Memes / Pokémon Games

Memes specific to Pokémon GO can be found here.

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Please add entries in the following format:

• The meme. [[labelnote: Explanation]]The explanation behind the meme, if necessary.[[/labelnote]] ^ExplanationLike this.
  • Further mutations and successor memes, if any.

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General

• Wild [x] appeared! [y] sent out [z]! [z] used [action]! It's Super Effective! Critical Hit! Foe [x] fainted! ^ExplanationThe gameplay from Pokémon in general is a massive snowclone meme, used in any situation imaginable. In particular, a wild anything can appear at any time for any or no reason, such as rappers.
  • It hurt itself in its confusion! ^ExplanationA battle message from Red and Blue that appears whenever a Pokémon deals damage to itself while under the Confusion status effect. It eventually became a meme used to mock hypocritical or self-destructive actions in real life.
• [x] wants to learn [y], but [x] can only know four moves. ^ExplanationThe endemic use of Limited Move Arsenal (in that each Pokémon can only know four moves at a time, and one of those must be replaced before any new moves can be learned) in all the Pokémon generations is another massive meme.
  • Alakazam can remember everything but a fifth move?! ^ExplanationThe Pokédex states that Alakazam is highly intelligent and can remember everything. However, Pokémon can only learn 4 moves at a time. Cue jokes about Alakazam being unable to learn more than 4 moves.
• HOLY SHIT! SHINY PIDGEY! ^ExplanationThe story about someone obsessed with a shiny Pokémon they almost caught resulting in a breakup with their girlfriend is legendary amongst the fandom.
• Hi! I like shorts! They're comfy and easy to wear! ^ExplanationThere's always at least one member of the "youngster" trainer class who talks about shorts in EVERY GAME. This has caused the "Shorts Boy" and his catchphrase to become a running gag in the fandom.
  • Shorts Boy is later deconstructed at the Sinnoh Battle Frontier: he wonders if he'll grow up to be "Shorts Man," causing him some distress.
  • "I hate pants! They're uncomfortable and difficult to wear!"
  • From FireRed/LeafGreen, "You're not wearing shorts! What's wrong with you?" ^note This variation of the Shorts Boy is sometimes used in memes revolving around his main line, though to a lesser extent.
  • Now, with Black and White 2, we get the Dress Girl.
• Calm mind Suicune has no weak.^ExplanationSuicune is one of those infamous "bulky water" type monsters and so has few weaknesses and appreciable amounts of HP. Couple this with its meaty special attack and special defense stats and the move Calm Mind (which increases those same stats), and you've got yourself an impenetrable Stone Wall sweeper. This was even worse before Generation IV, as all Electric and Grass moves (its weaknesses) were special, and therefore did next to no damage despite being super-effective (hence, "it has no weak").
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action! ^ExplanationThe Trope Namer for any bizarre, horrifying, or just plain impossible breeding options. Began after someone noticed that the gargantuan Wailord and the miniscule Skitty were in the same Egg Group, meaning they could breed with each other. Believed to have originated on the GameFAQs forums. Even Bulbapedia, the unofficial but most popular Pokémon wiki is in on this.
  • Dynamax Skitty and regular Wailord ^ExplanationWith the reveal in Sword and Shield of Dynamax Pokémon, a Super Mode that temporarily makes a mon giant, it's been suggested that this could be used to overcome the size difference.
• "Whoops. Dropped my balls." ^ExplanationThere's a Juggler trainer who says this. Accidental Innuendo/Innocent Innuendo ahoy.
• Is the Crobat EV'd? ^ExplanationEV-trained Pokémon are often requested in trades; they crop up a lot, much to the chagrin of people who just want to trade, so phrases like this are used ironically by the latter group.
  • OFFERING SHINY LEGENDARIES, PM ME WITH REQUESTS! ^ExplanationTrading chat rooms have three types of people. Those who just wanna trade, those who want perfect Pokémon and expect to get them from others (hence Crobat), and people offering super-rare Pokémon so they can get rare ones — these people seldom actually have what they're offering.
  • No fish, no Dittos, no legendaries. ^ExplanationThe caveat on so many Gen VI trade offers. Fish shinies are too easy to get and thus not desirable. Legends aren't viable competitively outside of a few, and the perfect shiny Ditto that's been cloned ad infinitum is an obvious hack useful for breeding and little else — and those who want no part of hacks stay well away from it, too.
• Red. He's the biggest Memetic Badass in the series, though Hilda (the female player character from Black and White) at one point had been giving him a run for his money.
  • Red says: "..." ^ExplanationRed only says this when challenged in G/S/C/HG/SS/B2/W2/Sun/Moon because he's a Heroic Mime in his game. Whenever someone acts or roleplays as Red, this will usually be the only thing they'll say.
• Xatu's cry, which sounds like "TWO-TWO" (トゥートゥー) to Japanese ears.
• Fake Pokémon, such as Mewthree. Also, Glitch Pokémon, like Missingno and M Block. ^note The former are fan-made Pokémon, some of which are subject to rumors saying that that can actually be obtainable in-game; the latter's destructive tendencies are usually exaggerated.
  • MissingNo. is an Eldritch Abomination. ^ExplanationIn-game, it's a Game-Breaking Bug. Fans tend to portray MissingNo. in-universe as a monstrous glitch that destroys the fabric of reality.
• DON'T PUSH THE B-BUTTON!!! ^ExplanationPressing B in the games cancels a Pokémon's evolution. People on YouTube have taken this to the next level and made videos where the B button is pressed at a specific time during the evolution, with the result usually being a messed-up form of the evolution or a fusion between the Pokémon and its evolution.
• METAPOD used HARDEN! ^ExplanationMetapod, a very phallic Pokémon, only knows the move Harden if caught in the wild. Cue endless penis jokes.
• Final Gambit Shedinja. ^ExplanationThere is a rare move called Final Gambit that sacrifices the user to deal damage to the opponent equal to the user's current HP. One of the few mons with access to it is Shedinja, a One-Hit-Point Wonder with a ton of immunities. It's nigh-impossible to talk about the move in seriousness without someone bringing this up.
• The "Technology is amazing!" guy. ^ExplanationIn every generation except II, the starting town has an overweight man in it in awe of the wonders of modern in-universe technology. The fandom has noticed.
• Flareon is the butt of all jokes that are Eeveelution-related. Stuff like "No one loves Flareon," "Eeveelutions and Flareon," and other similar stuff are spouted at the expense of the fire Eevee evolution.^ExplanationFlareon's stats make it an excellent physical attacker… except for the fact that it can't survive the recoil from Flare Blitz, has few other good physical moves, and in Gens I-III, doesn't get any physical STAB moces due to Fire being a special type.
  • GIVE FLAREON FLARE BLITZ!^ExplanationGenerally the most requested move for Flareon in order to utilize its physical stats. Will likely die out with Gen VI, see below. An Ascended Meme as of Gen VI, as Flareon finally received the move.
    • FLAREON STILL SUCKS EVEN WITH FLARE BLITZ!^ExplanationThe usual retort after someone says the line above, particularly because Flareon is slow and doesn't have enough HP to survive the move due to its recoil damage. Popping up big time with Flareon finally getting the move in Gen VI.
• Trollfreak^ExplanationA general fandom call to the developers for doing weird things like the Flareon issue above.
• TM87 memes ^ExplanationTM87 is the move Swagger in most games. Around the time "swag" entered the American lexicon, in came a ton of memes with "X has TM87" or "X used TM87". Another variant is "I got TM87 cause I'm so HM02", HM02 being Fly.
• Level 9 and under Reshiram/Zekrom. ^Explanation:The impossible to get Pokémon that so many people ask for on the GTS, making trading harder.
• Sneaky Pebbles.^ExplanationA nickname for Stealth Rock, an extremely widespread move which has drawn ire for rendering many Pokémon unviable in battle. Many other nicknames have been made, often with Alliterative Names (Secret Silicates, Furtive Flint, etc.). Comes up a lot in discussions about Charizard, a Pokémon whose crippling weakness to Sneaky Pebbles has become memetic in its own right.
• "When is the Dark-type going to get a Gym?" ^ExplanationIncluding the generation of its debut, the Dark type had no gyms of its own for six generations in a row. As a result, expect many jokes of Dark's Butt-Monkey status to come up whenever a new region's Gym Leader lineup is being discussed and the anger/lack of surprise when Dark fails to be on the list. This was eventually mended in Gen VII, with the first Dark-type specialist outside of the Elite Four: Nanu, though some didn't count him for being an Island Trial and not a gym, eventually leading to a true Dark-type Gym in Sword and Shield, and it's one of the main ones, too.
• GENWUN/Genwunner ^ExplanationCross-pollinated from the Transformers fandom term "GEEWUN", this is used to mock anyone who thinks the first generation (Red, Blue, and Yellow) was the best and that any other generation sucks.
• You don't have enough badges to train me! (Usually with an image of a rampaging animal)^ExplanationA phrase used in image macros that is based on the mechanic of the games where Pokémon that have not been caught by the player will disobey upon reaching certain levels, until the player character gets the required number of Gym badges to make them obey.
• Snorlax took six generations/17 years to get up. ^ExplanationLining all of Snorlax's sprites over the years up side by side◊ makes it look like it's trying to stand, and its Gen VI animations depict it standing. Gen VII somehow managed to top this, via giving Snorlax Acrofatic powers with its exclusive Z-Move; looks like standing up let it unleash its true potential. Then Gen VIII knocked it back down with Snorlax's Gigantamax Form, which looks like it slept so long that earth grew over it.
• Pokémon Bank will never be released. ^ExplanationThe extended delays while Pokémon Bank was being released lead to comment that it was never going to happen at all.
  • Please understand. ^ExplanationThis phrase, already memetically associated with previous Nintendo delay apologies, wound up being particularly connected to this one.
  • ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ give bank ^ExplanationThe usual response to "Please Understand" when it doesn't already precede it.
• Welfare Pokémon ^ExplanationSometimes, you'll be given the opportunity to gain non-starter Pokémon without catching or trading, or even utilizing special events; the NPC just gives them to you. This is especially apparent in X and Y, where it's possible to make almost an entire team of welfare mons.
• The shiny Ponyta freakout. ^Explanation:A famous video in which a shiny hunter overreacts to finding the mon he was looking for. It's become popular to quote him, breathless and overblown manner of speech and all, when encountering a shiny of one's own.
• Furret walk ^ExplanationPokémon Sun and Moon added walking animations for every Pokémon, most of which were Dummied Out unless the Pokémon could be seen with the Poké Finder or available in Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!. Furret's animation was adored as much as Furret itself was, eventually leading to a series of videos involving it, usually mixed with the Accumula Town theme.
  • Now with lyrics!
  • In the same vein as the Furret walk, Twitter users started making Falinks march to different songs, making the already adorable Falinks even more beloved.
  • And in yet another similar vein, this started happening with Mr. Rime as well, having it tap-dance through various locations.
• Red is a Mishima.^ExplanationRed received a new design in Pokémon Masters to represent himself as he would have appeared in HeartGold & SoulSilver had they not decided to re-use his FireRed & LeafGreen design. This new design, which has him wearing dark blue pants with a blue flame decal emblazoned on the sides to represent Mega Charizard X's flames, immediately drew comparisons to Kazuya Mishima & Jin Kazama.
• I've been robbed! ^ExplanationThe leaking of some beta assets of Pokémon Red and Green and the Space World Demo of Pokémon Gold and Silver revealed a lot of cut Pokémon and previous designs. Plenty of people were upset at how some designs were passed over.
• In a similar vein to Chinese president Xi Jinping being compared to Winnie the Pooh, some Philippine memes have taken to comparing Rillaboom to Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, often including a picture of Rillaboom in comments criticizing his speeches.
• The Coronavirus outbreak of 2020 led to Zubat-related jokes after news outlets suggested that eating bat soup was the cause. Some have joked that "this is what Professor Willow does with all the Zubat you send him in Pokémon GO" about the infamous video of a bowl of soup containing a whole dead bat.
• Ekans' walking animations in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX have become the topic of jokes.
• Pokémon Let's Go Home and Sleep ^Explanation Due to the COVID-19 outbreak of early 2020, of which one of the most effective ways to combat is staying at home, fans joked about Game Freak either releasing Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, Pokémon Home, and Pokémon Sleep at the same time, thus forming the joke, or a fictional title combining all three as an incentive to get people to help stop the spread.
• Why not use [type]? We got... ^ExplanationA meme that involves making an array of six to eight Pokémon of a given type and giving them humorous nicknames based on their attributes (i.e Charmander could be "Lizard on fire," Duskull could be "Sans", etc.) The one at the end is usually a Joke Character or derided as such (i.e in a Bug-type variation, Weedle/Specs Weedle could be "FUCKING USELESS" or some permutation thereof.)
• #pokemonmastersex^ExplanationWhen Pokémon Masters was rebranded as Pokémon Masters EX, many noticed that making it into a hashtag with all lowercase letters made it look… wrong. As usual, the internet was quick to take notice.

• "FADE TO BLACK" ^ExplanationThe habit of Game Freak forgoing animating events in lieu of having the screen fade out and show a text box with narrated actions ever since the transition to 3D in Gen VI became a memetic source of mockery following the high quality animations fiasco mentioned above, not at all helped by Sword and Shield using these fades much more liberally than even the Alola games.

• "We hope to see you again!" ^ExplanationIn every Pokémon game except Pokemon Heart Gold And Soul Silver, the Pokémon Center nurse says this line after fully healing the player's Pokémon. The line has been subjected to Alternative Character Interpretation on the Internet as Nurse Joy wanting the player's Pokémon to get seriously injured.
• The No Weakness Gang ^ExplanationSableye, Spiritomb, and the Eelektross line are well-known for having no type weaknesses, due to the former's Ghost/Dark typing, which cancels out any weaknesses they would have otherwise, and the latter's ability of Levitate making it immune to its only weakness of Ground. Unfortunately, the introduction of the Fairy Type in Gen VI saw this come to an end for Sableye and Spiritomb, making the Eelektross line the only Pokémon without a weakness.

• Pikachu noticed the WEED^ExplanationA shot from Pokémon Channel that has Pikachu noticing a weed that looks a bit like a certain type of drug leaf. Cue it becoming a stoner meme.
• HM Slave^ExplanationMost HM moves are not that impressive in battle but they're often needed to get around the map or do puzzles, so many players have a dedicated Pokémon who gets forced to have all the HM moves on them. "HM Slave" is the nickname for Pokémon used as such. This Pokémon typically receives no battle experience and generally only appears if the rest of the team has been wiped out, and the role is typically associated with the Bidoof line, since it is capable of learning more than half of its game's HMs. This has become less common with the disappearance of HMs in Generation VII, with the functions in Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee being given to the Partner Pokémon and in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl being Pokétch applications.
• Jigglypuff being completely unfazed by meteor storms, time-distorting blasts, and space-distorting tears. ^ExplanationDue to Jigglypuff being a Fairy-type Pokémon, which are immune to Dragon-type attacks, people like to bring up that powerful-looking attacks such as Draco Meteor, Roar of Time, and Spacial Rend, due to them being Dragon-type, do absolutely nothing to a such a small, cute Pokémon.
• $120 billion franchise^ExplanationA phrase often labeled on pictures and videos of glitch showcases, joking that even with all of their resources, Game Freak still produces glitchy mainline games.
  • It's just a small indie company^ExplanationA sarcastic phrase that gets tossed around for the same reasons.

Generation I

Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow

• I came when I heard you beat the Elite Four. ^ExplanationAccidental Innuendo said by Prof. Oak after the player defeats the Elite Four in R/B/Y/FR/LG.
• Pant, pant... I finally got through that cave. It was much bigger than I'd expected. I got too tired to explore the whole thing, so I came outside. ^ExplanationMore Accidental Innuendo, this time from a girl on the Azalea Town side of Union Cave in HG/SS.
  • I came through the tunnel, but I still have plenty of energy left. ^ExplanationEven more Accidental Innuendo, this time coming from Hiker Anthony in GSC, who is near the Union Cave as well.
• You're training on Route 22 for Brock's Gym, your Pokémon are tired, and who do you see? GARY/BLUE MOTHERFUCKING OAK. ^ExplanationGary/Blue Oak, The Rival in R/B/Y has one of his battles in a side route near the city with the first gym, in a time when your Pokémon are likely to be worn out from battling. This and more have led to him being portrayed a Memetic Badass with the nickname "Gary Motherfucking Oak" who shows up at the worst times and will always be one step ahead of you.
• Dicks Oak◊ ^ExplanationThe use of the Hello, [Insert Name Here] trope in early Pokémon games means it's common for players to name their rival something stupid or crass. Since Blue Oak (the rival in the pictures) is a jerk, it's common for his names to be on the ruder end of the spectrum.
• "So tell me, are you a boy? Or are you a girl?" ^ExplanationThe gender select option at the beginning of each game. Especially FireRed/LeafGreen. Jokes are frequently made about how you've lived next to Prof. Oak for years and yet he still doesn't know your gender.
  • "This is my grandson. Tell me, what was his name again?"^ExplanationRelated to the above, that Prof. Oak can't seem to recall his own grandson's name. Of course, this was the butt of many jokes by players in the games. "Douche", "Loser", etc.
  • What kind of professor can determine the sex of a quadrupedal lava monster, but not a human child? Professor Oak, that's who! ^ExplanationA related meme referencing the fact that one of the only legendaries to have a confirmed gender in the games is Heatran. Multitudes of jokes pertaining to how Pokémon professors can tell the gender differences between Heatrans, but not more human-like Pokémon like Meloetta, or even actual human beings.
  • Let's not forget Professor Oak's ability to sense people riding bikes indoors. ^ExplanationWhen the player attempts to use a Key Item in a location that it cannot be used (most famously, bicycles indoors or fishing rods in non-water tiles), a message will be displayed along the lines of "[Character]: [Player]! This isn't the time to do that!". This has led to the idea that Professor Oak (the original voice) can somehow sense when people try to ride bikes indoors… and he strongly disapproves.
• "Hah! You better have Burn Heal!" ^ExplanationThe last line of Blaine's pre-battle speech in Pokémon Red and Blue. Sometimes used as a reaction image in response to a witty insult (or, a "BURN!"). Also used when a Pokémon with the Poison Heal ability gets burned before activating Toxic Orb.
• They wanted me to battle, but I was born to DANCE! ^ExplanationOmastar's sprites in R/B make it look like it's dancing. A custom sprite that shows a dancing Omastar isn't helping matters. Sometimes fused with the Helix Fossil meme.
• A Togekiss watching a Doduo take a crap. ^ExplanationHitmonchan's Red and Green sprite makes it look more like... well, a Togekiss watching a Doduo take a crap. This gif◊ highlights the striking similarities. (Curiously enough, Togekiss was only introduced in Gen IV.)
• Exploding Hiker ^ExplanationIn Red, Blue, and Yellow, there's a mandatory Hiker trainer in Rock Tunnel that's gained a lot of attention due to the fact that he owns two Geodude and a Graveler that all know Self-Destruct. He's particularly noteworthy when players are trying to solo run certain Pokémon, and they have to somehow bypass this trainer that's almost certainly going to blow up and easily kill them.
• Agatha Lottery ^ExplanationAgatha in Red, Blue, and Yellow has the reputation of being one of the more annoying trainers to fight amongst people who perform solo runs due to how her team causes so much RNG from having to put up with her sleep from Hypnosis, confusion from Confuse Ray, and paralysis from Glare strats. All while her powerful Ghost Pokémon are chipping away at ya. Thus, beating Agatha becomes a "lottery" as to how long it will take to beat her hoping for that random chance where everything finally goes your way.

