Sonic the Hedgehog shows the world the REAL SUPER POWER of memework & Knuckles! Gotta meme fast!
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Sonic the Hedgehog 1
- SONIC HAS PASSED ExplanationSonic 1, unlike nearly every other game in the series, uses the phrase "SONIC HAS PASSED ACT X" instead of the "SONIC GOT THROUGH ACT X" that became standard from Sonic 2 onward for when the player completes a stage. Naturally, fans took to omitting the "ACT X" part, making a phrase that basically means "Sonic has died." Typically used whenever a glitch occurs that results in either Sonic's death or the game soft-locking. One of the more well-known moments related to this is a Vinesauce stream of a rather corrupted version of Somari, a notorious NES bootleg of this game; Sonic ended up taking damage from the first boss, which glitched the game out to the point where it displayed this message with a slowed-down Green Hill theme playing. It has since become a creepypasta in its own right, sometimes just called "SONIC HAS PASSED" or sometimes called Sonic.NES.
- COPE ExplanationSpring Yard Zone has neon letters that read "COPE", in reference to a graphic processing system used in game. In the prototype's equivalent Sparkling Zone, they're placed right next to a spinning spike wheel. An image of Sonic getting hurt due to touching it is commonly used in response to someone getting upset.
- Who thought it was even remotely okay to put this here ExplanationFrom a Miiverse post complaining about a spring in Marble Zone that would push Sonic backward into a lava pit if he was going too fast. Hit it big in 2022 and led to image macros of the spring being replaced with all manner of other obstacles or enemies like Urien lowkicking while placing an Aegis Reflector behind Sonic.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- The infamous spike pit ExplanationIn Mystic Cave Zone Act 2, at one point the player needs to grab a switch to lower a bridge to cross a pit. Should the player have the unfortunate experience of falling into this pit, they fall not into a Bottomless Pit, but into a spike pit that is far too deep to jump out of, resulting in a quick death. That is, unless the player is in Super Sonic mode (and if you fell in the pit, you probably are) in which case they are forced to wait for Sonic's rings to run out so they can die and respawn, assuming they have lives left.
- NOT ENOUGH RINGS ExplanationThe message displayed if the player does not meet the ring requirement in a Special Stage.
- After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, comparisons to Oil Ocean Zone have been a recurring joke.
- Captain Vidya ExplanationIn September 2011, SonicRetro forum user GT Koopa posted on /v/ an image of a character created by envisioning Eggman in his Egg Mobile as a buck-toothed bearded man wearing a helmet and visor. He has become a recurring joke on gaming-related boards where he is treated as "the savior of vidya".
- When Sonic Origins came out, the new intro cutscene for Sonic 2 depicted two foxes bullying Tails, leading many to compare it to the infamous Tails Gets Trolled webcomic's premise.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
- 3, 2, 1,
GO! FAULT ExplanationIn Competition mode, there is a 3-second countdown before the race begins. If a player crosses the starting line before the countdown finishes, a "FAULT" message is displayed, both players are put back at their starting positions, and the counter restarts. This repeats until both players have the discipline to wait for the countdown to finish.- This may have become a minor Ascended Meme in Sonic Riders, where you are prevented from crossing the starting line by an electric barrier. Do so before the countdown finishes and you'll be zapped by the barrier. Incidentally, this mechanic is actually taunting you — you're allowed to cross the line the very instant the barrier disperses, so the game challenges you to play chicken with it.
- Robotnik's diabolical traps. ExplanationThe US manual's Hand Wave for the game's huge number of glitches, game-breaking and otherwise. Specifically these refer to the bugs that see you stuck in a wall or some other inescapable situation. Fans have often referred to glitches in other Sonic games as "diabolical traps" as a result.
- Knuckles' chuckle ExplanationIn Knuckles' first appearance, he starts out antagonizing the two existing heroes, Sonic and Tails, laughing as they fall into his traps. In his theme song in Sonic Adventure, he says "Unlike Sonic, I don't chuckle." Twisted further in November 2019 when a prototype version of Sonic 3 made its way to the public and revealed (among other things) Knuckles originally wasn't going to yuck it up in his introduction, but simply grimly challenge Sonic.
- Knuckles is an idiot. ExplanationIn his first appearance, Knuckles was easily tricked into doing Eggman's dirty work. This was understandable the first time because he had never met Eggman before; however, he falls for it again in both Adventure and Advance 2 (not even counting other continuities). Needless to say, the fandom ensures he'll Never Live It Down.
- The Barrel of Doom ExplanationCarnival Night Zone has a particular puzzle where you are shut in a certain room and have to move a floating barrel to escape by standing on it and pressing up/down in time with the motion to build up momentum. Many players couldn't figure it out and spent ages trying the more obvious method of repeatedly jumping on the barrel instead, since that also makes the barrel move a bit. Any mention of Carnival Night Zone will inevitably lead to someone cursing "That Damn Barrel."
- Everything & Knuckles ExplanationIn 1994, the release of Sonic & Knuckles and its lock-on technology gave the full game of Sonic 3 the somewhat inelegant sounding title of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. Years later, people realized that adding & Knuckles to anything creates instant hilarity. Some fans go even further and tack on the similar "Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry⢠Series" meme that originated with Dante's guest appearance in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
- What do you mean I can't play [incompatible game] & Knuckles (and other variations thereof)? ExplanationTrying to play any game that isn't Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 will result in the "NO WAY? NO WAY!" screen being displayed, with a hidden button combo enabling a single Blue Sphere stage. If Sonic 1 is put in, the screen will be in color and animated (slightly) along with the same button combo allowing access to all one million plus Blue Sphere stages. Any other game will give a non-animated, black and white version.
- Became an Ascended Meme in Sonic Mania with the unlockable "& Knuckles" Mode: the player can choose any of the three protagonists and Knuckles will accompany them, much like how Tails does in Sonic & Tails Mode. Beating this mode with Knuckles (i.e. a Knuckles & Knuckles game) results in an ending in which the events of the game turn out to be Knuckles reading a story called Sonic Mania & Knuckles.
- Seinfeld Valley Zone ExplanationIn November 2019, an early prototype of Sonic 3 was released to the public. One of the most notable differences was in the background music for Mushroom Hill (known as Mushroom Valley at that point in the game's development), where the instrumentation for the bass line makes it sound extremely similar to the Seinfeld theme song. Cue many a comment making "What's the deal with..." jokes pertaining to the Zone and the Sonic series in general.
- LUNCH BASE and LAVA BEEF ExplanationSpeedrunner Argick accidentally misspelled Launch Base and Lava Reef in his splits during a speedrun that included Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Lava Reef also appeared in Sonic Mania). It stuck, and became a running gag that became even funnier when the prototype name for Palmtree Panic was revealed to be SALAD PLAIN.
- Hydrocity ExplanationThe pronunciation of the Zone's name has been heavily debated since the game's release, with nobody being able to decide if it's "hy-dros-ity" (like velocity) or "hy-dro-city". Sega themselves have stoked the flames on Twitter and other Sonic media has referenced the debate.
- Hydrokitty ExplanationA third variant with a hard c as "hy-dro-kitty" arose from speedrunner Argick's community.
- Michael Jackson mashups.ExplanationLong-rumored among fans and eventually confirmed by Yuji Naka, Jackson's involvement with the soundtrack of Sonic 3 has inspired many a Sonic/MJ music mashup, with some interesting results.
- Doilus Stage.ExplanationA minor meme surrounding a glitch that occurs when you attempt to exit the Gumball Machine bonus stage in the standalone version of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The "Bonus Stage" title card corrupts into "Doilus Stage", and the stage infinitely repeats itself until you reset the game. This would be fixed in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Sonic the Hedgehog CD
- "I'm outta here!" ExplanationIf left idle for 3 straight minutes, Sonic will grow impatient and jump out of frame after delivering this line (arguably in well-spoken English to boot), resulting in an instant Game Over. Additionally programmer Masato Nishimura, who provided the voice, has claimed the line is actually meant to be "I'm outer here!" It's since been used as a general Screw This, I'm Outta Here reaction.
- The programmer has a nap. Holdout! Programmer! ExplanationA somewhat Engrishy message that appears on the screen during the Special Stages of unfinished pre-releases. Typically used when a more noteworthy glitch occurs in a Sonic game.
- FUN IS INFINITE ExplanationOne of the creepier Easter Eggs that could be accessed via Sound Test, signed by "Majin" (Masato Nishimura's nickname). Jokes were cracked about this briefly when one of the villains for Sonic Forces turned out to be named Infinite.
- SALAD PLAIN ExplanationThe 4 December 1992 prototype, which was one of the earliest builds of Sonic CD and was used as a sneak preview, used this as the placeholder name for Palmtree Panic. Cue the food jokes.
- You Say! ExplanationThis bizarre phrase, likely a pun on the Yuusei Sega World Show in which the build appeared, replaces the Eggman/Sonic graphics on the end-of-Act signs that don't spin when Sonic passes by in the build.
- "You have alerted the Sonic"/The "Sonic stare" ExplanationA shot of a shadowed-out Sonic surrounded by blackness, which happens to be part of the game's title screen animation. Memed for how oddly menacing Sonic looks for that one frame. It's led to all manner of fan redraws too.
- HUEHEUHUEHEUHUEHUE ExplanationThe "Hey hey" sample from JP/EU version of Stardust Speedway Bad Future theme, which was likely misheard as Evil Laugh, hence the spelling and use. Became a common response whenever Stardust Speedway is brought up casually.
- TELEPORTATION YEAH! ExplanationA rather weird lyric from JP/EU stage clear and ending theme.
- Sonic DVD ExplanationThe Artifact Title of the game doesn't stop some people to (ironically) desire a hypothetical sequel named Sonic DVD, to the point that at least one Fan Game has been named that.
Sonic Spinball
- WORM BAGGED ExplanationThe message shown on the HUD whenever killing one of the worm enemies in Toxic Caves.
- CLUCK ALERT! ExplanationMessage displayed whenever a bird-type mook spawns in Toxic Caves.
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
- CHECK CABLEExplanationIn the Game Gear version, when two Game Gears are not properly hooked up in Gear-to-Gear mode, you get an error message that depicts Robotnik saying "CHECK CABLE" as an unplugged cable is near him.
Knuckles' Chaotix
- Christian Vector ExplanationVector's profile in the game's Japanese manual states that he believes in the existence of God and came to Carnival Island due to viewing its appearance as a divine miracle (generally assumed to have been intended as a Shout-Out to The Blues Brothers). The sheer absurdity of Vector, a loud-mouthed crocodile detective, being devoutly religious made this a popular in-joke with fans, often portraying him as The Fundamentalist.
Sonic R
- The Tails Doll Curse ExplanationTails Doll is one of the unlockable characters, and an oddity among The Psycho Rangers of the roster (Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles). When playing as it, "Can you feel the sunshine?" plays regardless of what race track you select and can float through the air. All of this lead people to portray it as a Demonic Dummy that will eat your soul and create several creepypastas about it.
- Can you feel the sunshine? ExplanationAll of the songs from Sonic R are memetic thanks to the eurobeat soundtrack and the Narm Charm of lyrics. "Can you feel the sunshine?" is a stand-out, becoming a Signature Song of the game.
Sonic Adventure
- Big the Cat is Duke Nukem. ExplanationJon St. John, Big's voice actor, also does the voice of The Duke himself, as many a reviewer has pointed out.
- "That's Eggman! I wonder what happened to Sonic?" ExplanationTails' delivery of this line right before Speed Highway is particularly odd.
- â & â & â» Explanation("Up and down and all around") Thanks to the sampling in Speed Highway. Became in vogue during a fundraiser Sonic Retro was running. They even made a t-shirt template.
- "Oh no." ExplanationDelivered in Dull Surprise monotone by Sonic or Knuckles whenever you score a hit while fighting them during the story mode. Also a recycled voice clip from an early voice set in an early version of Knuckles' story. The delivery of the line, especially Knuckles' version, has led it to be used as a common reaction sound effect and when some mishaps happen to the characters (particularly, with Knuckles in Mania).
- "Get a load of this!" ExplanationA very popular, over-the-top line Eggman would constantly say during the final battles with Sonic and Tails. It proved popular enough to even receive a memetic Voice Clip Song.
- "Woah! That's interesting, but I sure don't care!" ExplanationAn edited screencap of Sonic Adventure.◊ It's a pretty effective reaction image, as well as one ripe for symbolic memes.
- Knuckles' theme "Unknown From M.E."*the original SA1 version, not its remix in SA2 has created some memetic lines, mostly due to how cheesy it is:
- Unlike Sonic, I don't chuckle. note Ironically, he chuckles a lot in earlier games, most prominently Sonic 3 & Knuckles, or at least excepting the November prototype.
- I get it on by myself!
- Knock knock, IT'S KNUCKLES. note Originally a line in the third verse of the song, fans have since used it as a way to introduce Knuckles in memes.
- Here I come, Rougher than Knuckles / The best of them, Tougher than Knuckles / You can call me Knuckles! / Unlike Knuckles, I don't chuckle. I'd rather flex my Knuckles! ExplanationFrom a video by well-known mashup artist and prominent SiIvaGunner contributer Triple-Q that replaces some of the words in "Unknown From M.E." with "Knuckles." It's often applied to the rest of the song, and is frequently brought up on videos of "Unknown From M.E."
- Aw yeah! This is happening! ExplanationSonic's opening line, often associated with a picture of him from a glitched version of the opening cutscene of Sonic's campaign.◊ It's also been mashed up with Ron Paul.
- Watch out! You're gonna crash! Ahh! ExplanationA rather infamous line from early in Sonic's story due to the questionable quality of its acting delivery. Often used to point out to the people who constantly pressure Sega to bring back Ryan Drummond as the voice of Sonic that his performance wasn't always as perfect as they think it was... Not to mention Sonic sticking his tongue out after performing said line for some reason.
- "All's well that ends well, right?" ExplanationFans love to point out the irony of this line said by Tails at the end of the game, since he says it in a ruined Station Square.
