unit production as quickly as possible and 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.920 just overwhelm your opponent with sheer numbers, just hordes of soldiers, 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:29.640 and that is the Zerg rush. It's a rush both 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.640 because you are overcome by huge numbers and that it 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:37.120 happens pretty quickly. It's such an effective tactic that it 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.800 became pretty common in StarCraft games for players to establish 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:45.160 some rules of decorum. That it was considered kind of 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.400 common courtesy to say when someone would be allowed to 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.760 launch a Zerg rush. Typically you'd say that Zerg players 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.240 would have to withhold attacking in that way for a 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.160 certain number of minutes, like you might say no Zurg 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:01.960 rush for a minutes, meaning eight minutes of the game 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:04.720 have to pass before you can do a Zurg rush, 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.360 and that gives the other players an opportunity to shore 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:09.960 up their defenses or otherwise work on a strategy to 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:14.959 survive an incoming attack. Otherwise, it was largely seen as 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:19.480 unfair that you were taking advantage of a very simple 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.240 mechanism within the game, and you were defeating people not 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.880 through superior strategy, but just by the fact that the 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:33.680 game favors these underpowered but but numerous units. As for 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.880 the meme, the story goes that there was a multiplayer 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.240 match in which a Korean group was controlling the Zurg 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:44.160 forces and an English speaking group were the opponents, and 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.640 early in the match, a group of Zurg units began 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.040 to attack, at which point one of the English speaking 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:53.880 participants typed omg Zerg rush and the Korean player typed 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.120 kei ki ki k e k e k e, which 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:00.040 is akin to l O l in English. You I 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.840 sometimes encounter kiki ki along with zurg rush references in 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.920 this meme, and those references tend to be on images 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.960 or enemy gifts or something being swarmed by something else. 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.079 So I've seen one where there's a plane that looks 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.240 like it's being surrounded by a big flock of birds 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.920 and it was labeled zerg rush. Or you might see 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:25.800 one type of person completely surrounded by other people and 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.240 that might be zerg rush. Like I would imagine a 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:31.960 picture a dragon con, for example, with a whole bunch 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.880 of people in costume and one person who's clearly not 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.200 in costume just stuck in the middle of it. That 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.280 would be something that you might see zerg rush attached to. 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.360 Oh and Google, by the way, has an Easter Egg 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.400 for this meme too, So you can just go to 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.240 Google search and type in zerg rush. That's a z 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.760 e r g rush. Let me know how you do 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.360 if you try that out. Now, not all video game 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:58.840 memes are about criticizing a game mechanic or making fun 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.520 of a specific game, or even celebrating a specific games 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.560 similar just a celebration of good game design and writing, 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.880 And I think that's the case with the cake is 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.240 a lie. That meme comes from the game Portal, which 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.439 published in two thou seven. Now. In Portal, the player 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:16.599 takes on the role of a young woman who is 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.960 being held captive in a scientific research facility, and her 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:25.680 captor is a passive, aggressive, snarky artificial intelligence named GLaDOS, 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:31.160 and GLaDOS is constantly goading the character further down the 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:35.280 pathway to keep trying to get through increasingly difficult puzzles. 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:41.520 GLaDOS is constantly there, criticizing you and then giving you lackluster, 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:49.720 insincere praise whenever you successfully navigate one of these tough puzzles. Uh, 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.440 you get a lot of snark from GLaDOS, including one 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.920 of the greatest post credit songs of all time, written 0:14:55.960 --> 0:15:00.480 by Jonathan Colton in the voice of GLaDOS. One explore 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.880 the game world, you can encounter stuff like messages scrawled 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.760 on walls, and the messages are from an old lab 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.080 worker named Doug Ratman, and one of the famous messages 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.680 is the phrase the cake is a lie written repeatedly. 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:19.200 The reason for this is Gladows constantly tells you that 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.960 if you are to complete all the tasks, you will 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.760 get cake, and that the cake will be amazing. Occasionally, 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.360 GLaDOS will even give you the recipe for a cake. 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.600 There's a lot of cake, at least references to it 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:38.000 in Portal. But Doug Ratman, the character that has left 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:42.520 his evidence behind, says that the cake is a lie. 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.200 And for a while people use the cake as is 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.720 a lie as just a general reference to portal. But 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:52.080 gradually this phrase took on a more general meaning, and 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.000 it came to mean the thing you are looking for 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:59.640 doesn't exist, or even you are trying to achieve something 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:04.240 that isn't possible. Urban Dictionary translates it rather eloquently. I 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:09.720 think into your promised reward is merely a fictitious motivator. 