Generation II

Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal

• "IT'S LIKE MY RATTATA IS IN THE TOP PERCENTAGE OF RATTATA!" ^ExplanationYoungster Joey, the first trainer encountered in Gold/Silver/Crystal/HeartGold/SoulSilver, says this when he calls you for a rematch. Oh, and he continues saying this after his Rattata evolves into a Raticate. Any mention of Ratatta will inevitably be met with a reference to Youngster Joey and his infamous phrase. Received newfound life after Occupy Wall Street took off.
• This^ExplanationAn image of Wooper from Professor Oak's speech in Crystal that was paused at a point so that only the word "This" was visible in the text box. Popular particularly on Twitter, especially thanks to Wooper's Ensemble Dark Horse status, to the point where Pokémon's official Twitter account acknowledged the meme. When Scarlet and Violet had a regional Wooper form, they did it again.
• Lance is a cheating bastard! ^ExplanationLance, a member of the Elite Four in R/B/Y/FR/LG/LGP/LGE and Champion in G/S/C/HG/SS, has Pokémon with moves they are normally incapable of learning, as well as having evolved too early. The worst offenders include his Dragonite with Barrier in RBY, and his Level 40 Dragonite in HGSS, when it normally doesn't evolve until Level 55.
  • Lance orders his Dragonite to fire Hyper Beam at a human.^ExplanationDuring his assault against Team Rocket's secret hideout in Mahogany Town during GSC, he cries "Dragonite, Hyper Beam!" and the Rocket grunt was knocked back to the wall. However, it's implied that it could be a proper Pokémon battle, since that grunt comments that his Dragonite is too strong.
  • Lance is a pervert.^ExplanationHis pose in GSC when you face him at the Elite Four is rather suggestive, being reminiscent of flashing.
  • Bird Keeper Lance^ExplanationBecause of the scarcity of Dragon-types in Gen I and Gen II (where there were only two fully-evolved Dragon-type Pokémon), Lance has to fill his roster with Charizard, Aerodactyl, and Gyarados (which are based on dragons but aren't Dragon-type), along with three Dragonite. Coincidentally, they're all part Flying, leading to jokes about Lance secretly being a Flying-type trainer.
• My name's ???. ^ExplanationThis is how the rival in GSC introduces himself to you. Later on, you're asked what his name was, in what's supposed to be a Hello, [Insert Name Here] moment. Cue hundreds of confused children and nostalgic adults naming him "???" — he did tell you his name, after all.
• Sunkern's BST ^ExplanationSunkern is notable for having the lowest Base Stat total of all Pokémon at only 180, which statistically makes it the weakest Pokémon. Thus, it became the butt of many jokes. It would be outdone in this regard in Gen VII with Solo Form Wishiwashi's BST only being 175 and with Blipbug matching its BST come Gen VIII.
• Karen Lottery ^ExplanationFollowing up Agatha from Gen I is the solo-run Karen battle in Gold, Silver, and Crystal, which suffers very similar RNG to get through. Right off the bat, you're dealing with an Umbreon that relies on Confuse Ray and Sand-Attack strats, which given how tanky Umbreon is, it will be sure to get one or more of these off on your Pokémon to confuse them or completely wreck their accuracy. Adding to that is her following Vileplume or Gengar potentially paralyzing ya with their respective Stun Spore and Lick moves. Also, if that wasn't enough, Gengar could provide a major F-U by suddenly taking you down with it by using Destiny Bond.
• Bye-bye a go-go! ^ExplanationThe recurring Team Rocket Grunt who's a Funny Foreigner quickly became an Ensemble Dark Horse for how strange his speech patterns are, to the point that many Pokémon fans went to make "bye-bye a go-go" a Signing-Off Catchphrase in conversations. It only became more used when the Rocket Grunt reappeared in Black and White as a Retired Monster in Icirrus City.
• "Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites." ^ExplanationKaren's speech after being defeated is commonly passed around in the fandom as a source of inspiration and to place emphasis on playing the game the way you like rather than doing so competitively.
  • Okay, my favorite Pokémon is Landorus-Therian and yours is Ledian.^ExplanationA counter-meme to the above, making fun of those who don't have the slightest idea how competitive works and the assumption the meme makes that says that the competitively viable Pokémon can't be people's favorites.

Generation III

Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald & Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

• The SEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^ExplanationA seemingly random line from R/S/E.
• *TRUMPETS* ^ExplanationThe Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald soundtrack features massive amounts of trumpets everywhere. They're so omnipresent that their association with the Hoenn games has become memetic.

Generation IV

Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum & Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver

• "I will defeat you with the Magikarp my dad gave me!" YOUR FATHER NEVER LOVED YOU. ^ExplanationMagikarp are famously useless until they evolve into Gyarados. One Youngster in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl says the above line before battling the player, resulting in people joking about the kid's dad caring about him so little as to give him a Pokémon that can't battle on its own until it evolves.
• In HG/SS, the rival forcefully strips the player character of his/her Rocket Grunt disguise. The fanart and fan comics for this scene is honestly staggering (and not surprisingly, much of it is NSFW).
• Ethan/Lyra's Marill portrayed as malicious or creepy in fanart. Usually Ethan's though.
  • Lyra's Marill smelling like a dust mop/rags ^ExplanationIn HG/SS, in some of her phone calls, Lyra, and only Lyra, will randomly tell the player "Marill smells like a dust mop!" (Or in the Japanese version, rags.) The silliness and total randomness of the line has made Lyra forever associated with it, and in Japan has given her Marill the Fan Nickname of "Zoukinn" ("Rags").
• DELELELELE WHOOOOOOOOP ^ExplanationKricketune's cry on loop. As of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, it's become an Ascended Meme due to an alpha Kricketune's cry being rendered in text in this form.
• Cynthia's piano theme^ExplanationKnown for her challenging fights, this theme plays right before Cynthia's Champion battle. Players of the Unova games have been caught off-guard when they entered a seemingly generic house on Undella Town, only to be met with Cynthia and said theme. The Dissonant Serenity induced by this theme has fans dubbed it the "Piano of Death". With JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, fans have compared it to the piano section of Giorno's theme, which usually plays when he is about to win the fight.
  • Cynthia's theme in general is constantly memed on for immediately causing players to go into terror-fueled breakdowns as soon as they hear it.
• /r/FuckMindy ^ExplanationMindy is an NPC you can trade with in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. She gives you a Haunter, which would normally evolve via trade into the powerful Gengar... except Mindy gave hers an Everstone, which stops it from evolving. Fans didn't take too kindly to this, especially when it was discovered that players can't pull this stunt when trading with other players, which makes for such an obvious sign of The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard. The hatred of Mindy is so strong that there is an entire subreddit dedicated to it, hence the name of the meme.
• Route 21 Guns^ExplanationMany have noted how Route 209's intro is similar to the chorus of Green Day's "21 Guns", which the Super Smash Bros. Brawl version makes more obvious by removing the upper melody section above the notes in question. There are older songs that use that particular motif, but 21 Guns was released soon after Diamond and Pearl, and its melancholy lyrics sharply contrast with Pokémon’s generally upbeat tone.
• Beta Arceus^ExplanationIn July 2020, a sprite leak of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl revealed some previously unseen beta designs in the game code. One such sprite is that of a beta form of Arceus, which, in contrast to its angelic, majestic official design, instead looks like a nearly shapeless wispy blob with two red eyes. Fans have been split on this image, with one camp joking about how goofy and silly it looks, while another camp unironically liking the ghostly design as suggestive of You Cannot Grasp the True Form.
  • Several other beta sprites were widely memed, such as the dog-like Beta Giratina being jokingly compared to Therian Landorus, while the red-colored Beta Garchomp line drew some comparisons to Prince Sidon from Breath of the Wild.
• Nazi Registeel ^ExplanationIn the Japanese, English, and Korean releases of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Registeel's sprite depicted it in a pose resembling the notorious Nazi salute that was used to greet Adolf Hitler while he was Führer of Germany. Unsurprisingly, the sprite was edited for the continental European release, and Pokémon Platinum and Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver used the edited sprite for all regions.
• Definitely less confusing than the Azure Flute.^ExplanationThe Azure Flute event to fight and capture Arceus was never released (instead, Arceus was distributed directly), with Junichi Masuda later claiming in an interview that there were concerns of it being "too confusing". Players love to joke that the various obtuse mechanics that are in the game are therefore officially confirmed by Nintendo to be more intuitive than going to Spear Pillar and using a key item.
• Buneary hates you^ExplanationBuneary starts with a starting friendship value of 0, which many interpret as it simply hating your guts from day one for no reason. Many have also noted that the only other Pokémon with starting friendship this low are legendaries, which means Buneary doesn't just hate you — it hates you with the strength of the gods.

Generation V

Pokémon Black and White & Pokémon Black 2 and White 2

• Pokémon Battles on Bicycles.◊ ^ExplanationBecame a meme on a few forums after some people said Game Freak might implement it for Pokémon Black and White. An obvious kick at Yu-Gi-Oh! and lifted from The Abridged Series.
• DENNIS! DENNIS! DENNIS! DENNIS! ^ExplanationGhetsis' battle theme contains Ominous Latin Chanting of his name, but which ended up sounding like the name "Dennis" instead. The fans ran with it and started calling him by that name.
  • Ghetsis stole the battle theme from Genesect. ^ExplanationIn the interim between Black and White's Japanese and English releases, Ghetsis's battle music somehow became associated with the Mythical Pokémon Genesect. The confusion wasn't cleared up until more people reached the part of the story the music plays.
  • RIP DENNIS^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}The Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon remix of his battle theme has the Ominous Latin Chanting sound more obviously like "Ghetsis", thus leading people to make jokes like "Dennis is dead" and "RIP Dennis" in YouTube comments.
• "I'm a heartbreaker.... My name.... Charles."^ExplanationCatchphrase of Charles, a Motorcyclist in Driftveil City who introduces you to a new kind of battle (Rotation Battles in Black, and Triple Battles in White). For some reason, Charles has become somewhat of a popular character despite being a minor NPC, though not to the same extent as characters like Youngster Joey. His catchphrase will be almost guaranteed to be mentioned whenever he is.
• In Black and White, Nimbasa City's Big Stadium contains a Shout-Out to Inazuma Eleven in which one of the soccer players tells you to "Join the training of our Pokémon Eleven!" On the Japanese art community pixiv, there is now a "PokeIre" tag.^ExplanationThe Japanese Portmanteau Series Nicknames for the two series are Pocket Monsters -> Pokémon and Inazuma Eleven -> InaIre, so naturally "Pokémon Eleven" becomes "PokeIre" for Crossover fanart depicting things like Inazuma Eleven characters training Pokémon.
• Merge everything with Kyurem! ^ExplanationIn Black 2 and White 2, the version mascots are Kyurem merged with either Reshiram or Zekrom. Cue pictures and fanart of Kyurem merged with other Pokémon. In a related note, Polymerization and Synchro Summoning jokes are popular with Black and White Kyurem as well.
• D! O! G! A! R! S! DOGARS! ^ExplanationThe remix for Roxie's Gym features her band singing about Koffing in the background; Dogars being Koffing's Japanese name. In non-Japanese versions it is P! O! K! E! M! O! N! POKEMON!
• ARE YOU READY? ^ExplanationThe encounter theme for the models in Elesa's Gym features the aforementioned words prominently throughout the tune. It's since been used to hype up events.
  • I AM REGGIE ^ExplanationMishearing/mutation of the above, often used to talk about Reggie Fils-Aimé, former president of Nintendo of America.
  • Server:...... Or "They forgot to get the server ready" ^ExplanationMutations that popped up after the Christmas eShop/ Pokémon Bank crash.
• However... I DISAGREE! ^ExplanationIn Black and White 2, during the player's third meeting with Colress, Colress talks about how he disagrees with the old Team Plasma's ideals of liberating Pokémon from humans, instead believing that it is humans that can bring out the maximum potential in Pokémon. The scene's portrayal in the Black and White 2: Animated Trailer made it iconic, as in it Nate dramatically encounters Colress under the moonlit night sky while an epic remix of Colress's theme plays and Colress makes his declaration in a hammy manner.
• The Black version is longer. ^ExplanationAfter the Black and White versions were announced, it didn't take long for Freudian humor to start.
• Driftveil City's music has become a meme in various ways, including being a YTPMV source and trending on Vietnamese TikTok due to it sounding similar to a typical wedding song from that country.
  • The Dancing Lizard meme, where a lizard dances to the song, further boosted its popularity, and it became even more popular in late 2023 to early 2024 thanks to Cas van de Pol referencing it in his How to Train Your Dragon video with Toothless instead of a lizard.
• Amoonguss. ^ExplanationThis Pokémon's popularity exploded after Among Us became a Fountain of Memes, due to sharing a similar name and disguising itself as a Poké Ball, making it an "imposter".
  • Do not look up Pokémon 591. ^ExplanationA variation of the above, where people often warn each other not to look up the number, to surprise them with Amoonguss' name.
• "god i love the limited 3d in this game its so charming"^note The Gen V games have a very specific artstyle; the 3D element of the Sprite/Polygon Mix is emphasised more than Gen IV, with some locations featuring level geometry buildings protruding from the ground quite prominently, or certain locations having dynamic camera movement. It's very unique in this regard, as previous generations stuck with styles that emphasized the sprites, while later games went fully 3D. This uniqueness for the generation turned memetic during Saltydkdan's Friendlocke stream of the game, and resulted in a number of snowclones, before generally being repeated for the game in general (whether only memetically or honestly).
• "keep dancing while your Pokemon's dying"^note The linked sound snippet is the Background Music Override whenever your Pokemon's HP goes in the red. Not a few players were torn between healing their Pokemon and listening to the really catchy tune while the mon is essentially kept in the limbo of being critically injured.
• Rosa's boobs^ExplanationFan art depicting Rosa posing for a photograph, not knowing that the photographer is actually taking a picture of her breasts. Became a popular template used to mock sensationalism.

