Despite the somewhat grim atmosphere, the game's got plenty of memes going strong in the fandom. Hollow Knight: Silksong has its own page here.
Please add entries in the following format if possible:
- The meme. [[labelnote:Explanation]]The explanation behind the meme, if necessary.[[/labelnote]] ExplanationLike this.
- Further mutations and successor memes, if any.
- "This game is buggy!"/"This game has too many bugs!"ExplanationA very common sarcastic comment that gets used in puns, since the word "bug" in gaming usually refers to Good Bad Bugs and Game Breaking Bugs, but all the characters in Hollow Knight are based on insects or arachnids, literal bugs. If players do find out and report computer bugs, crashes or glitches in the game, expect these comments and puns to be mentioned by other fans.
- "No Cost Too Great"ExplanationThe Pale King's iconic and memorable quote when struck by the Dream Nail. It is often used as a memetic catchphrase for doing ridiculous things or sacrificing someone just to achieve one's goals. It is also used to refer to the absurd amounts of traps, buzzsaws and spikes that the Pale King has installed all throughout the White Palace, with some jokingly speculating that the real reason Hallownest fell was because the Pale King spent so much money on buzzsaws and other death traps for the palace that he eventually bankrupted the entire kingdom. But to many, it is used to categorize or filter memes pertaining to the Pale King and other key figures or lore-important characters.
- "Born of God and Meme"ExplanationRefers to a compilation/playlist
of Hollow Knight-related meme/parody/spoof videos on YouTube. The phrase is based on another Signature Scene in the game, with lines spoken by the Pale King. If you're a newcomer in the fandom and would like to ask for good quality or popular meme videos, there's a high chance of someone recommending you to watch this playlist and set you off to a good start. - "SHAW!"ExplanationThe fandom is no stranger to the game's numerous voiced lines, but Hornet's battle shouts are among the most remembered, with "SHAW!" being the most iconic one — some fans portray her in memes or art as this being the only word she can say.
- "ʍɐɥs"ExplanationThe upside-down Hornet◊ glitch (if you end a Hornet boss fight when she's in the air, she'll return to the ground upside-down and leave by burrowing through the ground) has also been a source of meme phrases due to how hilarious it can be when triggered. Obviously, "ʍɐɥs" is the result of rotating "shaw" by 180 degrees (or using the appropriate Unicode characters). Oftentimes, fans use other pre-existing meme phrases regarding upside-down content to further joke at this glitch.
- Hornet's other battle shouts, such as "ADINO!", "HEGALE!", and "GARAMA!" deserve some mention as well — the last particularly gets more relevance for the sequel, since in the Nintendo Switch Announcement Trailer, the first sound that is spoken to hype up Hollow Knight: Silksong is Hornet shouting "GARAMA!".
- "Meanwhile in Australia"ExplanationA long-running joke referring to how everything in Australia is upside-down. Well, it kinda makes sense if you remember that Hollow Knight is made by Australian guys.
- "Dinnerbone"ExplanationFrom Minecraft. An easter egg that makes any mob named "Dinnerbone" to be rendered upside-down.
- "Made in Australia"ExplanationOverlaps with the above meme putting emphasis on the Australian origins of Hollow Knight. But instead of upside-down shenanigans, this phrase evolves into stuff claiming that everything in the game's world are Australian, as compared to other forms of media. Sometimes, fans use this to compare Hollow Knight characters with other things, fictional or real, such as this meme◊.
- Hornet isn't the only character whose voiced lines are subjected to this treatment, several other voiced lines have been subject to this too a lot, being used for all sorts of weird hi-jinks, comments and parodies:
- Especially the Dung Defender, whose lines are easily memorable due to ham content (with "FAAAAAAARRRFFUUUUNNNDADDAAA!" and "Doma, doma, domadomadoma!" standing out).
- Another famous line is Hornet's shout as she restrains The Hollow Knight to allow you to Dream Nail it and fight The Radiance, which sounds suspiciously like "GIT GUD!"NoteWord of God is that it's supposed to be 'GEK TUU!', but they concede that since we don't know what that means, she could be saying "get good" in bug. Considering the boss you're about to fight if you hear this cry, you will need to. This often pops out whenever a player complains on the difficulty of a boss fight or a platforming sequence.
- The Nailmasters: often rendered as "YAAASOOOOOOO!!" or "GET SOOOME!"