- "Somethin' buggin' you?" ExplanationMuch of the lip-syncing and animations in Adventure have become memes because they're a bit too fluid and exaggerated, one such being during this line from Sonic delivered to a hostile Knuckles. It became popular solely for the very Off-Model slanted jaw expression made by Sonic's older Dreamcast version model, along with the original screenshot showing a glitch involving Sonic not quite turning around properly, hence the Jay Leno jaw. It's used as the prime example of just how silly expressions and models could get even in the game's original form.
- "This is the wrong room." ExplanationIn E-102 Gamma's story, there is a moment that Eggman orders Gamma to retrieve a bird in a room that Amy is being held captive in. Gamma initially goes into a different room and ends up encountering E-101 Beta, who is currently being upgraded to E-101 Mark II in a scene that's clearly being played for the robotic equivalent of Body Horror. Gamma then leaves the room and states this line.
- "The Sphinx looked so cute, I had to shave it" ExplanationA line from Amy's theme "My Sweet Passion", which comes off as uncomfortably sensual to many.
- Sonic Adventure Pose ExplanationThe "finger gun" pose Sonic makes on the game's boxart. It became iconic enough and has been replicated with numerous other characters in fanart.
Sonic Shuffle
Sonic Adventure 2
- "We all did it together!" ExplanationA Non Sequitur from Tails (Eggman's preceding line has him fondly talking about how brilliant a scientist Gerald Robotnik was) following Shadow's Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the Last Story in Sonic Adventure 2, which can be easily taken out of context.
- "Hi, I'm Omochao!" I'm here to help you! ExplanationOmochao is a little Chao robot who is supposed to be the helpful source of tutorials. What actually happened is that Omochao attracted a fair amount of negative attention by players due to how infuriating it is. Omochao gives incredibly obvious hints that only people who know absolutely nothing about how video games work at all couldn't figure out on their own, flies after you in order to tell you said useless hints, can't be permanently destroyed, and has an annoying voice. He kept appearing in later games, but was made invulnerable to damage, as players kept throwing it down bottomless pits or at GUN's/Eggman's robots.
- ROLLING AROUND AT THE SPEED OF SOUND Explanation"Escape From the City", the music for the first Hero side stage, City Escape, has been reaching parody levels.
- "Yosh Yosh Yosh Yosh" ExplanationEggman's voice clip for petting a Chao as well as earning a certain score value in his stages. "Yosh" is actually a Japanese affirmative similar in usage to "okay"; for some reason, it, along with a few of Eggman's other voice clips, was never translated and/or replaced in the dub (which means that Eggman's English voice actor essentially rerecorded Japanese dialogue), confusing the large majority of players who didn't speak Japanese.
- DON'TWORRYBUDDYDON'TWORRYBUDDY ExplanationSonic's voice clip for petting a Chao can be very annoying.
- Teriaaaaa! ExplanationSimilar to the above "Yosh!", a Kiai delivered by Sonic as he delivers the finishing blow to the Egg Golem, left in from the original Japanese voiceover and recorded in English. OG Spindash Productions, in particular, had a field day with this one.
- "I'm the coolest!" ExplanationWhile Shadow is undoubtedly very arrogant, this line of his during Sonic's first battle with him is phrased in a really uncharacteristic way for him.
- You're not even good enough to be my fâI'LL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS! ExplanationThe English dub has some issues with characters talking over each other, and this is perhaps the most infamous example. Though it's also because it's accidentally in-character for Sonic to not just take an insult lying down.
- R.I.P. Larry, a ghost got him ExplantionA Lady Mondegreen situation from the Pumpkin Hill rap ("A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup"). The line "Larry" originates from is "A ghost tried to approach me and got leery."
- "A ghost tried to approach me, he got married" ExplanationAn alternative mishearing of the same line, usually followed by a reply saying "Good for him!" or something else.
- The scene where Eggman holds a gun to Amy's head. ExplanationNear the end of the game (in both Hero and Dark stories), Eggman threatens to kill Amy if Sonic doesn't hand over his Chaos Emerald, even pointing a huge, fairly realistic-proportioned Deagle at her. This scene has caught on for the pure oddity of seeing Eggman acting so (realistically) violently.
Sonic Heroes
- CHAOS CONTROL! ExplanationShadow says this when Team Dark use their Team Blast, Chaos Inferno. Although, to be fair, Shadow says this line in most games that he's in.
- "LOOK AT ALL OF THOSE EGGMAN'S ROBOTS!" ExplanationThe line reading for Tails had a few grammatical errors, especially on the part of Tails' voice actor. What's particularly odd is that his voice actor clearly says "Look at all those Eggman robots", but the subtitle is what has the grammatical error.
- "Weâll show that creep the REAL SUPER POWER OF TEAM WORK!" ExplanationSonic says this in the final story before the Metal Madness/Metal Overlord boss fight, and it's infamous for being a particularly cringe-worthy expression of a common shonen anime cliché.
- SHIII!! RAUUGH! AGGHH!! ExplanationKnuckles says this whenever he's punching his enemies. It can sound as if he said "Shit, rock(s), yeah!" â a similar variant of which (with "shift" being in place of "shit") was what The Sonic Paradox Team deliberately went with for their Seaside Denied video.
- "Take this! Take this! Take this! Take this! CHARGE!!!!" ExplanationEggman says this during the Egg Emperor boss battle. Constantly.
- "Because we're Sonic Heroes!" ExplanationSonic says this to Metal Sonic after defeating him in his Metal Overlord form in a forced Title Drop. It's common for fans to claim Metal Sonic deactivated afterwards out of sheer embarrassment at the line.
- ANNIHILICHARGE ANNIHILATE! ExplanationOmega usually says "ANNIHILATION, CHARGE, FIRE!" when using him, but attacking with him very fast causes his voice line to mess up and make him say this.
- Dabbing Shadow ExplanationGoing through trick rings will make Shadow do what looks like dabbing, 10 years before dabbing came into vogue.
- Eggman is a feminist. ExplanationThe English Sonic Heroes manual makes this claim in Dr. Eggman's bio. This is the result of the translation pulling wholesale from Eggman's Japanese Sonic X bio, with "feminist" in Japanese being a common loanword used to refer to Chivalrous Pervert characters (the localization of Valkyria Chronicles 4 would make the same mistake). Even so, you can expect this to crop up in the same manner as Feminist Knuckles whenever anything political is discussed in regards to Sonic the Hedgehog.
- HEREWEGOGOTITLEAVEITTOMEHEREWEGOGOTITLEAVEITTOMEHEREWEGOGOTITLEAVEITTOME-ExplanationWhenever you cycle characters and types, each teammate will give out a short catchphrase to signify the change in leadership. Much like with Devil May Cry 4 onwards and its Style Switching, this has little to no Cooldown, and can be spammed so everyone talks over each other while shifting positions.
- Black frogs ExplanationLost Jungle has black frogs whose rain kills plants and typically makes areas more hazardous, leading to the characters usually saying lines about staying away from those "black frogs." (Here's one such example, courtesy of Tails.) Cue "Why the frogs gotta be black?" and similar jokes.
Sonic Rush & Sonic Rush Adventure
- Vela-Nova (Part 2) ExplanationMany nostalgic fans of Sonic Rush took to making edits based off of the second phase of Sonic vs. Blaze, which was infamous for its strict button mashing. A particularly popular edit is that of Jotaro vs. DIO.
- "Have a nice fall you stupid bitch!" ExplanationA Gag Dub of the Sonic/Blaze rival fight in the first Rush game that adds said line just as Sonic knocks Blaze off of the platform. Is a popular reaction video.
- Due to it being primarily populated by Koalas and Marine's accent, a common joke is that Blaze's World is really Australia.
- Too black. Too strong. ExplanationA repeating sample from "Wrapped in Black," the music for the final boss in Sonic Rush. Of all things, it was sampled from a Malcolm X speech too. Expect lots of coffee jokes to accompany it.
- Eggman N*ga. ExplanationThe "Nega" in Eggman Nega is short for "Negative", but it also sounds a lot like a certain slur. Any time the character is brought up, you can expect to see at least one person making fun of his name.
Shadow the Hedgehog
- "FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM!" ExplanationThe Hero goal of Cosmic Fall, as explained by Vector the Crocodile. Both the fanbase and Sega launched on top of the phrase to create the sneakiest in-joke of Summer of Sonic '09 — in particular, putting up confusing signs to the computer room. Of course, it was also in the placeholder for former official website Sonic City, and became the name of a certain another.
- "Where's that DAMN fourth Chaos Emerald?" ExplanationShadow misemphasizes a Precision F-Strike in a particularly narmful way at the beginning cutscene of Circus Park. Gained a bit of new life with Sonic Mania, the fourth Chaos Emerald Special Stage of which is regarded by many to be That One Level.
- "THIS is who I am!" Explanation (Spoilers!)Shadow's last line whenever he regains his memories in one of the 10 endings. Given how it always caps off each ending (when Shadow isn't busy cracking Eggman open or laughing like a maniac in certain endings, that is, and even then, Shadow still says the line immediately beforehand), it really caught on with the fans.
- "You know what they say, the more the merrier!" ExplanationEggman's another repetitive yet quotable line of dialogue, said during the attack where he stands in place and spawns six bombs that fire out in a hexagonal pattern in the Egg Breaker fight after Mad Matrix. It's very possible to get Eggman deadlocked into using the attack over and over again, which naturally leads into him repeating the line ad nauseam.
- Ow the edge◊ ExplanationThe game is Darker and Edgier... or tries to be, anyway. The Sonic fandom gets little respect on the internet, so comparing someone's attempt at "edginess" to Shadow tends to be an indicator of great disdain. This led to a particularly funny cropping of the name "Shadow the Hedgehog" in a similar way to the "Expand Dong" meme.
- "Looks like these black creatures really mean business!" ExplanationFans like to make fun of the fact that everyone constantly mentions what color the aliens areinvoked, in a way that makes them sound like Civil War plantation owners raving about black people.
- "Disgusting black creatures. Get out of my sight." ExplanationSame as the above, especially since it manages to sound even more psychotically racist and is said by Shadow himself, who happens to be part-"black creature" himself genetically.
- "This is like taking candy from a baby, which is fine by me!" ExplanationA particularly hilarious example of the game's laughable attempts at being edgy, especially since Shadow can end up saying this on the Pure Hero path.
- "They got Bob!" ExplanationA voice clip that's played by the GUN Soldiers at random. It caught on because people found it hard to believe so many soldiers were called "Bob."
- "Don't go there...yet!" ExplanationVector trying to comfort Shadow in the Semi-Hero - Hero ending, after he says "I should have never been created." Instead it comes off like Vector questioning whether or not Shadow should kill himself.
- "Mr Yuji Naka is alright!" ExplanationA throwaway line referencing Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka. The line became widely circulated in late 2022 after Naka was arrested for insider trading, with many using quoting the line sarcastically as a means to mock what many viewed as Laser-Guided Karma for a history of questionable actions and poor decision-making.
- "I Am... All of Me" ExplanationDue to it being the game's main and most infamous theme, this song is very often used on the internet as an unofficial theme for edgy/angsty moments alongside stuff like Drowning Pool's "Bodies" and Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life".
- "I am at Aldi!" ExplanationA Mondegreen of "I am all of me!", leading to jokes about Shadow shopping at Aldi (a German supermarket chain), and many fans proclaiming that they Cant Unhear It.
Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
- "Yes, but that alone..." (dramatic finger point) "... is insufficient." ExplanationWhen Sonic and Shadow's groups meet up in Crisis City, Shadow explains that they need a space-time rift in order to return to their own time. Sonic catches on to the fact that he's referring to Chaos Control and Shadow responds as such, since two simultaneous uses of Chaos Control are what's necessary to Time Travel throughout '06. Typically used when something fails to satisfy someone, or when something needs an addition to fully be enjoyed or experienced.
- "HOW 'BOUT THIS?! IT'S NO USE! TAKE THIS!" ExplanationSilver's voice lines during his boss battle. Considering how difficult it is, expect to hear them a lot. Due to the line's repetitiveness, as well as the Game Grumps popularizing it, it became memetic and is now heavily associated with the character.
- "Darn, we're not going to make it! Let's speed up!" ExplanationWhat Sonic says before the first mach speed section.
- "That tornado is carrying a car!" ExplanationA tornado in Crisis City is carrying a car. Sonic feels the need to point this out for some reason. Unintentional Hilarity Ensues.
- "DON'T TOUCH IT!" ExplanationShadow's words to Rouge as she tries to collect a Chaos Emerald found at Flame Core, right before Iblis shows up for a customary Boss Battle. Popularized by the "U Can't Touch This" remix of that moment.
- "Let's get moving!!" ExplanationShadow says this in various stages in his story.
- I AM HERE TO SAAAAAVE THE FUTURE!!!!! ExplanationSpawned by the Running Gag of YouTube user Darkness The Curse saying this line in an exaggerated manner during his drastic 4-part review of the game.
- The game's rushed quality is a meme in and of itself.
- "Agent Shadow. E-123 Omega has engaged Mephiles. Head to the Wave Ocean â head to Wave Ocean... Agent Shadow. E-123 Omega has engaged Mephiles. Head to Wave Ocean immediately!" ExplanationThe actor for Shadow's mission officer recording this line misread his script and had to restart the line. But due to Sonic 06's rushed quality, Sonic Team left the flubbed line in the final game.
- NOW LOADING... ExplanationThe game is infamous for an excessive number of loading screens, even for short scenes and, in the worst cases, single lines of dialogue.
Sonic Storybook Series
- Sonic the Saber ExplanationIn Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic undergoes a series of trials of character and skill that eventually allows him to become worthy to wield Excalibur, claiming the mantle of King Arthur. Fate/Grand Order fans eventually found out and cracked jokes about it, leading to a series of joking comments across the Internet about sneaking a Saint Graph of Sonic-as-King-Arthur in the class of Saber into the gacha. This also added to Super Crown jokes about Sonic turning into a Saberface when wearing said crown.
- Sonic is my favorite Fire Emblem protagonist. ExplanationFE Protagonists are known for usually having blue hair, a sword, or both. Since Sonic wields a sword in Black Knight and has blue fur, it's common to joke that he's a character from the series.
