WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Tech Memes 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.319 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.680 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:19.439 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:23.759 are you? It is time for a tech Stuff classic episode. 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.120 This episode originally published March twenty ninth, twenty seventeen. It 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:32.640 is called tech Memes, and y'all, I honestly don't have 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.720 any memory of what's on this episode. It is very 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:40.280 likely something that at this point is so obvious and 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:45.239 cringe that I hesitated to run it as a classic episode. 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.440 But there's there's a part of me that is morbidly 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:54.120 curious about how bad it is. So I believe in 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.840 a warts and all approach to tech stuff. So here 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:04.160 is this classic episode called tech Meme. Dan writes in 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.520 with all your base are belonged to us. I would 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.200 love to hear your take on the history of this 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:15.800 ancient meme. And indeed, the Babylonians in their writings did 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.520 talk of the one who would bring noe. It's not 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:23.240 that ancient, I mean, I guess in the terms of technology, 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:23.920 it's kind of old. 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:26.600 I told Dan that this particular. 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:31.440 Story, while great, wouldn't quite merit a full episode by itself. 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:33.800 So we're gonna look at a few different memes that 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.320 tie in with technology in general and video games in particular. 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:41.399 I'll probably do more episodes about big tech memes and 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.000 where they came from in the future, but today we'll 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.240 just examine a few. So where do some of the 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.160 most famous video game memes come from? And how did 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.680 they spread around and what did they mean? Well, first 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:59.440 things first, let's define what a meme is. And the 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.960 nice thing is we don't really have to because Richard 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:04.200 Dawkins did it for us in a book called The 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:08.200 Selfish Gene Now. Dawkins proposed the idea of a meme, 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.360 a meme being something we would use to describe an 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:16.440 idea that spreads quickly throughout a population of people. That population, 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:18.520 by the way, does not have to be regional, you know, 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:20.440 you don't have to say the population of a town 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:24.760 or the population of a country. That population could be 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:30.600 any group of like minded individuals within a particular subculture, 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.760 and the Internet makes it possible for memes to spread 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:38.880 globally rapidly. It's important to point out that memes don't 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:43.400 have to be on the Internet at all. That's one 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.000 of the ways that we encounter memes, but that's just 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:50.280 one method of distribution. A meme is an idea. The 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:52.359 Internet is just the handy way of getting those ideas 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.720 spread throughout the globe. So while an image with a 0:02:55.760 --> 0:03:00.280 funny joke on it is a meme, not all memes 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.840 are images with a funny joke on them. It's just 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.040 one single type of meme. It's kind of one of 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.760 those all dalmatians are dogs, but not all dogs are 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:14.640 Dalmatians kind of thing. Some memes spread primarily through a 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.840 specific culture, so gamers are a good example. We're going 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:20.480 to talk a lot about video games, and a lot 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.799 of these memes spread at least at first primarily through gamers, 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:28.320 some of which then ended up going into mainstream. So 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:30.720 that's where I'm going to start with this discussion, and 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.320 I'm going to answer Dan's question first. I'm not going 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.080 to make him wait. The meme all your base are 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.360 belong to us as part of a group of memes 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:43.920 that all originate from the same source material, and that 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.880 source is a video game called Zero Wing, which came 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.800 out in nineteen eighty nine. It's a side scrolling game 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.680 in which the player controls a spaceship called a Zig 0:03:55.480 --> 0:04:00.279 blasting through various enemies. Now those enemies are robotic aliens 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:05.880 called kats Cats, and in the very beginning of the game, 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.680 it's revealed that this group of aliens had recently signed 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.000 a peace treaty with Earth, but are now betraying that treaty. 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:18.039 And if you understand Japanese and you play the original game, 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.520 all of this is very very clear. It's a little 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.520 less clear in other versions. You see, the game started 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.560 out as an arcade game in Japan, and it was 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:31.559 really really popular, so it was one of the ones 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.120 that was chosen to be ported over to home video 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.919 game systems in Japan. It was also ported to the 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:41.960 Sega Mega Drive in Europe. Here in the United States 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.919 we called the Mega Drive the Sega Genesis. It's the 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:49.960 same machine, but two different names. So the European version 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:54.680 of the Zero Wing game featured some poorly translated dialogue 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:59.560 in which the original Japanese was transformed into mangled English. 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.480 And what follows is a reading of the transcript of 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:08.320 the first part of this game in the Mega Drive version. 