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.440 So you can use this idiom to describe a common 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.320 thread and a lot of stories. For example, in the 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.720 classic The Wizard of Oz, the Wizard promises rewards to 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.400 Dorothy and her friends if they can get rid of 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.880 the wicked Witch of the West. Only it turns out 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.360 the Wizard is a flim flam man with no real 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.520 powers of his own. Apart from being a fast talker. 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.000 The cake is a lie. He doesn't have the ability 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.760 to give the characters what they want. In fact, when 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.960 they returned victorious. He bestows gifts on them simply by 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.880 telling each character that they already possessed the thing that 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.720 they want, which is a good thing, since the Wizard 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.560 had no way to deliver upon his promises. Now, some 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:54.920 memes aren't about specific games at all, but rather gaming 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.160 cliches in general, and why the big ones is called 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:02.520 video game logic. Now, this refers to things that happen 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:06.760 in video games that defy common sense. For example, a 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.280 popular meme in this category has a picture of Master Chief, 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:13.800 who is the protagonist of the Halo franchise of games, 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.600 and the meme says, can flip an extremely heavy tank, 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:22.160 can't control gun recoil. So this refers to the fact 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:24.080 that if you come up to a tank that's on 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.119 its side and you press the right button, master Chief 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:29.640 will move the tank so that you can get into it. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.080 And yet every time you fire your gun, it flies 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:33.480 up in the air, and you think, well, if you're 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.720 strong enough to move a tank over, can you control 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:39.720 the movement of a handgun. It does seem to defy logic, 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:44.679 and this is pretty common, and it's not. That's not 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.720 the only example. I mean, sometimes it's something like invisible 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.800 walls that you are free to roam anywhere until you 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.560 encounter an invisible wall, which in the video game world 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.199 makes sense, but when you think of it outside of 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:58.919 that context, you start to question, why is this a 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:03.240 design in this game? Or maybe there is a game 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:06.480 rule that says if you even step foot in the 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:11.920 edge of water, your character will drown. That's another instance 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:14.359 of video game logic, like especially a character that seems 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.639 to be resilient to almost any kind of damage, like 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:18.760 you can be shot fourteen times in the chest and 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.760 keep going, but if you touch water, you you immediately drown. 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:28.640 Your toe is apparently where you breathe, and you're a goner. Uh. 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:33.800 Lots of different variations of this exist online, and mainly 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:36.119 it's just to point out how video games can be 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:41.640 inconsistent with their logic, that things that the game allows 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.560 in some cases mean that things that doesn't allow in 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.920 other cases don't really make sense. And uh, it really 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:53.680 kind of helps bring attention to shortcomings in games. Sometimes 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.120 those shortcomings are necessary just to make the game work properly. 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:01.040 Another example of a short coming in a game is 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:05.600 repetitive dialogue, particularly in non player characters that you might 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:09.680 encounter in something like a role playing game. Now, it's 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:13.280 not really feasible to create a game in which everyone 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:17.320 you encounter has a distinct personality and a non repetitive 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:21.240 dialogue option, particularly for games that have hundreds of characters 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:23.119 in them. So the more characters you have, the harder 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.399 it is to give each one an individual personality and 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:31.440 history and conversational options. So that means sometimes you hear 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:35.360 the same phrases repeated, and sometimes that gets a bit comedic, 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.399 and that is the case with our next meme, I 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:42.200 took an arrow in the knee. That one comes from Skyrim, 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.080 which is from Bethesda, and that game came out in 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:48.840 two thousand eleven. It's a big, sprawling fantasy game across 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.080 an enormous map, and that map has several towns and 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.280 villages and outposts in it, and most of those places 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:59.440 have guards living there, and there are male and female guards, 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.000 and they often have different voices. They've got several different 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.680 voice actors to record the same lines of dialogue, and 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.440 that's the problem. They all pull from the same pool 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:13.920 of scripted lines. So while the guards you see may 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.359 look different