Sonic Unleashed
- The Sonic face ExplanationA certain screenshot◊ from the beta version of the game's opening cutscene quickly caught fire due to Sonic's comically exaggerated expression. It has since found mileage as a reaction image, particularly of the "No. Just... No" variety.
- The Werehog battle theme ExplanationDue to how often it is heard in-game, those who have played Unleashed find it hard to forget that particular piece of music. The opening notes alone are an even bigger offender in this regard due to their Interrupting Meme nature. Also prominently featured in and associated with the equally memetic "How to Make Your Own Sonic Fan Character" segment from Sonic Shorts.
- Eggman's sandwichExplanationEggman's massive, photorealistic Hero Sandwich became a popular talking point for fans, for the reasons of both Food Porn and how Eggman could somehow polish it off in the space of only twenty seconds.
- The E Rank Results theme ExplanationIf a player achieves the lowest possible rank for a stage, they're treated to a deliberately mangled version of the usual post-level orchestral score. (Courtesy of the Tokyo Philharmonic!) It quickly became one of the game's Signature Songs and is viewed as the "You Tried" meme in musical form.
- Woo! ExplanationSonic has a tendency to make this noise whenever he successfully pulls off certain tricks in the Daytime stages (or collects enough rings in the PS2/Wii versions to level up his Sonic Boost gauge), to the point where he could rival Dr. Eggman with how frequently it comes up.
- The Werehog fall scream ExplanationJason Griffith lets out a particularly anguished scream whenever Sonic falls to his death on one of the Nighttime stages. Like many other entries on here, this was in part popularized by the Game Grumps and has since been used to express anguish in anything Sonic-related.
- "Am I the only one who likes Sonic Unleashed?" ExplanationDuring The New '20s, many Twitter users who enjoyed the game used variants of this question to challenge the longstanding stigma about its quality (often accompanied by screenshots). After a while, others began to feel that the phrase was overused and started spoofing it in various ways (ranging from changing the sentence midway through to pairing it with screenshots from an unrelated game).
Sonic Colors
- BBBE ExplanationSonic says this after he beats a boss. It stands for Best Boss Beating Ever.
- Baldy McNosehair ExplanationThe Wisps don't know Eggman's name, so Yacker refers to him in alien gibberish that Tails translates to "Baldy Nosehair." Sonic thinks it's hilarious and modifies it to McNosehair. The meme is a fusion of the two, and is commonly used as a nickname for Eggman.
- "No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me!" ExplanationSonic says this before he fights another boss in response to a PSA at the amusement park claiming that everything in it is — "as far as you know" — Eggman's intellectual property. It was immediately seized upon as a retort to internet copyright laws, and continues to enjoy spikes in popularity every time a new one is proposed.
- Good! Great! Awesome! Outstanding! Amazing! ExplanationThe Idiosyncratic Combo Levels.
- UNLIMITED COLORS! ExplanationThe Final Color Blaster used by Sonic and the Wisps to defeat the Nega-Wisp Armor near the end of the game made for a very memorable scene among players, thanks in part to the music (an orchestral rendition of "Reach for the Stars"), the game's Large-Ham Announcer (who, in Japanese, turns the moment into an outright Shout-Out to Kamen Rider Double, as seen here), and the inherent cool factor of a prismatic Combination Attack Finishing Move. The nature of the attack also tends to invite usage of The Nostalgia Critic's "TASTE THE RAINBOW, MUTHAFUCKA!"
- Sonic Adventure DX 2.0 ExplanationThe pre-release complaints regarding the graphics and lighting in Ultimate led to comparisons with Sonic Adventure DX, which received similar criticisms.
- Sonic The Fish! ExplanationAmong the many glitches found in Ultimate is one where Sonic can randomly turn into a fish. It immediately had fanart drawn of it.
- "Yeah, uh I think your machine might still have some bugs." ExplanationTaken from a line from Sonic at the start of the game. In context, it's Sonic talking about Tails' translator, which often comes out nonsensical. Outside the game, often done by gamers to make fun of the remaster's bugs and glitches.
- Do you accept?ExplanationThe pop-up asking players if they accept the Rival Rush mode lacks any kind of sound or animation when it appears, and coupled with its general design, many comparisons to pop-up ads on sketchy websites have been made.
Sonic Generations
- [X] Generations ExplanationThe idea behind the game alone presented a huge Fandom-Specific Plot for the other Long-Runners being put into a concept similar to this game, including Super Mario Bros., My Little Pony, Looney Tunes, and many others. Even 22 Jump Street features "Jump Street Generations" (featuring the movie pair teaming up with the originals) as part of its Credits Gag.
- "THAT LOOKS LIKE A HOMING SHOT!" ExplanationIn the Final Boss battle with the Time Eater, all of Sonic's friends keep saying a variant of this every time the boss uses homing missiles. Which feels like every fifteen seconds. (This doesn't happen in the 3DS version.)
- "BE CAREFUL, SONIC!" ExplanationAlmost always follows the above line.
- Rooftree! ExplanationBorn from the Sonic Stadium Message Boards mocking the fandom's usual sentiments after noticing a tree◊ on one of Rooftop Run's rooftops. Eventually, Rooftree became a Joke Character in the forums.
- [X]? Is that really you, or are you just an impostor? The only way I can find out is by THROWING [Y] AT YOU. ExplanationThe initial reason Silver fights Sonic in his Rival Battle is because he's unsure if the Blue Blur is an impostor sent for the Chaos Emeralds or not. The meme is a snowclone based on the line.
- (DAT) VIOLIN! ExplanationDone in regards to the beautiful remixes of Crisis City and Rooftop Run, due to the usage of violins.
- "Time for a change of pace!" ExplanationLike other Eggman's repetitive taunts, this one (uttered during the Egg Dragoon fight) is quite popular in parts of the Sonic fanbase.
- "Enjoy your future, it's going to be great!" ExplanationModern Sonic's parting words to Classic Sonic as the latter returns to his time. The joke being, of course, that his future is going to be rather questionable. (Not for him, though. Only for the people who have to play his games.)
- "You got this, Sonic!" ExplanationShadow's line to encourage the Sonics to beat both of the Eggmen, while they are, well, nearly dead. Also, people believe the voice acting made it sound even funnier, like "YOU GUT DIS SANIC", due to Kirk Thornton not being used to voicing the character yet. MegaGWolf meme'd this in his playthrough of Sonic Adventure 2: "YOU GOT DIS SONIC YOU GOT DIS SONIC YOU GOT DIS SONIC YOU GOT DIS SONIC YOU GOT DIS SONIC"
- "That tornado is carrying the goalpost!" ExplanationThe car-carrying fire tornado from Sonic '06 is back, except this time it picks up Classic Sonic's goal post and blows it away, extending the level even further. Fans are certain that the tornado is deliberately trolling them.
- Sonadow Generations.ExplanationThe fact that the Updated Re-release is called Sonic X Shadow Generations has led to a lot of Sonic and Shadow shipping memes, since character x character is a common template for ship names.
- Look up Sonic X Shadow.ExplanationRelated to the Sonadow Generations meme. The moment the remaster's title was announced, some fans joked that parents or other unsuspecting people would look up Sonic X Shadow on Google, looking for the remaster but instead finding a bunch of Yaoi fanart of the two.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4
- The music is dying cats. ExplanationThe soundtrack of 4 is very contested to say the least, due to the use of faux Genesis soundfont. For the detractors, this is the description of odd synth instruments that are used.
- Pikachu in a sombrero. ExplanationWhen the game was being teased as "Project Needlemouse", one image included the silhouette of the famous banner and ring title screen. A fan jokingly guessed that it was this.
- Castlevania Zone ExplanationA clever mutation of Sylvania Castle.
- WHITE CASTLE! SYLVANIA PARK! ExplanationMixing White Park and Sylvania Castle's names around and getting hilarious results.
- "This is truly Sonic 4 as you imagined it!" ExplanationAn infamous quote from Ken Balough promoting Episode I. General consensus is that this was not Sonic 4 as fans imagined it. Often used sarcastically when bashing the game's shortcomings. After the release of Sonic Mania, the quote started being used as a way to describe that game, albeit in a less sarcastic sense, in that this is a Sonic game for the fans, made by the fans.
- Ken's Tails beard. ExplanationWhile promoting Episode II in an interview, Ken was shown with a beard colored like Tails.
- The physics. ExplanationPeople have found quite a few physics oddities in the game. The fansite Sonic Retro even made a contest of it, awarding 10 dollars to the winner (refunding them for the game).
- Standing on the side of a platform. ExplanationBy far the most infamous of these quirks. It even made it into the beta of Sonic Generations!
Sonic Lost World
- "I'VE BEEN DREAMING ABOUT POUNDING HIS SORRY BLUE BUTT!" ExplanationOne of Zazz's lines in the game has led to people imagining him to be gay for Sonic.
- ALL HAIL THE MAGIC CONCH! ExplanationEggman blows into a conch shell-like device called the Cacophonic Conch to control the Deadly Six before they betray him. This led to many people referencing the famous "Magic Conch Shell" from SpongeBob SquarePants.
- "I long for death's cold embrace." ExplanationWhen the ESRB page for the game was revealed, it showcased some rather... interesting quotes, this being among them. It became memetic quickly. The line in question comes after beating Zor in his rematch.
- "HARDCORE PARKOUR!" ExplanationA fan animation mashing up the game with a clip from The Office due to Lost World's emphasis on Sonic employing Le Parkour while navigating through levels.
- Sonic/Jurassic Park crossovers. ExplanationBefore the meaning of the name "Lost World" was revealed, jokes about The Lost World: Jurassic Park were common.
- Sexy Tails.◊ Explanation (Spoilers!)In one of the later stages of the game, Tails is captured and delivered to the Deadly Six in a ridiculous "sexy" pose.
- "I've been looking for you, Baldy McNosehair!" ExplanationThe "Baldy McNosehair" nickname for Eggman from Colors returns when Sonic meets Eggman in Windy Hill.
- Sonic Lost X. ExplanationThe game is often retitled into something mocking (e.g. Sonic Lost Cause) or something silly (e.g. Sonic Lost Keys).
- Comparing Amy's voice to Minnie Mouse's voice. ExplanationCindy Robinson's Amy voice sounded similar to Minnie from Free Riders to Lost World.
- Sonic is Me When I Was 10 ExplanationA clip of Sonic roasting Zeena that gained immediate traction shortly after its upload. The clip itself is often noted for its similarities to the "begone thot" meme.
Sonic Boom
- Welcome to Sonic '14!/Sonic '06 2 ExplanationThe sheer number of glitches, shoddy programming decisions, constant dialogue, and framerate issues have made this game look as bad as, if not worse than, a certain despised Sonic game.
- "I Forgot How to Even" ExplanationA video showing off a glitch where spin dashing into NPCs that trigger a cutscene will cause Sonic's friends to spawn incorrectly (most amusingly Knuckles going inside an NPC). This, alongside the many, many different shortcomings featured, quickly went viral.
- HBRLRLRLRL ExplanationThe voice clips for drowning.
- "BOUNCE PADS!" ExplanationThe characters never shut up during gameplay, often spouting lines not much better than "I love bounce pads!" every time you jump on one. So much so that people have taken to modding them into other Sonic games for the insanity novelty.
- Sonic Boom redesigns/"Boomyfying" other characters ExplanationThe redesigns are quite polarising, from the noticeably more buff iteration of Knuckles to Sonic getting taller and thinner to the excessive amounts of sports tape on all the redesigns becoming a joke after their reveal, leading people to apply the principles to other characters from different games, TV shows, and movies.
- "SONIC'S ARMS ARE NOT FRIGGIN' BLUE!"/Macing GameStop employees ExplanationThe infamous Christine Weston Chandler (creator of Sonichu) did not react well to a simple change in color, and during an incident where she attempted to vandalize the games' cases at GameStop to reflect her displeasure, she actually maced an employee on the way out. Ironically, Chris's own fan art sometimes had Sonic's arms colored blue.
- Guess they're EX-Naughty Dog developers for a reason. ExplanationA very common reaction to the fact that Rise of Lyric was developed by Big Red Button Entertainment, who were mainly composed of the staff that previously worked at Naughty Dog. Depending on how you view it, this reaction either got funnier or worse when news came up that the company was screwed over from the start.
- What do you get when you mix fire... with ice? ExplanationTagline of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, due to its gimmick of switching between those two elements. Water is the obvious response, but nothing can stop you from answering the question with something else.
Sonic Mania & Sonic Mania Adventures
- Everything that comes out of the announcer's mouth. ExplanationTakenobu Mitsuyoshi provides the in-game announcements for Time Attack and Competition Mode. It was only a matter of time.
- The title screen has Sonic rising out of an emblem as usual. The animation is based on the one from Sonic 1, but he also does a very fluidly animated spin before his finger waggle pose. A particular smear frame of that spin◊ makes Sonic look very silly and has been the subject of parodies, much like that one scene from an early Sonic Unleashed trailer.
- Given the sheer number of Promoted Fanboys working on the game and that the game runs on an engine made by one of said fanboys, jokes about Sega finally getting fed up with the constant complaints no matter what they do and letting the fans handle things for a change are rather common. Similarly, subtitling the game as "Sonic: You fucking make it then if you're so damn smart!" is also pretty common, similar to reactions to Super Mario Maker.
- Sonic gazing at the horizon ExplanationOpening animation has Sonic briefly look at the horizon in Studiopolis Zone. This◊ became◊ so◊ very very◊ very◊ exploitable.◊
- Spinning Knuckles ExplanationDuring the opening cinematic, Sonic fights one of the Hard Boiled Heavies, causing Knuckles to climb onto a portal-ring and look inside to see what the commotion is about. When Sonic jumps out of the ring, Knuckles is sent flying, and in the next shot, you can see him clinging on to the spinning ring in the background.
- Sakura Synagogue Zone ExplanationAn imageboard poster once claimed then-unnamed Press Garden Zone was called "Sakura Synagogue Zone". Afterwards, it was proven that all their information was fake, but some people still jokingly insist Press Garden Zone really is called that.