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:18.880 What happened somebody the bomb? What main screen turn on? 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:20.479 Is you? 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.280 How are you all your base to us? You are 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.440 on the way to destruction. What do you say you 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:30.640 have no chance to survive? 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:36.920 Hah ha, Captain, take off every zig. 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:38.880 You know what you're doing. 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:44.960 Move zig for great justice. It's really moving, isn't it. 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:47.880 It's a kind of gets you. Yeah, it's it's like 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.320 the Brave Heart speech. Really it's it's really what it 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.839 comes down to. So interesting fact, the United States never 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.600 got that version of the game, at least not officially. 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.799 People might have ordered an import, but the official version 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:04.039 with the terrible translation came from the European market, not 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:05.040 the US market. 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:06.400 And it's a bit. 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.799 Surprising that this meme even took off at all because 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.479 the game's release preceded the World Wide Web. The earliest 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.719 known examples of the memes appearing online date to nineteen 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.560 ninety eight. Now, that is pretty ancient for internet memes, 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.599 because most of them kind of surface and then maybe 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.719 they're popular for a few months or a little over 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.000 a year, and then they kind of fade away. But 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.599 you also have to remember nearly a decade had passed 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:33.960 since the game came out before it even showed up 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:35.640 on the Internet in the first place, so it's pretty 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:39.719 incredible now. Despite the long amount of time between the 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:44.719 game's release and its celebration online, the meme did take off. 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:49.480 Various forums, particularly on gaming sites, saw the phrase popping 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:51.640 up in discussions and profiles. 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:53.480 Some musicians and. 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:57.760 Other creators began to incorporate phrases and references in their works, 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:59.440 popularizing it even more. 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.360 By two thousand and one, Wired. 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.360 Had covered the story, and soon it got the attention 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.760 of other mainstream outlets like The Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle, 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.880 and USA. Today, the phrases from this translation live on 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.040 to this day. You will often hear people refer to 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.440 or see references to all your base are belong to us. 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.280 And this really shows you the power of memes. The 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.600 good ones catch on quickly and spread rapidly through various 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:31.520 groups and stick around. They don't just get really popular 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:35.840 and then disappear. It's an interesting kind of pop culture 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:37.840 in a way. Some of them can break three of 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.400 their origins and become mainstream pop culture and not just 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:46.440 stay in those little enclaves that they began in. But 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:50.560 some of those might be stuck in smaller niches. For example, 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.160 do a barrel role that could be one of those, Hey, Dylan, 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.120 do you recognize do a barrel role? N Dylan does 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:00.960 recognize do a barrel role. This meme comes from a 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.480 nineteen ninety seven Nintendo sixty four game called star Fox 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.200 sixty four, which in itself was a popular sequel to 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:12.920 an earlier Super Nintendo game simply called Starfox. Now, in 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:16.640 both games, you pilot a spaceship and you can dodge 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.880 incoming enemy laser fire by doing a barrel roll. But 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:24.320 in star Fox sixty four the maneuver received special attention. 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.800 There's a point when you're heading toward these stationary turrets 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:32.559 that are firing on you, and that's when a character 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.920 I think he's a donkey pops up. His name is 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.800 Peppy Hare, and he shouts to a barrel roll, just 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.760 as Dylan did earlier, and thus a meme was born. 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.240 By nineteen ninety seven, the World Wide Web was becoming 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.320 a household name. It would take a few more years 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.559 for it to develop its cheeky side, and on January thirtieth, 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.599 two thousand and four, someone created a definition of do 0:08:55.760 --> 0:09:01.920 a barrel roll on the Urban Dictionary, that great repository 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:07.559 of information both entertaining and incredibly base, and in two 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.400 thousand and six, a group of four Chan pranksters began 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.160 to call Tom Green during his talk show and they. 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.760 Would just shout do a barrel roll over the phone. 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:18.520 Now, to be fair, this was not a case of 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.360 people being unsolicited mischief makers, because Tom Green's career was 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.360 based off of hosting call in shows in which most 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.800 of the calls were some sort of prank. So it's 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.199 not like Tom Green was new to this kind of experience. 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:36.480 It was just a very specific implementation. The meme found 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:39.920 its way on numerous images and animated gifts on the Internet. 