Generation VI

Pokémon X and Y & Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

• HOENN CONFIRMED!^ExplanationAn attempt to say that a remake of Generation III is coming due to "hints" in Pokémon X and Y. Became Hilarious in Hindsight after the announcement of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. And to a lesser extent, this meme was revived with the 2017 Halloween event in Pokémon GO.
  • SINNOH CONFIRMED!^ExplanationA parody of the above, using obvious examples like "Generation IV Pokémon are in the game, Sinnoh confirmed!" Has become even more prominent with Gen VII and Gen VIII, where even the slightest thing Diamond/Pearl related will cause this to be cited. Also became Hilarious in Hindsight when the Sinnoh Pokémon were added to Pokémon GO. Became Hilarious in Hindsight again once remakes of Diamond and Pearl were announced in February of 2021.
  • SINNOH CONFIRMED TWICE!^ExplanationWhen it was revealed in February 2021 that not only would Sinnoh remakes be heading to the Switch, but another game set in Sinnoh (this one taking place in the past) was in development, a number of people used this phrase to sum up the announcement.
  • KANTO CONFIRMED!^ExplanationThings like the Pokémon Origins anime are making people ponder Gen I re-remakes now. Became Hilarious in Hindsight with the release of Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Eevee!.
• Sylveon the Dragon Slayer ^ExplanationWhen the Fairy-type was added in Gen VI and revealed to be super-effective against Dragon, many people made jokes about the cute and cuddly Fairy-types such as Sylveon and Jigglypuff defeating powerful Dragon-types. For instance, there's an influx of fanart showing Sylveon standing on top of a pile of fainted Dragon-type Pokémon.
  • Because of this and the official art◊ showing Sylveon seemingly clashing with a Hydreigon, there's a budding Shipping between the two, with a rather meek/teasing Sylveon toying with an annoyed/cowering Hydreigon.
    • A popular strategy in ORAS was to teach the move Hyper Voice to a Sylveon with its Hidden Ability Pixilate. That Ability turned any Normal-type move into a Fairy-type move, on top of making it even stronger. So yes, Sylveon could kill Dragons simply by shouting at them loud enough, just like the Dovahkiin.
  • FIGHTING EVIL BY MOONLIGHT ^Explanation:It also spawned this — as now people joke that Sylveon is in fact a Magical Girl, and with the moon theme from the picture, and it showing off a moonlight-themed damaging move, notes that she is Sailor Moon. Oh, and the other Eeveelutions are the Sailor Scouts, apparently.
  • still not confirmed still not confirmed still not confirmed ^Explanation:Shortly after the Fairy type revealing, this image, showing a Facebook discussion with various Dragon-types (and newly-retconned) Fairy-types) reacting to the news. Hydreigon, who is doubly weak to Fairy-type attacks, can only respond with the statement. It's also sometimes used when rumors involving the type or anything else come out.
  • Ghetsis' Hydreigon being the reason why the Fairy type was invented^ExplanationAs mentioned above, Hydreigon has a quadruple weakness to Fairy types. Considering that the main villain of the previous generation was Ghetsis, whose Hydreigon was often considered such a terrifying powerhouse that it single-handedly turned Ghetsis into That One Boss for both of his games, many joke that the Fairy type was introduced specifically to counter Ghetsis' Hydreigon. It got even funnier when he returned in Ultra Sun and Moon, letting players use their new Fairy types on him to get their just desserts.
• What Does Delphox Say?^ExplanationA pun on the memetic Ylvis song released at about the same time as X & Y, further fueled by Delphox's cry sounding similar to the absurd "fox noises" mentioned in the song.
• Fletchling/Talonflame is r e l e n t l e s s.^Explanation:During Fletchling's reveal, fans noted its odd description of rather being relentless in attacking. This spawned various images◊ of Fletchling being a Killer Rabbit. Talonflame was introduced with the new animation Brave Bird, so people used it again.
• TEAM FLARE BOSS ^ExplanationJim Carrey's orange suit◊ worn at one point in the movie has been compared to the Kalos villain team Team Flare, who wears… orange suits.
• Mega [insert name of Mon here]. ^ExplanationWith the reveal of "Mega Evolutions" coming for Generation VI, many fans have been adding "Mega" to every Pokémon name. Such as Mega Meganium for instance.
  • Yanmega ^note (Megayanma in Japan) and Meganium were Mega before it was cool.
    • Dialga was Primal before it was cool.^ExplanationAfter the revelation of Primal Reversion for Kyorge and Groudon, some people have pointed out that a "Primal" Pokémon has been done before (though Primal Dialga doesn't fit the naming scheme in Japanese).
  • Adding "Mega" to sundry Game Breakers, such as Mega Garchomp and Mega Terrakion. Became Hilarious in Hindsight after Garchomp was revealed to indeed have a Mega Evolution.
  • Why stop at just Pokémon? Applying Mega Evolution to the human characters is a common joke as well. Mega Professor Oak, anyone?
• Due to Mega Ampharos's looks, there have been variations of calling the Pokémon's name, from Amfabulous to Amfabio.
  • Also, Mega Ampharos in an advert of L'oreal. ^note  While Mega Ampharos didn't actually appear in a L'oreal advertisement, people noted that the Pokémon's hair makes it look surprisingly similar to a L'oreal model, leading to jokes connecting it and the company.
  • PC Gamer Ampharos^ExplanationAmpharos, especially its Mega form, resembles the "PC Master Race" memes, which led to jokes about it being a snobby PC gamer.
• YOU CAN SIT ON BENCHES! ^ExplanationIn one of the X/Y trailers, it showcased the player sitting down on a bench for a brief second; fans have taken to jokingly hailing this as the greatest innovation the series has ever produced.
• "I may be bad and stupid, but I'm serious about Pokémon." ^ExplanationPre-battle dialogue for a trainer in the Battle Maison jokingly repeated by fans (usually through a screencap◊ of the dialogue) to poke fun at their devotion to the series.
• Professor Sycamore from X/Y and his uncanny resemblance◊ to the teacher from Kill la Kill.
  • He's also a common visual headcanon for Nightvale's beautiful and perfect scientist Carlos.
• The Butterfly from Hell^ExplanationVivillon is #666 in the National Pokédex, drawing many jokes that the colorful Bug-type is actually far more sinister than it appears (or alternatively, having scarier Pokémon like Espurr or Gengar calling Vivillon "unworthy" of the number).
• Espurr and its interesting◊ expressions◊ quickly shot up to meme status after it was first put into Pokémon-Amie. The most famous of these is its unblinking stare, which is mentioned in the General section.
  • Espurr BSoD eyes too, with some Nightmare Fuel.
• Jingle jingle, motherfucker, I kill dragons ^ExplanationWhile the entire Fairy typing is notorious for being a bunch of cute Dragon killers, special mention goes to Klefki for being a tiny Pokémon based off a key ring, of all things.
• Diggersby tho? ^ExplanationIn response to comments that Diggersby has weak stats (which it technically does when it doesn't have the Huge Power ability), video game streamer Shofu spends a good ten minutes chatting with his friend about how awesome its design is. This video led to people spamming the aforementioned phrase online; it's been considered a Forced Meme, though, due to how often people said it back when it was popular.
• Spamming Lysandre/Fleur-De-Lis' face in BGMs is becoming notable in Japan.
  • Ghetsis/G-Cis!
• "It's been 3,000 years..." ^ExplanationThe scene from the ending of X and Y, where AZ finally reunites with his Floette has been used to make jokes about the release of either the Hoenn remakes or Pokémon Bank or the long-delayed Flipnote Studio 3D, poking fun at how long fans have been waiting for them. In addition, it would come up any time new information is revealed about Pokémon Sword and Shield and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet due to the long intervals between them. It's also sometimes used in other fandoms to poke fun at delays such as the Nintendo Switch reveal or Valve's Team Fortress 2 comic.
• Slurpuff is a Counter to Mega Kangaskhan^ExplanationA quote from Verlisify, a controversial figure in the Pokémon community. In an interview with The Flaming Spade, he says this as a justification for why Mega Kangaskhan isn't broken, despite misusing the word counter (Slurpuff cannot switch into any attack from Mega Kangaskhan and threaten it KO it before getting KO'd itself) and ignoring the fact that Mega Kangaskhan has consistently proven its Game-Breaker status in the Singles format by being able to steamroll through entire teams by itself with little to no team support and forcing players to run obscure counters that have no use outside of trying to kill Mega Kangaskhan (which can easily fail at their job).
• RIP Tabitha 2002-2014. ^ExplanationThe new Aqua and Magma admin redesigns◊ became notorious for bearing little resemblance to their pre-remake selves. Magma Admin Tabitha◊ is often singled out in this topic of discussion, as his redesign gives him a significantly heavier build than the original.
• Tabitha is often associated with Makuhita in fanart due to Matt comparing him to one in the demo.
• The large and ill-placed spike that Metagross gains as Mega Metagross has already spawned just the kind of jokes and memes you'd expect.
• Croissant Spaceship. ^ExplanationMega Salamence's design has enormous crescent-shaped wings and it has a design that resembles a futuristic spaceship.
• Mega Slowbro's inherently funny design and awkward look turned it into a meme as soon as it was accidentally uploaded on the Internet.
• Mega Diancie's eerie resemblance to Madoka's ultimate form also quickly became a meme as soon as it was revealed.
  • Likewise, Mega Audino's resemblance to Kyubey, coupled with the fact that May's Pokémon Contest outfit makes her look like a Magical Girl.
• Based Pachirisu. ^ExplanationPlayer Se Jun Park won the 2014 Pokémon World Championships by leading with a Pachirisu, of all things.
• Where's Wally? ^ExplanationWally's redesign wasn't revealed until September 2014, two months before the game's release. During the time before its reveal, this phrase referencing the book series of the same name was used by fans who wanted to see his redesign.
  • I FOUND WALLY! ^ExplanationIn September, Wally was finally revealed in CoroCoro. And he has a Mega Gallade!
• "It feels like I'm wearing nothing at all!" "Stupid sexy Wallace" ^ExplanationWallace's redesign in OR/AS is considered extremely fanservice-y, and lots of jokes soon appeared, including an image that referenced a popular The Simpsons line.
• WAILHORDE^ExplanationThe introduction of Horde Encounters in Gen VI inspired jokes about a Wailord horde encounter and how they would even fit on the battlefield.
  • Also jokes about Unown hordes spelling random or vulgar words became commonplace.
• "X was a Kalos thing." ^ExplanationAfter X and Y featured a high degree of character customization, it was eventually confirmed that it would not be possible to do the same in the third gen remakes, with the explanation being that it was a Kalos thing because those games focused on beauty, while the third gen remakes focus on adventure. After that, the phrase was used as a go-to catch all meme for whenever GF cuts features/retcons something for no understandable reason.
• 200 POTIONS ^ExplanationJapan, Europe, and America all featured special pre-order bonuses to customers who pre-ordered both Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Japan offered figures and an artbook, Europe offered the same figures and a steelbook, and America got, well... Download codes for 200 free potions. A slight case of Misblamed in that Japan also had a similar 200 potion deal, but even then it still included the figures; the main source of frustration and memetic value is the fact that America got the potions even though they originally weren't getting any of the physical bonuses. Toys R Us eventually did offer bonus Mega Charizard plushes, but the meme persists.
• BRAVE BIRD EVERYTHING! ^ExplanationThe frequent use of Gale Wings Talonflame with Brave Bird inspired a lot of "Brave Bird" memes.
  • Talonflame is the Bravest of all Birds. ^ExplanationSome people have called Talonflame "the bravest bird" or "the bravest of all birds" due to the aforementioned strategy.
  • RIP Smogonbird ^ExplanationUnfortunately, in Gen VII, Gale Wings was Nerfed to only activate at full health (note: Talonflame is incredibly frail, has a double weakness to Stealth Rock, and its best moves are Cast from Hit Points, so it's practically never at full health), ending Talonflame's competitive viability in higher tiers.
• Flygon not having a Mega ^ExplanationMany fans lamented the realization that Flygon didn't get a mega in ORAS and a ton of memes were spawned. Made even more egregious as Flygon is the only Gen III Dragon-type not to have a Mega. ^note In an interview with Ken Sugimori, it was confirmed that Mega Flygon was actually planned as early as X and Y, but was dropped due to artist's block and they were still unable to complete a design for ORAS, so it was dropped from consideration.
  • Milotic not having a mega ^ExplanationMuch like Flygon, many bring up how Milotic never got a Mega Evolution in ORAS either.
• WOW IT'S FUCKING NOTHING◊^ExplanationAfter being promised news about Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire after they were announced in a Pokémon-related show, the only actual "news" that were revealed were a small cutscene of Kyogre and Groudon emerging from the sea. A screenshot of Groudon from that is commonly used to show dismay for lack of significant news..
• Too much water. ^ExplanationErupted from IGN's review of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The review was almost entirely glowing with few complaints leveraged towards the game, but it still only managed to get a 7.8 out of 10. In the article summation at the bottom of the page, one of the negatives against the game was, well… "too much water," which is more or less unavoidable considering that the game takes place on a bunch of islands.
  • IGN is run by Team Magma. ^ExplanationSome fans have joked that this is the reason behind IGN's "too much water" complaint.
  • An Ascended Meme as of Sun & Moon, as one of the comments you can get in the Poké Finder is "7.8/10. Too much water. *shrug emoticon*"
• Would you like to put your hand deep in the hole? ^ExplanationThe wording of the mirage holes is a little suggestive, to say the least. Cue a lot of dirty jokes about it.
• Nowadays people can easily have access to Gen VI games' character 3D models. And of course, the internet immediately had the idea to use MikuMikuDance to make hilarious music and dance videos. (Yes, there were MMD videos before, but those were rare and used custom models.)
  • Within a week of their release, this also happened to the Gen VII games.
• Fug ^ExplanationIt stemmed from an image of a shiny Rayquaza's close up in a status pic with a caption of "FUG" (The Flying type label in German, which is Flug, with the l letter removed), whenever Rayquaza is mentioned, it is referred as such. Sometimes, the caption is paired up with Rayquaza's Off-Model Happy Meal toy for added hilarity.
  • Aero-Ass ^ExplanationWhen the Pokémon Sun and Moon Special Demo was released, setting the language to German revealed that Greninja's Aerial Ace is translated as "Aero-Ass", which made it a prime target for In My Language, That Sounds Like... memes. Sometimes the two "misinterpreted German" memes are mashed up together as "Fug dat Aero-Ass". Even better is that Aerial Ace is a Flying-type move… which in itself is listed as "Flug" and photoshopped to "Fug".
• Screaming Flannery ^ExplanationFlannery in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire still has the overenthusiastic lines of her 2-D self… but now she has the funniest expressions/poses while delivering them. Cue image edits inserting other screaming lines into her word balloons.
• Mega Rayquaza's brokenness ^ExplanationRayquaza's Mega Evolution, introduced in ORAS, not only increases its stats even further, gives it the same BST as Mega Mewtwo X/Y, and an ability that lessens its Flying-type based weaknesses, but it doesn't need a Mega Stone, allowing it to hold a different held item. It turned out to be broken enough to be banned from Ubers and cause the creation of "Anything Goes" on Smogon.
• Mega Arceus/Primal Arceus ^ExplanationMany are speculating that in 4th Gen remakes, that Arceus, considered to be the god of Pokémon, will get a Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion, and that it will be the most broken Pokémon ever as a result. (Ultimately, the 4th Gen remakes were treated more like remasters and later-generation mechanics like Mega Evolution were nowhere to be seen.) Pokémon Legends: Arceus doesn't give Arceus a Super Mode, but it does provide it with a way of becoming an even bigger Game-Breaker: the Legend Plate, which changes Arceus to an advantageous type every time it uses its Secret Art.
• CHALK ^ExplanationA derogatory term that spawned during the 2015 World Championships where teams in the final rounds prominently ran the same five Pokémon, which were Cresselia, Heatran, Amoonguss, Landorus-Therian, and Kangaskhan-Mega.
• Zygarde has no game! ^ExplanationWith the announcement that the next Pokémon games are going to be for Generation VII, many people are joking about how there was no "Pokémon Z" game centering around Zygarde as a follow-up to X and Y like in previous generations. The meme saw a sudden resurgence in early 2024 with the announcement of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, with fans commonly shortening its name to "Pokémon Legends Z" or just "Pokémon Z" to celebrate that Zygarde's finally getting a bone thrown its way.
  • Poor Zygarde.
  • Alas, poor Zygarde!◊
  • "Why can't I get a game?"
• Mega Garchomp's speed^ExplanationMega Garchomp is near-universally considered to be worse than regular Garchomp in competitive play despite the power boost it gets since it has 10 less points in Speed, which is one of the biggest reasons why Garchomp is so good as a competitive mon.
• Marshtomp staring ^ExplanationJapan's answer to Espurr's stare: taking an image of a blank-staring Marshtomp from Omega Ruby & Sapphire and photoshopping it into various images, usually with the Memetic Psychopath treatment.

Generation VII

Pokémon Sun and Moon, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, & Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!

• "SET FIRE TO THE SUN!"^ExplanationSolgaleo, being Psychic/Steel, is weak to Fire-type attacks, which is ironic given it's an incarnation of the sun. Jokes about the redundant plot of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s old mentor from Phineas and Ferb to set fire to the sun quickly sprung up.
  • On a similar note, Lunala, a Ghost/Psychic type, being doubly weak to Dark spawned memes about the goddess of the night being scared of the dark (though somewhat justified, as since it represents the moon, it embodies the light in the darkness).
  • Solgaleo is a lion, wielding the powers of the sun. Cue jokes to the "1 trillion lions vs. the sun" meme.
• Seemingly everything about the reveal of the Alola Region's Exeggutor was a source of amusement for people, whether it was because of its "Dick-Tree" appearance, to the little face at the end of its tail, to the fact it's… well, needlessly tall.
  • Its memetically-long neck (trunk?) has also drawn seemingly inevitable comparisons to Lesser Dog. ^note (Not) helping this comparison is the fact that Alolan Exeggutor's ability is Frisk.
  • And with it being Dragon-type, the joke of Charizard not being one inevitably pops up again. "Imagine a coconut tree being more dragon than Charizard", indeed.
  • Having three heads (not counting its tail head, anyway) and being a Dragon-type drew jokes comparing Exeggutor to King Ghidorah, or joking about the prophecy of Rhaegar Targaryen, "the dragon has three heads".
• IT'S YOUR BOY, GUZMA! ^ExplanationA quote from Guzma, the leader of Team Skull, which stuck with the fans, both positively and negatively depending on who you ask.
  • Y'all are stupid! ^ExplanationA random quote Guzma says when the player characters arrive in Ultra Deep Sea, which the fans quickly latched on to, especially when mocking other fans.
• Once footage of the animation the protagonists use to initiate a certain Z-Move was revealed, the fandom quickly made parodies and jokes about how surprisingly brutal it looked.
• Another Z-move animation has Pikachu jumping into the player’s arms. A gif quickly circulated reversing the animation to make it look like Pikachu is being thrown far away.
• JoJokes about Sun and Moon are quite commonplace, from jokes about Gladion as DIO and the Ultra Beasts as Stands, but the ones that stand out the most are about how the return of classic Trainers Red and Blue look remarkably like JoJo protagonists. Even the music playing at that part of their trailer matches up well with Stardust Crusaders!
  • A very specific joke about a trick to hatch eggs quickly became a Steel Ball Run reference, due to how it required you to perform the SPIN on Taurus-back.
• The reveal of the now grown-up versions of Red and Blue as Optional Bosses in Sun and Moon led to multiple jokes, the most common one among shippers being that the boys are married and visiting Alola on their honeymoon.
  • Related to the above, there are quite a few jokes about how Leaf ^note the female player character in FireRed and LeafGreen is a non-canon protagonist and gets no love from the Pokémon Company. Fanart of a grown-up version of her has been making the rounds.
  • Another one is accompanying their presence with the lyrics to "The Boys Are Back in Town".
• Lusty Alolan Maid^ExplanationDue to the way how Salandit's evolution Salazzle is shown, complete with her female-only evolution, her seductive, sultry appearance, and references to her making a harem out of male Salandit in conjunction with the website description of her releasing unique pheromones that can submit males, human and Pokémon alike, to her will, she is seen as a reptilian "waifu-bait" and even compared with the titular character of The Lusty Argonian Maid. Argonians in The Elder Scrolls are an anthropomorphic reptilian race and the book is about short lewd excerpts of a female Argonian maid using Unusual Euphemisms.
• Lusamine is MOM OF THE YEAR^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Lusamine is heavily compared to Ragyo Kiryuin due to being an older yet stunningly beautiful woman who abuses her daughter Lillie, serves as the head of a corporation with a Light Is Not Good motif, and is obsessed with an alien Eldritch Abomination to the point of partaking in a conspiracy with it. The fact that Lusamine, much like Ragyo, also has another child with an edgy black-and-red design and a rebellious personality — in contrast to Lillie's white color scheme and proper demeanor — who actively opposes her also led to many claiming that the entire game is a Whole-Plot Reference to the anime in question.
• The fact that the player character of Sun and Moon can go up to a stranger's bed, sniff it, and is apparently able to describe rather poignantly the bed owner's life, made people joke about how he/she has a rather odd if not creepy fetish.
  • Related to the above, "Bed sommelier".^explanationJapanese fans quickly gave the player character this title, based on Anime!Cilan's title of "Pokémon Sommelier".
• I swear to god Nebby GET IN THE BAG.^ExplanationThis meme arose due to the frequency of Nebby (the Cosmog with Lillie) being kept (or not) inside a duffle bag as a gag in the game. Variations include 1 trillion bags vs. one Nebby and Nebby exclaiming that it cannot be contained in a bag.
  • Pew.^ExplanationNebby's cry in text form.
  • I heard Lillie is fucking ripped.^ExpanationCosmog evolves into Cosmoem, which weighs 999.9 kg(or about 2,204 lbs.), making it the heaviest Pokémon on record; the fact that Lillie can apparently still carry it in her bag in this state inspired the meme.
  • Fanarts of Lillie insisting that Cosmoem's evolutions Solgaleo or Lunala get back into the bag are also widespread.
  • When Lillie's bag went up for sale on Amazon, the customer comments and reviews were… predictable.
• Press A to pound.^ExplanationMallow's trial revolves around the player preparing a stew using ingredients found in the nearby wilderness, which culminates in a scene where the player is instructed to "Press A to pound the ingredients." The wording of the prompt caught on with fans thanks to "pound" also being slang for sex, leading one fan to edit a photograph of the moment to simply consist of Mallow's face and the text "Press A to pound." The photoshop became a popular reaction image in response to characters that internet users consider attractive and inspired further edits where "Press A to pound" is juxtaposed with cropped Rule 34 art and suggestive moments in other works.
• Incineroar is NASTY. ^ExplanationIncineroar's attack animation in Sun and Moon inspired exactly the kind of memes you would expect. Basically, when Incineroar — a very masculine humanoid Pokémon — attacks, he… does a Pelvic Thrust. When you combine this with the fact that Incineroar can do this animation when using moves like Hyper Beam or Savage Spin Out (the Bug-type Z-Move, in which the user shoots white stuff to tie the opponent up in a cocoon)… Naturally, adult fans had a field day with Incineroar memes.
• Bar?^ExplanationWhen you pick Popplio as the starter, it will make this exclamation when you reach your house. While it's a form of its cry (when picking a starter it goes "Bwark?"), people joked on how it's looking for booze.
• Attack on Po Town ^explanationTeam Skull's Po Town is surrounded by walls, so for the protagonist's raid on Po Town, the image of Attack on Titan's Colossal Titan's iconic debut is photoshopped with either protagonist in the Titan's place and Guzma in Eren's.
• Princess Celesteela ^explanationPeople noticed the similarity of Celesteela's name to Celestia's, and...
  • Comparisons between Celesteela and Metal Gears or Mobile Suits (especially Zeong) aren't rare either.
• Making MMD videos of the characters dancing became popular with X and Y. When Sun and Moon came out fans began creating even more, which spawned memes of their own. In general, any dance video will have people in the comments mentioning that it's a Z-move. When it comes to Lillie dancing videos, comments will mention that it's her happy dance for Nebby getting in her bag. Videos including Gladion, Lillie, or Lusamine dancing will have comments mentioning that's why Lusamine's kids left her or why their dad disappeared.
• Jokes about Gladion being a Chuunibyou or Emo Teen are popular.
• Similarly to Alolan Exeggutor, Alolan Dugtrio is a big source of amusement thanks to its gorgeous long blonde hair. The crossovers with◊ He-Man's HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA just write themselves.
• "We want each region to feel unique." ^ExplanationA quote from a rather infamous interview over why certain features aren't held over into the next gen. It's used, often sarcastically, in response to why certain improvements/beloved features aren't kept between games; be it walking Pokémon, the DexNav, and, most infamously, Mega Evolution.
• Aloha to the Alola. ^ExplanationLyrics made famous by Cam Steady used almost Once an Episode in his Pokémon rap cyphers.
• Pinnister◊ ^ExplanationLong before any information on the starters' evolutions was known, this fake leak of their supposed final evolutions was released. The one that caught the most attention was Popplio's, for its disturbing, clown-like appearance. It was given the name "Pinnister" and since then, it has cropped back up during the hype periods for both Generations VIII and IX.
• MEGA EVOLUTION CONFIRMED ^ExplanationDuring the lead up to Pokémon Sun & Moon's release, fans were wondering if Mega Evolution was going to return in this generation, leading to fans proclaiming this whenever anything related to Mega Evolution was brought up. Became Hilarious in Hindsight when Mega Evolution was eventually confirmed to be returning in Sun & Moon, albeit downplayed and no new ones introduced. Sadly, when it came to Gen VIII, the infamous "Dexit" reveal also revealed that Mega Evolution would be cut altogether.