- Quirrel's battle cry, "KA-SHAAA!", when he helps you fight Uumuu is often misheard and comically spelled as "Croissant!". Yes, as in the pastry!
- The Soul Master's sound effects often get laughed at because he's basically just saying "Mmmm!", "Hmmm!" and "Mmmhmm!" during his attacks, which are too Narmy and out-of-place from his stage and background music.
- For Grimm it's "SEH!"
- Puns are also common, with some of the bugs' heads being super-imposed over real-life objects that have names sounding like the memetic voice lines. For example, "Braava".◊
- Similar to Undertale, fans have made videos of scenarios vaguely similar to in game events/characters and adding the characters' faces on top.
- In relation to the above, fans have made it clear they want the game on Nintendo Switch.
- "Primal Aspids never miss"/"Primal Aspids have homing shots".ExplanationAdding these Demonic Spiders to already-difficult situations or somehow making them even more annoying became a mock goal for modders, while all players find solidarity in their ability to seemingly always hit the player. Superimposing images of Primal Aspids over videos of scenarios of people getting struck by unlikely projectiles became an extension of this meme.
- I hate Markoth. / Why is Markoth so difficult? ExplanationMarkoth has the reputation to be a particularly hard boss in the game, but even more in Godhome because of the Pantheon of Hallownest, Ascension and Radiant battlefield configuration where the floor became a Bottomless Pit. Some comments under Radiant challenges consider him, ironically or not, to be the hardest boss the game has to offer.
- "Pale Fork"ExplanationMaking photo-edits or comparisons of the Pale King to a fork, simply because the king had a four-pronged crown.
- "Tree Lady"ExplanationSimilarly, this is about making photo-edits or comparisons of the White Lady to any tree because she's a tree-like higher being called a Root.
- "LAMP BRØETHER"ExplanationMaking jokes about moths being addicted to lamps, lampposts, lightbulbs, or anything that produces light. It comes from a Truth in Television fact where moths are indeed attracted to light since the absence of it makes them blind. It gains a relevance in this game, with "light" being the Arc Words of the moth tribe, including the Big Bad Radiance herself. Some even go as far as to state that Radiance's origin consists of it becoming one with a lamp or some related joke. In some Hollow Knight meme communities such as Reddit, the word "lamp" is used to categorize or filter memes focused on the moth tribe, the infection or the Radiance.
- "Infected Image"ExplanationThe equivalent of the "Cursed Image" Internet catchphrase used within the Hollow Knight fandom.
- "Life Ender"ExplanationA flair used to categorize or filter memes and content pertaining to Zote, named after his weapon. Sometimes, it is simply used to categorize Black Comedy, Gallows Humor, or dark and depressing content in general.
- "Higher Beings, These Words Are For You Alone"ExplanationAnother catchphrase/text macro used by the fandom to emphasize that you are giving an important message to someone else, but in an eloquent manner. It is usually Played for Laughs as the phrase gets followed by the actual message being mundane, comedic, vulgar, or any (ir)relevant topic that the user can come up with.
- Zote is too powerful.ExplanationZote the Mighty's pretended badass demeanor is taken to first degree by many people, notably comments under Youtube videos showing a Boss Rush saying that "[any hard boss] is nothing compared to Zote".
- Invincible, Fearless, Sensual, Mysterious, Enchanting, Vigorous, Diligent, Overwhelming, Gorgeous, Passionate, Terrifying, Beautiful, Powerful, Grey Prince Zote.ExplanationSince the Hidden Dreams update, after you've fought Zote on the colosseum, you can find a statue of him in Bretta's house. If you dream nail it, you can fight Grey Prince Zote, her idealized perception of the greatest hero of Hallownest. These rididuclously long Boss Subtitles are used to glorify the character in an ironic way.
- "Wayward Compass Too OP"ExplanationSome players just want to exaggerate the usefulness of a starting charm that only displays your current location on the map. It also spawns other joking suggestions such as using the Wayward Compass on the harder contents like the Path of Pain, the Colosseum, the Hall of Gods, Pantheons, Eternal Ordeal, Grimm's fights in his tent, and against Dream Bosses (All of these contents in fact, make the compass useless since they have no maps, or are limited to one area only). Although another serious justification for the compass' usefulness comes in the Delicate Flower Delivery quest, or statements claiming that it's just that useful for players who have No Sense of Direction.