- A glitch involving using the Super Sonic transformation while either holding up or as seen here will cause Sonic's quills to stand up and start the Super Sonic theme, but otherwise not change Sonic at all. This includes his coloration, leaving him as blue. Thanks to the newest Dragon Ball anime introducing the Super Saiyan Blue transformation, and Super Sonic's original inspiration being Super Saiyan... well, Super Sonic Blue is born.
- Eggette/Omelette ExplanationAn artist on Twitter drew up a fan character design that was inspired from an initial misinterpretation of Eggman's upside-down sprite from the giant spider robot boss in Act 2 of Flying Battery Zone. People immediately took a liking to the design, dubbing the character "Eggette" (or "Omelette"; whichever you prefer). Eggette quickly became a Recurring Fanon Character, and fans crafted an identity for her as the Sonic equivalent of Bowser Jr., being Eggman's daughter/niece who helps him in his quest for world domination. Fans even clamor for her to become an official character. Hilariously, they may have gotten their wish in a sense in Sonic Frontiers with the introduction of Sage, who can be seen as Omelette's Modern equivalent.
- It's an Alaskan Bull Worm! ExplanationThe mini boss of Act 1 of Mirage Saloon Zone is a giant Caterkiller, causing many SpongeBob SquarePants jokes of that episode to appear.
- Black Sonic ExplanationIn a 4chan thread discussing the then upcoming release of the game, a random anon made a post parodying the numerous fake leaks people were making by claiming that a so-called "Black Sonic" (the original post used a much more offensive term) would be playable in the game, with his only proof being a very clearly edited screenshot of Sonic with a black palette. The clearly sarcastic nature of the post coupled with the fact that Arby's had just recently tweeted out a gif featuring an off-color black Sonic led many in the thread to ironically proclaim it as a legitimate leak, with many other fake leaks involving the character shortly after.
- Photoshopping the Zone introduction card to say other, less appropriate things.
- From the first episode of Sonic Mania Adventures, people were already making reaction videos of the scene where Sonic is about to help Eggman, but changes his mind when he picks up a terminal he dropped. Like the above "Sonic gazing at a distance" meme, this one is exploitable too.
- The sheer amount of smear frames in the series has also become a popular image macro to spam on the Sonic Twitter page, often as a shorthand for a lack of seriousness.
- #RoomForOneMore ExplanationDuring development of Mania, some would use images of Classic Amy as a springboard to request her addition to Sonic Mania, using the aforementioned hashtag (referring to the elevator used in trailers) alongside it. Inevitably, the requests became quite annoying to many fans, who found them to be both numerous and obnoxiously demanding. It mostly came crashing down after one fan in particular acted extremely immaturely. That said, Amy would be made playable in both Sonic Origins and Sonic Superstars, so it ultimately wasn't all bad.
- "Get out before the ceiling falls! You have five seconds!"ExplanationA popular mishearing of a sampled and heavily distorted line used in the "Ruby Illusions" song, which is taken from the Apollo 11 launch and actually says "Astronaut report, it feels good. T-minus 25 seconds..."
Sonic Forces
- The reveal of the title Sonic Forces instantly sparked numerous jokes and snowclones. References to Star vs. the Forces of Evil as well as The Force Awakens also became common. The latter especially with Sonic Forces' "Join the Uprising" tagline.
- "Sonic Forces X to Y" ExplanationThe word "Forces" can be treated like a verb, thus many jokes about Sonic forcing people to do things spread about.
- The theme song "Fist Bump" caused many fans to declare Forces as "Anime Sonic the Hedgehog" due to how it sounds like an anime theme.
- The Custom Character Trailer reveal resulted in the fandom cracking jokes about creating Coldsteel the Hedgeheg (or, alternatively, Lord Donut Steel or Sonichu) in the game.
- The Custom Character is often dubbed "Original the Character," a meme which itself is described below.
- Plenty of people were quick to joke that new villain Infinite is actually Eggman's very own Sonic OC.
- Mashups of the (instrumental) Sonic Forces Main Theme with other Sonic intros, such as Sonic CD, Colors, and Heroes.
- SHADOW, GET DOWN FROM THERE! ExplanationThe apparent reveal that Shadow's on the bad guys' team again had a large chunk of the fandom yelling at him to get off the high rock that he and the other returning antagonists were perched on.
- Shadow is not the edgiest anymore. ExplanationInfinite's musical theme and introduction video are both delightfully edgy, prompting many fans to joke that Shadow has been dethroned as the edgiest Sonic character.
- INFINITE EDGE! ExplanationThe "Ow The Edge" meme from Shadow the Hedgehog got an upgrade.
- "But is X faster than Infinite?" ExplanationA scene has Infinite dodging Sonic's boost, which has Tails proclaiming that he is faster than Sonic. It has the fandom raising the question if other fast characters such as Eggman, Metal Sonic, Shadow, Blaze, etc. are faster than Infinite.
- Fursona 5. ExplanationOne of the Custom Character skins included in the Xbox, PS4 and Switch pre-order of Forces is Joker from Persona 5 (as Atlus is owned by Sega, hence the cross-promotion). Sonic fans and Persona fans had a field day with this.
- Silver getting increasingly more frustrated about having to fix the future... again.
- Where's Blaze? ExplanationThis game marked the return of Sonic's expanded cast, who hadn't really been used plotwise since Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). The only notable character who didn't return was Blaze, prompting this response from the fanbase.
- This frame of the Avatar screaming as they fling themselves around a corner quickly became memetic.
- "This time, it IS use!" ExplanationThe irony of Silver — the guy most known for the phrase "It's no use!" — telling everyone not to give up hope was not lost on many.
- Two blue dog-like characters in the background of the story trailer quickly became popular because of just how disturbing they look.
- (Do X) as Shadow! ExplanationThe box art for the Episode Shadow DLC claims you can "Rediscover three levels as Shadow", "Fight hordes of enemies as Shadow", and "Replay over ten Modern Sonic levels as Shadow". Similarly to (and often paired with) the "& Knuckles" meme, fans decided to apply it to other things.
- Sonic Hooters ExplanationDuring Tokyo Game Show 2017, SEGA revealed an advertising campaign between Sonic Forces and... Hooters. Naturally, this lead to fan art of the female characters (and sometimes even the male ones) as Hooters' Waitresses, with Rouge being the most common one for obvious reasons.
- I AM NOT WEAK!!! ExplanationEpisode Shadow revealed Infinite's backstory and his motivations behind helping Eggman destroy the world: he was beaten effortlessly by Shadow and then mocked for being cannon fodder. He then proceeds to have an extremely Narm-laden Villainous Breakdown in which he essentially throws a childish temper tantrum over a single insult.
- Infinite is weaker than a tree. ExplanationEagle-eyed viewers of the November 1, 2018 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct noticed that Infinite appears as one of the collectible Spirits. The exact shot with Infinite also revealed that he was in a lower strength tier than Whispy Woods (who is rather consistently a Warm-Up Boss). Fans wasted no time making Infinite even more of a Memetic Loser than he already was.
- "Donkey Kong is the best Sonic character!" ExplanationE-123 Omega was presented as broken from the beginning of the base game and Tails was unable to fix him, and he remained unseen until he suddenly appeared in the final battle, no worse for wear, leading to the assumption or jokes that Donkey Kong fixed Omega as he did◊ before.
- Shadow's on the ground. ExplanationThe level theme for Aqua Road features the lines "Moonlight coming down / Shadows on the ground." People immediately started drawing fan art of Shadow face-down on the floor in Aqua Road.
- "None of this is good, Vector. That's why it's called war." ExplanationKnuckles says this oddly poetic and dramatic line without any hint of irony or wit, making it a good line for snowcloning.
- The SUCC Wispon ExplanationThe Violet Void Wispon basically nukes the screen by sucking everything up. Naturally, some succ jokes were bound to arise.
- VOID! ExplanationSimilar to the Burst Wisp being placed in trails encouraging players to bounce up over everything, the Violet Void was placed in ways in the Null Space stage where one could just teleport to the 4 platforms near the goal by using the Color Power repeatedly.
- 1.99$ ExplanationThe announced 1.99$ pricetag to Super Sonic, who had been mostly complete in the data since launch, and had already been in most of the games in the series for free. Backlash and some good memes ensued, and even Aaron Webber joked about it.
- Tails cowering at everything ExplanationShortly before Classic Sonic is introduced, there's a scene where Tails spots Chaos 0 and cowers, asking for help from Sonic. This is a prime example of Tails' derailment since Unleashed, where he went from a Badass Bookworm to being completely incapable of defending himself from various things (for a reminder, Tails has beaten stronger forms of Chaos than his base form, up to about Chaos 4, in Sonic Adventure, while not even getting to the things he pulled off in Sky Patrol or Tails Adventure). This has resulted in several images with him cowering◊ at◊ various◊ things◊ and even a whole Sonic 2 romhack mocking it.
- Double Boost! ExplanationOne of the core mechanics of the Tag Team stages, and generally considered to be among the most notable mechanics of the game, it and the Theme Music Power-Up that came with it became ripe for parody in 2018, months after the game was out. Some examples here.
- L O N G B O I◊ ExplanationOdd apparitions created by Infinite in the Metropolis stage with the Avatar. For some reason people have grown attached to them, comparing them to snakes and the various tropes that come with that.
- Modern Sonic having no Idle Animations created a lot of jokes, especially when it comes to his lack of blinking and breathing.
- Green Hill's looking a lot like X Hill right now! ExplanationWhen running through Green Hill at the beginning of the game, Sonic says "There's sand everywhere! Green Hill's looking a lot like Sand Hill right now," in reference to the location's degradation into a desert after Eggman's rule... before Eggman has even done anything. It became a very popular phrase and snowclone, used whenever Green Hill is mentioned, but because this zone started receiving backlash for how often SEGA was beginning to reuse it as a Nostalgia Level by the time of Forces release, the phrase was often used to mockingly voice displeasure. Oftentimes, "sand" is replaced by whatever other topic may be at hand, with the occasional reference to the actual Sand Hill seen in Adventure.
Team Sonic Racing
- "Who's your daddy, Shadow?" ExplanationOne of Tails' lines in Team Sonic Racing, which the fandom found insensitive and out-of-character for him. Similarly, Shadow replying with "They're dead" or something similar are commonplace.
- LET SHADOW SAY FUCK ExplanationDuring a promotional Q&A on the official Sonic Twitter featuring Sonic, Tails, Shadow and Eggman, one question asked Shadow if he ever found "that damned fourth Chaos Emerald". As Shadow admits he never managed to find it, he discovers that his usage of the word "damn" is being censored in real time, prompting him to vow to break Sega's censoring and for the fanbase to quickly latch onto it.
- "Cringe before Zavok!" ExplanationZavok's... rather odd way of telling people to cower before him. It caught on quickly due to Zavok's status as The Scrappy, along with the word "cringe" being memetic in general.
- Eggman dies ExplanationDuring the intro, there's a moment where Team Vector causes Eggman to crash into a stalagmite on Ice Mountain, causing the kart to explode with him in it. It became a minor meme to joke that Eggman died from the impact.
- "Whaddup, Sonic Squad" ExplanationA teaser of an Apple Arcade port, Sonic Racing, in which Sonic comments on the race while holding an iPhone. The teaser was naturally turned into a meme, with edits having Sonic comment on various car crashes instead of a race.
Sonic Frontiers
- SEGA HIRED THAT MAN! ExplanationBack in 2019, one YouTube user made a parody song based off of Johnny River's "Secret Agent Man" riffing on fans' tendency to beg Nintendo to hire fans based on their projects (which often revolve around simply inserting a character in a wide open field). Shortly after the reveal trailer, which showed Sonic being placed in a realistic-looking Wide-Open Sandbox, fans quickly started remarking jokingly that Sega had hired that man. It helps that Sega has gained a reputation to hire professional fans thanks to projects like Sonic Mania and that the user that partially inspired the song had a video of Sonic running around a wide open world, both of which only fueled the jokes more.
- The Sonic Amateur Games Expo is the enemy!? ExplanationThe game's backstory has Eggman using his newest A.I. system, "SAGE", to take over the mysterious new machinery. Seeing as SAGE is the same acronym as the popular online fan game show, many jokes were made about it.
- Amy Rose is dead ExplanationThe mysterious voice beckoning Sonic in the reveal trailer was believed to be Amy, later revealed to actually be THE END's. Since we can't see her and the voice is ethereal, many fans were quick to claim that Amy is not only in the game, but also dead, functioning as a ghost similar to Tikal back in Sonic Adventure. This led to numerous fan arts of Amy as a ghost, usually wearing a white version of her usual outfit.
- Hog of the Wild ExplanationOpen world game, big green field, you know where that usually goes. And indeed, comparisons to Breath of the Wild were instant. Funnily enough, this became a Discredited Meme almost instantly after it was established, due in part to people simply getting sick of certain fans calling any open world game with a green field a "BOTW clone." Previous accusations of Sonic games "copying" Nintendo games probably didn't help either.
- "Zelda didn't invent trees" ExplanationA response of sorts to such accusations, whether serious or tongue-in-cheek (mostly the latter).
- Actually, he copied Pac-Man! ExplanationAnother response, almost always used jokingly, which compares one of Sonic's new attacks where he runs circles around enemies to damage them to a similar attack featured in Pac-Man World 3.
- Hamster wheel. ExplanationMany fans noticed that one of the mechanisms Sonic uses in the open world has a great resemblance to a hamster wheel, leading to numerous jokes and memes related to the resemblance.
- Floating rails. ExplanationThe rails haphazardly placed in the air for Sonic to grind on collectively became prime ground for mockery due to how out of place they appear compared to any game in the series prior. One Twitter user in particular made a "Loss.jpg" meme mocking them. The Final Horizon update would eventually give the out-of-place rails an explanation that made them even more ridiculous (see "Hallucinating Sonic" below).