Generation VIII

General

• "STOP BUFFERING!"^ExplanationAs played on the US Pokémon YouTube channel, the Pokémon Presents that announced the Diamond and Pearl remakes and Pokémon Legends: Arceus was plagued with connection stuttering — to the point that the end of the video got cut off when the 'live' premiere ended — leading many reacting Youtubers to shout this at their computers.
• Pokémon Link's Awakening, Pokémon Breath of the Wild ^ExplanationWhen the art styles got revealed for Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Legend Arceus, fans immediately started making jokes and comparisons on how the former looks like the Link's Awakening remake and the latter looks like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
• The Pokémon Company discovers size differences ^ExplanationSword and Shield introduced the Dynamax and Gigantamax mechanic, which makes your Pokémon increase massively in size. Not really a thing on its own, but then New Pokémon Snap added the ability to shrink in an update, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl was shown to have Fun Size overworld characters, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus can generate Pokémon that are larger or smaller than normal. This led to jokes that TPC is deliberately marketing to fans of size difference lewd and wholesome, whether playing on people who like macro/micro with Sw/Sh and NPS and those who want "dommy mommy" Pokémon with PLA, or on the more wholesome side, players who want pocket-sized Dawn with BD/SP and fans of big Bidoof with PLA.

Pokémon Sword and Shield

• Pokémon Greatsword, Pokémon Longsword, etc.^ExplanationUpon the reveal of Pokémon Sword and Shield, Monster Hunter fans (Sword & Shield is a weapon type in MonHun) joked that there would also be versions of Pokémon named after the other Monster Hunter weapon types.
• Pokémon GUN ^ExplanationAfter finding out the Gen 8 games' naming theme is weapons, people joked the third game would be called this. It got so bad that a Mexican newspaper actually thought it was a real game! Somewhat of a Discredited Meme due to the games getting DLC rather than an Updated Re-release, although it is still used in reference to Gigantamax Inteleon's rifle.
  • Pokémon Hammer and Sickle ^ExplanationSimilar to the Pokémon Gun joke above, people joked about future games with names themed after Soviet Russia.
• Scottish female trainer.^ExplanationFollowing the reveal of the UK-inspired Galar region, fans quickly started parodying the Scottish Twitter trend using Gloria, portraying her as a surly, foul-mouthed Ladette with a heavy Scottish accent.
• Leon's horrible internal compass. In-game, he needs to be walked home by his younger brother Hop, and while out of universe, the Pokémon didn't exist yet, In-Universe, he didn't have a DLC Pokémon because he could never find its several-stories-tall beach tower. Out of universe, it's exaggerated into him wandering into alternate dimensions.
  • Leon is pants with directions.^note The wording used by Hop to describe his brother's sense of direction. Because the word "pants" used to mean "terrible" is a very British thing to say, players from other parts of the world were left initially scratching their heads at the colorful word choice.
  • The one exception to this being Hop. To the point where fan comics portray him as having a 'Hop Radar'.
• Bede, one of the Rivals in Sword & Shield, has drawn many comparisons to Young Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood due to his hairstyle, arrogant ambition, and smug expression. He's also been compared to Nagito Komaeda of Danganronpa for the same reason.
  • His puffy white hair and pink dress, as well as The Fair Folk Jerkass personality, also drew mockery from the fandom who mistook him for an old grumpy grandmother.^note This became Hilarious in Hindsight when it turns out that one of the Gym Leaders fits that description, and takes Bede in as her successor halfway through the game.
• Portraying Scorbunny's final evolution with the infamous Fire/Fighting combo, or as King Kazma or Big Chungus.
• Dynamax Wailord^ExplanationPokémon Sword and Shield introduces a new mechanic that allows you to make Pokémon giant for 3 turns. Wailord is the largest Pokémon in the series (until Eternatus upstaged it). People have made jokes about how you are able to supersize such a large Pokémon.
  • Gigantamax Wailord^ExclamationThe reveal of Gigantamaxing, which lets certain Pokémon change size and appearance, quickly led to discussion of how Gigantamax Wailord would be even bigger and more impressive than the Dynamax version.
  • On the opposite end of the scale, fans have also joked about Dynamax Joltik. Being the smallest Pokémon in the series (easily fitting on the palm of a hand), some have memed the idea of a Dynamax Joltik still being smaller than the player.
  • Given that its comical height was massive meme fuel in Sun and Moon, the idea of a Dynamax Alolan Exeggutor also became popular, though this wouldn't take flight until the "Isle of Armor" DLC due to Exeggutor being unavailable until then.
• Inside each of us are two wolves. ^ExplanationZacian and Zamazenta, the cover legendaries for Pokémon Sword and Shield, are both based on wolves. Cue references to the famous "Cherokee legend" (apocryphal, though admittedly that's unrelated to the meme). Bonus points if both wolves are gay or have depression.
• Great Blue Wolf Zacian. ^ExplanationFans have been quick to point out Zacian's resemblance to Great Grey Wolf Sif, another Canis Major that wields a huge sword in its jaws. Even Bandai Namco Entertainment has noted the similarity.
• "THIEVUL, NO THIEVING!"^ExplanationThe Dark-type fox Thievul, with its bandit-mask appearance and Pokédex entry stating its fondness for stealing stuff, drew plenty of comparisons to Swiper from Dora the Explorer, with "Swiper" even being a common nickname given by players to their Nickit/Theivul.
  • Similarly, “Seviper no Seviping!” because of the similarity of its name to Swiper’s.
• The Bug/Ice Pokémon Snom was an instant Ensemble Dark Horse the moment it was revealed, with fans praising it for its simple, adorable design and cute Punny Name. Further memes arose from Snom being incredibly slow in Pokémon Camp, or eating a massive amount of curry in the cooking minigame. It's also a popular concept to make fan art of it accompanied by Pincurchin and Pyukumuku, due to their spiky, oval-shaped bodies.
• Woolooloo.^ExplanationWooloo's name is similar to the memetic voice of a Priest Conversion in Age of Empires I. Combined with how the priests look like shepherds, fans think that the staff who came up with the name is an Age of Empires fan. Naturally, fanarts involving the◊ Wololo◊ joke appeared not long after Wooloo was announced.
• Signpost Wooloo ^ExplanationAfter Wooloo got revealed, the controversial animal rights group PETA tried to use its popularity by placing a message on a signpost in front of it in order to jab against the wool industry◊. Fans proceeded to have a field day by writing various other messages over the signpost.
• You can ride your bike on water. Professor Oak is somewhere having a stroke.^ExplanationThe trailer for Pokémon Sword and Shield shows the Rotom Phone allowing the player character to ride his or her bike across water. Cue the references to Oak telling you that you can't ride your bike there.
• oo^ExplanationA pun accompanying an image of a sheared Wooloo—that is, Wooloo without its wool would just be "oo."
• #BringBackNationalDex^ExplanationThe hashtag on Twitter that is the rallying cry for the restoration of the National Dex (or, to be more precise, the full lineup of Pokémon contained in the National Dex) after it was revealed that it was removed from the game.
  • #DontBringBackNationalDex/#FuckTheNationalDex^ExplanationA counter-protest hashtag against the return of the National Dex. This was done mostly to intentionally troll the angry Pokémon fans, though many genuinely took up the hashtags under complete frustration that they couldn't enjoy the games and have reasonable hype because of said angry fans insulting them and/or overtaking their posts.
• "GOTTA CATCH some of 'em" ^ExplanationAs mentioned above, given that not every Pokémon will be able to be brought into Pokémon Sword and Shield, it means that the original Tag Line for the franchise can no longer be done. Many people recite this phrase or something similar as a response to the removal of the National Pokédex.
  • Dexit^ExplanationA shorthand way used to refer to the above situation, playing off the Brexit debacle that was going on at the same time.
  • Thanos snapping Pokémon out of existence. ^ExplanationAn emerging meme to the National Pokédex being removed is that any Pokémon not in the Galar Pokédex was erased from existence by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet.
    • Scratch that, Thanos did nothing wrong. ^ExplanationA new version of the meme which broke out after the full list of removed Pokémon was leaked, allegedly revealing 60% of the roster was gone, in contrast to Thanos wiping out only half the universe. Many were quick to joke Thanos was, in hindsight, the better arbiter.
    • Scratch that, Thanos was WORSE. ^ExplanationAnd then came along the expansion passes, upscaling the amount of Pokémon to 600 (from 400), meaning that only 33% of the total National Dex ended up being left out in the end.
    • And given that shiny Wailord is purple and has a ridged lower jaw, the Thanos comparisons were pretty much unavoidable.
    • Professor Hulk snapping Pokémon back into existence. ^{Explanation (AVENGERS: ENDGAME SPOILERS)}With the expansion passes bringing back various Pokémon, it's been compared to Hulk undoing the effects of the snap in Avengers: Endgame.
  • "Too cold"^ExplanationShortly after the controversy broke out, Game Freak attempted to Hand Wave why non-Galar-native Pokémon couldn't be transferred to Galar by claiming that the region was "too cold" for them. The internet had a field day poking holes in how absurd the justification was.
  • After it was announced that a certain number of Pokémon wouldn't be in the game, jokes about Trainers and/or their Pokémon trying to sneak past the Galar region border have become abundant. Some of the jokes involve recoloring a Pokémon and pretending it's a Galar Pokémon.
  • The Galarian Reformation/the Church of Galar^ExplanationWhen it was discovered that Arceus was one of the Pokémon that didn't make the cut for the Galar Dex, the fandom immediately started making jokes comparing this to the real-life Protestant Reformation and the founding of the Church of England.
    • Arceus being excluded from the roster but Silvally (essentially a man-made copy of Arceus) being allowed in has drawn jokes of Galar incurring the vengeful god's wrath.
    • "Snom is your God now."^explanationSome fans started joking that Arceus' replacement in Galar wasn't Silvally, but Snom instead.
  • Revenge of the Sith is a popular reaction template as it shows the Jedi purge. Case in point.
  • "Palkia is the master of space, able to bend reality and travel through dimensions in an instant… but can't even get past the Galar border."
• #5MinutePokémonRenders^ExplanationOn Japanese Twitter, a Japanese fan ignorantly claimed that Game Freak could put all the Pokémon into Sword and Shield because each Pokémon would only take five minutes to render into 3D. Japanese artists decided to mock him by taking up that challenge, and the results are 3-D models that vaguely resemble Pokémon and are horribly Off-Model, mostly to prove that rendering something in 3D takes far longer than five minutes. This meme also made it to English Twitter, where fanartists are also trying their hands at the challenge. The results can be viewed under the hashtag #ポケモン5分モデリング.
• Nothing to see here officer, just my perfectly normal Wooloo.^ExplanationA common Reddit and Twitter meme following the Dexit news was for Pokémon to masquerade as Wooloo, and occasionally other Galar-confirmed Pokémon, to pass Galar's border control.
  • "If anybody asks, just act like a Chewtle."^ExplanationThe anime features a scene of Ash on a flight to Galar, and noticeable, one of the passengers is a trainer talking to their Turtwig, which is banned in Galar. The fanbase was quick to make jokes about said trainer actually advising their Pokémon to pretend to be an allowed one.
• Duraludon, being based off of a skyscraper (especially in its Gigantamax form) and heavily associated with the move Steel Beam, has lent itself to a lot of 9/11 jokes, especially those based off of the "Jet fuel can't melt steel beams" meme.
• Galarian Weezing is Doug Dimmadome ^ExplanationWhen Weezing's Galar regional form was unveiled, the internet was quick to compare its tall stove-pipe hat(s) and mustache to those of recurring Fairly Oddparents character Doug Dimmadome. Fanart and memes ensued.
  • Galarian Weezing has also been the target of many jokes about the fact that it resembles a bong.
  • With the reveal of Galarian Weezing's ability of Neutralizing Gas, which shuts off the abilities of all Pokémon in play, many people have brought up how this will make Slaking, Regigigas, and Archeops major threats due to shutting off their hindering abilities. Or were, until the November 3rd leak confirmed that all three were among the Pokémon who'd been cut. Fans were then quick to joke that this was the reason why all three had been excluded (although Regigigas and Archeops would come later in the Crown Tundra DLC).
  • On a similar note, Obstagoon is Gene Simmons ^ExplanationDue to the Galarian Zigzagoon line's fur color, fur patterns, and lolling tongue resembling the band members of KISS. Gene Simmons approves.
  • Morpeko has been associated with the Snickers candy bar, due to their advertising slogan (you're not you when you're hungry).
  • Galarian Meowth is commonly described by fans as a "homeless hobo Meowth on drugs".
• Sonia placed her camera badly. ^ExplanationIn the run-up to the release of Sword and Shield, there was a 24-hour livestream announced, in-universe a stream operating from a forest in the Galar region that viewers would watch to help Sonia, the region professor's assistant, in researching Pokémon. The appearance of new Pokémon was expected. However, collectively, actual Pokémon appearances took up less than an hour of the 24 hour runtime, six were from older generations (Pikachu, Phantump, Cottonee, Swirlix, Morelull, and Shiinotic), one was Impidimp (known about since E3, but with no official announcement), and only one was new (Galarian Ponyta). Cue fans ribbing on Sonia finding the one spot in the forest where Pokémon rarely appeared. For the record, actual nature cams can have no activity at all for days.
• Not even a day after its reveal, fans have made My Little Pony jokes about Galarian Ponyta.
  • And Galarian Rapidash's tall, slender form, and long horn has drawn many an allusion to Princess Celestia.
• DID SOMEONE SAY KANTO?! ^ExplanationAfter a trailer was released showing off 5 Gigantamax versions of Red & Blue Pokémon, many have begun to notice Game Freak's constant pandering towards Generation I over other Generations, leading to a large amount of mocking online.
  • Game Freak's Charizard obsession ^ExplanationWhile it wasn't the only marketing giant given a Gigantamax form, fans called it out for getting one on top of the two Mega Evolutions it had received and once again getting special treatment over the other Kanto starters (this time, being usable without DLC rather than having an extra Mega form).
  • The undefeated champion Leon and his unbeatable Charizard ^ExplanationFans were quick to note the large amount of Character Shilling Leon and his Charizard get and gave it an equal amount of snark.
    • Praise be to Charizard Almighty, our Lord and Savior, and His prophet Leon, who are undefeated and unbeatable.^ExplanationCombining the above meme with the Church of Galar, a number of users on /r/pokemon have taken the Leon and Charizard shilling so far as to claim that it's the primary religion in Galar, which worships Charizard as their supreme deity and treats Leon as Charizard's chosen prophet/vicar/holy figure. Some even claim that, according to said religion, their Charizard-god is the reason that Arceus and similar deities are banned from Galar.
  • Put Charizard in everything ^ExplanationEventually people started making color edits of Charizard to resemble other Pokémon, and even inserting it into other franchises.
  • Charmeleon! THAT'S ALL FOLKS!^ExplanationShortly after the November 3rd 2019 leak, someone released a version of the PokéRap that removed all of the Pokémon that had been removed from the Pokédex. Referring to the final verse, the only Pokémon that made the cut was Charmeleon, which did not go unnoticed by those displeased by either the large number of cuts or the Charmander line being the only non-Galar starter to return. Slowly dissipated over time as people noticed that other starters are still in the game, just not in the Galar Dex or obtainable within the game.
• MOTHER OF CHARIZARDS ^ExplanationOn a more favorable note, Charizard has been heavily associated with Daenerys Targaryen by some fans and in many parodies due to its winged dragon-like design and ability to breathe fire, as Dany owns three fire-breathing dragons that play an integral role in her story. Special mention goes to how Shiny Charizard has the exact same color palette as Drogon, Dany's "main" dragon, and how Mega Charizard X both looks vaguely similar to the Shiny form and becomes a Fire/Dragon-type.
• Longmeowth is long^ExplanationThe reveal of Gigantamax Meowth, with its extremely stretched-out body, immediately drew comparisons to the mid-2000s meme Longcat.
• After leaks confirmed 60% of the roster had been removed, many fans were quick to mock this by taking older pieces of Pokémon art and videos and editing them to cut all the removed mons out to express displeasure.
• Hop stalking the player. ^ExplanationHop, one of the player's rivals, often talks to the player throughout their journey during the story, leading to some people calling him a stalker.
• Fish punches you^ExplanationBack when someone with an early copy was sharing new Pokémon in /vp/, the leaker showed rental teams. In particular was Barraskewda with Close Combat and its ridiculously min-maxed stats. Someone asked how it could learn such a move, which the leaker promptly and hilariously replied.
• "FLAPPLE IS A BAKUGAN"^ExplanationFlapple is a draconic Pokémon concealed within an apple, and when it folds out, it greatly resembles the Bakugan toys that unfurl from small ball-shapes, which of course was instantly memed.
• "Why are you running? WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?!"^ExplanationThe audio from this Vine is often played over videos of Pokémon in the Wild Area chasing after players.
  • "STOP! YOU VIOLATED THE LAW!!!!" ^Explanation This particular audio clip from The Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion is another popular choice for playing over clips of Pokèmon chasing after the trainer in the Wild Area.
• Nobody can tell you how to dress if you can whoop their ass.^ExplanationMany people were quick to rag on Leon's outfit, from the fact that he wears shorts over leggings, has a snapback with the pattern of a crown on it, and a large, imposing cape with his sponsorship logos embroidered on it… and quickly jumped on the idea that nobody can tell him how to dress because he's Galar's current champion. Lo and behold, Leon actually changes into a much more ”normal” outfit once the player dethrones him.
• The Dynamax gimmick had many fans deciding which Pokémon will be used to emulate epic Kaiju battles, with Tyranitar as the stand-in for Godzilla and Hydreigon as the Ghidorah stand-in being very popular.
• "Let me see what you have!" "A sword!" "NO!"^ExplanationZacian holding a sword in his mouth and running around with it reminded many fans of this vine.
  • In the same vein, "Scorbunny, let me see what you have! A knife! NO!"
• Milo is a Ditto^ExplanationGym Leader Milo’s appearance has led many people on Twitter to suggest that he's a Ditto who's learned to take human form. The fact that this is exactly what happened in both Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon and Pokémon Detective Pikachu likely helped fuel the fire.
• Crab Curry with Krabby◊ ^ExplanationA simple, fairly common meme is calling attention to certain ingredients that can be used in curry by showing the complete two bowls of curry, and a trainer eating it alongside a Pokémon who highly resembles what went into the meal's preparation and presentation. As the description implies, this also comes in other forms, like Sweet Smoked-Tail Curry with Galarian Slowpoke.◊
• Hattrem, the Vibe Check Pokémon. ^ExplanationHattrem’s surprisingly violent Pokédex entries, which describe it as viciously attacking any being that shows excessive emotion, have caused fans to tie it in with the "Vibe Check" meme, in which the phrase (indicating that one seeks to examine their current emotions) is juxtaposed with violent acts, typically against an innocent bystander.

