You’ve almost certainly heard a popular phrase or seen a meme that originated in a video game. Even if some have fallen out of popularity, such as “The Cake Is A Lie” from Portal, we still are well aware of the cultural impact from it being shouted across comment sections everywhere.
Still, it’s very possible there are people out there who don’t know the origins of these phrases. Yes, they know they’re from video games, but what games are they from and why did they become popular? We decided to lay out the origins of three that you’ve probably seen over the years.
Do A Barrel Roll
Star Fox 64, Nintendo 64
One of the odder ones on the list, because it isn’t entirely clear why it’s a meme. “Do a barrel roll!” originates from Star Fox 64, when the character Peppy Hare tells the player to — shocker — do a barrel roll. It’s just a phrase that he says to teach the player how to play the game. There’s nothing particularly weird or interesting about it besides the fact that the voice acting, like everything in this game, is hammed up.
The reasoning for why it became such a popular meme dates back to message boards collectively agreeing to call into radio shows and troll hosts and say “do a barrel roll!” Ah, that classic 90s and early 00’s humor that none of us miss. While the origins themselves are very early internet, its impact on video game memes can’t be understated as it’s managed to have strong staying power.
All Your Base Are Belong To Us
Zero Wing, Mega Drive
“All your base belongs to us!” is another phrase that has appeared in comments sections for ages, but its origins aren’t quite as well known. The phrase originally comes from the American port of Zero Wing for the Mega Drive, where an extremely poor translation was created for the game’s intro. It features wonderful phrases such as “What happen?” and “Somebody set up us the bomb.” The one that really caught on was “All your base are belong to us.”
This can once again be traced back to message forums. A catchy song focused on the “All your base are belong to us” portion of the intro was created and quickly became a meme. Eventually, that meme spread across the web until it became a regular part of the internet lexicon. It’s not used as much today as it once was, but it’s still pretty well known.
Press F To Pay Respects
When Call of Duty first started having players interact with cutscenes through button presses, it was a very novel idea. It made players get more involved and spend less time putting their controllers down. However, as most things with yearly releases do, the novel idea became a little overplayed until one moment in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was so ridiculous that players everywhere quickly turned it into a meme.
The scene features the player-controlled character attending the funeral of a fallen soldier. Everyone touches the casket, which is when the game prompts the player to push a button to pay respects. F was the key that players on PC were designated to press, and soon, a meme was born. Now, any time someone has something bad happen to them across the internet, you can see people everywhere responding with “F” in reference to this moment.