- Momentum. ExplanationOn the day that the IGN First gameplay trailer was released, popular Sonic YouTube creator Sam Procrastinates made a video stating his feelings about the video, latching on heavily to the lack of momentum-based physics, which hadn't been used in the franchise since Sonic Unleashed. The feeling towards this was latched onto so much that quite a few fans pointed towards fan games such as Sonic Utopia to prove it could be done and demanded that the game to be delayed so that such a system could be implemented.
- T-Posing Seagull. ExplanationIn the combat trailer, fans took notice of a seagull flying in the air. Already agitated with the first trailer, fans attacked it as another sign of Sega's supposed laziness. In fact, some had to point out that that is how seagulls tend to be.
- "Fine! You want good controls? Then do it yourself if you're so smart!" ExplanationOne of the hands-on impressions revealed that the game would have no less than twelve sets of customizable gameplay sliders that let players set Sonic's controls (speed, turning, acceleration, etc.) to whatever they prefer. While it's probable that this design choice was meant to allow for greater accessibility options given the trend toward such in the greater gaming industry, this still immediately led to joke comments about SEGA (or more specifically, Takashi Iizuka himself) finally getting fed up with listening to complaints about Sonic's 3D controls and physics for every new game and deciding to let individual players work on said controls and physics themselves. A less common joke was that fans would later share with one another blog posts and spreadsheets about the optimal way to play Frontiers, or how to use its settings to imitate the physics of other 3D Sonic games, given the number of physics-altering mods fans have already made for everything from the original Sonic Adventure to Sonic Forces, be they for improvement or joke purposes.
- They made the robots hot. ExplanationNot helped by how one of the first enemies revealed for the game was already a robotic cluster of large balls that Sonic was shown kicking at, there was one enemy robot design in particular that sported a very female figure-like appearance, leading people to joke that they found it attractive, among other things.
- Get off my island. ExplanationUpon the reveal of Sage and her motivation of "cautioning Sonic to leave the Starfall Islands", many joked about her screaming at Sonic to "Get off my island!" in the same vein as Squidward yelling at SpongeBob and Patrick.
- Sage is Infinite's daughter/humansona. ExplanationDue to Sage having a color scheme similar to Infinite's, on top of her glitchy appearance, many fans began joking that she is related to him, if not Infinite himself in disguise. However, the joke was jossed; Sage is actually an AI created by Eggman, who sees her as a daughter.
- Nintendo made a better Sonic Frontiers trailer than Sega. ExplanationThe initial marketing for Sonic Frontiers by Sega at Summer Games Fest and IGN's World Premiere was seen as lackluster by many, while the Nintendo Direct on 6/28/22 showcased a trailer that was actually considered good by fans and critics alike, leading many to poke fun at Sega for being incapable of marketing their game. This also led to people once again digging up Sega's "Sega/Genesis does what Nintendon't" advertising campaign from The '90s and reversing it (i.e. "Nintendo does what Sega don't") to demonstrate the bizarreness of Sega's former archrival in the Console Wars doing a better job of getting people interested in Sega's mascot than Sega themselves.
- Everyone is grinding.ExplanationIn July 2022, a new piece of official key artwork that depicted Sonic grinding on a rail was released alongside an announcement that a demo of the game would be playable at EGX 2022. It shortly became a bit of a trend on Twitter to edit this photo and replace Sonic with all sorts of different characters, such as Wario, Homer Simpson, or Mickey Mouse, sometimes with captions like "Sonic Frontiers, but awesome."
- Sonic fights a child.ExplanationThe Gamescom trailer featured Sonic attempting to attack Sage, who teleports out of the way before he can land a hit. Thus, jokes began being made about Sonic attempting to fight a child due to Sage's child-like appearance.
- Amy's Hamster Ball.ExplanationThe Gamescom trailer revealed Amy trapped inside a cage which â as people were quick to point out â resembles a hamster ball. Cue fan art.
- It's the exact same level designExplanationAs clips of the demo came pouring in, some fans took notice how one Cyberspace area resembled Windmill Isle from Unleashed and tried to call Sega lazy. Cue fans bringing up things such as Kirby using Green Greens five times already.
- Sonic Evangelion.ExplanationMany have noticed how the titans in the game look very similar to the Evas and Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion, which has led to many memes and jokes comparing this game to Evangelion. The Evangelion jokes would only increase by tenfold after it was revealed that Sage's Japanese voice actress will be Megumi Hayashibara, who had previously voiced Rei Ayanami and several other characters in Evangelion. And then the actual game indeed has her be a Rei Ayanami Expy, with Eggman playing the role of Gendo.
- "Listen, Tails. Never forget. Just believe in yourself. Not in the Tails that I believe in. Not in the Sonic that you believe in. Have faith in the Tails that believes in you."Explanation (UNMARKED SPOILERS)By the end of the game, Tails has come to the realization that, by constantly clinging to Sonic, he has gradually lost the confidence he had gained ever since the Adventure days, which culminated in a critical moment in Forces where he cowered from a Phantom Ruby Chaos 0 despite having previously single-handedly saved Station Square from being nuked. Because of this, Tails decides that, when this is all over, he wants to go on a journey by himself, which Sonic is fully supportive of. This interaction, as well as Sonic and Tails' entire relationship, has some similarities to the brotherly bond shared by Kamina and Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, in which Kamina sees the incredible potential within Simon, even if Simon himself is too shy to ever try and branch out. This culminates in Kamina's final words to Simon (the ones that this meme is referencing) being one last Rousing Speech that eventually helps Simon come into his own. Both moments also mark the end of a status quo in the story, since Tails has been Sonic's sidekick for almost 30 years now and Kamina's death marks the beginning of the end of Simon's character arc. This works on a meta level as well, since Gurren Lagann was created to essentially be the optimistic and badass counterpart to Evangelion, which fits well with Sonic's general worldview and the darker story of Frontiers.
- Official Sonic AMV ExplanationThe ending theme for Frontiers, "Vandalize" by Japanese band One OK Rock, immediately caught on with the fanbase to the point where people immediately started plastering the song on other sequences from various games and anime.
- IT SAYS FUCK! ExplanationShortly after the ending theme for Frontiers, "Vandalize", released, fans noticed there was a bit of a rather explicit discrepancy between the soundtracks for the English and Japanese trailers/soundtracks. And indeed, the original version had the line "Fuck the pain away, my bed is in ruins", while the Sonic Frontiers version simply had the line "Fight the pain away, my head is in ruins". The idea of a song in Sonic dropping an F-bomb (well, beyond that of the infamous "You're damn right Knuckles!"), despite it being a release separate from the version in the game, was met with hilarity from fans.
- Dick-shaped Cyloop. ExplanationUpon learning that the Cyloop gives different bonuses depending on what shapes are drawn (e.g. drawing an infinity sign results in Sonic temporarily getting unlimited Boost stamina), fans predictably began joking about what would happen if certain other shapes were drawn, with the aforementioned being one of the first that came to mind.
- Digital Trends ExplanationOn November 7, the review embargo and the scores were released. While many of them were between 7 and 9, a website called Digital Trends gave the game a 1 out of 5, confusing and amusing the fan base. It was later revealed they had two reviews and the other one was 4 out of 5. To add to the amusement, the bad review compared it to Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic Boom and considered it the Balan Wonderworld of Sonic games. Fans were amused at this, wondering who hurt him to act like this.
- Cyber Space 1-2 ExplanationThe second cyber space level, which is still technically a part of the tutorial, features a punishingly difficult time limit for getting an S rank on the level at just 55 seconds. This lead to a range of reactions, from those perplexed at how early they were being thrown into the fire by SEGA to those seeing it as a challenge and even attempting to get a sub-50 second score. Whichever side you stand on, the general consensus is that the level remains the hardest one to master in the entire game and that getting the S rank is a true test of skill. The level is so infamous that the Speed Strats episode about Cyber Space levels acknowledged the level's infamy and pointed out ways to best speedrun it.
- The Moon's RevengeExplanation (UNMARKED SPOILERS)The End's true form, a giant moon with deadly lasers, has led to many jokes about the SnapCube Sonic Adventure 2 fandub and how the Moon wants to repay revenge on Eggman for peeing on it in said dub in kind.
- Sonic Frontiers StatusExplanation4 of the game's soundtracks (I'm Here, Undefeatable, Break Through It All, Find Your Flame) have, for all intents and purposes, basically became to this game what "Bury the Light" is to Devil May Cry 5, or what "Rules of Nature" is to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The Titans being compared favorably to Rising's bosses doesn't hurt, either. A recurring template is an Interrupting Meme YouTube video that displays some random content, only to cut to gameplay footage and soundtrack (with I'm Here and Undefeatable being the most common).
- Reverse Sonic cycle.ExplanationMany fans have noted and joked that the road to the game's release, from the rocky and cautious reception to its initial reveal and the first previews of its gameplay, to the increasing excitement as more of the game got shown, to the praise it got upon release, is an inversion of the infamous Sonic cycle meme, in which a new Sonic game is initially met with excitement upon its announcement, only for that excitement to turn into disappointment over time as more gets shown, with the game eventually being released to a mixed-to-negative reception.
- The Eggman familyExplanation (UNMARKED SPOILERS)With Sage being considered a daughter by Eggman, people began having fun with the idea of them as a family in mundane situations, usually including Metal Sonic as an additional member who is characterized as having a sibling rivalry with Sage, as much as an emotionless robot and an AI can, or as a protective older brother. It doesn't hurt that even in-game Sage briefly asks Eggman if Orbot and Cubot would be her brothers.
- Sage being Eggman's favorite, and Belle being The Unfavorite. ExplanationPeople who like Black Comedy edit the "Mother Ignoring Kid Drowning In The Pool" meme so Eggman is the parent, Sage is the girl the mother holds, and Belle the Tinkerer from the IDW comics (a creation of Eggman's good alter-ego, Mr. Tinker) is the skeleton at the bottom of the pool. The drowning kid is either Metal Sonic or Orbot and Cubot, depending on how the editor sees the former's relationship with Sage.
- Surprise SQUID!ExplanationOf all the Guardian mini-bosses in the game, SQUID quickly became the most infamous due to its free roaming nature and its ability to very abruptly interrupt whatever you're doing with a sudden jump cut featuring it quickly turning its head to face you. It also has a tendency to "photobomb" cutscenes. The fact that it's the only Guardian to appear in more than one island makes it more memorable (and annoying).
- âI miss my daughter, Tails. I miss her a lot.âExplanationA variant of the "I miss my wife, Tails" line from SnapCube's Adventure 2 fandub that got spread after Sage's Disney Death.
- Frontiers OST goes with everythingExplanationAll 4 boss themes(Break Through It All, Undefeatable, Find Your Flame and I'm Here) have followed the path made by Guile's theme, "Rules of Nature", "The Only Thing I Know For Real", "It Has To Be This Way" and "You Say Run" of being put over several other memorable scenes to make them even better.
- Super Sonic 2ExplanationThe trailer for the final DLC expansion, âThe Final Horizonâ, featured Sonic turning into Super Sonic, and then apparently turning into another super form with dark energy and blue eyes, which was almost immediately compared to Super Saiyan 2 from Dragon Ball Z. Funnily enough, the data files for the character does list it as "Super Sonic 2", so they were oddly right.
- "Fine! You want difficulty/something not for kids? Here you go then!"ExplanationUpon "The Final Horizon"'s release, fans were mortified to see how BRUTAL the game has spiked in difficulty, ranging from the upgraded Guardian bosses to the new tower climbs, and ESPECIALLY the trials which fans have noted to be some of the hardest content in any Sonic game, if not unfairly so, all to the point some complain It's Hard, So It Sucks!. Fans have joked that this is pretty much Kishimoto's revenge for complaints about the game being too easy, or SEGA's revenge for discourse in relation to detractors complaining the franchise is purely for kids in relation to Sonic Prime over the few days before the update's release.
- Sonic hallucinatingExplanation"The Final Horizon" expands on the nature of Cyber Space, and two details caught on with fans: the first being that the Big Sonic meets in the fishing portals is just a replica from his memories, and the second is that all of the rails, floating platforms, springs, etc. Sonic uses in the open world are visible and usable only by him due to his connection to Cyber Space. As a result, fans joke about how Sonic is hallucinating everything in the game, and that Sage watches him grind, platform, and bounce on thin air, believing that he can fly.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
- "He's dead."ExplanationThe trailer for this game had SEGA talking about taking the franchise in a new direction, followed immediately by a shot of Sonic lying in the memetic Family Guy death pose with "He's Dead" below it. Naturally, this ends up becoming a meme on its own with people pretending that Sonic is actually dead. This is also applies in a meta-sense where fans jokes that Sonic is finally dead after a multitude of let downs in the entire franchise.
Sonic Superstars
- THE END watching Sonic. Explanation (spoilers for Frontiers)In the gameâs final stage, a purple moon can be seen in the background at times. Since, in Frontiers, THE END explains that it had been watching him for some time, some fans has taken it as it watching him for years and they started inserting the moon into various moments in games.
- Classic Sonic with a gun. Explanation One of the updates for the game included a skin for Sonic that had him dress up like Shadow, so fans started drawing him carrying a gun while in the outfit.
Sonic Dream Team
Social Media
- @sonic_hedgehog ExplanationThe series' official Twitter got a new manager in June of 2015, and shortly thereafter referenced about half the memes on this page — very quickly attracting attention and astonishing the fans.
- Similarly, the Facebook page is basically nothing but memes and game updates. Mostly memes.
- Your new national anthem... ExplanationIn the summer of 2016, amidst concerns over anti-black racism in the United States and protests regarding the USA's national anthem, many people were reminded that the true origin of the song "The Star-Spangled Banner" was from the War of 1812, and specifically the third stanza's condemnation of Black American slaves fighting for the British in exchange for their freedom. Online petitions were created to replace the anthem with... Sonic Adventure 2's "Escape From the City" (referred to as "City Escape" in several online petitions, videos, and articles covering the matter), as a much more inspirational song.
- "Welcome to the list. It's a very special list of very special people. I look forward to crossing your name off it someday." ExplanationDuring a Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter Takeover, a user asked Shadow how Maria was doing. That was Shadow's reply.