• Hattrem's evolution Hatterene is also memed for its design. While at first glance it's a Fanservice-y humanoid Pokémon, when it faints, it's revealed that Hatterene is much smaller than it appears, and its curvy body is just hair. It didn't take long before this was parodied.
• Wailord's model size ^ExplanationDespite Wailord being 47'7" in length, its ingame model from the sixth gen onward shows it being much smaller than that, in fact its height being less than that of the player character.
  • Wailord is always Dynamaxed ^ExplanationWhen Wailord Dynamaxes in Pokémon Sword and Shield, its model size becomes more in line with its actual size, making people claim that Wailord is always Dynamaxed. They tend to say the same thing for Eternatus for similar reasons.
• HO HO SANTA IS BUFF^ExplanationChairman Rose's battle theme, much like Ghetsis', has Ominous Latin Chanting with unclear lyrics. Other variations include "Ho ho save the cream puff," "Go Rose, Save Everyone," and "ho ho Satan's reply."
• The Galar fossils have been widely memed, with many fans attempting to reconstruct the original fossils, redesign them to a more "natural-looking" fusion of their components, or depicting the twisted hybrids as Death Seekers. Some have also compared Cara Liss to Shou Tucker of Fullmetal Alchemist, or expressed relief that at least the other Fossil Pokémon are unavailable in Galar.
• Dracovish wants revenge on everybody. ^ExplanationDespite being a constantly suffering wretch that was stitched together out of two completely unrelated fossils, Dracovish can do an insane amount of damage with its signature move, Fishious Rend, given the right circumstances. Its power is such that it's firmly in the OU tier (it's now in Ubers) of the competitive Pokémon tier list and has led to a lot of jokes about it wanting to kill everyone for allowing it to exist in the first place.
  • Thank you, Mr. Fish. ^ExplanationAlpharad posted a tweet with a picture of Dracovish, captioned "you will be hit by fishious rend whenever you least expect it unless you comment 'thank u mr fish'". Because of this, "Thank you Mr. Fish" has become a common reply to images of Dracovish. As a side effect, it's common to see a Dracovish online, especially one reared up for the competitive scene, with a nickname of Mr. Fish.
• Cosmic Power Solrock. ^note One NPC that will join you in Max Raid battles if you have fewer than three other players has a Solrock, which seems to know nothing but Cosmic Power. This isn't even helpful for tanking Max Moves, as every so often, the Dynamax Pokémon will reset everyone else's stat changes. It's so prevalent that it's considered noteworthy when the Solrock uses literally anything else.
• The brief scene of Marnie forcing herself to smile became popular from the moment it was first discovered by players, who instantly likened it to similar scenes from Joker and Komi Can't Communicate.
• #FalinksMarch.^note  Falinks' adorable marching animation is set to different songs, with only the occasional speed adjustment to make the animation fit.
• Raihan's popularity among NSFW fans and content creators has created the recurring joke that he has an OnlyFans account^note a site where people can sell their nudes.
• "Frosmoth seems interested in Lampent." ^Explanation This screencap from Pokémon Camp inspired numerous jokes revolving around how moths are attracted to light sources, such as references to the "LAMP" moth and jokes about Frosmoth's double weakness to Fire.
• Gulp Missile ^ExplanationCramorant's Gulp Missile ability has it projectile-vomit an Arrokuda (or a Pikachu if it's below half health) when hit after using Dive or Surf. A growing trend is to cut to someone being hit by a projectile or a fish when the footage would normally cut to the launched Pokémon hitting the opponent, or just editing the thrown Pokémon into the other video.
• "PII" ^ExplanationGigantamax Pikachu's cry is Pikachu saying "PII", but pitch-shifted down. Given how it sounds like Pikachu is saying "PEE", fans reacted predictably.
• Cinderace kicks Togepi ^ExplanationOccasionally, your party members will get into disputes when camping, using their attack animations as they argue with the other Pokémon. While whatever appendage the Pokémon uses to attack usually clips through the other member, some people have taken it upon themselves to edit the footage so that it looks like Cinderace punts Togepi at the screen like a football, occasionally mixing other memes into it.
• KILL ME! I'M IN CONSTANT PAIN!^ExplanationA line uttered by a rather disturbing hybrid of Miss Piggy and Kermit originating from Family Guy, which the fans quickly bootstrapped to the Galarian fossils, as they're in similar, if slightly less gruesome situations.
• ShInY rAiD? ^Explanation An exploit was recently discovered that allows a Trainer to force the given pool of a given den to be Shiny. However, in coordinated raid chats such as Discord, whenever someone mentions using the exploit to host, the chat goes absolutely berserk, sometimes even when there isn't one to begin with. As a side result, people now expect almost all hosted raids to be Shiny.
• With the reveal of Grookey's evolution Rillaboom, a ton of memes comparing it to Donkey Kong have popped up.
  • As well as a few Harambe memes, though thankfully not as much as Oranguru before it.
• BALK FISH ^ExplanationAn expression used by fans to make light of the many (frankly ridiculous) sets in the Battle Tower, often seeming like something Showderp would cobble together, as opposed to something actually competent like the Brightchomp set used in the Battle Tree. One such set is a Barraskewda with Protect, Bounce, Poison Jab, and Dive, a set that would be much more fitting for a Stone Wall or Mighty Glacier than a frail fish whose only great stats are Attack and Speed. The meme actually comes full circle, as some sets in the Battle Tower are outright stolen from Showderp, such as a slightly modified version of the "Solid Suggester" set.
• "Y'all want some Timbs?"^ExplanationAmong the many held items added by Sword and Shield are the Heavy-Duty Boots, which protects the holder from entry hazards such as Stealth Rock. This item helped boost the viability of Pokémon that were otherwise crippled by hazards taking a quarter or more of their health, and many memes likened them to the (in)famous Timberland Boots (often known as "Timbs"). Additionally, many editors had a field day putting Timbs on Pokémon that often held Heavy-Duty Boots, namely those with lots of legs, such as Volcarona and especially Centiskorch.
• Galarian Articuno says "SILENCE ____" ^ExplanationDuring the January 2020 direct that revealed the Galarian variants of the Legendary Birds, one of the pieces of concept art was Articuno firing a pair of Eye Beams in a way that reminded many of the SILENCE crab◊ meme.
• Galarian Zapdos being based on a roadrunner drew many comparisons to Road Runner from the Looney Tunes cartoons, with some suggesting that the third legendary dog of Galar would be Wile E. Coyote chasing Zapdos endlessly. Others have nicknamed it "Douno" due to its resemblance to a one-headed Dodrio.
• Meanwhile, Galarian Moltres being black and pink has had fans making jokes that Moltres has joined the similarly-colored Team Yell after falling smitten for Marnie.
• Plenty of memes were quickly made about Calyrex's big brain.
  • There are also plenty of mentions of the Triforce symbols on its neck.
  • By the stars! ^ExplanationCalyrex has a very distinctive eye expression when it is surprised, which caught on as a reaction image almost immediately after the DLC was released.
• So this is what Galar thinks of Fusion. ^ExplanationMany Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba fans were quick to point out how Klara's design resembles a hybrid of Shinobu (butterfly shaped hair decorations, use of poison, and vaguely creepy smile) and Kanroji (pink hair, green clothes and Zettai Ryouiki). Cue jokes of her being a literal fusion of the two.
• Genie of healthy meta^ExplanationOne of the nicknames used for Landorus-Therian, due to its sheer usage in Smogon OU (though as mentioned above, it was also pretty common in VGC). This reached the point that Landorus being prohibited from Sword and Shield was one of the arguments in favor of dex removals. So when it managed to come back with Expansion Pass, people started having fun with it.
• Inteleon's Gigantamax form wielding a sniper rifle drew many jokes suggesting that it's a hitman, with some jokingly suggesting that it plans to assassinate Chairman Rose. Comparisons to the Sniper from Team Fortress 2 are also commonplace.
  • A combination of the above with the existing "Inceleon" meme led to some Black Comedy jokes about Gigantamax Inteleon being a school shooter.
  • There have also been ones of Inteleon infiltrating Shadow Moses Island and snapping Callie out of her trance with the Splat Charger.
  • For its G-Max special, it wields a gun.
  • Crossing over with Fallout: New Vegas: editing the shot of G-Max Inteleon to read "Quest Added: One for My Baby."
• After the announcement that only Pokémon in the Galar Pokédex could be transferred to Sword and Shield, people pointed to Maractus as a Pokémon people forget exists and use it in memes mocking the #BringBackNationalDex movement. When it was discovered that Maractus actually got in over popular Pokémon like Garchomp, Ampharos, or Luxray, the memes for Maractus spawned even more. It's been compared to Piranha Plant in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for being plant-based Unexpected Characters that no one really asked for in their respective games' rosters.
• The Mythical Pokémon Zarude was instant meme fuel the moment it was revealed. Jokes about "Zarude Sandstorm" or "Za Warudo"^noteits Japanese name is Zarudo, which sounds even closer to "Za Warudo" filled the comment section of its reveal trailer, while fanart has compared it to Mojo Jojo, being a black evil-looking monkey, or called it "an edgy emo cousin of Rillaboom".
  • "This is what you get when you feed Thwackey after midnight."
  • Its Dark/Grass typing also became memetic, with comparisons to Shiftry or jokes that "it's finally Snom's chance to shine" (as both of Snom's types are super effective against both of Zarude's types).
• "Too bad I'm all the way up here, and you're dumb!" ^ExplanationFor Pokémon Day 2020, special raids featuring Mewtwo were introduced… except you couldn't actually catch the blasted thing (that came later in the year, when the Crown Tundra's DLC was released); it only serves as a Superboss that drops such rarities as Ability Capsules. Fans quickly attached this line from Mumm-Ra to Mewtwo when he inevitably flees the raid when defeated.
• Klara is sponsored by Monster Energy.^ExplanationFans have joked that like the Major League Gym Leaders having various sponsors, new Minor League trainer Klara's sponsor is Monster Energy due to her Poison-type preference and her uniform's color palette and appearance prominently featuring dripping splodges of neon green which look like the letter M.
• Chairman Rose's hair noodle. ^ExplanationChairman Rose's hairstyle includes a single long lock of hair dangling on the front nest to his face. Fans of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure inevitably compared it to the hairstyle of Kakyoin, which in the fandom is informally known as a "hair noodle".
• Eternamax Eternatus' BST^ExplanationEternamax Eternatus, fought at the end of Pokémon Sword and Shield, has an absurd Base Stat Total of 1125, although it's supposed to only be a Boss Battle and not actually attainable. Fans have brought up how other powerful Legendary Pokémon such as Arceus, Ultra Necrozma, Mega Mewtwo X and Y, and Mega Rayquaza have comparatively far lower BSTs compared to Eternamax Eternatus or how broken it would be if it were actually playable.
• High-Quality Animation^ExplanationAfter this phrase was said by one of the developers (actually a mistranslation), it was memed with examples of what fans feel is wrong with Gen VIII animation, like the many glitches, re-use of character animations from Gen VII, and continued use of battle animations first created for Gen VI. It is also used less commonly by defenders of Game Freak, making fun of those who insist games like Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Battle Revolution have better animations.

• HORSE^ExplanationCalyrex's Super Mode essentially just needs him finding and getting back on his steed Spectrier or Glastrier while using the reins. Compared to the more fantastic ways legendary Pokémon reached their One-Winged Angel form like ancient artifacts or assimilating other legendaries, just how mundane it was by comparison made it very memorable to the players.
  • "Gonna take my horse to the old town road..." ^Explanation Quoting the opening line to Old Town Road by Lil' Nas X whenever one of Calylrex's mount forms appear in a battle became a meme in the competitive battling scene due to how broken and thus prolific it ended up being. Pokemon Showdown related videos would specifically use the meme Indian cover version for extra effect.
• Regieleki would have solved all of Chairman Rose's problems.^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Chairman Rose's plan in Pokémon Sword and Shield was to use Eternatus to provide limitless energy to prevent an eventual energy crisis. Regieleki's Pokédex entry states that it's able to generate enough electricity in order to power all of Galar. People can't help but bring up that he could have just simply used Regieleki in order to fulfill his goals of providing energy.
• Toby's mpreg rock opera is in Pokémon.^ExplanationThe Battle Tower theme was composed by Toby Fox. Those familiar with his previous work have noticed that part of it sounds a lot like a part of "Baby Is You", a Homestuck music album featuring Dave giving birth to John that Fox composed in response to a Homestuck forums' art forum rule prohibiting posting artwork with pregnant children. Naturally, an entry in the world's highest-grossing media franchise having a possible musical reference to something like that has spawned many jokes.
• "We have God-Shattering Star at home."^ExplanationThe theme that plays when you battle Chairman Rose has drawn comparisons to "God-Shattering Star" from Fire Emblem: Three Houses partly because of nearly coinciding releases, but also because both songs are similar enough on the surface of being suitably climactic battle themes for a given part of the story. However, general reception to Rose's theme is that, while it is decent, it doesn't come close to measuring up to the lofty bar set by "God-Shattering Star".

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

• Pokémon Crazy Diamond, Pearl Jam, and Star Platinum.^ExplanationWhen Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were announced, people immediately started switching around the first parts of their names to make "Shining Diamond", the localized name for Josuke Higashikata's Stand. From there it was just a short jump to start making jokes about the remakes being named after other Stands.
• Smol Dawn^ExplanationThe very first shot seen of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl was of Dawn in the games' chibi style. Fans quickly latched on to the unexpected size shift, with images and fanart of Dawn (and occasionally Lucas) actually being Fun Size compared to the real world, other characters, and even herself and/or her Legends counterpart.
• Palkia and Dialga screaming /"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" ^ExplanationWhen the box art of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl was revealed, a lot of people noted how Palkia and Dialga had their mouths open so wide as if they were screaming, in pain or otherwise.
  • Naturally, crossovers with Jimmy Barnes' part in "Big Enough" (an already memetic song for a segment that's nothing but 40 seconds of screaming) took little time to appear.
• Furry Palkia^ExplanationThe aforementioned box art for Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl featured incredibly detailed renders of the cover legendaries. Upon closer inspection, Palkia's render was found to have fur/feathers, rather than the smooth or scaly skin most fans assumed it had. In addition to shock and surprise from fans, jokes about Palkia being a furry all along abounded.
• Floatzel's special attack animation ^explanationDue to Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl making the line more relevant again, more people have noticed that when Floatzel uses special attacks, it shoots them at opponents by firing them through its spinning tails, making it look…questionably disturbing to those with a not-so-innocent mind.
• Briefcase Simulator ^ExplanationIn Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the cutscene that leads into the player choosing their starter is about 90 seconds long and ends with the briefcase containing the starters opening. People who reset the game over and over for shiny starters have jokingly suggested the game merely simulates the experience of opening a briefcase, especially since it's possible to spend dozens of hours doing nothing in the game except constantly going through said cutscene with no results.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

• "Does this mean I can marry my Gardevoir/Lopunny?" ^Explanation When the game was confirmed to be set in a historic Sinnoh, several fans referenced the text in Canalave City in the Japanese version on how Pokémon and human marriage was legal, which led to jokes that the game would allow to marry your Pokémon as its main interaction mechanic. Gardevoir and Lopunny in particular—already notorious for being popular "waifu" Pokémon within the fandom—are the most common candidates for such a scenario. The game isn't actually in the ancient past referenced in the text, but only 100 to 150 years ago.
• Amogus Poké Ball / I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE^explanationA spin-off of ironic Among Us references joking about resemblances between everyday objects and Crewmates. The trailer for Legends: Arceus was released during the height of the meme's popularity, and the resemblance between the “ye olden” Poké Ball and the Crewmates prompted the image to be widely reposted with mock reactions of horror and derision.
• Survey Corps^explanationWith wild Pokémon in Legends said to be dangerous and free to attack the trainers, people quickly took to comparing the Galaxy Team's Survey Corps, whose goals are understanding and studying Pokémon, to the Survey Corps/Scout Regiment from Attack on Titan, whose attempts to understand and defeat the titular Titans usually results in heavy losses with little to no gain. Cue many jokes about Survey Corps members dying to wild Pokémon.
• Nintendo hired this man! ^ExplanationA spinoff of the wider "Nintendo, hire this man!" meme that mocks people who consider Unreal Engine demos featuring Nintendo characters in realistic placeholder environments better-looking than actual Nintendo titles. The reveal of Legends: Arceus led to many comparisons between the in-game world and said Unreal Engine demos, leading to fans joking that Nintendo (or rather, Game Freak) finally hired "the man".
• I fucked your grandma, shitlips! ^ExplanationA parody of the punchline to "Lightning McQueen Fucked My Mom". The August trailer revealed Identical Ancestors of several characters from Sinnoh, including Cyllene, a woman who looks quite similar to the Sinnoh games' Big Bad, Cyrus. Cue several players declaring their intentions to join Cyrus' family tree as vengeance for what he did.
• I can’t believe we got isekai'd. ^ExplanationWith the reveal that the player character was a modern teenager who was sent to the past by Arceus, many fans have compared it to isekai, a genre of anime where a normal person is sent through a portal to a fantasy world (although it doesn't strictly apply, though, since it's technically the same world but in a different time, or itoki). A particular comparison is with the isekai light novel In Another World with My Smartphone, which, like Legends: Arceus, has the main character transported into another world with his smartphone.
• Stoner Typhlosion ^ExplanationWhen the Hisuian variant of Typhlosion was initially leaked, many were quick to make jokes about it looking like a stoner due to its more relaxed facial expression and exotic flames. It eventually turned out to be a Redundant Parody; the official website calls it laid-back and claims it can often be seen staring into space.
• Ursaluna's crazed expression when it uses an attack has drawn comparisons with Freddy Fazbear, specifically his expression in the infamous COCK?!?!?!?!?◊ meme. And yes, there have been recreations with Ursaluna◊.
• Ursaluna's physical appearance has also been compared to the sea bear from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "The Camping Episode". Here's a sample fanart.
• You know, I’m something of a Pokémon professor myself. ^Explanation A line from the Professor quickly drew comparison to a similarly meme-d quote from Willem Dafoe.
• Level 40 Alpha Rapidash ^ExplanationIn the Obsidian Fieldlands, all the Pokémon you encounter in the starting area of Aspiration Hill are low-level unevolved Com Mons. That is, with the exception of a Level 40 Alpha Rapidash that is aggressive, can easily one-shot everything on your team before you can get off a single command, and is best to run away from. Some fans have likened it to the similarly memetic Territorial Rotbart.
  • A related joke is that the Alpha Rapidash exists to get revenge on everyone who complained about it being the only non-starter Fire-Type available in Diamond and Pearl, and/or that giving the player a Level 40 one so early actually makes it useful in a Sinnoh game.
• Snorlax/Parasect used Hyper Beam! ^Explanation In addition to the Rapidash above, an Alpha Snorlax and Alpha Parasect can be found wandering in the Obsidian Fieldlands. Unsuspecting newbies who have tried to take on either of these Pokémon too early have had their Pokémon one-shot by these Alphas using Hyper Beam on the first turn. To add the cherry on top, this game reuses the same Wave-Motion Gun-style animation for Hyper Beam from Pokémon Sword and Shield, making it look like the poor Pokémon got vaporized into oblivion.
• Look at me, I am the encounter now. ^Explanation You can hide in tall grass and jump out at Pokémon, a complete reversal of what happens in every other game.
• "In Sinnoh, you catch Pokémon...In Mother Hisui, Pokémon catch you! ^ExplanationIn previous and subsequent core series games, battles with wild Pokémon always began with the player sending out one of their own Pokémon, and the player character themself never got involved in battles. As soon as it was revealed that, in Legends Arceus, Pokémon can and will attack the player directly until they throw out a Pokémon to defend themself, players turned to the Russian Reversal to sum up the role reversal. It sometimes crosses over with Mother Hisui Makes You Strong, too. For bonus points, brown bears can be found in Russia, and Ursaring is a bear Pokémon that is brown and can be found in Hisui.
• "You can't be serious/...Was that a joke?" ^ExplanationA line from Akari/Rei in the game, which when combined with their facial expression has become a Reaction Image.
• Bibarel Bridge^ExplanationA glitch discovered and exploited by some players is Bibarel's collision box allowing the player to stand on it. As such some have sequence-broken by using a team of Bibarel to build a bridge and cross over water before obtaining Basculegion, with the resulting ridiculousness of the imagery being expected meme fuel.
• Braviary can't fly upwards^ExplanationThe Ride Pokémon Braviary is unable to gain altitude and can only glide, drawing much ire from fans who joke that Braviary sucks at flying, or comparing it to the flying abilities of Spyro the Dragon.
• Golden Arceus ^ExplanationThe setting of the game being the region of Sinnoh when it's mostly of wilderness caused crossovers and memes of the game together with Golden Kamuy (A manga that is set in Hokkaido, where Sinnoh and Hisui is based on) to pop up, especially in the Japanese fanbase. Bonus points for Arceus's shiny being gold in color.
• Wow, Zenos really did end up in Pokémon! ^ExplanationVolo's appearance looks very similar to Zenos in Final Fantasy XIV
• Hi wurmy/Seal this BooBoo Bear within the earth! ^ExplanationA snowclone of a meme◊ about American presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden (the latter already memetically linked to killing dogs) edited to be about Volo and Cyllene◊ addressing a Wurmple crawling onstage, the latter of whom is deathly terrified of Bug-type Pokémon.
• Aggressive Paras^ExplanationAs stated above, they are the new Goddamn Bats of the game, which is due to it being one of the few Pokémon that possesses Spore, the only 100% accurate sleep move in the game, along with them being able to inflict poison or paralysis easily. In addition to the problems listed above, the Paras in this game are unusually aggressive, as if it is actively trying to bully the player. Made even funnier as there is a request to assist a Galaxy Member who got cornered by three of them.
• Ingo's Bizarre Adventure^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Ingo's appearance in Legends: Arceus, along with his pose in his official artwork◊, has fans compare him to Jotaro Kujo from Stardust Crusaders.
• BIGA!^ExplanationNot only did Pikachu's cry revert back to the original 8-bit cry in this game, but the rival's Pikachu in particular will constantly say variations of "biga" rather than commonly accepted "pika." This led fans to joke that Pikachu was originally called Bigachu in Hisui, and it became a common nickname for Alpha Pikachu.
• Potato mochi^ExplanationPotato mochi is a Trademark Favorite Food of the main team courtesy of mochi chef Beni. This has elevated the treat to meme status, much like Sun and Moon did with malasadas.
• Emmet's going to fight God^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Ingo being Trapped in the Past has spawned several memes and art pieces about Emmet tracking down Arceus and beating it up himself.
• Emmet and Volo. ^ExplanationAfter the reveal that Volo was responsible for effectively kidnapping Ingo, it's become common for depictions of the two to have Emmet assaulting Volo.
• My Little Palkia: Friendship is Magic^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Palkia's Origin Form, revealed in the final battle at the Spear Pillar, has a horselike body and no arms, giving it a peculiar centaur-like look. Its odd, equine appearance promptly drew comments from the fandom, comparing it to a My Little Pony.
• Dialga choked on a Beldum.^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}In an early leaked screenshot, Dialga's Origin Form looked like it had a large block in the middle of its neck, causing fans to joke that Dialga swallowed a Beldum and is choking. In full, it's more a blocky structure attached to the neck.
• Hisuian Rouxls Kaard.^ExplanationWarden Melli, with his inflated ego, pompous jerkass attitude, long hair, mannerisms, blue outfit and general ineffectiveness at stopping the protagonist has reminded some players of the (former) Duke of Puzzles, only without Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe. Given that Melli doesn't have a "lose" quote when defeated in battle, some have joked that his lose quote is "GOD... DAMN IT" and that the game simply censors it out.
• "Call an ambulance! But not for me!"^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Giratina's gleefully cruel Victory Fakeout when the player initially seems to defeat it prompted some people to liken it to this other meme and make jokes about it.
• The Piano^{Explantion (SPOILERS)}Volo's battle theme features a remix of the piano étude that precedes Cynthia's fight in DPPt at the beginning, leading to many a player who'd struggled through her before recognizing it and promptly realizing they're in for hell.
• Bald Ingo^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Among several illustrations from the artbook for Legends Arceus is a picture of Ingo with a receding hairline. Fans quickly freaked out about this, due to how long Ingo's forehead looks and the fact that the picture is the first official piece of art to show either Subway Boss sans hat.
• Destroy Ganon^ExplanationThe main quest of Breath of the Wild is the aptly-named "Destroy Ganon", which due to both that game and Legends: Arceus being first-party cel-shaded Wide-Open Sandbox games led fans to edit screenshots of Rei/Akari receiving a sidequest with this title.
• Heh heh, space-time distortion.^ExplanationA space-time distortion is a mechanic in the game where the player can enter a pocket of distorted space-time and get rare items and Pokémon. There's been a lot of snickering about the fact that "space-time distortion" abbreviates to "STD".
• Regigigas being affected by Slow Start even without abilities. ^ExplanationEven though abilities are absent from Legends: Arceus, Regigigas is still affected by its hindering ability of Slow Start.