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:43.520 And yes, I pronounce it gifts. I know that the 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.160 creator of the format says giffs, but he's wrong. Gift 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.640 is how it should be said. I'm planting my flag 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:54.160 on this one. Not my flag anyway. There are plenty 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.240 of examples of this meme online, usually involving animations of 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:01.439 people or animals flipping over accompanied by the text do 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:05.960 a barrel role. And even if you Easter eggs, So 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:09.959 here's one. If you want an Easter egg, go to Google, 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:12.400 just google dot com and do a. 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.599 Search for do a barrel role. Go ahead, give it 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:16.040 a shot. 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:16.959 It's pretty cute. 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:19.959 All Right, I got a several more memes I want 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:20.480 to talk. 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.720 About, but before I do, let's take a quick break 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:35.679 to thank our sponsor. All Right, we're back, and the 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:40.360 next meme I want to talk about is the Zerg rush. Dylan, 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.960 do you know this one? Dylan does not know this one. 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.200 This refers to a tactic in the game StarCraft. So 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.959 StarCraft is a real time strategy game with the science 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:54.280 fiction theme, and you play one of three different factions 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.439 in the game. You control various units and methods of production, 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.120 and you participate in strategic battle in order to control 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.160 essentially what is a board. 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:05.439 So you build. 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.840 Various facilities which allow you to create units, and you 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.520 use those units to try and defeat the other player. 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.120 So one of those three species are the Zerg, and 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.040 that's of course in the original StarCraft game, and they 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:21.640 are insect like critters. Their main advantage is that you 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:24.560 can make an awful lot of them relatively quickly. So 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:27.920 the individual units, particularly the starting ones, aren't very strong, 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.520 but sheer numbers can make up for it. Because your 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.600 production time is so short, you can produce a lot 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:39.679 more units as Zerg than people playing the other factions 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.960 in the game. So one go to strategy is just 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.360 to ramp up unit production as quickly as possible and 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.880 just overwhelm your opponent with sheer numbers, just hordes of soldiers, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:54.800 and that is the zerg rush. It's a rush both 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.800 because you are overcome by huge numbers and that it 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:58.880 happens pretty quickly. 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:01.080 It's such an effective. 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:04.559 Tactic that it became pretty common in StarCraft games for 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:09.400 players to establish some rules of decorum that it was 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.679 considered kind of common courtesy to say when someone would 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:17.680 be allowed to launch a zerg rush. Typically you'd say 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.000 that zerg players would have to withhold attacking in that 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:22.760 way for a certain number of minutes, like you might 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.720 say no zerg rush for eight minutes, meaning eight minutes 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:28.760 of the game have to pass before you can do 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.520 a zerg rush, and that gives the other players an 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.400 opportunity to shore up their defenses or otherwise work on 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:36.679 a strategy to survive an incoming attack. 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:39.760 Otherwise, it was largely. 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.120 Seen as unfair that you were taking advantage of a 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:47.920 very simple mechanism within the game, and you were defeating 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.760 people not through superior strategy, but just by the fact 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:58.720 that the game favors these underpowered but numerous units. As 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:01.240 for the meme, this story goes that there was a 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:05.040 multiplayer match in which a Korean group was controlling the 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.680 Zurg forces and an English speaking group were the opponents, 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.480 and early in the match, a group of Zerg units 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:13.800 began to attack, at which point one of the English 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:18.720 speaking participants typed OMG zerg rush, and the Korean player 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:22.240 typed kiki k k E k e k e, which 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:26.080 is akin to lol in English. You might sometimes encounter 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.560 kiki ki along with zurg rush references in this mean, 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:32.560 and those references tend to be on images or enemy 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:37.120 gifts or something being swarmed by something else. So I've 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.520 seen one where there's a plane that looks like it's 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.040 being surrounded by a big flock of birds and it 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.480 was labeled zerg rush. Or you might see one type 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:51.360 of person completely surrounded by other people and that might 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.839 be zurg rush. Like I would imagine a picture of 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.440 Dragon Con, for example, with a whole bunch of people 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:00.840 in costume and one person who's clearly not in costume 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:02.760 just stuck in the middle of it. That would be 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.280 something that you might see zerg rush attached to oh 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:08.520 in a Google by the way, has an Easter Egg 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:10.560 for this meme too, so you can just go to 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:15.679 Google Search and type in zerg rush. That's a zerg rush. 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.560 Let me know how you do if you try that out. Now, 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.520 not all video game memes are about criticizing a game 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.480 mechanic or making fun of a specific game, or even 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.200 celebrating a specific game. Some are just a celebration of 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.360 good game design and writing, and I think that's the 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.880 case with the Cake is a Lie. That meme comes 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.760 from the game Portal, which published in two thousand and seven. 