- Irish the Hedgehog. ExplanationOn St. Patrick's Day 2019, Jacksepticeye offered to voice a character named "Irish the Hedgehog", which the Sonic Twitter agreed to (as soon as they created him). One year later, they finally followed up on it.
- Everything is canon ExplanationA Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 post advertising Sonic being playable in the game had the official Sonic Twitter account declare that everything is canon. This led to fans jokingly taking any Sonic-related post that the account acknowledges and declaring them canon, regardless of how unlikely it actually is for it to be canon.
- A FURSONA FOR EVERYONE! ExplanationWhen asked on what animal he could be during a Twitter Takeover, Eggman proceeds to go into a speech on how he could plan on making humans into animals, ending it with this line.
- Sonic, but as you scroll he gets older and older ExplanationOn April 29th, 2024, the Google Play Twitter account posted a thread that supposedly went into how Sonic evolved over the years. However, this thread was full of blatant factual errors, such as using screenshots from the wrong games for each date and describing Sonic 1 as an 8-bit game (it was 16-bit)—all of which were embarrassingly pointed out by the Community Notes. The thread quickly went viral on social media, with many speculating that the thread was written by an AI, to the point where the official Sonic Twitter commented on it.
- 1993 Sonic. OK short king ðExplanationWidely seen as the worst of the mistakes. The picture accompanying the tweet is a picture of Sonic Boom's version of Sonic—which not only came out in 2014, but is also the tallest version of Sonic.
Television Shows
- Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM):
- Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie:
- Sonic Underground:
- I HATE THIEVES! ExplanationKnuckles believes Sonic and his siblings are thieves (which one of them already is). He disapproves.
- Exploding baby hedgehog/Sonic Six Feet Underground ExplanationThe episode "Three Hedgehogs and a Baby" showcased a baby hedgehog — in reality a robot created to spy on the group — which Manic names Hip. A chase sequence leads to Hip falling out of Manic's grasp and the latter tragically failing to catch him, which results in the baby graphically exploding upon hitting the ground. Thanks to Hip's Unintentional Uncanny Valley design, his jarringly violent death, the slow, stilted animation, and erratic editing, it became a meme courtesy of Joel from Vinesauce, who uttered the second line in a laughing fit.
- The show's animation in general has been made a meme, with several Off-Model shots and odd visual effects being brought to the forefront.
- "TRIPLETS BORN, THE THRONE AWAITS!"ExplanationDuring the 2020's, the theme song for Sonic Underground is known for being an Ear Worm, even by the show's usual standard, with any comment that merely posts the opening lyrics resulting in droves of users following suit (as seen here).
- Sonic X:
- Just about any Gratuitous English coming from Jun'ichi Kanemaru, Sonic's Japanese voice actor. Due to this being an anime as opposed to a video game, there's a lot more notable examples:
- "Shit!" ExplanationSonic drops an s-bomb while rescuing Cream from Area 99 in Episode 2.
- "Oh! What a great view!" ExplanationWhile Sonic is fighting with Knuckles in Episode 5, he stands on a tree and says this in the middle of his fight.
- "Shut up!" ExplanationKnuckles yells this in the fifth episode of Sonic X. It started out as more of a YouTube Poop meme, but has also seen a bit of popularity due to ClementJ642 using it whenever Knuckles is an idiot.
- "Maria!" ExplanationShadow shouts Maria's name a lot. This also applies to the games, but is most associated with Sonic X.
- "I was just about to consume this delicious banana!"/"Tasty!" ExplanationWhen cornered by Sonic and the gang in Episode 56, Eggman hurriedly tries to cover his misdeeds up by claiming he was just about to eat said "delicious banana." Cue a lip-tasting eating animation done with a whole two frames of animation. The sheer absurdity of said clip along with how choppy Eggman's banana-eating is led to it exploding in popularity and getting a number of edits done to it. Eggman's followup of "Tasty!" often gets edited over into other non sequiturs as well.
- Sonic Boom:
- Knuckles explaining feminism ExplanationAn often quoted line from the show about how calling attention to feminism undermines the concept itself. The fact that it's said so eloquently by Knuckles of all people resulted in the phrase skyrocketing to this status.
- Knuckles is in charge of memes ExplanationTaken from the episode "Mayor Knuckles" where Knuckles is... well, the mayor. His position has recently seen relevance, with him as the overseer of all memes. Clips of him approving, denying, banning or being otherwise indifferent to a certain meme (or every meme) have cropped up all over the internet.
- "Hey! This wall tastes like dirt!" ExplanationA moment from "Multi-Tails" where, after Tails splits himself into five, they all notice the wall and proceed to lick it. It took off, with some joking that the wall tastes like something else, or that the wall tastes like wall.
- Hawaiian Shirt Shadow ExplanationFrom a false rumor started by someone pretending to be working on the show and claiming that Shadow will wear an open red Hawaiian flower print shirt and sunglasses. Many found◊ this to be an◊ actually cool idea◊, with few other redesigns mentioned (such as Rouge in a tube top and chubby Silver) catching on to a smaller degree. Anyone who was actually expecting this would be disappointed when Shadow actually appeared in the show without the shirt.
- Sonic Prime:
- TALL AMY ExplanationThe Second Teaser gave us our first look at Rusty Rose, who many were quick to point out was much taller than the regular one, and consequently the rest of the cast. Though in the show proper, it's actually her ability to extend her limbs.
- Shadow's "rollerskates" ExplanationShadow insists to refer said footwears as air-shoes after Sonic introduced them as otherwise.
- sonic wake up! you fucked up big time Explanation (Spoilers)Shadow is revealed to be the only living member of Sonic's original world when the Shatterverse was created, forcibly stuck in the Void Between the Worlds. His constant communication through Sonic's Prism Powers and his Wham Line at the end of Episode 8 has brought back relevance to what was originally Knuckles' line in the infamous Tails Gets Trolled.
- Shadow left on read Explanation (Spoilers)Shadow repeatedly tries contacting Sonic from the void he's trapped in. While he's initially dismissed as a hallucination, Sonic more or less flat out ignores him every other time, leading to jokes that Shadow is being left on read.
- Shadow in the voidExplanation (Spoilers)Related to the above, some fans have made jokes that Shadow has been spending his time in the void just thinking about beating up Sonic and/or trying to lure him into the void to be beaten up.
- Drowning selfieExplanationA promotional image for the second season featured Sonic and Shadow underwater with the latter apparently stealing the former's tech. However, due to the way the characters are posed, many fans have concluded it looks like Shadow is taking a selfie while drowning Sonic.
- Sonadow Prime/Sonadow fans are eating good right nowExplanationThe numerous amounts of Ho Yay between Sonic and Shadow has not gone unnoticed, with the most well known moment being Sonic's "I heart you too, Shadow" complete with a heart sign when Shadow saves him from missiles.
- Comparing the show to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse of all things has been used by detractors against the show's heavy targeting to kid audiences to get a rise out of people.
Comic Books
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- Alone on a Friday night? God, you're pathetic.ExplanationA panel from Issue 9 featured Sonic sitting down and firing off a dozen puns about trees with a smug look on his face. It was photoshoped to make Sonic mock the viewer for being single, which became incredibly popular.
- I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I'm not kidding.ExplanationAnother photoshop of the same panel to have Sonic comment on the crunch-heavy nature of the video games industry, which comes back up whenever there's evidence of any game being rushed.
- Shadow's angry face◊ExplanationIn Sonic Universe #1, Shadow produces an angry face upon realising Marine the Raccoon blew up his only way home and he was stranded after asking her to build the boat like the one she made for Sonic and Tails (she admitted that Tails was the one who invented it, and she just oversaw the development). It's such a ridiculous expression that it became a defining moment for Shadow even outside the Archie Sonic fandom.
- NO FUN ALLOWED.ExplanationAn image of one of Robotnik's SWA Tbots installing a sign saying "No fun allowed," from a 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog story book called 'Sonic's Shoes Blues'. This is usually used in response to someone being a "Stop Having Fun" Guy.
- Haggard.ExplanationAn issue of the Archie comic series included a connect-the-dots game intended to depict Robotnik's head. Unfortunately, the dots aren't numbered, making them ambiguous. The most common (mis)interpretation of the dots has been dubbed "Haggard" by fans.
- "For the first time in his life, Sonic understands the meaning of war."ExplanationOne of the lines that marked the comics turn into Darker and Edgier stories; the sheer seriousness it's stated in juxtaposition to this imagery◊ makes the whole thing unintentionally hilarious.
- Had a bad dream. Better microwave the baby.ExplanationA comedic summarisation of the Archie comics' controversial backstory for Knuckles that depicts his father experimenting on his egg after having a vision of his future son fighting a giant robot.
- Hot Pocket of Destiny.ExplanationIan Flynn's personal summary of Knuckles' Archie backstory.
- Eggman punches Sonic. ExplanationAn Archie Sonic panel depicting Sonic's attempt to end a battle with a handshake and a temporary truce being met with Eggman punching Sonic directly in the face, sending him flying.
- Titan TailsExplanationA powered-up form that Tails acquires after combining with various parallel universe versions of himself during a fight against Mammoth Mogul. The form, which is simply a giant, extremely muscular version of Tails, was widely mocked online thanks to its resemblance to the kinds of fetish art that the Sonic fandom is infamous for, and the panel that introduces Titan Tails became a common subject of reposts both in and out of the fanbase in reference to some of the stranger events in the comics.
- DESTINYExplanationArc Words from the Titan Tails arc, ridiculed for its nonsensical story and the sudden appearance of the all-powerful, bizarrely swole Titan Tails.
- Sonic the Comic:
- Sonic with a gun.ExplanationIssue #53 has Sonic wield a gun at one point (more specifically, a laser pistol stolen from an Eggrobo) in order to shoot an Eggrobo stealing the Master Emerald. Due to this clashing with his later persona, it's commonly circulated amongst fans, often with the dialogue altered to read "Delete This!" (which is a meme in its own right) as a response to disturbing images.
- Robotnik's cake.ExplanationOne StC storyline featured Robotnik becoming a god, with a cliffhanger depicting a giant Robotnik holding the Floating Island in his hands and laughing. Fans replaced the island with a giant chocolate cake.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW):
- Overly Excited SonicExplanationOne panel in Issue #4 depicts Sonic at one point surprising a couple of Egg Pawns during a fight, donning a very excited face◊ while doing so. The face quickly became a popular reaction image as a way to express excitement towards something.
- British SonicExplanationIn Issue #31, due to Sonic suffering from amnesia, he is shown to act very formal and out of character towards Blaze during a meeting. The panels of that meeting (particularly two panels of him sipping tea and him looking smug) immediately became subject to memes and jokes about him having becoming British, due to the stereotypes of British people being formal and liking tea.
- Jokes about Dr. Starline being a henpecked single father having to deal with two bratty kids came to fruition the moment Surge and Kit were revealed, with some even joking that it was his attempt to one-up Eggman and Metal Sonic. It eventually became phased out with time, however, when the third issue of Imposter Syndrome revealed that he kidnapped the two back when they were normal people and forcefully brainwashed them into becoming his cyborg minions.
- "Big Oof."Explanation (Spoilers)How Sonic reacts in Issue #51 when Belle tells him about Starline's death in the previous issue. The line would quickly spawn many jokes and memes in the process due to how unintentionally hilarious it is (especially since it was used as a reaction to the death of someone). One variant that has quickly taken off is it being used as a response to the equally memetic "This is where I watched my parents die, Raphael" panel/quote from Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- HE SAID THE THINGExplanationIn Scrapnik Island Issue #4, after the Scrapniks stop Mecha Sonic from performing Brain Theft on Sonic, he lunges at them screaming, "I'LL CRUSH YOU!!!" This was confirmed by the writer to be a reference to fan animated series Super Mario Bros. Z, where this specific line by Cooler from Dragon Ball Z was repurposed into Mecha Sonic's most famous line. The Sonic and SMBZ fandoms went nuts with this revelation, with "HE SAID THE THING" managing to become a trending topic on Twitter.
- Surge rants about anime dubs. ExplanationIn October 2022, Surge's original artist, Mauro Fonseca, went on an infamous Twitter rant where he openly decried the practice of anime dubs as inherently xenophobic. The fact that Fonseca said this while working on the English-language comics for a Japanese franchise has led to much mockery online.
- Tangle is sleeping on the couch tonight.ExplanationIn issue #57, Tangle would be met by a Death Glare from an angry Whisper after she decided to call their new team "the Diamond Cutters" (Whisper's old team that was backstabbed and murdered by Mimic). The scene, combined with Whisper's more aloof attitude towards Tangle in the issue and the popular interpretation of Whisper and Tangle being a couple due to their Les Yay, has led to many jokes about Tangle getting Exiled to the Couch as a result of her Innocently Insensitive blunder and Whisper being mad at her.
- Eggman glock. ExplanationA moment from Issue #32 where Eggman, in the middle of battle, takes out a normal-looking handgun (albeit one which fires lasers) and shoots at Tails. The sheer abruptness of the moment combined with the seeming absurdity of Eggman using a regular firearm has made it a popular moment to reference, with many declaring it the Doctor's most powerful weapon.
Other/Real Life/Fandom Related
- BLAST PROCESSING ExplanationFrom a Sega Genesis commercial that aired in the U.S. around the time of Sonic the Hedgehog 2's release. "Blast Processing" was a term used by Sega to explain how the game was able to keep up with Sonic's extreme speed, something they bragged couldn't be done on the Super Nintendo. (For the record, "Blast Processing" just refers to the Sega Genesis' faster processor, 7.6 MHz versus the SNES's 3.58. A hypothetical SNES Sonic game would experience slightly more slowdown when many sprites are on-screen at the same time, but it would be nearly identical otherwise.)
- Sonic is the fastest thing alive... in bed.ExplanationWith Sonic's famous speed it didn't take long for...dirtier minds to extend this to his bedroom prowess.
- "CHECK OUT THE CONSOLES! WOOOAAAAHH!" ExplanationAlton Towers had a "Sonic Room" with audio from Roger Craig Smith as Sonic himself recommending assorted things, such as the game consoles in the room.
- Dumb Running Sonic. ExplanationA Tumblr meme where internet artists draw animations of Sonic running in a bizarre manner, often edging into Deranged Animation territory. The results are predictable.
- I told Knuckles that Eggman was good, Sonic was evil, and The Other Wiki was as authoritative as a peer-reviewed scientific journal. He believed all of it. ExplanationKnuckles has a history of battling Sonic because Eggman told him he was up to no good. At least three times.
- You're too slow! ExplanationOne of Sonic's taunts from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, infamously spammed online. Later Smash games simply changed it to "Sonic speed!"
- Now I'll show you! ExplanationSaid by Sonic in Brawl when he activates his Final Smash. Later games replaced it with "Super Sonic style!"
- "GOTTA GO FAST", a phrase associated with two different memes: an infamous piece of Sonic fan art,◊ and the North American opening from Sonic X. It also managed to get associated with Tribes due to the gameplay style of the latest installment revolving around speed.
- Now also associated with Mario Kart 8 due to both having an amiibo suit based on Sonic and having a new super fast 200cc Mode.
- It's Ramadan, gotta go fast! Explanation"Fast" can also refer to abstinence from eating, usually for religious occasions such as the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
- Becomes an Ascended Meme in the English-language localization of Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX (which was also developed and published by Sega), which uses this meme as part of the description for the Sonic figurine. It's also the title of an event match in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, but only in the European version. The Sonic Boom cartoon had a field day with it, the most notable being an entire SONG based around it.
- Also an Ascended Meme in Yakuza 0, also published by SEGA. It's the name of a perk that, you guessed it, helps Kiryu or Majima run faster.
- "Long time no see." ExplanationFor whatever reason, this particular greeting shows up in nearly every Sonic game when two characters meet each other even if it's barely been that long.
- SANIC HEGEHOG. ExplanationA poorly-drawn image of Sonic that is often paired with "GOTTA GO FAST" or another Sonic phrase, "C'mon, step it up!". This is probably one of the more famous Sonic memes, due to its common usage in "dank meme" images, videos, and compilations. Ascended in Sonic Forces as a t-shirt that the Avatar can wear.
- Sonic.exe ExplanationAn infamous creepypasta about a haunted disc of Sonic 1 and the demon who lives inside of it. It's often considered one of the worst creepypastas and has spawned other ".exe" stories with different characters, some of them being parodies. It's gotten to the point where the ".exe" file extension has been commonly associated with the creepypasta and its derivatives. The character X (or just Sonic.exe as he's most often called) is a recurring fan character in his own right, spawning both ironic and non-ironic fan art and other creations.
- "I AM GOD" ExplanationA phrase that pops up in the final part of the creepypasta, accompanying a picture of X. It has worked its way into the consciousness of the Internet to the point that anything that uses this phrase most likely won't be taken seriously. It's also been used in other .exe stories, mainly those that parody the original.
- Sonic's "#1 Fan." ExplanationA genre of fanmade short comics that depict X as nothing more than a somewhat macabre thorn in Sonic's side, following him around and repeating everything he says, sometimes bastardizing the phrase potentially beyond recognition (for example, "Way past cool" becomes "I'm addicted to fuel"). This, of course, leads to Sonic suffering comedic Sanity Slippage, often lashing out at X, manhandling him, and yelling at him to go away.
- Dankey Kang. ExplanationA faked Final Jeopardy! clue read "This video game character is blue, collects Rings, and goes fast." One contestant got it right, but the other two answered "Who is Dankey Kang?" and "Who is Princess Zorldo?" This has led to a series of Photoshops replacing Sonic with Donkey Kong and calling him "Dankey Kang."
- Coldsteel the Hedgeheg ExplanationA parody of Copy Cat Sues found throughout the fandom, credited to a user named blood_skull_boi84, being designed like a '90s Anti-Hero complete with a name ripped from the Dark Age of Supernames, a corny catchphrase that reads "psssh... nothin personnel... kid...", and a bio full of grammatical errors and fourth wall-breaking descriptions. Because of this, the character is widely mocked online as the epitome of the stereotypical "edgy" Original Character.
- The Sonic Cycle◊ ExplanationA trend in the mid-Noughties during the series' Audience-Alienating Era where fans would get excited about a new Sonic game only to be disappointed when it sucked. YMMV if the Cycle is still in play, if certain games met this criteria to begin with, or if "The Sonic Cycle" is really a thing or not.
- The Other Sonic Cycle ExplanationAnother trend where a lot of the time, if a 3D or Modern Sonic game is considered good when it comes out, over time, as its flaws become more apparent, more and more fans end up turning on it. Examples include Sonic Colors going from being hailed as helping to save the franchise to derided for being 2D-based and blocky, or Sonic Generations going from being hailed as a game celebrating Sonic's 20th anniversary to derided for having little to no original content and the start of the series relying too much on Classic Sonic and nostalgia.
- Sola Sonica. ExplanationThis is referring to the tendency of modern Sonic games to have only Sonic as a playable character since Sonic Unleashed, as if it was SEGA's answer to some people's complaints that there were too many characters in the Sonic universe. If there's anything other than Sonic himself to be playable in the game, it's a variation of him: the Werehog in Unleashed, his past self in Sonic Generations and Forces, and so on. With Sonic Mania, which brought Tails and Knuckles (and later Mighty and Ray in its Updated Re-release) back to playable status in a new game, and Forces itself allowing players to make custom characters that are way different from Sonic (plus a few DLC stages where you play as Shadow), this trend seems to have died down.
- Thomas was EVERYWHERE. ExplanationThere is a ROM hack called Sonic the Very Useful Engine where everything in the game has Thomas the Tank Engine's face.
- BZZZZZZZZZZZ ExplanationSonic's 25th anniversary event livestream was plagued with audio issues, the most obvious being an obnoxious buzzing that was never fixed. Some people (Jim Sterling included) have hailed it as one of the best worst livestreams ever, beating even the infamously awkward Konami 2010 livestream (though most fans despise the livestream entirely). Now ascended thanks to Mania, where the exact same buzzing noise can be heard after beating Eggman in Studiopolis Act 2.
- Buzzbomber was in charge of the stream. ExplanationSome have joked that the audio problems were caused by the Buzzbomber badnik.
- We are happy to announce— ExplanationOne of the most amazing technical gaffs came in right as the speaker was going to make a big announcement, where the audio cut out for the entirety of his build-up to the reveal of Sonic Mania.
- Totino's presents Sonic's 25th Anniversary Event ExplanationWhile Sega and Totino's have collaborated with the Sonic brand before, the amount of product placement for Totino's stuffed nachos was too high for many people's tastes. The announcer spent 20 minutes in the beginning of the event advertising them, and kept bringing them back up multiple times, even cutting off the voice actors of Sonic Boom doing a few lines for the audience.
- Sonic Heroes Guy ExplanationMidway through Crush 40's performance of "Sonic Heroes", Johnny Gioeli lowered the mic to allow some Audience Participation. The takers? A woman who clearly had no idea what was going on and simply slurred out an "Aaaaaaaaaa...", and an overexcited, clearly drunk man who screamed the lyrics into the mic with as much force as he could muster, becoming unintelligible in the process.
- "What's that—[cue audio crackling] That's the sound of 25 years of Sonic!"
- Sonic ice cream bars ExplanationAround since the mid-1990s, ice creams made in the shape of Sonic's head have been available. A seeming lack of quality control means that the much-touted gumball eyes are almost NEVER in the right place. Originally a mere oddity, the increased focus on the weirder parts of Sonic owing to its Twitter account propelled the treat into legend.
- Sonic Was Never Good ExplanationA rather infamous phrase attributed to Brian Altano of IGN, who spent an entire video attacking Sonic and its fanbase when they were supposed to talk about Sonic Mania. Needless to say, a lot of fans were less than impressed at this ghastly lack of professionalism and promptly called out IGN on their bias. The phrase itself is now mainly used in irony, as a way to mock IGN and its own faults. Years later, Brian would apologize for this on video, clarifying that he meant that Sonic was never good during that era, and in fact enjoyed the Genesis era as a kid, as well as liking games such as Colors and Generations.
- Sonic Forces Is As Bad As We All Feared ExplanationMore or less a repeat of the above, but with Sonic Forces and NintendoLife instead of IGN and Mania. A lot of people found Alex's criticism to be sensationalized and exaggerated, if not outright fabricated, and it became so heated that the offending video was deleted... not that this has stopped people from putting the video up themselves. Some have used the video as fuel concerning the topic of wherever or not the "Safe Hate" against Sonic is getting out of hand.
- Sonic had a Rough Transition ExplanationA more general quote by various reviewers, often referencing Sonic's interesting 3D adventures when discussing the franchise's history. It is often mocked by Sonic fans due to its predictability and laziness by people who are noticeably biased against the series. Whenever you see a review or video where they are harsh about Sonic, you can usually expect fans to start saying this quote word-for-word to make fun of it.
- In 2006... ExplanationAn extended version that points out that muliple reviewers have had a tendency to bring up the quality of Sonic '06 when talking about any other 3D Sonic title.
- Obama chuckled. "You mean the Chaos Emeralds?" ExplanationFrom the fanfic "Immortality Protocol Cy-Fox: Book 01" where, during a discussion with other politicians, Obama randomly brings up the Chaos Emeralds. The line became popular in image macros where anyone seems to be holding a gem of some kind and spawned additional photoshops and fanart jokingly depicting Obama as a Sonic character with full control over the Chaos Emeralds.
- Silver the Weedhog/Pothead the Porcupine. ExplanationSilver's five-pointed hairdo looks a lot like a leaf from the marijuana plant, especially when he's viewed from the front. "Pothead the Porcupine" as a Fan Nickname for him was coined by BrainScratch Commentaries.
- Silver is Shadow's sonExplanationShadow and Silver are Expies of Vegeta and Future Trunks respectively, the latter of which is a Bad Future version of Vegeta's son. Fans summed all these up and came to the conclusion that Silver is Shadow's son or, if not, a descendant of his.
- Every single thing from this parody comic made by illustrator and Promoted Fanboy Tyson Hesse. Meme highlights include:
- ALL facial expressions.
- Eggman's first lines. (HEEEY SOOONIC)
- BWOASHIT!
- Everything surrounding "Nipples the Enchilada".
- Oh, my mistake.
- EMMEROOWDS!
- NOW YOU'RE A MAN!!
- Original the Character! Do not steal! note This phrase in particular is probably the most memetic thing from the comic. Originally used to introduce the comic's version of Shadow, it's since been used to mock Original Characters, especially those who are just reskins of existing characters.
- SONEEK SKETBOARD ExplanationThis... thing is an advert from Pakistan, advertising some Sonic LCD games that could be gotten in McDonald's Happy Meals of the time. The atrocious animation can only be described as legendary at this point (Shadow missing his chest fluff, Cream straight up lacking details, Rouge being modeled as a naked MOUSE, and so on), and the infamously butchered English pronunciations of each character's name and sport only make it one of the Best-Worst adverts in existence.
- The Sonic the Hedgehog Joke Book has had some rather... inappropriate text edits, some of which have caught on widely.
- "My own clone! Now neither of us will be virgins!" ExplanationAn edit◊ to a page with two Robotniks; this phrase has been used in situations involving two of the same character, and various fanart of characters and their duplicate have been made using the quote.
- "HOLY SHIT, A TALKING ANIMAL" ExplanationAnother edit◊, this time having Robotnik say this to Knuckles. It's sometimes been used as a joking reaction to talking animals, especially when irrelevant to the current situation.
- Ugandan Knuckles ExplanationThis comes from the VRChat video game for the PC, which allows players to import models for use as avatars. One day, someone used a deformed model of Knuckles the Echidna, based on this video, and created a cult of sorts that's filled with people using the same model. Practices in said cult include spitting on nonbelievers, making clicking sounds for the sake of aggravating others, worshiping a randomly selected queen (which usually happens to be a specimen of Whaifewnius Animus, common name waifu), and speaking in a faux-West Indies accent. It should be noted though that the meme has spawned a huge Broken Base within both the Sonic and VRChat communities, both because of its ubiquity and because of an ongoing controversy regarding whether or not the meme should be considered racist.
- "Do you know da wae?" ExplanationThe go-to catchphrase of the Ugandan Knuckles', a misspelling of "Do you know the way?" and an apparent reference to the infamous No Budget Ugandan action film Who Killed Captain Alex?. Sometimes it's said "Do you know the way of the devil?", and is often asked to other players repeatedly for the sake of bothering them. Apparently, you need to have Ebola to know the way.
- I NEVER FREEZE ExplanationA quote from Black Panther.
- Has since snow cloned, with variations including Super Saiyan Ugandan Knuckles, Russian Ugandan Knuckles, basically anything you can think of. Future Ugandan Knuckles, however, is regarded as going too far by everyone.
- WHY ARE YOU RUNNING? ExplanationA quote from the Nigerian film Pretty Liars 1.
- Bench Tails ExplanationIn 2013, someone posted a really, really, REALLY Not Safe for Work fancomic involving child characters such as Tails and Cream online. Part of the first panel,◊ which has Tails sitting on a bench, was used frequently on 4chan and eventually other parts of the Internet just to remind others of the very extreme Shock-Site-level Squickiness the fancomic carries. Some people photoshopped Bench Tails to various images.
- Pink Sonic ExplanationA trend from early April 2018, a Twitter artist by the handle of SpicyâHog drew a picture of Sonic, coloring him pink rather than blue, as practice. This, somewhat predictably, caused some to yell at the artist and call the image "gay" and that Sonic should never ever be pink. Artists across Twitter (and eventually DeviantArt) began drawing image upon image of pink Sonics in retaliation, becoming a fairly big trend. Pink Sonic is often characterized as much more shy and introverted than normal Sonic, presumably to match his color scheme's general concepts, and sometimes wearing a baggy hoodie with flowers in and on his person.
- Blue Amy ExplanationFor some, of course, the closer resemblance to Amy excited a lot of people, especially SonAmy fans, who were quick to give Pink Sonic a Distaff Counterpart in the form of Blue Amy. A number of other similar recolors of characters have been made as well to much lesser fame, such as Teal Tails and White Shadow.