Generation IX

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

• Pokémon Españita^ExplanationSome time prior to the games, a popular meme in Spain featured a photoshopped image of a Dragonite holding a hand on his chest and listening to his "Españita" (Spain) anthem. When it was revealed that Paldea was based on Spain, the aforementioned meme was brought back (especially considering that it was already Pokémon-related, and that Dragonite is available in the games), and Spanish players now commonly refer to them as Pokémon Españita Version.
• Starter Pokémon memes:
  • "They put in Donald Duck?!"^ExplanationThe Water starter for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is Quaxly, a duck-like Pokémon with what appears to be a pompadour resembling a sailor's hat. People quickly latched onto the idea that it resembles Donald Duck, as well as how this makes the game a Kingdom Hearts crossover. Similarly, some memes compare Fuecoco, the fire starter, to Goofy, and Sprigatito, the grass starter, to Sora's Lion form.
  • Josuke Duck^ExplanationQuaxly has frequently been compared to both versions of Josuke Higashikata from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, due to its pompadour hairstyle being similar to the original Josuke of Diamond is Unbreakable, and its sailor-themed look resembling the alternate-universe Josuke of JoJolion.
  • Weed Cat^ExplanationThe Grass starter for Scarlet and Violet, Sprigatito, is a small green kitten with redish eyes and a leaf pattern on its face, which resembles a marijuana leaf. These traits quickly prompted a slew of stoner jokes, and fan artists took to drawing pictures of Sprigatito smoking joints or huffing bongs, or sometimes being literally made out of weed. This also led to art and jokes pairing it with the Fire-type Litten due to them both being cats and the connotation of "lit" in relation to weed, insinuating that the two get high together by combining both of their respective elements. This wasn't helped by its prerelease website description, which stated that when Sprigatito kneads with its paws, it releases a 'therapeutic aroma'. It also wasn't helped by the stats for its final evolution's signature move, Flower Trick; when used as a super-effective Grass Tera type move, the attack's base power is 420. Said evolution's apparently stoned expression didn't help anything either.
  • Fuecoco, the Fire starter, spawned Among Us memes because it bears a passing resemblance to the red crewmate.
  • "Please let Sprigatito stay on all fours.◊"/"PAWS ON THE GROUND"^ExplanationDue to Litten already being a cat starter that starts out quadrupedal and ends as an anthro, fans think it would be redundant to have Sprigatito go through the same process, and as such semi-seriously beseeched Game Freak to have Sprigatito's evolutions remain quadrupedal. Lo and behold, it did stand up, as early as the first evolution.
    • "Please don't be sexy"^ExplanationAlong with the possibility Sprigatito's evolutions would be bipedal, many were hoping it wouldn't be attractive like Braixen or Incineroar. This, too, came to pass, as the final evolution Meowscarada is a Cat Folk with an attractively humanoid design. And judging from the swagger (pun not intended) that its animation while using Flower Trick has, it knows it too.
  • "Who keeps slapping Kraft Singles on these Fire starters?!"^ExplanationOn Twitter, fans noticed a recurring, oddly specific design trait shared by Fuecoco and its Generation 8 predecessor, Scorbunny; a yellow, square-shaped patch that resembles a slice of American cheese. In a resurgence of the "Cheese Challenge" meme, this led to jokes that the yellow squares on Fuecoco's chest and tail — as well as the ones on Scorbunny's nose and bottom of each feet — are literal slices of cheese that were slapped onto them as a prank, along with fan art pairing the two 'mons together.
  • The Zodiac Killer^Explanation Fuecoco has been jokingly called this due to it being a crocodile: seemingly breaking the eight-generation tradition of basing Fire-Type starters on the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Nonetheless, some people are convinced that it will evolve into a snake-like form to continue the trend, with some suggesting that its apple theme will fit an evolution based on the Serpent of Eden. It didn't, and instead evolved into a Monster Clown-themed crocodile.
    • Are they gonna pull a Snivy on us?^ExplanationComparisons to Snivy of Gen 5 abound whenever the idea of Fuecoco evolving into a snake is brought up, with many people back then not expecting Snivy to lose its limbs.
    • Year of the Croc^ExplanationA humorous suggested remedy of this by fans is to just revise the actual Chinese Zodiac and add the crocodile so that Fuecoco still fits in with the theme.
    • Ox Fuecoco^ExplanationSome fans have cited how male and female crocodiles/alligators are called “bull” and “cow” respectively, theorizing a possible crocodile/ox final evolution, especially with Spain having a bullfighting culture.
    • Rat Typhlosion^ExplanationWith many Zodiac theory supporters complaining that Fuecoco killed the Zodiac theory, dissidents have pointed out that Typhlosion, a badger/porcupine hybrid, isn't...exactly a rat per se and that the theory was invalid since Gen 2. This led to additional jokes that since Typhlosion is "loosely" a rat, then by this reasoning a crocodile could be considered "loosely" a snake.
  • Gay duck^ExplanationQuaxly's final evolution, Quaquaval, looks extremely flamboyant seemingly due to being inspired by female dancers at Brazilian carnivals despite having the same gender rate as other starters (7:1 male to female), earning it this nickname.
  • Meowscarada kiss^ExplanationMeowscarada has an animation where it puts its hands behind its back and leans its head forward to greet you. Since you can walk up to it, get close enough and it looks like it will kiss you. Jokes have spawned about Game Freak giving players what they truly want, due to the running meme of marrying your Pokémon.
  • "holy fucking bingle. what?! :3"^ExplanationA picture of a Sprigatito plush accompanying the phrase was featured prominently in an article written by Swiss hacktivist maia arson crimew (yes, her name is officially written in all lowercase letters) explaining how she managed to obtain a 2019 edition of the United States Terrorist Screening Database's no-fly list. Sprigatito quickly became associated with both the phrase and crimew herself thanks to the audacity of her actions and longstanding criticism of the United States' anti-terrorism policies. "Bingle" itself is a nonsense word, but crimew has also nicknamed her Sprigatito "bingle" due to people thinking that it was already the plushie's name.
• Regional Tauros^ExplanationThe reveal that Gen 9 is set in a region based on Spain has had people joking that Tauros, or a similar bull Pokémon, will prominently feature due to traditional bullfighting and the Running of the Bulls in Spain. The meme gained traction again when the second trailer featured a trainer wearing a shirt with a Tauros logo. It turned out to be confirmed.
• The villain team will just be the Spanish Inquisition.^ExplanationA joking reference to the Monty Python gag "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" This ended up not being the case.
  • "NOBODY EXPECTS THE PALDEAN INQUISITION!!!!"^ExplanationA trend that has popped up in Pokèmon Scarlet and Violet fan art is drawing the three Starters as the Spanish Inquisition from Monty Python, such as this piece here
• Professor Sada and Professor Turo memes:
  • Gigachad Professor Turo^ExplanationProfessor Turo and the man in the Gigachad meme have very similar facial structures and stubble. When Professor Turo was revealed in the second trailer, comparisons between the two were almost immediately drawn.
  • Professor Richards^ExplanationAnother common comparison was to that of Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four who aside from having similar facial features also wears the same blue jumpsuit in some versions.
  • Professor Alex^ExplanationAnd then there's comparisons to Alex Eggleston due to their similar hairstyles and facial hair.
  • Turo sells NFTs^explanationAs NFTs were popular around the time of his reveal, some fans joked that Turo looked like the kind of person who would buy/sell them. Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight around the "Teal Mask" DLC's release where the shopkeeper at Kitakami won't at first accept League Points as payment thinking they're a "cryptic currency", confirming that cryptocurrency does exist in the Pokémon universe.
  • Professor Snu Snu^ExplanationWhen Professor Sada was revealed, fan reaction to her Cute Little Fangs and attire consisting of a lab coat over what appears to be a tribal cave woman outfit immediately lead to personifying her as an adult Wild Child while people who found the design sexy immediately quoted Futurama's Death by Snu-Snu scene.
  • Cavewoman Vampire^ExplanationProfessor Sada's clearly visible fangs whenever she speaks have led fans to jokingly compare her to a vampire or a werewolf.
  • Professor Crood^ExplanationSada's outfit resembles what the Croods wear in their franchise.
  • Pokémon Mommy Issues and Pokémon Daddy Issues^ExplanationThe main plot of the story involves Arven being neglected by his mom (in Scarlet) or his dad (in Violet), and growing to resent them and not being on speaking terms with them. So basically, the main difference between the version games is which parent Arven has a conflict with, with the other simply not being in his life at all, having walked out shortly after he was born.
    • "So your mom is the professor of the past and your dad is the professor of the future?" "I guess so cause neither of them were ever PRESENT"
  • Game Freak knows what they're doing^ExplanationThe second trailer dropped on the first day of June — LGBTQA+ Pride Month — and introduced both the games' professors (who immediately got labeled attractive by numerous fans) and the Legendary duo (whose colorations bear a resemblance to the bisexual flag and the nonbinary flag, respectively), leading to fans joking that Game Freak had planned this in advance.
  • "I met her in a lab down in Paldea..."
• Lethicc^ExplanationThe June 2022 trailer showcased Lechonk, a pig Pokémon whose name is a combination of "lechón", the Spanish word for "piglet" (as well as a pork dish in many Hispanic countries), and... "chonk", an Internet slang term used to affectionately refer to an unusually large or rotund animal. Fans immediately began demanding that Lechonk's evolution continue the naming trend by referencing the similarly used term "thicc", with this being the most common variation. However, Lechonk's evolution would be named Oinkologne.
  • Ham Sandwich^Explanation Due to the frequent Carnivore Confusion and the fact that ham is a common sandwich ingredient, the idea of Lechonk ending up as dinner is a common source of Black Comedy.
• SV-129^ExplanationWhen Scarlet and Violet were revealed to have a past and future theming, many fans immediately made comparisons to the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "SB-129", in particular being an image◊ of Professor Sada as Primitive SpongeBob, and Professor Turo doing the "Future" sit-up. (Note: SV stands for Scarlet Violet)
• HOLY FISH PASTE, IT’S A GUY!^Explanation When Grusha was unveiled, he was immediately subjected to Viewer Gender Confusion due to his feminine appearance, leading to shock once the official website confirmed he is male.
  • IM NOT GAY THIS IS A GIRL A GROWN WOMAN EVEN REPEAT AFTER ME^ExplanationBased on the speed of Rule 34 artists in regards to newly revealed Pokémon characters, jokes were made about people drawing visibly female Rule 34 of Grusha before finding out he was actually a guy. Someone on 4chan◊ (NSFW) complained about how there was no way Grusha could be a guy because they'd already masturbated to him, even if he was a guy.
• Pooper^ExplanationA popular Fan Nickname for Paldean Wooper. Derived from a portmanteau of, well, "Paldean Wooper", and the fact that it is colored brown and has the Poison type.
  • Poopoo Mudfish^ExplanationFan Nickname for Clodsire, Paldean Wooper's evolution. Coined by Twitter user @searednerves in this tweet.
• Madrid's destruction^ExplanationThe Paldea region is geographically based on Iberia, and when its map was first revealed, fans quickly realized that the Madrid area's equivalent in Paldea is a cloud-shrouded void of some sort (later revealed to be the dangerous Area Zero). This spurred many jokes that Madrid or its Paldean equivalent had been destroyed. Alternatively, some people joke that Area Zero being a cloudy, depressing wasteland is accurate to what Madrid is like in real life.
• Koraidon and Miraidon memes:
  • When it was revealed that the boxart Legendaries were basically motorcycles, many comparisons were made. Fans in Japan made comparisons to Kamen Rider (mostly Kamen Rider Ryuki), while overseas fans made comparisons to Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. Fanarts of the legendaries doing the bike stop from AKIRA are also common. Helps that the official Kamen Rider Twitter even made an, albeit indirect, reference to the comparisons after the games came out. The official Scarlet/Violet manga has ascended the AKIRA reference too, with this artwork of Violet Lang doing the iconic slide atop Miraidon.
  • To the Invisible Boatmobile!^ExplanationA common glitch, shown in this clip here, involves the trainer riding their Ride Pokémon that has been glitched into becoming invisible. Many were quick to make the comparison to Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy's vehicle of choice.
    • The same glitch is also similarly compared to Crazy Frog a lot of the time.
    • The bug has also drawn comparisons to Leon on his invisible motorcycle in Resident Evil 4.
  • How to Train Your Koraidon/Miraidon^ExplanationFans noticed many similarities between Koraidon/Miraidon and Toothless, since they're all draconic beasts whom the protagonists find injured early in the story, and their friendship officially begin after the protagonists feed the beasts. The Raidons being rather dorky and endearing adds more fuel to the fire.
  • The Flintstones Bike^ExplanationDespite looking like a bike complete with tires, Koraidon doesn't scoot like an actual bike and instead runs of all fours, causing fans to compare it with the cars in The Flintstones which move by the driver and passengers running in them — especially since Koraidon is a prehistoric Pokémon with dinosaur-like traits.
• Penny memes:
  • Penny's problematic ships.^ExplanationAfter her design was revealed, many fans noted how Penny's design made her look like the common Western stereotype of a female fanfic author. Cue jokes about her getting into intense arguments on AO3 about her shipping preferences, along with other common jokes about the subculture.
  • Penny's Dorm^ExplanationAn edit◊ of the existing "Welcome >_< take a seat wherever" meme has Penny sitting in a trashy room alongside her Eeveelutions, referencing how her dorm in-game is dark and rather unkempt.
  • MILF Hunter Penny^ExplanationIn Mochi Mayhem, Penny, upon visiting the player's house, remarks how "pretty" their mother is. Of course, the fandom had a field day with this quote and quickly flanderized Penny to be a lesbian who's into older women, with some jokes comparing her to Okuyasu of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable who is similarly known for calling his friend Josuke's mother "hot".
• "Fidough's a purebred." "Wow, a Pokémon made out of bread."^ExplanationThe Stealth Pun surrounding Fidough's theme is reminiscent of the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "The Great Snail Race", where Squidward gloats that his snail is a purebred and Patrick thinks he said "pure bread".
• Armarouge and Ceruledge memes:
  • Armarouge and Ceruledge are Mega Man characters.^ExplanationWhen Armarouge and Ceruledge were revealed, fans noted that they looked like characters from the Mega Man series, pointing to their humanoid appearance, Cool Helmets, Boots of Toughness, and Shoulders of Doom – and the sleek shapes and the way the eyes are drawn specifically evoking the art style of Mega Man Battle Network – which lead to fanart that portrays them in an artstyle even closer to the Mega Man games, as well as a fan shiny design using X and Zero's colors for Armarouge and Ceruledge respectively. For a time, some suspected that Hitoshi Ariga, an illustrator previously involved with Mega Man who designed some Pokémon like Corviknight and Espathra, designed this evolutionary line as well. He didn't; it was Tomohiro Kitakaze, who confirmed it on a Tweet celebrating Scarlet and Violet's first anniversary.
  • Armarogue/Armorouge^ExplanationRouge Angles of Satin applied to Armarouge. The latter typo was even in the official SV website, although it was quickly removed.
  • Smoldering Armarouge and Silvercoat Ceruledge^ExplanationDue to the games coming out in the same year, and the pair being seen as resembling Cammuravi and Ethel, their reveal quickly created Friendly Fandoms with Xenoblade 3 fans and a surge of crossover fanart.
  • Being knights with a sword theme and a shield theme, fans joked that the duo came a generation late for the medieval England-themed games Sword and Shield.
• Mela memes:
  • She boot too big for she gotdamn feet^ExplanationMela's reveal lead to people making jokes about how oversized her boots are, with many of them referencing this image.◊
  • Mela's walk^ExplanationHer walking animation consists of her stiffly goose-stepping around in her boots, as if she struggles to bend her knees. The sheer Awesome, but Impractical design was ripe for meme fuel highlighting her priority of fashion over functionality.
  • Mela is commonly called a Final Fantasy XIV cosplayer due to Final Fantasy XIV's notoriously long boots.
  • In the post-game, we see Team Star wearing normal clothes, including Mela...yet she still walks clumsily and without bending her knees. Fans were quick to suggest she wears those boots so much that she's forgotten how to walk normally.
• Pokémon fans learn about convergent evolution for the first time^ExplanationWhen new Pokémon Wiglett was announced, the more critical side of the fanbase ended up criticizing it for its "lazy" design, either missing or outright ignoring that it was deliberately designed to be superficially similar to Diglett as an example of convergent evolution. The fans who actually knew about it, or the ones that just didn't miss the memo, quickly took to mocking them with variants of this line.
• Iono memes:
  • Iono is Manatsu and Laura's daughter.^ExplanationWhen Iono was first revealed, it did not take the Pretty Cure fandom long for them to see the similarities in hair designs between Iono and Laura's Cure La Mer◊ form, down to the Magnemite hair clips acting as stand-ins to La Mer's pearls. What really sealed it was the revelation that Fairouz Ai voiced Iono during her introductory video, since she also voiced Tropical-Rouge!'s Lead Cure Manatsu Natsuumi/Cure Summer, who is constantly paired up with Laura in fanworks.
  • Iono and Raihan's rivalry.^ExplanationAs Iono is an Attention Whore streamer and Raihan is a Selfie Fiend with an ego, fans imagined that the two of them would be rivals with each other, with plenty of fanart depicting them getting into all kinds of disputes. There is some fanart that shows them being friends instead, though.
  • Needy Streamer Iono^ExplanationComparisons have been drawn between Gym Leader Iono and KAngel due to them both being streamers with very similar appearances and even hair colors.
  • #IONOSWEEP^ExplanationConsidering her streamer nature and wanting to a collab with the player, during streams of this game it can be common to see the streamer's chat to playfully root FOR Iono instead of the streamer. It can also be common for both the streamer and their chat to play up the "collabing" part.
  • "Okay, STOP."^ExplanationIono's introduction of hijacking the game and appearing in the corner to advertise her program drew comparisons to Warren the "Eagle" from the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared TV series, with edits being made◊ to include the OK Stop Organization logo.
  • Virtual YouTubers vs. Iono^ExplanationDue to Iono being an Affectionate Parody of streamer culture and her Gym Trial being set up like a Virtual Youtuber layout, naturally streamers of that format such as the cast of hololive found her hilarious, then their viewers tend to start a fictional Fandom Rivalry where they start cheering for Iono instead, up including making superchat donations in support of her.
• Most relatable Pokémon character ever.^ExplanationLarry, the Normal-type Gym Leader, is an incredibly, well, normal salaryman who expresses weariness at his job(s) and basically comes across as a hilariously average guy in the otherwise fantastical world of Pokémon. It definitely helps that many of the Pokémon franchise's fans who grew up with the series have now joined the workforce and strongly relate to Larry's quips about feeling put out by his job and his boss.
• Cr1TiKaL Sledge^ExplanationMany fans have noted that Paldea's iteration of the Backpacker Trainer class, which includes the Montevera Gym Trainer MC Sledge, looks a lot like Charles White. It's become pretty common for streamers or LP-ers to impersonate him when reading Sledge's dialogue out loud.
• Finizen's evolution method.^ExplanationFinizen, a dolphin-themed Pokémon that evolves into the superhero-themed Palafin, was incredibly hard for people to figure out to evolve, due to the fact that the only parameters within the data were that it needed to level up to 38, which on its own wasn't enough to evolve it. 4chan struggled for 13 threads trying to figure it out, most of which revolved around superhero tropes or quirks — like various glasses-related ideas based on Clark Kent, fighting the Capsicum-supervillain-themed Pokémon Scovillain hundreds of times (to the point that the fanmade rivalry and hundreds of senselessly slaughtered Scovillains became memes themselves), striking a pose, taking a photo near a Palafin cutout, spending a certain amount of time flying, having a specific mark, avenging a fainted Pokémon (usually a Luvdisc or another Finizen), using a Water Stone in dozens of unintended ways, or killing its parents. The ultimate answer? Levelling up past 38 with friends online, one of the things they were very hesitant to test since people were playing on illegal ROMs and didn't want to get their Switches banned.
• Robosexual Hydreigon^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}The Scarlet Pokédex entry for Iron Jugulis, the robotic future Paradox form of Hydreigon, states that a paranormal magazine claims that it was the offspring of a Hydreigon who fell in love with a robot. The sheer absurdity of the Pokédex entry, along with the unexpected mention of G-Rated Sex, caught many people off guard, leading to jokes about how robosexuality was now canon in the Pokémon universe.
• Iron Bundle memes:
  • Robot Delibird from the future got banned by Smogon.^ExplanationIron Bundle takes the most notorious Joke Character in Pokémon and turned it into such a beast that Smogon banned it within weeks. The sheer ridiculousness of this sparked reactions like "we now live in a timeline where a Delibird form got banned", and comparisons to Terminator.
  • Iron Bundle drew many comparisons to Robot Santa of Futurama due to it resembling a weaponized holiday ornament, as well as the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future from Aqua Teen Hunger Force due to both being bird-shaped robots from the future that have something to do with Christmas.
  • Iron Bundle being "Delibird's revenge arc" is also a common joke, often accompanied by statements that it worked way too well.
  • People have also alluded to Iron Bundle being the equivalent of the Robot Santa Claus from Futurama and also quote the monologue of Magos Dominus Reditus.
• hololive Starters^ExplanationWhen the Starter Pokémon were first revealed, they were immediately compared to members of hololive. Sprigatito was compared to Chloe Sakamata from -holoX-/Japan Generation Six due to having her same red eyes and singular fang, Fuecoco was compared to Sakura Miko from before the establishment of Generations due to having a dopey face and a strand of Idiot Hair, and Quaxly was compared to Subaru Oozora from Japan Generation Two due to Subaru's Ascended Meme of being a duck. The comparisons were furthered once the evolutions of the Starters were revealed, as Meowscarada, Sprigatito's final evolution, wears an eye mask that many found to resemble Chloe's Irisless Eye Mask of Mystery, while the Shiny forms of Fuecoco's evolutionary line all ended up being pink, which is Miko's signature hair color; Quaxly's evolved forms on the other hand evoked not a duck but a peafowl leading to claims that Subaru had evolved into Pavolia Reine from the Indonesian branch's second generation.
  • Sanallite^ExplanationMany hololive fans were quick to notice the similarity between Fidough and Tsukumo Sana's mascot, Sanallite, with both being canines made of bread. Some even assumed the similarity was intentional considering Sana's love of the Pokémon franchise and her graduation from Vtubing not long before Fidough's reveal.
• How do you do, fellow kids?^ExplanationThe popular "fellow kids" meme from 30 Rock is associated with Clavell due to being a friendly principal who is also shown to be willing to learn the slang that the younger generation use with varying attempts. Add onto how he also disguised himself as a student to learn more about Team Star's motives, much like Steve Buscemi's character in the original meme, players started to associate this meme to him.
• Horny picnics.^ExplanationRather than going to a Daycare, Paldea instead has Pokémon breeding occur during picnics, in which case Eggs appear in the player's bag, predictably spawning jokes that the picnic or its food makes the Pokémon a bit... frisky.
  • "Really? Right in front of my sandwich?"^ExplanationA take on the pre-existing meme "Right in front of my salad?" which involves a woman's frustrated disbelief at discovering her two male friends similarly getting amorous while she was trying to eat.
• Tandemaus memes:
  • Tandemaus evolve by having sex.^ExplanationWhen Tandemaus evolve into Maushold, they look the exact same, except that the original two Pokémon are joined by two smaller ones. Though the Dex states that it's unknown if the four Pokémon are related and the small ones are only said to "appear", the fandom isn't fooled, and many jokes are made about their evolution method.
  • Being two white mice that are more powerful than they look predictably led to some Pinky and the Brain comparisons.
  • "You know what, fuck you" (untandems your maus)^ExplanationA meme based on "unverbs your noun", which included a picture of a single Tandemaus. This, in turn, led to many divorce-related jokes.
  • Are the mice siblings?^Explanation As the mice are counted as one Pokémon, fans have made jokes implying that their evolution's "offspring" were an act of incest.
    • Tandemaus eggs hatch in pairs. This has fueled tons of Twincest jokes.
  • Custom Tandemaus evolutions^ExplanationIt became popular to make edits of Tandemaus and Maushold to represent different evolutions, mostly in a Black Comedy sense, such as Mauscarriage (supposedly a Normal/Ghost type), Domaustic Abuse (a Normal/Fighting type), or Maustake (a Normal/Dark type with a Chocolate Baby).
