Sandbox / Meme Acknowledgment Wick Check

Meme Acknowledgment is when a creator references a meme from one of their works in contexts outside of the aforemented works. Misuse may include the reference being in a work (which would be Ascended Meme) or just "this work makes references to memes".

Wicks: 50/50

Creator references memes from their work outside of their work (16/50)

• Trivia.Animal Crossing New Horizons: A few hours after the October 15, 2021 Direct, the Nintendo of America You Tube page conducted a poll on the most excited additions to the game. Among these is the memetic Froggy Chair (which actually became the most voted option).
• Trivia.Book Revue: The thumbnail on the WB Kids official Youtube channel for the episode features Zoot Suit Daffy striking his signature pose that was jokingly noted to be eerily similar to how JoJo's Bizarre Adventure characters would later dress and pose. Zoot Suit Daffy also became an Ascended Meme character on Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem where he also strikes his signature pose that made him famous.
• Trivia.Cas Van De Pol: After the scene of Toothless dancing to "Driftveil City" from Video Game/PokémonBlackAndWhite became a viral meme, Cas produced a green-screen template of it, followed by a second template with different versions of Toothless.
• Characters.The Expendables: (Booker folder, under Deadpan Snarker) With the bonus of being a Meme Acknowledgment of Chuck Norris Facts:
  Hale: I heard you were once bitten by a cobra.
  Booker: Yep. And after seven agonising days... the cobra died.
• Recap.Fazber Frights Felix The Shark: In the early days of Five Nights at Freddy's, there was a lot of gender confusion on the part of the original four animatronics. A lot of people argued that Bonnie was female, as "Bonnie" is more traditionally a girl's name in Western areas. In this short, when Dawn mentions Bonnie being her favorite, Agnes responds, "I thought he was a she. Bonnie's not a boy's name." Dawn sighs and responds tiredly, "Well, Bonnie was a boy rabbit." Also misplaced Trivia element on main page
• FreedomToons: (under Shout-Out) In "The Fable of Jordan Peterson", Peterson sounds like and is drawn to resemble Kermit the Frog. This is referencing a meme about the similarities between the two, which Peterson himself acknowledged when he appeared with a Kermit puppet.invoked
• GEICO: (under Here We Go Again!) In one of the "what are you waiting for?" ads, Olympic gymnast Mc Kayla Maroney vaults onto a rooftop to retrieve a Frisbee accidentally thrown there by two young men, only to have the guys throw it onto another rooftop, which leads Maroney to react with the "Mc Kayla is not impressed" pose.
• Characters.Heroes Of The Storm Warcraft Assassins: (Kel'Thuzad folder, under Try to Fit That on a Business Card) A Meme Acknowledgment, as in Kel'Thuzad's spotlight and Making-Of video, the Blizzard employees recited all the titles Kel'Thuzad has, which a Reddit user kept posting for over a year until Kel'Thuzad was finally released. Kel'Thuzad is:
  The Archlich of Naxxramas, Lich Lord of the Plaguelands, Commander of the Dread Necropolis, Master and Founder of the Cult of the Damned, formerly of the Council of Six, Creator of the Abomination, Summoner of Archimonde the Defiler, the Betrayer of Humanity, Hearthstone Enthusiast and Majordomo to the Lich King himself.
• Trivia.Hogwarts Legacy: Upon release, the game featured a bug that prevented players from rescuing a magical beast named Biscuit, whose rescue is necessary to complete a sidequest. This led to the meme "Free Biscuit!", something Portkey Games quickly picked up on as upon releasing a patch to fix the aforementioned bug, they informed players it was time to free Biscuit.
• IZ*ONE: (under Celebrity Resemblance): Some fans believe Yena resembles Yuqi of (G)I-DLE as well. Including Yena and Yuqi themselves as the two have become friends recently.
• Trivia.Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Nintendo has directly referenced the Luigi Death Stare on numerous occasions:

  • At E3 2014, just a few weeks after the Wii U version released, Nintendo included a moment of the Luigi Death Stare during their presentation.
  • In 2019, the Nintendo Switch got a news bulletin for games starring Luigi to celebrate the upcoming release of Luigi's Mansion 3. The message for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe notes that "it's not polite to stare at rivals as you pass them", referencing the infamous Luigi's Death Stare.
  • When amiibo kiosks were still a thing, Luigi's showcase video had a brief moment of him doing the death stare.
  • In Paper Mario: Color Splash, Luigi gives Mario and Huey a ride to Bowser's Castle in his kart. After dropping them off, Huey tells Luigi to give people that "mean stare" if they give him any trouble.
  • A promotional screenshot◊ for Wave 3 of the Booster Course Pass has Luigi doing the death stare.