- Sonic Rosé ExplanationAlongside the obvious SonAmy reference, some people had a bit of fun with the concept by combining it with the Super Mode of Goku Black from Dragon Ball Super.
- Sonic 3CD & Knuckles & Knuckles ExplanationYouTube user and animator SomecallmeJohnny made a fake title screen for a game with this name. It is notable that this was before the recent resurgence of the "and Knuckles" meme.
- Why does Sonic need a car? ExplanationA common reaction to most Sonic racing games. It's become a Discredited Meme because many fans find it an annoying and shallow question, with rebukes being that Sonic either likes cars or he wants to play fair.
- Amy Rouge ExplanationIn January of 2020, a mod of Sonic Adventure 2 that replaces Rouge with Amy in one cutscene was shown off in a tweet, resulting in Rouge's head being overlaid with Amy's despite the rest of the former's model and animations staying intact. The tweet became prevalent enough for even the official Sonic Twitter account to take notice, and in a similar vein to Pink Sonic before it, people immediately started creating fan art of it, with "Amy Rouge" being commonly portrayed as far more seductive and flirtatious in contrast to the original Amy's more wholesome image. This was later followed by fan art of Rouge wearing Amy's red dress in response to Amy wearing Rouge's Spy Catsuit.
- Mr. Needlemouse ExplanationA bizarre early sketch of Sonic, the name being a "Blind Idiot" Translation of "Mr. Hedgehog" from Japanese.
- The notorious drowning mus—5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 (drown) ExplanationThe first three games had horrifying music play when Sonic was about to drown underwater, usually prompting a panicked search for the nearest air bubble. Later games, such as Adventure, Colors, Generations, and Mania would bring back the infamous tune, usually orchestrated for extra horror.
- Eggman is the fastest thing alive! ExplanationIn the cutscene before the final boss of Sonic 2, Eggman manages to run away from Sonic long enough to get in the Death Egg Robot, prompting many jokes about the supposed fastest character being unable to catch a character who nigh-exclusively works from behind the cockpit. This would happen again in few future game, and may have become an Ascended Meme in Sonic Adventure 2 with Eggman's super-fast on-foot model.
- Tails can't die ExplanationBecause Tails is always behind Sonic in some of the games and never dies despite not losing any rings, it's often joked that Tails is invincible and/or immortal.
- The fan art of the series is a meme in itself, to its huge amounts of original characters to bizarre permutations of Rule 34.
- [your name] the Hedgehog ExplanationAn internet game where you do an image search of your first name with "the hedgehog" tacked on at the end. It usually ends in awe and hilarity.
- As well, Christian Sonic fan art. ExplanationThe prevalence of these pieces filled with low-quality drawing and art, awful puns and "punchlines," and general cringe-worthiness, has led to it becoming a meme of its own, even to the point of spreading to other fandoms like the bronies. As with a lot of the more genuinely questionable fan art, it's hard to say where the legit art ends and the troll art begins.
- Blaze's mom is Belladonna ExplanationAfter the release of the Trials of Mana remake, fans noticed how the new design of villain Belladonna's true form is remarkably similar to Sonic's own Blaze the Cat in design; save for age difference, breast size and the presence of clothes, both characters are Amazing Technicolor Felines who share the exact same lavender-and-white color scheme. This gave rise to fan art of Belladonna and Blaze as mother and daughter respectively, often sharing a Wacky Parent, Serious Child dynamic with the former being characterized as an extraverted, shamelessly sexual parent whose antics irritate and embarrass the latter to no end.
- Sheriff girls ExplanationA specific fan art trend where female characters from various Sonic media are depicted as lesbian, Wild West-style cowgirls (barring Sally Acorn, who is portrayed as a saloon waitress instead), regularly getting into Ho Yay scenarios with each other and wearing non-standard accessory-only outfits (except Rouge, for obvious reasons).
- Miku Amy, a teal Amy wearing Hatsune Miku's clothes, became popular within the Sonic fan art community in August 2020 for some reason.
- Sonic Vocodes ExplanationA trend of YouTube videos where Sonic's voice is created with Vocodes. Naturally, with such an iconic video game character receiving all sorts of generated edits, Hilarity Ensues.
- Please Sega, don't turn me into X! ExplanationOne of the trends in question, spun from the "Don't Turn Me Into Marketable Plushies" meme, in which Sonic pleads not to be turned into some sort of merchandise or fan-created content. The video usually ends with a picture of the merchandise or fan-created content in question and a scream.
- Sonic vs. CEOs ExplanationAnother series of videos where Sonic fights and defeats various CEOs such as the CEO of Minecraft and Nintendo, and even abstract concepts that don't actually have a CEO such as racism, sexism, cringe, Dioism and even other CEOs.
- Amy dressing like Sally ExplanationDue to sharing Sonic as their love interest in the main series and alternate media respectively, it is quite common to pair Amy Rose and Sally Acorn together in Sonic fan art. One specific variation of the trend quickly caught on with artists in the community; as Sally is a notably rare example of a female Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal in the franchise, it became popular to depict the normally fully-dressed Amy being just as clothesless as she is.
- #stopsantiago ExplanationBegan in mid-May 2021 with this tweet from SNick claiming that the 3D design of Classic Sonic seen in Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces is actually an impersonator named "Santiago", with the "real" Classic Sonic having been missing since 1998 (assuming "Santiago" was also in Sonic Mania). The community, of course, took this and ran with it. Became ascended the following year thanks to Roblox's Sonic Speed Simulator when the addition of Classic Sonic as a skin also brought with it some graffiti art reading "Santiago is gone", indicating that the real Classic Sonic had returned and Santiago had finally been stopped.
- Modern Sonic is Bubsy gone Turbo ExplanationAround the time Wreck-It Ralph debuted, a memetic fan theory emerged from 4chan, alleging that Bubsy had kidnapped Sonic and took his place in his series as the main character — a precursor to the above #stopsantiago. This meme became less popular when Bubsy: Paws on Fire! released from Kickstarter in 2019, proving that the punster cat already had his own gig and didn't really have a reason to dethrone Sonic like that. Fans also pointed to how Sonic himself had a brief but plot-important cameo in Wreck-It Ralph, the nature of which (warning other video game characters that dying outside of your own game means you're gone for good) would be very much out of place if he was secretly Bubsy, especially in light of Sonic '06.
- Sonic eats a lemon and dies ExplanationA viral video consisting of several screenshots from a Discord thread, using a lemon emoji and three screenshots from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog to create the humorous narrative in question. This is also Truth in Television as citrus fruits like lemons (for example) can harm a hedgehog's digestive tract. Many variations of the meme soon followed.
- "Bro, are you flirting with my sister?" ExplanationOriginated from a Twitter post in April 2021 which gained a surge of popularity when the picture was recreated in a Sonic Adventure mod video in November 2021. Which led to other recreation videos being made.
- Gumball Eyes Sonic ExplanationThe best-known of the Gumball Eyes ice creams made by Blue Bunny, all of which were notorious for manufacturing errors putting the gumballs in the wrong place. Often parodied with other images of Sonic (eg, as seen here) by erasing the image's irises and placing gumball-like "eyes" in ice-cream-accurate locations.
- Keep your fetish away from me ExplanationA Sonic Adventure mod video by popular gag dubber Jehtt had Eggman getting a bit too enthusiastic about describing Chaos 6's "girthy, throbbing tentacles", causing Sonic to recoil in disgust. Even the official Sonic Twitter account took note of this one, referencing it during an exchange with, of all things, KFC's Twitter account. Everything came full circle when Jehtt then took said Twitter exchange and turned it into its own mod video.
- What have you done? ExplanationThe official Sonic Twitter account's reaction to user Speeps-Highway managing to completly break Sonic Adventure using the Burger Man statue.
- Wow! That's interesting, but I sure don't care! ExplanationA reaction meme created by Speeps-Highway via Adventure modding, used as a reaction to disinteresting replies.
- "YOU'RE TOO LATE, SONIC! I AM NOW FORKLIFT-CERTIFIED!" ExplanationCourtesy of voice actor Marcus Shaw doing an impersonation of SnapCube's Alfred Coleman, you get this: a bizarre, hammy depiction of Eggman getting his forklift certification. Now animated.
- Tails doesn't want your lemons. ExplanationOn March 12, 2022, Tails' voice actor, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, went on the We Talk Funny podcast and chatted about the Sonic fanbase and tips for voice acting. During it, she recited Cave Johnson's already memetic rant about lemons in her Tails voice. Fans quickly went to town with this, with one reason being that the original rant contained the word "damn", a word that fans never expected Colleen to say as Tails. Now with Eggman playing the part of GLaDOS!
- Sonic characters walking into stores ExplanationOn April 29th, 2022, @Amasc0met on Twitter created a piece of fan art of Shadow walking into Claire's, which ended up spawning a trend featuring various Sonic characters walking into numerous real life stores and other random places. Other fandoms and media styles joined in, to the extent of someone ordering from Popeyes in full Sticks the Badger cosplay. Even official artists Evan Stanley and Tracy Yardley joined in on the trend.
- Classic Sonic and Tails Dancing ExplanationA sprite animation that showcases Classic Sonic and Tails doing the Cow and Chicken dance while this song, which parodies every Friday Night Funkin' mod that features Sonic.exe, plays in the background. Commonly used for edits such as having phrases like "There's a pipe bomb in your mailbox" or having other characters dancing along, including Knuckles or Sonic.exe.
- Sonic Central "News" ExplanationThe Sonic Central Not-a-Direct shown in June 2022 was widely mocked by fans upon its airing. While showing some genuine news like new footage of Sonic Frontiers, the reveal of Shadow in Sonic Prime and new characters for Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, the actual footage of those reveals were incredibly short, some barely five or so seconds. Fans took to mocking the short length online, often with reference to Patchy the Pirate saying "That's it?!" in reference to the infamous lost episode skit.
- Meh-philus the Dark ExplanationDuring the aforementioned reveal of new characters for Speed Battle, the narrator managed to flub the pronounceation of Mephiles the Dark's name as "Meh-fillus". Fans took to the obvious mistake with more mockery, often referring to the Snapcube dub of Sonic '06 by either referring to him as "Me-Files" in reference to Shadow doing the same in the dub itself, or joking they mispelt "Memphis Tennessee"'s name.
- Amy beating up Batman. ExplanationIn September 2022, DC Comics put up an installment of their weekly "House of List-ery" feature on their website, listing the top six times the Dark Knight was defeated. Number 3 was from Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia, and its proactive cover featuring Wonder Woman stepping on Batman's face was used in the tweet linking to the article. However, Sonic fans quickly realized how much Wonder Woman's boot looked similar to Amy's boot, leading to many quote retweets joking about Amy giving a Curb-Stomp Battle to Batman.
- Sonikku Talking Ballru ExplanationThe main line from the Japanese commercial for Sonic Pinball Party grew to meme status due to how it's repeated ad nauseam. The line is actually Sonikku to pinbÅru ("Sonic and Pinball"), but it's commonly misheard as "Sonic Talking Ball". It especially grew to memetic lengths due to both this video by Chadtronic and this animation by Scott Falco.
- "Sonic Adventure 3 when?/never." ExplanationWith Sonic Adventure 2 being seen as a very notable entry in the series (and therefore a Tough Act to Follow for many of the subsequent titles), fans have been clamoring for a third Adventure title since 2001. More cynical members of the Sonic fandom have their doubts it'll ever happen, though some will point out that there technically already is another Adventure game in the form of Sonic Unleashed, which was titled Sonic World Adventure in Japan and was originally conceptualized as another installment in the Adventure series before evolving into its own thing. And then there are people who point out that Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) — of all things — is the closest thing there is to a Sonic Adventure 3 (to the point where some fans, such as ClementJ642, believe that it should have outright been called "Sonic Adventure 3"), and given how that game turned out, it is highly unlikely that any future games will use the Adventure gameplay style ever again.
- Super Amy.ExplanationWhen Sonic Origins Plus was announced in late March 2023, one of the collection's major additions was Amy Rose being Promoted to Playable in all four games. The implications behind such a promotion, as three of those games grant each of the playable characters a Golden Super Mode, led to a rise in fan artwork in social media portraying a hypothetical Super form for Amy, as she was the only one of the four main heroes who had yet to go Super at the time.
- "The size of an average human mother."ExplanationThis phrase comes from an infamous video, Top Ten Hottest Female Sonic Character's, as a descriptor for Vanilla the Rabbit. The line stood out among those who've seen the video as particularly odd yet amusing and has become a sure comment to be seen in posts featuring Vanilla, as well as other mother characters in the Sonic franchise.
- Hot chick heavenExplanationNear the beginning of that same video, Guptill89 dubs the world of Sonic the Hedgehog as one full of attractive female characters. The absurdity of the statement combined with the delivery has lead to this label being jokingly used when discussing female Sonic characters.
- Kick/Kick.exeExplanationThis video, featuring a weird lanky Sonic (actually an EXE named Rewrite) kicking Tails while speaking in Japanese and then laughing became viral in 2023, with many reanimating it or translating it in different languages.
- Sonic running from fire. ExplanationThis video of Sonic running from fire set to the song "Paranoia" by KENTENSHI has become a popular reaction video, with people describing it as something like "Me running from the FBI after doing [X]".
- Shadow loves latinas. ExplanationA meme spawning from an edit where Shadow expresses his love for them, which got taken even further after Jehtt made a parody video about his obsession.
- Sonic X Shadow. ExplanationA Crack Pairing variant of Ho Yay pairing the two rival hedgehogs. While it was once a meme, some fans took it more seriously. Would turn out to be Hilarious in Hindsight with the Updated Re-release of Sonic Generations being called Sonic X Shadow Generations, leading to even more memes relating to the ship.
- Silver's missing eyeliner. Explanation An ad for Sonic Forces Mobile showed Silver without the black markings around his eyes, leading to many jokes about how he didn't have time to put on his eyeliner.
Shadow: Yes, but that meme alone is insufficient.