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:38.680 Now. 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:40.480 In Portal, the player takes on the role of a 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.840 young woman who is being held captive in a scientific 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:48.440 research facility, and her captor is a passive, aggressive, snarky 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:54.240 artificial intelligence named GLaDOS, and GLaDOS is constantly goading the 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:58.240 character further down the pathway to keep trying to get 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:04.720 through increasingly difficult puzzles. GLaDOS is constantly there, criticizing you 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:11.000 and then giving you lackluster, insincere praise. Whenever you successfully 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:15.840 navigate one of these tough puzzles, you get a lot 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.880 of snark from GLaDOS, including one of the greatest post 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:22.680 credit Songs of All Time written by Jonathan Colton in 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:26.680 the voice of GLaDOS. When you explore the game world, 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:31.680 you can encounter stuff like messages scralled on walls, and 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.600 the messages are from an old lab worker named Doug Ratman, 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.480 and one of the famous messages is the phrase the 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.320 cake is a lie, written repeatedly. The reason for this 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.160 is GLaDOS constantly tells you that if you are to 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:47.360 complete all the tasks, you will. 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.880 Get cake, and that the cake will be amazing. 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.520 Occasionally, GLaDOS will even give you the recipe for a cake. 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.800 There's a lot of cake, at least references to it 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:03.120 in Portal, but Doug Ratman, the character that has left 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.600 his evidence behind, says that the. 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:07.720 Cake is a lie. 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.480 And for a while people use the cake is a 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.640 lie as just a general reference to Portal. But gradually 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.400 this phrase took on a more general meaning, and it 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:21.680 came to mean the thing you are looking for doesn't exist, 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.960 or even you are trying to achieve something that isn't possible. 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.720 An urban dictionary translates it rather eloquently. I think into 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:36.400 your promised reward is merely a fictitious motivator. So you 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.040 could use this idiom to describe a common thread and 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.200 a lot of stories. For example, in the classic The 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.560 Wizard of Oz, the Wizard promises rewards to Dorothy and 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.080 her friends if they can get rid of the wicked 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.520 Witch of the West. Only it turns out the Wizard 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.040 is a flim flam man with no real powers of 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.840 his own apart from being a fast talker. The cake 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.640 is a lie. He doesn't have the ability to give 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.160 the characters what they want. In fact, when they were 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:07.399 turned victorious, he bestows gifts on them simply by telling 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.639 each character that they already possess the thing that they want, 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:13.119 which is a good thing since the Wizard had no 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:17.600 way to deliver upon his promises. Now, some memes aren't 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.600 about specific games at all, but rather gaming cliches in general, 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:25.120 and one of the big ones is called video game logic. 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:28.639 Now this refers to things that happen in video games 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.840 that defy common sense. For example, a popular meme in 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.760 this category has a picture of Master Chief, who is 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.239 the protagonist of the Halo franchise of games, and the 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:44.040 memes says can flip an extremely heavy tank can't control 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.840 gun recoil. So this refers to the fact that if 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:49.800 you come up to a tank that's on its side 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.760 and you press the right button, Master Chief will move 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:55.320 the tank so that you can get into it. And 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:57.399 yet every time you fire your gun, it flies up 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:58.880 in the air, and you think, well, if he's strong 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:01.760 enough to move a tank over canny control the movement 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:06.159 of a handgun, it does seem to defy logic. And 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.720 this is pretty common, and that's not the only example. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:12.360 I mean. Sometimes it's something like. 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.880 Invisible walls that you are free to roam anywhere until 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.400 you encounter an invisible wall, which in the video game 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.240 world makes sense, but when you think of it outside 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.919 of that context, you start to question, why is this 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:28.080 a design in this game? Or maybe there is a 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.439 game rule that says if you even step foot in 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:36.439 the edge of water, your character will drown. That's another 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.199 instance of video game logic, like especially a character that 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:41.679 seems to be resilient to almost any kind of damage, 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:43.840 like you can be shot fourteen times in the chest 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.960 and keep going, but if you touch water, you immediately drown. 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:52.040 Your toe is apparently where you breathe, and you're a goner. 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:58.959 Lots of different variations of this exist online and Mainly 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.240 it's just to point out how video games can be 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:06.800 inconsistent with their logic, that things that the game allows 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:09.720 in some cases mean that things it doesn't allow in 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:14.360 other cases don't really make sense, And it really kind 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:19.000 of helps bring attention to shortcomings in games. Sometimes those 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.280 shortcomings are necessary just to make the game work properly. 