• Trivia.My Adventures With Superman: In the Superman Homepage interview, co-producer Josie Campbell is aware of the internet's design comparisons between their version of Lois Lane and Luz Noceda. She finds it to be a happy coincidence, noting how their lead art director Jane Bak also worked on The Owl House. Furthermore, Campbell also enjoyed the riffing on Superman's Magical Girl Transformation Sequence, especially the ones that used the Taylor Swift's Superman song.
• YMMV.Olivia Rodrigo: (under Applicability) Due to Rodrigo being mixed-race (of partly Filipino descent on her dad's side), many Asian-Americans have expressed that they relate to her songs. Although they are never explicitly about race, plenty of those songs contrast Rodrigo's brunette hair and racially ambiguous looks to All-American blonde girls'. "all-american bitch," in particular, is pretty clearly a bitter satire of the All-American ideal, something that resonates with these Asian-American fans. It helps that Rodrigo acknowledges and embraces her Filipino side publicly, though she has been mistaken for other ethnicities too (one viral TikTok audio calls her the "crying Mexican girl," which she has herself used in a promo TikTok for her Guts cookie).
• Trivia.Pinocchio A True Story: Lionsgate's official TikTok didn't waste any time capitalizing on the memetic lines and "yassification" spawned from their English dub in a compilation.
• Ridiculousness: (under Annoying Laugh) Chanel's giggle is the stuff of legend and easily one of the most iconic parts of the show, with the show's official You Tube channel uploading several compilations dedicated to it.
• Characters.Terraria Calamity: (Noxus folder, under Fluffy the Terrible) The powerful Superboss whose old name led to memetic levels of referencing Guzma within the Calamity Mod community, and even DM DOKURO himself decided to join in on it in one of his Coffee Break videos.

Creator references memes from their work inside the work they originated from (AKA Ascended Meme) (22/50)