and sound different from each other, they all 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:21.840 have very similar stories to share like. It turns out 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.399 they all have the exact same background, which includes a 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:27.879 mysterious incident in which they were shot in the knee 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.560 by somebody. So the actual line of dialogue is I 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:34.320 used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.280 an arrow in the knee. Now it doesn't pop up 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:40.119 every time you meet a guard, but it does happen occasionally, 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:44.200 and that line is so distinct that's noticeable every single 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.400 time you hear it. So there are tons of memes 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.560 based off this game experience that are video montages of 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:55.040 guards talking about getting shot in the knee, which gets 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.080 funnier the longer it goes because you realize that Skyram 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:02.719 is almost entirely bought related by guards with a limp uh. 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.960 There are variations on images in which the first part 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:08.720 of the phrase gets replaced by something else. So, for example, 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.159 I saw one with a My Little Pony character on 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:13.920 it that says I used to wonder what friendship could be, 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:16.720 then I took an arrow in the knee. But my 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.560 favorite was one that I couldn't immediately identify. I didn't 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.520 know what video game it was from, but it showed 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:26.920 like a a typical fantasy villain, something that you might 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.119 see in like Diablo or or something along those lines. 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:33.800 But it was a headless character. So it was this big, 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:37.600 monstrous suit of armor but with no head, and the 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:39.960 caption said I used to have a face. Then I 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.320 took an arrow to the knee, which makes perfect sense. Really, 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:47.119 I love that one. I once actually pitched a short 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:51.040 comedy commercial about a guard recruitment service that would supply 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.919 villages and towns with guards, and their method would be 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:56.679 to seek out adventurers and then shoot them in the knee, 0:21:57.200 --> 0:21:59.119 and then the only suitable job they would have at 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.000 that point is guard and voila instant security force for 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:05.040 your town. But I never did make that video. Maybe 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:08.919 one day I will. I've got some other memes to 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:12.879 talk about, including the creepiest one on this list, but 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:15.359 before I get to that, let's take another quick break 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:28.520 to thank our sponsor. Now some memes go beyond being silly, 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:32.399 and now it's time to talk about slender Man. And 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:34.440 actually to talk about slender Man, we have to talk 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.560 about spooky spaghetti. No, I'm sorry, I mean I'm at 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:41.160 creepy pasta. And here's where the old man and Me surfaces. 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:43.320 Because I gotta be honest with you guys. I had 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:46.199 to look all this stuff up because I'm old. I 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:49.200 know what slender Man is, but the creepy pasta stuff 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:53.000 that's after my time on the Internet. So I had 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:56.640 to actually learn about this stuff, which was really interesting actually, 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.440 So for those who do not know, there's this nomenon 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:04.120 on the Internet called creepy pasta. Now that term actually 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:08.200 is a twist on an older Internet slang word called 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:11.879 copy pasta, which first started popping up on the forum 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:14.600 four chan in the mid two thousand's. It's a word 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:19.159 used to designate an example of viral copy and pasted text. 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:23.040 So this is when you will encounter like a paragraph 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.440 of text that has clearly been copied from somewhere else 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:28.919 and pasted into this forum, and it just starts to 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:32.040 spread from that point forward. You see it all over 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:35.840 the Internet, particularly in forums and Facebook. You'll see a 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:37.919 lot of copy pasta. On Facebook. I see it all 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:43.200 the time where people have uh copy and pasted a 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:47.520 a message they clearly didn't write it themselves, and it 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:50.600 has gone viral from that point. Now, creepy pasta is 0:23:50.600 --> 0:23:54.240 a more specific type of this copy and paste viral information. 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:57.320 It's a term that describes stories that have a horror 0:23:57.320 --> 0:24:02.280 element to them, frequently that is supernatural in nature, although 0:24:02.320 --> 0:24:05.159 not necessarily, but a lot of them are kind of 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:09.520 paranormal creepy stuff. This, by the way, it's not a 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:12.400 new thing. I mean, we've had folklore for as long 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:14.960 as people have been able to tell stories. Before the Internet, 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:18.359 we would use technology to share these kinds of information 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:22.120 using faxes. It was actually called facx lore. People would 0:24:22.119 --> 0:24:26.680 share jokes and stories, cartoons, and other printed material by 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:30.320 faxing it to each other. So there's something innate about 0:24:30.440 --> 0:24:33.480 humans that drives us to create and share these stories 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:37.119 and ideas, whether it's through the Internet or a facts 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:41.040 or just sitting around a fire chatting away. Anyway, let's 0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:45.040