  • ''Mausofthedragon, comes in Green Form and Black Form.
  • Population Bomb^ExplanationMaushold's signature move, Population Bomb, can hit up to 10 times and can be boosted by the accuracy-increasing Wide Lens and the ability Technician, turning Maushold into a Memetic Badass.
    • But not as strong as family.^ExplanationA riff on Vin Diesel's character Dom Toretto from Fast and the Furious making the quote that family is stronger than basically anything. Maushold is a family of mice with an attack that's absolutely broken, making comparisons to the Dom Toretto meme a given.
    • Group Stabbing^ExplanationShortly after the game released, it was discovered that Population Bomb is actually boosted by the ability Sharpness, which boosts cutting moves and isn't an ability Maushold has naturally, despite the move seemingly not involving any kind of slicing or cutting. While this is likely just the result of a Lost in Translation pun in Population Bomb's Japanese name, which can be alternatively read as "Mouse Cut", this has resulted in several◊ artists◊ drawing fanart that implies that Population Bomb consists of each Maushold family member taking out a knife and shanking the target to death like they're reenacting the assassination of Julius Caesar.
  • Mouse trap.^ExplanationThe counter to a Population Bomb Maushold is a Rocky Helmet: with each hit, the Maushold also takes damage and faints itself.
  • Tandemaus and Maushold can breed with Ditto.^ExplanationAs it is a collection of several individual Pokémon, the entire Tandemaus and Maushold is classed as "genderless". Still, it can breed with Ditto: and given that it happens to be a family with parents and children, the details create some Fridge Horror...
  • Maushold scream.^ExplanationTandemaus and Maushold seem to have No Mouth but they actually open their mouths hilariously wide when they do their cry.
• Titan Pokémon memes:
  • Due to being a giant burrowing worm with a goofy face, the Titan Orthworm has been jokingly known as the Alaskan Bullworm by fans. Other jokes related to Tremors and Dune are also commonplace.
  • Titan Tatsugiri being a decoy with the giant Dodonzo which may or may not be a Titan itself has led to jokes about the Dodonzo "catfishing" the player by pretending to be something it isn't: which is a humorous irony as it literally is a catfish.
  • Titan Great Tusk has been jokingly compared to the Oliphants of the Lord of the Rings series, and the player defeating it leading to jokes of "that still only counts as one!"
• Tinkaton vs. Corviknight^ExplanationDespite its cutesy appearance, mediocre stats, and the fact that its intended prey pretty much completely dominates it in competitive battle due to practically little-to-no ways to get around its defenses, Tinkaton is apparently such an efficient predator of Corviknight — or at least consistently enough endangers Corviknight passengers by trying to hunt it down — that the bird Pokémon was deemed ill-suited for use in a flying taxi service like the one in Galar, the region opting to have its taxies carried by several Squawkabilly instead.
  • 75^ExplanationDespite Tinkaton wielding a massive hammer, it has this very low base attack stat. Because its rival is Corviknight, there's also been memes involving the raven Pokémon mocking said attack stat.
• Yoshikage Larry^ExplanationLarry's role as an unsuspecting salaryman who happens to be both a Gym Leader and Elite Four member has drawn plenty of comparisons to another unsuspecting salaryman, Yoshikage Kira from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable. It helps that Larry's suit looks identical to Kira's but with a black dye job, whereas his hair greatly resembles Kira's hair as Kosaku Kawajiri. Jokes related to Kira have stemmed as a result, including Larry reciting the infamous "My name is Yoshikage Kira" speech.
  • Star Palafin^ExplanationA similar JoJo meme comparing Palafin to Star Platinum, due to their similar designs, weaponized punching power, and the meme of Jotaro being obsessed with dolphins.
  • Kakyoin Saguaro^ExplanationSaguaro, one of the teachers at the academy, has a hairstyle resembling Stardust Crusaders' Noriaki Kakyoin, with a long, dangling lock of hair in his bangs that JoJo fans affectionately call the "hair noodle".
  • Kishibe Rika^ExplanationRika, another Elite Four member alongside Larry, has been compared to Diamond is Unbreakable's Rohan Kishibe, with many going so far as to call her a Rule 63 Rohan, due to her outfit greatly resembling Rohan's appearance◊ during the "I'm an Alien" arc.
• Nemona memes:
  • Yandere Nemona^ExplanationNemona's obsession with becoming the player's rival, her tendency to know wherever the player is, and her frequent instances of But Thou Must! has caused fans to label her as a Yandere who's madly in love with the player.
    • Just Nemonika^ExplanationFrom this, comparisons were made between her and Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club!, with some going so far as to joke that Nemona has Medium Awareness and is willing to rig the game's programming◊ in her favor◊.
  • Nemona is Goku.^ExplanationFans were quick to declare Nemona the Pokémon version of Goku, due to their simple-minded but good-natured personalities and love of fighting. Many proceeded to redraw her with art of Goku, and sub her into the character's many pre-existing memes.
    • Carmine is Vegeta.^ExplanationThe Teal Mask introduces Carmine, who like Nemona is passionate about Pokémon battles, but is also significantly more hostile and arrogant about it. This lead to many people comparing her to Goku's rival Vegeta. Made funnier if you're playing Scarlet, where Nemona wears orange and Carmine wears blue, just like Goku and Vegeta respectively.
  • Nemona is Hisoka.^ExplanationFans who like to play up Nemona's stalker tendencies tend to view her as the Pokémon equivalent of Hisoka Morow, citing her tendency to follow the protagonist everywhere they go, her overall helpfulness masking her obsessiveness, and from a less savory standpoint, constantly trying to force little kids to battle her.
  • Finding Nemona^ExplanationNemona's name in Japanese (Nemo) inevitably spawned Finding Nemo memes, including fanart of her as a mermaid.
  • Nemona has a prosthetic arm.^ExplanationNemona wears a glove around her right arm that resembles a brace. Some have suggested that she has some sort of injury or disability in that arm, or is even missing an arm and wearing an artificial one.
  • "Oh man. Pokémon battling, am I right?"^ExplanationA line by Nemona often used as a reaction image when something frustrating or unexpected occurs.
  • "Nemona is the most relatable Pokémon character. She beat the game, and found it so easy she restarted it just so she could have a real Final Boss fight with you."^ExplanationA copypasta used by those who empathize with Nemona's Challenge Seeker behavior (she was already a Champion before your character showed up and started raising a new team just to compete on equal ground with you) and compare it to players who use self imposed challenges because they feel Pokémon games are too easy otherwise.
  • Nemona vocal-stimming.^ExplanationEven after she is freed from Pecharunt's control, Nemona still finds it fun to say "Mochi-mochi match!" for no particular reason. As Nemona is frequently headcanoned by fans to be on the autism spectrum due to her mannerisms and hyperfixation on battling, many have suggested her to be "stimming", a repetitive action that many with autism like doing as a means of stress or boredom relief.
• Dudunsparce memes:
  • Long Dunsparce/"You can't improve on perfection"^ExplanationPretty much the second Dudunsparce was leaked, fans started joking about how it just looks like a longer version of its preevolution.
  • Dudududududunsparce.^ExplanationA Serial Escalation meme joking about further evolutions getting even longer, and reaching its logical conclusion in the ultimate form Du(times infinity)sparce.
  • "It's time to DU-DU-DU-DU-DUNSPARCE!"^ExplanationA parody of "It's time to Du-du-du-duel!" from the Yu-Gi-Oh opening theme and protagonist Yugi Muto's catchphrase.
  • Darce/Dunce^ExplanationThe exact opposite, a Dunsparce with no segments that is just its tail attached to its head.
  • Dunsparce has been banned (from Little Cup)^ExplanationWhen Dunsparce got its new evolution, it was made legal in the Little Cup format due to now being a pre-evo. It didn't take long for it to dominate with its amazing statline (compared to other LC Pokémon), movepool and ability in Serene Grace, and it was quickbanned after everyone agreed it was far too much for the tier to handle, which had responses ranging from laughing at the absurdity that what was a Joke Character for every Gen since it's release has not only been banned from something, but quickbanned, to being sad/angry that it's been banned from the one place it could actually shine as a legitimate Pokémon.
• Pokémon Persona^ExplanationA number of factors led to the games getting compared to Persona (specifically the then-most recent game), such as Team Star's designs and Ragtag Bunch of Misfits status getting them compared to the Phantom Thieves, the fact the player can befriend teachers similar to Persona's iconic Confidants/Social Links, the Sprigatito line getting compared to Morgana, and Penny being very similar to Futaba (with both of them being socially awkward playful hackers who help the main character under an alias). The fact that the last quarter of the game steers into themes which wouldn't be completely out of place in the Persona universe only makes this more apparent.
• That's just what living in Spain is like.^ExplanationAnother common quip when showcasing a glitch.
  • I live in Spain without the A^ExplanationBased on a preexisting meme and used for glitches where something spins around.
• Praise Blossom!^ExplanationIn Levincia, there is an NPC named Blossom who asks for a Pincurchin in exchange for a Haunter. And unlike a certain bitch named Mindy in Sinnoh, she doesn't give her Haunter an Everstone, allowing you to get a Gengar from the trade. This led to people memetically praising Blossom as one of the greatest NPCs to ever walk the Pokémon world.
• NPCs casually walking through your battles^ExplanationWhile you are engaged in a battle, whether it be against a wild Pokémon or trainer, activity in the overworld doesn't get paused. Rather, the ability of anything in it to interact with the participants is removed for the duration. This can result in NPCs just walking through your Pokémon battle ignoring the obvious danger, often clipping through trainer and Pokémon as they walk. This is basically guaranteed to happen during a late-game battle against Director Clavell, as it takes place right in front of the main entrance of the school which has a constant stream of NPCs pouring in and out of it.
• Damn, Kingambit got some cake!^ExplanationKingambit's Secret Art, Kowtow Cleave, has it bow down and slash the enemy with its long headpiece. It also raises its long hair/seat, showing its backside which reveals... quite the posterior. Fans immediately had a field day with this, expressing amusement and confusion as to why it has such a detail.
  • "The Bisharp that obey Kingambit are just simps."
• Geeta is worst champion.^ExplanationMany players found Geeta underwhelming because of her team, which was not optimized to its full potential, with Glimmora, a hazard-setter, being sent last, and Kingambit, which gets stronger the more allies faint, being sent in the first half. While a rather underwhelming fight, the fandom has fully Flanderized Geeta into either incompetent, a Bad Boss, or both. Died down somewhat after her DLC rematch fixed both of these issues.
  • Geeta is worse than a sandwich kid and his sick dog.^ExplanationArven and his Mabosstiff, an elderly dog who just a while earlier was on the verge of death, putting up more of a fight than the supposed Champion just made fans joke at how incompetent she is for her rank.
  • "I am utterly incapable."^ExplanationJust before her Boss Fight, Geeta warns the player that "[she] is utterly incapable of holding back when it comes to pokemon battles." Due to her rather unimpressive team, people have modified screenshots to just the first four words to have Geeta "admit" to being incompetent.
• Jokes about how Paldea has mastered a technology that most people in RPGs, especially other Pokémon games, have not... a doorlock.^ExplanationTo save on space, players can't barge into random peoples' houses unlike most RPGs where you can.
  • "The doors aren't even painted on!"
• Treasures of Ruin memes:
  • The Legendary Mehndi Quartet's battle theme.^ExplanationThe Treasures of Ruin's battle theme has been noted to be a Suspiciously Similar Song to the Punjabi pop song "Tunak Tunak Tun", a well-established meme for years. The mashups were inevitable, with the most viewed one being accompanied by a music video depicting the four clones of singer Daler Mehndi as the Treasures of Ruin, who proceed to wreak havoc all over Paldea and cause the game's infamous glitches and bugs.
  • In general, there's quite a few jokes about the Treasures of Ruin being the ones responsible for the game's buggy state, stemming from the In-Universe explanation that they had destroyed Paldea millennia ago.
  • Live Wo-Chien Reaction^ExplanationA variant on "Live Slug Reaction", with Klaud edited to look like Wo-Chien, whose default expression resembles one of disappointment or general disgust. It's not unusual to see the image posted whenever Wo-Chien is mentioned.
  • Wo-Chien-Pao^Explanation A Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs Fusion Dance between Wo-Chien and Chien-Pao due to the fact that their names share a syllable, as Chinese syllables change their meaning completely depending on the inflection; Wo-Chien's name comes from 簡 / 简 jiǎn (bamboo slips), while Chien-Pao's name comes from 劍 / 剑 jiàn (sword), which is Lost in Translation in English or in any other language (with the Japanese, French and German names rendering it as jian instead). Wo-Chien-Pao tends to either be depicted as a Memetic Badass that combines the strengths of both Pokémon to make it insanely broken, or as a Grass/Ice Memetic Loser that folds to any sort of Fire-type attack.
  • Sacred Fire Chien-Pao and Water Gun Gyarados ^ExplanationDuring Day 1 of the 2024 VGC Portland Regionals, competitor Abdullah Mohayyuddin's team sheets displayed his Chien Pao having Sacred Fire (a move it cannot learn) and his Gyarados having Water Gun (a weak, practically useless move). People were memeing on this set, boasting his genius teambuilding and why those moves are actually good choices when in reality they were errors and meant to be Sacred Sword and Waterfall respectively.
• The art boyfriends.^ExplanationIn one of Hassel's art classes, Brassius is invited over where the two are revealed to be close friends. However, the way Brassius and Hassel affectionately address each other as "Brassie" and "Hass", as well as the fact that Hassel has a Flapple on his team, its pre-evolution Applin being a symbol of love in Galar (in addition to being part-Grass type, which is Brassius' type), has had the fandom shipping the two big time.
• Persistent Veluza^ExplanationSimilar to Sharpedo in previous games, Veluza are extremely persistent and aggressive in chasing down the player when they're in the ocean, making them a very common source of annoyance.
  • Ethical sushi.^ExplanationThe portrayal of all Pokémon as at least semi-sapient has raised lots of Carnivore Confusion about where the meat shown as food comes from. Veluza having the ability to fillet away its own flesh and regrow it quickly in order to Shed Armor, Gain Speed is one surprising and rather... disturbing solution to the question.
• Ed Sheeran being The Dreaded^ExplanationThe Award-Bait Song song he did for the game's end credits tends to get muted by let's players (often frantically if they're livestreaming the game and forget about it until it pops up) to avoid a potential copyright strike. This, combined with growing backlash against Sheeran's omnipresence in popular music since the 2010s, led to several jokes along these lines. It also led to someone creating a mod for the sole purpose of removing his song from the game.
• Terastal Phenomenon memes:
  • Ice-Types got buffed by removing their Ice-Typing^ExplanationIce-Types are considered the weakest Pokémon in general due to their poor defensive matchups outweighing their strong offensive matchups. Jokes have spawned about how Terastallization can buff Ice-Types, by exchanging their original typing for a more useful one.
  • [X] is my favorite [Y] type.^ExplanationMany Pokémon in the metagame will commonly use very specific types for Terastallization, to either try and flip a relevant matchup on its head, or simply to change a bad typing to a reasonable one, leading many to joke about those Pokémon being those typings, with how often they're seen as them. This is especially true with Pokémon who essentially NEED to be a more useful type to make an impact (such as the infamous Mighty Glacier with a terrible defensive typing Avalugg, who commonly Teras into a significantly harder to deal with Steel type).
• Shiinotic is my favorite Mythical Pokémon.^ExplanationDatamines revealed that Shiinotic is listed in the code as mythical, an error likely caused by how similar its Japanese name is to Marshadow's, the latter not being listed as mythical.
• Sus Tatsugiri^ExplanationThe official art depicts Curly Form Tatsugiri as happy-looking, Droopy Form Tatsugiri as having a suspicious expression and Stretchy Form Tatsugiri with a look of dismay. It quickly became an object-labeling format depicting something decreasing in quality.
  • Tatsugiri vs. Wo-Chien^ExplanationStretchy Form Tatsugiri's art is often posted next to Wo-Chien's, making it seem like the two◊ are glaring at each other in contempt.
• Bread in the engine.^ExplanationFidough, a bread loaf dog, is in the same egg group as Revavroom, a sentient car engine, due to being classed as "Mineral". Jokes calling bread a mineral and the more obvious Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action jokes became inevitable.
• Dancing Greavard^ExplanationDuring Ryme's gym battle, a Greavard nicknamed "DJ G-rave" dances on her sound system. Cue people editing to have Greavard dance to different music, such as Bonetrousle from Undertale, or "Heads Will Roll", AKA Dance 'til you're dead.
• Azumarill Death Pose^ExplanationAzumarill got a new sleeping animation in Scarlet and Violet that's been compared to the Family Guy Death Pose.
• Pokémon Sentai Donbrothers^ExplanationWhen The Teal Mask was revealed featuring Momotaro-themed Pokémon, certain fans were quick to compare it to Avataro Sentai Donbrothers. It adds that the show just finished airing a day before, so it creates a hilarious continuation, and that the trailer featured Sentai-looking masks that depict said mons.
• Okidogi has been compared and even modified to the appearance of Swole Doge.
• Landorus-Tusk^ExplanationGreat Tusk's presence in the Generation 9 metagame as a bulky ground-type attacker that is used on nearly every team has lead to many comparisons to Landorus-Therian, the competitive posterchild of a flexible Pokémon that is good on every team, culminating in someone making a Fusion◊ of the two, which spread quickly through the competitive scene.
• It's just a normal Flamingo!^ExplanationA lot of Pokémon fans have pointed out how Flamigo's design is basically just a real life Flamingo, which it tends to be used as a defining example for lazy character design. Though there are some people who think that having a normal Flamingo look is what helps it stand out amongst other Pokémon.
• It's a giraffe!^ExplanationRaging Bolt, the past paradox version of Raikou, promptly ignited arguments among the fans from the moment it was shown in the 8/8 trailer. While many viewers recognized the pun-based design of making Raging Bolt a brontosaurus (a name that translates into "thunder lizard"), most fans can't shake off the feeling that it looks like a goofy giraffe, resulting in a love-it-or-hate-it reaction in the fandom.
• Matcha Tea Caddy Kills Twenty Kids^ExplanationThe Pokémon Poltchageist can absorb peoples' life force via their making contact with its matcha powder, which is demonstrated in its introductory trailer by a large gathering of people dozing off due to eating matcha-laced food. Many interpreted the scene as the Poltchageist murdering them all due to the franchise having a history of Never Say "Die" and trailers introducing Ghost-types in The New '20s usually ending with people facing Uncertain Doom, worsened by the fact that most of the people in the group that passed out are children.
• Ogerpon loves Ponyo.^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}The Teal Mask introduces Ogerpon, who despite being a villain in the local folklore, is actually a sweet and kind Pokémon whose dialogue is rendered as "Pon-yo!", leading to jokes that she loves watching the anime of the same name or outright nicknaming her after the titular fish.
  • See you in hell, you stupid fruit.^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}A meme that originally arose from a stock image of a woman juicing a fruit in a blender with her seemingly enjoying it a little too much and too aggressively. It became popular in the fandom due to how appropriate it seemed for Ogerpon and Pecharunt, the latter being a malevolent Pecha Berry responsible for the former's tragic backstory.
• Gender-neutral restrooms^ExplanationIn The Teal Mask DLC, players have taken notice of the restrooms in the Mossui Community Center, which use the sharp and heart-shaped Pikachu tails for the male and female restrooms respectively, and a third one depicted with Pikachu's head which is explicitly described as "this restroom can be used by anyone!"
• Kieran memes:
  • We started his Villain arc!?^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Over the course of The Teal Mask, Kieran, who starts off (seemingly) shy but kind, goes through major amounts of Sanity Slippage thanks to a combination of his sister's treatment of him, losing five battles to the player over the course of the story, and most importantly, not being able to be Ogerpon's Trainer. The last cutscene of The Teal Mask heavily implies he snapped. By The Indigo Disk, Kieran (now the Champion of Blueberry Academy) has become The Resenter, having built up an unhealthy obsession with surpassing the player as revenge for all of the losses he's suffered against them. Fans have (tearfully) pointed out how a lot of the blame for this is on themselves.
  • Onion^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Kieran's new tied-up hairdo in The Indigo Disk looks like an onion to many fans, leading to more mockery and jokes against the kid.
  • Kiki's Delivery Service^ExplanationCarmine's nickname for her brother is Kiki. Fans have punnily drawn the connection between Kieran and Kiki's Delivery Service, with some going so far as to make art of it.
  • "Why, Ogerpon...?! Why would you do this to me?! You said you'd be by my side!"^{Explanation (THE TEAL MASK, THE INDIGO DISK, AND XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 3 SPOILERS)}Kieran's fanatical obsession with Ogerpon to the point of feeling Entitled to Have Her, as well as bearing a grudge on the protagonist during The Indigo Disk for taking who he feels is his Pokémon, has drawn plenty of parallels to Consul N from Xenoblade Chronicles 3, specifically his Emasculated Cuckold moment from the start of Chapter 6 where he loses Mio to Noah.
  • Does that make Ogerpon the child we got in the divorce?^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Kieran's Ship Tease with the player and his envy of the player for getting Ogerpon has made many fans joke that this is a lovers' quarrel with Ogerpon being the child caught in the middle.
• "Mmmkay"^ExplanationMunkidori's Pokémon Speak is rendered as this, leading to comparisons to Mr. Mackey's Verbal Tic.
• The Lousy Three^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Carmine starts referring to the Loyal Three as the "Lousy Three" after she hears the truth about Ogerpon. This nickname quickly caught on with fans due to how popular Ogerpon ended up being.
• It's Garchover^ExplanationGarchomp had been a widely popular and consistently high-tier Pokémon in the competitive scene since its inception in Gen 4, but it had been noticably struggling in Gen 9 due to Power Creep. Despite this, Garchomp would still cling to its spot in Smogon's OU tier with many proclaiming "it's not Garchover", until Smogon's October 2023 tiering shift in which it finally fell into UU tier.
• Official Pokémon yuri.^ExplanationTo celebrate Scarlet/Violet's one year anniversary, a 3D animated music video to YOASOBI's "Biri-Biri" was released. The video showcases Juliana and Nemona doing various things together. At one point, we’re shown a downtrodden Juliana and a fretting Nemona who, upon meeting each other, brighten up with a Gengar taking their hands and having them holding them before jumping to a fireworks display where Nemona looks like she wants to say something but stops. Fans clearly saw the possible romantic undertones in this and went nuts.
• "You can come have a look at my room later too, if you want."^ExplanationCarmine's comment when she and the player character go to the player character's room in The Indigo Disk quickly sparked memes saying that the comment sounded a little suggestive in an adult way.
• The Pyroar King^ExplanationThe Indigo Disk has an easter egg where in the Savannah Biome of the Terarium one can find a suspiciously Pride Rock-like ledge with a Pyroar standing on top in an obvious reference to The Lion King. Many players have jokingly added a Litleo to the scene to complete the image of Simba and Mufasa, or tried to push off the Pyroar/faint it in battle as a Black Comedy reference to Mufasa's death.
• "I don't know if the [Pokémon] is [common set] or [other common set] until I watch inside the box" (something else entirely) "Shut up"^ExplanationThis meme branching off the Schrodinger's Cat meme took off to widespread popularity in the competitive battling scene, being repurposed and redrawn for all kinds of Pokémon that force opponents to make wild guesses as to what sort of moveset it's using.
• Dark Arven^ExplanationA player on Twitter encountered a visual glitch where Arven's model failed to color correctly, making his hair and clothes entirely black. Fans were quick to jump on the glitch, saying that it was Arven's "emo phase" or suggesting that "Evil Arven" has the complete opposite personality as regular Arven.
• The creepy ambiance, horror-like tone of the setting and the constant dancing of the zombie-like Brainwashed and Crazy victims of Pecharunt in Mochi Mayhem reminded many players of Michael Jackson's Thriller music video.
• It's common to give the Legendaries from this Gen that people love (Exact Words is in play here; the Loyal Three and Pecharunt are widely reviled because of what they did to Ogerpon) a Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Koraidon and Miraidon love sandwiches as much as Heavy does.
  • Ogerpon likes burgers. For Black Comedy, the burger is usually made out of the Loyal Three.
  • Terapagos seems to be associated with pizza, given its disk shape which makes it look like an abstract pizza.

Pokemon Legends Z-A

• The surprise reveal memes:
  • BY GOD, IT'S KALOS WITH A STEEL CHAIR!^ExplanationLegends Z-A was announced during the Pokémon Presents in February 2024, when largely everybody was expecting the next game to be set in Unova or Johto, and were caught completely off-guard when it turned out to be in Kalos instead.
  • They skipped Gen V!^ExplanationGiven that the previous remake game was set in Generation IV, this game being set in Generation VI's location instead drew the joke that Game Freak were just skipping the return to Unova altogether.
  • It's been 11 years...^ExplanationA repeat of the "It's been 3000 years" meme from the Generation VI folder, with 11 slapped over the larger number, because fans saw this game as the fabled Pokémon Z third version that Gen VI never received eleven years after that generation came out.
• Logo memes:
  • Pokémon Legends Pizza^ExplanationThe rather peculiar Z-A part of the title has left fans wondering what it means, with one common suggestion (ironically or unironically) being that the game is about pizza, supported by one of the final shots of the trailer being an overhead shot of Lumiose City which resembles a pizza.
  • Pokemon ZaZa^ExplanationSome fans decided to repeat the Z-A in the game's logo to make ZaZa (a slang for cannabis), leading to several fanarts of human characters and Pokémon smoking joints
• The Kalos Revolution^ExplanationGiven how the previous Legends game involved exploring the past of a region, a number of people have guessed the same will be applied to Kalos. Since Kalos is based off of France, it didn't take long for jokes to pop up about how the game will put the player through a Pokémon version of The French Revolution.
• Pokémon fans celebrate having to wait^ExplanationSince a lot of the issues with recent Pokémon games have been attributed to them being Christmas Rushed, the reveal that Legends: Z-A would be released in 2025 rather than 2024 (the year it was announced) led to fans rejoicing over the fact that the game would have a longer amount of development time, as well as the idea that the next generation of Pokémon games will have a longer development time as a result. It also omits the fact that Legends: Arceus also involved a year where a Game Freak-developed Pokémon game wasn't released.
• Mega Evolution memes:
  • Mega Charizard Z^ExplanationAs soon as Legends: Z-A was revealed, with Mega Evolution making a return alongside Kalos, fans immediately joked that Charizard, the Breakout Character and Base-Breaking Character that it is with two Megas and a Gigantamax form, would be almost guaranteed to get a new Mega form called Mega Charizard Z.
  • Mega Mewtwo Z^ExplanationMewtwo is the only other Pokémon with two version-exclusive Megas, so it also gets memed for the same reason as Charizard
  • Mega Incineroar^ExplanationFans expect Z-A to also feature cross-generational starter choices since Legends: Arceus previously featured them. The announcement of Mega Evolution returning also had fans expecting the starters to get new Mega forms, leading to the joke that they'd somehow give Incineroar, one of the most hated and powerful Mons of VGC, a Mega Evolution, ratcheting up its threat level even further if it ever came back to a non-Legends main game.
• Isekai memes:
  • "Who gets isekai'ed this time?"^ExplanationBecause of how the last Legends game had Arceus sending the protagonist back to the past and supposedly leaving them, many joked that he'll probably do the same thing here too, painting him as a Memetic Psychopath or Jerkass God who sends random people in the Pokémon universe to random periods of time for the heck of it.
  • "You used me... FOR LAND DEVELOPMENT!"^ExplanationBecause of how the last Legends game had Arceus sending the protagonist back to the past, many joke that Arceus will send the protagonist back in time to develop Lumiose City.
  • Emmet in France^ExplanationRelated to the above, the game's reveal immediately had people speculating that Emmet will have ended up in the game's time period, matching how his twin brother Ingo is Trapped in the Past as of Legends: Arceus.

Spin-Off Games

Pokémon Stadium

• Golem's Mud-Slap animation.^ExplanationThe animation of Golem using Mud-Slap in Stadium 2 consists of it rolling on its back and appearing to spray mud from between its legs, infamously looking like it's crapping on its opponent. The sheer absurdity of this caused it to become a meme, and it sometimes gets brought up as a comeback to people nostalgic for the old Stadium animations. A few Pokémon in other games have similarly unfortunate attacks that have become memes, such as Umbreon in Crystal or Floatzel and Incineroar in the modern games, but Golem's is the most well-known.
• Honchkrow's fainting animation.^ExplanationLots of Pokémon in the Stadium games have funny or hammy fainting animations, but Honchkrow's in Battle Revolution is notable: it falls over and tips its hat to the opponent before fainting. This has seen a slight surge in popularity due to how "classy" it is, as well as inviting "m'lady" jokes (since fedora-tipping is commonly associated with neckbeards) and Rattlesnake Jake references.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

• Don't say "Stun Seed" backwards ^Explanation"Stun Seed" backwards is "Dees Nuts" which sounds like "Deez Nuts", making it a popular pun trap.
• "This was all a trick. I deceived you." ^ExplanationAn image of Drowzee from the Explorers games, captioned with this line. In-game, it's used in the context of Drowzee having kidnapped Azurill; however, it became a meme due to Drowzee's leering expression and Memetic Molester personality, and often gets used in images or memes about tricking someone.
• Bidoof caused everything ^ExplanationThe ending of the first Special Episode in Explorers of Sky, Bidoof's Wish, has Bidoof wish for a friend he could share his knowledge with at the guild, and Jirachi obliges. The ending of the episode strongly implies that you and your partner are the friends he wished for... which has caused fans to joke that Bidoof was unknowingly responsible for damaging the flow of time and setting the game's events in motion.

Pokémon Ranger

• Metagross being associated with SHOOP DA WHOOP ^ExplanationMetagross's constant Beam Spam during its fights has led to many references to this well-known firing of a laser.
• "Touch the Bidoof." ^ExplanationA line from the tutorial of Shadows of Almia which sounds very off when taken out of context.

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