• Batman vs. Two-Face: (under Mythology Gag) Also counts as Meme Acknowledgment. During their fight, Batman slaps Robin while the latter is under Two-Face's influences, recreating the infamous comic panel◊.
• Cinematic Excrement: Deconstructed in his review of Birdemic 2: The Resurrection. In this example, James Nguyen replicating iconic scenes and elements from the first movie makes it hard to tell which scenes are meant to be funny and which ones are unintentionally funny, killing the joke.
• YMMV.Dawn Of War: One level has an ork referring to the invading army as magpies, the Fan Nickname for the Blood Ravens due to their large collection of non-Blood Ravens wargear. Also Trivia piece on YMMV page
• YMMV.Descendants: Given her personality and parentage, Audrey appears to be one of the famous "bitch Aurora" Tumblr gifset meme. Also Trivia piece on YMMV page
• Dial H for Hero: The Ben 10 comparisons were finally given form on the 2019 series, where one Metropolis citizen turns into a Captain Ersatz of Four Arms. Also Trivia piece on main page
• Dissidia Final Fantasy: (inside the main description) Aside from the gameplay and story, the game features countless allusions to the franchise. There are dozens of Continuity Nods and Mythology Gags, the developers have clearly Shown Their Work to properly represent the cast and their games of origin, there's quite a bit of Lampshade Hanging and Meme Acknowledgment, and the storyline is also chock-full of allusions to previous games, from story parallels to line dropping.
• Characters.Dissidia Final Fantasy Warriors Of Chaos I To VI: (Exdeath folder, under Breakout Character) He was one of the more overlooked villains before Dissidia. After it came out, his obsession with the Void, Lethal Joke Character status, and Large Ham tendencies made him a Fountain of Memes. The result is that he's far more popular than he was before, something Square-Enix notes in Dissidia 012 as covered under Ascended Meme on the main page. Potholed under "Square-Enix notes" and then sends to an Ascended Meme entry on the main page for the work... then is Ascended Meme, not Meme Acknowledgment
• Failboat: (under Running Gag) invoked During Fail's playthrough of Kirby: Planet Robobot, he made a joke having Waddle Doo saying "BEAM ATTACK" whilst trying to attack Kirby, only for Kirby to incinerate the poor creature, sending it straight to heaven. Memetic Mutation caused the bit to spread like wildfire across YouTube. Fail acknowledged this, and now any time a Waddle Doo appears again, the joke has to be made. Click here for the entire story so far.
• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire: Godzilla vs Kong quickly led to a "Save Mothra" meme based around the shot of Godzilla pinning Kong to the ground and roaring in his face. This film leans in that direction by showing Kong being saved by Mothra, similar to how Lois saved Batman from Superman. Also Trivia item on main page
• YMMV.Kitchen Nightmares: The Kitchen Nightmare channel and Gordon Ramsay's own channel often splice in NINOOOOOOOO in their outros. This breaks a lot of rules: it's a split Ascended Meme / Meme Acknowledgment example which is already a big nono, Trivia item on a YMMV page and also is presented as a subbullet inside a Memetic Mutation bullet'
• The Legends of Luke Skywalker: Redy recounting the events of A New Hope from her perspective makes mention of several memes, such as her finding it a plot hole that the Death Star had a weakness, or claiming that Han was the sort of rogue who would shoot first and the Rebel Alliance retconned him into a Lovable Rogue. Also Trivia item on YMMV page
• YMMV.Library Of Ruina: (under Fan Nickname) Like the Agents in the previous game, Librarians are affectionately referred by fans as "Nuggets", which is acknowledged by one of the Steam achievements.
• YMMV.Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons Of Liberty: (under Discredited Meme) At the time of the game’s release, it was a meme in the fandom to make fun of Raiden for being “effeminate” and claiming that he’s secretly gay. It even got Meme Acknowledgment in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater with Raiden’s Expy Raikov, who is canonically gay and the masochistic partner of Volgin. However, this has fallen out fashion in the years since then for multiple reasons. The first was that Raiden Took a Level in Badass and ended up becoming a fan favorite in both Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which made fans like him too much to want to make fun of him anymore. The second was when mainstream society as a whole became much more accepting of LGBT people over the years and being gay was no longer seen as the source of mockery it once was, making the idea of using “gay” as an insult toward Raiden a case of Values Dissonance with the fandom in the earlier years. And finally, deeming Raiden gay because he's effeminate completely ignores the fact that Raiden’s relationship drama with his girlfriend was a major part of the story, in addition to his attraction to Emma and Olga.
• YMMV.Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans: (under Memetic Mutation) "Iok you fucking IDIOT!", or "Idiok!" (or "Idiok Crud-jan"), or most commonly "Fuck Iok!" ^note Fans usual's reaction for when Iok constantly screws things up or makes them even worse. Goes into full swing after Season 2 Episode 15, that even Julietta acknowledged his incompetence this way.
• YMMV.Monster Hunter World: In the Iceborne expansion, there is a parallel quest involving Dodogama in which the Chief Ecologist states that research in the Elder's Recess has stopped due to a rambunctious Dodogama. However, most of the hunters are refusing to hunt it because it's cute to them. This references the "Best Boi" nickname meme the community gave Dodogama for it's silly and endearing appearance. Also Trivia item on YMMV page
• The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog: (under Continuity Cameo) Mixed with Meme Acknowledgement, there are two cameos by the memetic Rookie avatar, Ian Jr: as a portrait in the library car and as a guitarist in a picture found in the lounge car.
• YMMV.Not Always Right: (under Memetic Mutation) In any story where a person goes out of their way to be a good person, commenters will suggest that they should be part of the "NAR Avengers initiative". This one, too, has now received acknowledgment from the editors, in the title of this story, the saga of "Olive Man", and, later its own dedicated tag.
• Sonic Frontiers: (under Call-Back) In the tie-in comic, Sonic, Tails, and Amy take on a robot piloted by Eggman. During the battle, he spouts out some familiar lines from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Generations specifically.

  Sonic: Hold up...I've heard all this mad ranting before...

• Characters.Star Wars Red Squadron: (Col Takbright folder, under Ascended Meme) invokedOriginally, Wedge was played by Collin Higgins, but he got fired and was replaced by Denis Lawson. However, due to production issues, Higgins still appeared as Wedge in a single scene. Higgins' Wedge was subsequently deemed "Fake Wedge" by fans, and now that they're separate characters, it has evolved into Meme Acknowledgment, with Col's colleagues nicknaming him "Fake Wedge" for looking like Wedge. Another example that thinks that Meme Acknowledgment and Ascended Meme are sinonyms
• Ted Lasso S3E01 "Smells Like Mean Spirit": When poking fun at himself during the press conference, Ted compares himself to Ned Flanders. The similarities between the two characters has often been brought up by fans and viewers of their respective shows. Also Trivia item on main page
• X-Men '97 S1E04 "Motendo/Lifedeath, Pt 1": (under Mythology Gag) One Sentinel appears in the game in an orange and blue color palette based on its alternate colors from Marvel vs. Capcom 2. This also doubles as a Meme Acknowledgement due to that palette (dubbed the "Mango" or "New York Knicks" Sentinel) featuring prominently in the Fighting Game Community video "mahvel baybee!".
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links: The name of one of Tristan's skills, "Super Strength", is a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series. Also Trivia item on main page

Creator references memes that are not from their work (3/50)

• YMMV.Euphoria: Faye bearing an uncanny resemblance to Francine Smith, becoming so popular that even the people behind◊ American Dad got in on the joke. Would have been valid if it was the people behind Euphoria to get in on the joke. Also Trivia item on YMMV page
• Trivia.Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: To celebrate getting 1,000 subscribers on Instagram, Waluigi's creator shared an illustration of Waluigi riding the Wild Wiggler a la AKIRA.
• Steven Universe: Alternate Future: The beginning of chapter 3 features Cat's Eye playing a parody version of Steven in a reference to memes such as this making fun of his pacifist ways. Fanfic referencing meme from the original media it's based on. Also Trivia item on main page and Weblinks Are Not Examples

Work contains references to memes (4/50)

• YMMV.Dairy Queen Lips: "The new—[crunch]"^explanationIn one of the ads, the Lips try to advertise DQ's Waffle Bowl Sundaes, but keep eating it whole before they can finish speaking. In the early 2020's, the ads featuring the Dairy Queen Lips saw a resurgence in popularity thanks to a number of YouTube Poops being made out of them; these poops would often take this quote to exaggerated levels, editing any instance of the words "the new" being uttered so that it's immediately followed by the Lips eating the ice cream. Many compilations of the commercials start with this one as a form of Meme Acknowledgment. It's people doing commercial compilation acknowledging the meme, not Dairy Queen themselves
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: In "The Gang Goes to a Water Park", Charlie and Frank pretend that Frank has AIDS in order to get to the front of the line of all the rides after noticing a kid with leukemia being a part of a special program to get to the front of the lines. After riding all the rides, they notice one final one that isn't on the map, the Thunder Gun Express ride, but come to find that the ride isn't open yet and is still in testing. They choose to ride it anyway, but because there is no water, the friction from the dry slide rips Frank's back open, and he lands in the pool below spewing blood from his back all over the place. Due to everyone believing he has AIDS, they all panic and the entire park gets closed immediately due to the "AIDS blood" in the water. Also Trivia item on main page
• Return to Monkey Island: The shipwreck at Monkey Island has a crab scuttling about on its hull. Periodically it will do a crab dance, like the famous celebratory video. Also Trivia item on main page
• ''Saga of the People of Tattúín River Valley: In a parody of both the laconic one-lines of Sagas and the the ridicule of Anakin's "sand speech" in "Attack of the Clones", when the corresponding scene between Paðéma and Anakinn occurs Anakinn simply responds to Paðéma's lengthy musing with "I don't like sand".
  • Crawford even manages to give it a pay-off when Anakinn finds the sand-burial mound Paðéma was hastily buried in. He destroys it in anger and then quips: "I don't like sand". This is a fan rewriting of Star Wars referencing memes from the original films. Also Trivia item on main page

ZCE (4/50)

• Hannibal: It got to the point where, by the third season, even Bryan Fuller himself was using the term "murder husbands" to describe Will and Hannibal's complex relationship. Also Trivia item on main page
• IZ*ONE: (under Animal Motifs) Yena the duck, used and abused no matter where she guests, IZ*ONE-related or otherwise.
• Characters.LEGO Star Wars The Freemaker Adventures: (Darth Vader folder, under The Knights Who Say "Squee!") Upon noticing a Naboo starfighter, he begins squeeing almost immediately and abandons his captives to take it out for a joyride, feeling nostalgic for those spins. Potholed under the word "spins". I don't remember any popular meme about the Naboo Starfighter spins, but in case it would be an Ascended Meme thing
• Vine Realms: Invoked. It was created by the team specifically to collect as many of them in one place as possible. They even acknowledge when a meme that's being referenced has already been beaten to death. This was almost fine but then I realized that it doesn't have enough context to work properly

Other misuse (1/50)

• Sonic Frontiers: Sega is aware of how difficult players find Cyber Space 1-2 to S-Rank. Owing to this, 1-2 is the only Cyber Space stage to not have its S-Rank requirement change in the Extreme difficulty introduced in the "Sights, Sounds, and Speed" update. Complaining about a level being hard is now a meme? Sounds more like Author's Saving Throw than anything else. Also Trivia item on main page