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:27.600 Another example of a shortcoming in a game is repetitive dialogue, 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.960 particularly in non player characters that you might encounter in 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.200 something like a role playing game. Now, it's not really 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.600 feasible to create a game in which every one you 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:43.359 encounter has a distinct personality and a non repetitive dialogue option, 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:46.680 particularly for games that have hundreds of characters in them. 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:48.600 So the more characters you have, the harder it is 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:52.679 to give each one an individual personality and history and 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:54.080 conversational options. 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:56.080 So that means sometimes you. 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.680 Hear the same phrase is repeated, and sometimes that gets 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.320 a bit comedic, And that is the case with our 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.040 next meme, I Took an arrow in the knee. That 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:09.600 one comes from Skyrim, which is from Bethesda, and that 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.480 game came out in twenty eleven. It's a big, sprawling 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.199 fantasy game across an enormous map, and that map has 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.600 several towns and villages and outposts in it, and most 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:23.000 of those places have guards living there, and there are 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:27.160 male and female guards, and they often have different voices. 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:29.800 They got several different voice actors to record the same 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.280 lines of dialogue, and that's the problem. They all pull 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:38.159 from the same pool of scripted lines. So while the 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:41.120 guards you see may look different and sound different from 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:45.920 each other, they all have very similar stories to share. 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.600 Like it turns out, they all have the exact same background, 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.480 which includes a mysterious incident in which they were shot 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.520 in the knee by somebody. So the actual line of 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:58.399 dialogue is I used to be an adventurer like you. 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.600 Then I took an arrow in the knee. Now, it 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:03.959 doesn't pop up every time you meet a guard, but 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.159 it does happen occasionally, and that line is so distinct 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:10.200 that it's noticeable every single time you hear it. 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:13.080 So there are tons of memes. 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:16.720 Based off this game experience. There are video montages of 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.200 guards talking about getting shot in the knee, which gets 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.280 funnier the longer it goes, because you realize that Skyrim 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:28.080 is almost entirely populated by guards with a limp. There 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.280 are variations on images in which the first part of 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:33.880 the phrase gets replaced by something else. So, for example, 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:36.280 I saw one with a My Little Pony character on 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.040 it that says I used to wonder what friendship could be. 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:41.879 Then I took an arrow in the knee. But my 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.720 favorite was one that I couldn't immediately identify. I didn't 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:48.720 know what video game it was from, but it showed 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:52.359 like a typical fantasy villain, something that you might see 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:55.879 in like Diablo or something along those lines. But it 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:59.680 was a headless character. So it was this big monstrous 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.040 suit of armor but with no head, and the caption 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:05.360 said I used to have a face. Then I took 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.480 an arrow to the knee, which makes perfect sense. Really, 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.280 I love that one. I once actually pitched a short 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:16.240 comedy commercial about a guard recruitment service that would supply 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:19.080 villages and towns with guards, and their method would be 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:21.879 to seek out adventurers and then shoot them in the knee, 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:24.280 and then the only suitable job they would have at 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.119 that point is guard and voila instant security force for 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.160 your town. But I never did make that video. Maybe 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:34.080 one day I will. I've got some other memes to 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:38.040 talk about, including the creepiest one on this list. But 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:40.560 before I get to that, let's take another quick break 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:54.320 to thank our sponsor. Now some memes go beyond being silly, 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:57.639 and now it's time to talk about slender Man. 0:22:58.040 --> 0:22:59.800 And actually to talk about slender Man, we. 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:03.160 Have to talk about spooky spaghetti. No, I'm sorry, I'm 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:06.200 at creepy pasta. And here's where the old man in 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:08.520 me surfaces, because I gotta be honest with you, guys. 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.439 I had to look all this stuff up because I'm old. 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:14.560 I know what slender Man is, but the creepy pasta 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:18.600 stuff that's after my time on the internet. So I 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:21.960 had to actually learn about this stuff, which was really interesting. 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:24.000 Actually, So for those. 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:27.080 Who do not know, there's this phenomenon on the Internet 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:31.200 called creepy pasta. Now that term actually is a twist 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:35.800 on an older Internet slang word called copy pasta, which 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:38.520 first started popping up on the forum four chan in 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:41.320