- "I'm in love with the Shape of Unn"ExplanationOne of the early comments from players who attest to the usefulness of the Shape of Unn charm, but written like that one line from Ed Sheeran's song "Shape of You". However, it wasn't confirmed or asked from Team Cherry if "Shape of Unn" is indeed an intentional Shout-Out to the song.
- "Child Support"ExplanationCoined after the implication that Grimm doesn't want to raise the Grimmchild by himself, since he even tasks the Knight to evolve it. The meme is also used to refer to how Grimm just loves to bring up the word "child" a lot. An update even makes it so that the Grimmchild is mandatory if you even want to challenge Nightmare King Grimm. If you don't have the charm equipped when you use the dream nail on him, Grimm will say "The child...". That phrase itself also made this meme more relevant.
- "Romance Options"ExplanationOnce teased as a part of the Godmaster update, but players literally took it for an actually Romance Sidequest. Trolling statements aside, it was revealed that the "romance options" meant that you can now give the Delicate Flower to more characters. Of course, some fans were surprised at this and laugh, some were disappointed for the wrong reasons.
- "Hornet is Void"ExplanationOne of the bizzare theories of the fandom regarding Hornet's identity since the Knight, Hollow Knight and the other failed Vessels were her siblings from the Pale King. But the difference is, Hornet was born from a truce that Herrah must give birth to a child of the Pale King, and not being born out of the Void like her siblings. It turned to a meme because of the wild evidences or proofs that holders of this theory present - such as the fact that Hornet has black eyes and is therefore black on the inside, similar to the black liquid Void. That is questionable in itself, since majority of the bugs also have black eyes by default. And most importantly, Hornet doesn't spill black liquid when hit, unlike the Void beings such as the Vessels, Kingsmoulds and the Collector. Nonetheless, this meme phrase is so divisive that some fans do not count it as a Discredited Meme.
- "Chad Pale King"ExplanationAny attempt to exaggerate the fact that the Pale King is implied to have multiple sexual activities with the White Lady, which explains why there are a lot of their Vessel children left in the Abyss. Also to remind that he might have "betrayed" the White Lady by agreeing to have Herrah the Beast bear one of his children. In simple terms, to remind that the Pale King is a sexually-active alpha male.
- "Idea Instilled"ExplanationThe phrase spoken by the White Lady which explains and implies that the Hollow Knight is not purely hollow, and that an idea tarnished it to have emotions or a will. Although the game makes the idea ambiguous, the fandom uses this phrase in their bizzare theories guessing what was the idea that corrupted the Hollow Knight. Think of it like a cause-and-effect situation, with fans making memes out of the cause.
- "Can't wait for mossbag to make a video out of this!"ExplanationWithin the fandom, a YouTuber named "mossbag" is known for his long and in-depth lore explanation, character backstory, and general theory videos. Although he claims some of the parts are merely guesses and should not be taken as gospel, fans find most of his content reasonable enough; and he does research and puts infographics and memes on his videos to the point that they can be very long and detailed for otherwise specific topics. When a new official video comes out from Team Cherry, the Hollow Knight fandom (especially on the YouTube community) will usually comment this phrase, expecting mossbag to dissect the video for any expanded lore.
- "Frame-by-frame analysis by mossbag"ExplanationOne of the things that mossbag usually does in the trailers for Hollow Knight: Silksong is slowing down a part of the trailer so that the details can be clearly seen, as if the video is playing on a frame-by-frame slideshow. It is most often used by the YouTube community to commend on how he is able to spot some Freeze-Frame Bonus details on an otherwise fast-paced trailer (like how enemies in the sequel now produce silk when hit, or how certain Arc Symbols like bells are seemingly hidden in the background).
- If mossbag makes a funny, exaggerated, or catchy one-liner that is relevant to the discussion or summarizes a topic on-point, viewers would most likely mention that phrase a lot, sometimes to the point where it gets parroted even outside of the YouTube community (but for the sake of light-hearted humor being Played for Laughs), such as the following:
- "William and Ari are a bunch of liars"ExplanationUsed whenever someone remembers the numerous leftovers and cut content that didn't make it into the released version of the game, especially if those were teased mid-development.
- "Ari is a Weeb"ExplanationAfter it was mentioned that Angel's Egg is one of Ari's main inspirations for the artstyle of Hollow Knight, many are surprised that he knows something about anime, and even referencing a 1985 OVA!
- FlukemilfExplanationA joke phrase that started circulating since the Godmaster update, wherein the Flukemarm statue in the Hall of Gods describes it as an "Alluring god of motherhood". Fans quickly noticed the "alluring" part and played with it, describing this incomprehensible parasite breeding creature as a hot mom.
- "Absolute [Insert Noun Here]"ExplanationEditing the words of the fullscreen Boss Subtitles for the Radiance/Absolute Radiance, like◊ these◊ examples◊. Others go as far as writing phrases using this format and font like this◊, even if they aren't related to Hollow Knight.
- "Milk, Orange Juice, Coke"ExplanationThe three key elements (Soul, Infection, Void) that grant powers or bring change within bugs are all surprisingly liquids. This idea brought several puns or memes about bugs drinking certain liquids or beverages to gain power, while the most common trend out of this is associating Soul with Milk, Infection with Orange Juice, and Void with Coke just because of their colors.
- "I Sleep, Real Shit!, Ascended!"ExplanationAmong the various exploitable image macros, the Sleeping Shaq meme is the most commonly-used format by the community since its phrases fit perfectly for the setting of Hollow Knight, that they are superimposed with this game's characters. To be specific, "I Sleep" refers to the three Dreamers (who are obviously sleeping), "Real Shit!" refers to the Dung Defender (who fights by throwing shit at you), and "Ascended!" refers to Gorb (who just loves spouting the word "Ascend!").
- "Elderbug is sad"ExplanationA common reaction from the YouTube/Speedrunning community. It refers to the act of walking past the Elderbug in Dirtmouth just for the sake of Speedrunning, since the dialogue lines take quite some time to scroll, yet many are completely optional.
- "Grimm is a third-party character"ExplanationDue to his artstyle, appearance and color scheme, fans joke that Grimm won't be out of place if he gets drawn near characters from Bendy and the Ink Machine or Hazbin Hotel. And it ensues, that there are crossover fanarts of Grimm with these related works.
- "Come on guys! He's just swimming!"Explanation (Spoilers!)Given the ambiguity of what happened to Quirrel after the Blue Lake scene, and why he left his nail at the edge of the lake, a side of the fandom believes that Quirrel died by drowning himself. This was supported by data miners who found that the weapon was named "quirrel_death_nail" in the game files. However, Fanon Discontinuity applies to those the side who insists that Quirrel is still alive, he might have just left his nail for a swim. This is a phrase used to defend this argument, but it has also evolved into memes, quirky edits, or fanarts of Quirrel simply swimming underwater in the Blue Lake, sometimes depicted with scuba diving gear.
- The Pale King's buzzsaw obsession.ExplanationThe White Palace focuses more on tricky platforming than combat, and the most common obstacle is spinning buzzsaws. They're so ubiquitous that people have joked that the Pale King wasn't trying to make it difficult to reach him in the palace, he just loved buzzsaws.
- Hornet truly is her father's daughter.ExplanationSilksong previews have shown that one of Hornet's tools is a portable buzzsaw. Jokes about Hornet inheriting her dad's buzzsaw obsession soon followed.
- Grimm needs water/Grimm is a smokerExplanationGrimm's dry and scratchy voice has made many people joke that Grimm is in dire need of a drink of water, or he's smoked so much that his voice is raspy as a result.
- "Thou cringer!"ExplanationThe Godseeker's...odd way to demean the Knight as an unworthy and inferior creature that could never be compared to the many gods (bosses) of Hallownest. Due to the redefinition of the word "cringe" in modern meme culture as "anything that makes one disgusted", the word "cringer" has been embraced by the Hollow Knight community to refer to any source of "cringe".
- Due to Hallownest being a Mouse World, a lot of of jokes run rampant saying how all these battles are taking place in various generic locations like someone's backyard and also any humans who were watching will just swat the Knight and the Radiance with a hand or bug-zapper.
- Due to the huge number of mods that spike the difficulty of boss fights to downright ludicrous levels, jokes ran rampant that the community is filled with masochists.
- Some fan-artists of the Hollow Knight community are talented enough that they are able to re-create or draw existing memes but themed with this game's setting and characters. Take these formats by various Redditors for example, most of which are commonly-used as exploitable image macros by the game's meme community:
