Memes / Death Stranding

It's okay, Kojima.

Being a Hideo Kojima game, receiving Memetic Mutation is a given, with the first teaser being an explosive start by itself.

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Please add entries in the following format:

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

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Pre-release

• Norman Reedus and the Funky Fetus. ^Explanation A Fan Nickname for the game, thanks to the baby's appearance.
  • The baby.
  • Photoshopping the shot of Sam holding the baby close to his chest and sobbing to make it look like he's holding something else, such as a PlayStation 4 or Linkle.
  • Referring to the baby as "Norman Fetus."
  • The cross markings on Sam's stomach have spawned memes, mainly in the department of loss.jpg.
  • Also, let's not forget "Squad Leader Mads and the skeleton lads", and "Gulliermo Del Toro and the baby of tomorrow".
• "A franchise to surpass Metal Gear."^Explanation The scene where the baby disappears from Sam's arms (and its status as a Living MacGuffin which everyone seeks to protect with their lives) led to many jokes about it being symbolic for Kojima's relationship with the Metal Gear franchise, with Sam representing Kojima, the baby representing the Metal Gear series, Del Toro's character and the rest of Bridges representing the fanbase, and Mads Mikkelsen's unnamed villain representing Konami.
  • In line with the missing letters in the logo for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, fans have jokingly theorized that "FUCK YOU KONAMI" is secretly hidden in this game's logo as a response to the company's horrible treatment of Kojima and the Kojima Productions staff during production of that game.
• Deadly Standing.^Explanation A parody of Death Stranding was released on Android around the same month of the game's announcement, developed by "Hodeo Kojumbo." The game was notable for its hilarious description, and most people jokingly gave it good reviews.
  • Everyone knows Kojumbo genius. Therefore, the game is brilliant.^Explanation Part of the game's description.
• Redefining death. ^Explanation Ever since it was said that the game would "redefine death" for the player, jokes have abounded on what this exactly means. Common gag interpretations include people having to murder real life strangers and/or their pets as part of the game, or Kojima personally breaking into the houses of players to kill them if they die in the game.
• The reveal of Mads Mikkelsen's character has many questioning whether it's in his contract that something strange must always happen to his eyes.
• Eat Standing ^Explanation Most of the letters on the poster are dripping a dark liquid. This led to people deciphering the message "Eat Standing" from the game's boxart, similarly to Super Mario Galaxy's boxart spelling out "U R MR GAY" when you look at the letters with twinkling stars on them.
• Kojima is only making the game to hang out with his boyfriend, Mads. ^Explanation A lot of jokes have been made about the Ho Yay between Kojima and Mikkelsen such as how Kojima ended up staring at Mikkelsen for five minutes because he thought he looked so cool, Mikkelsen surprising Kojima with a cake on the latter's birthday, the fact that Kojima nicknamed the stool that Mikkelsen sat on "Mads' Chair", or him talking about how "cool and sexy'' Mikkelsen looked in his interview in Cut. And all this has nothing on Mads appearing as a special guest on an episode of Kojima's Web Video series.
• "you are safe now my sweet child" "i owe you my life"◊, which seems to circulate every time a trailer is released.
• The scene from the Game Awards 2017 trailer where the Baby Norman's trying to protect is literally down his throat drew comparisons to this scene from Xavier: Renegade Angel, claiming Kojima got the idea from here.
  "Spit it out, you animal!"
• Delivery/Hiking/Walking Simulator. ^Explanation A large part of the gameplay trailer at E3 2018 consisted of Sam being a courier that travels across the land in a desolate but beautiful After the End environment, resulting in such remarks. Has also been used negatively against the trailer due to still not showing much in terms of gameplay mechanics.
  • Jokes about Sam being the best deliveryman in the world, with comparisons to Courier Six being made.
  • On a similar note, Sam's job being to transport infants in a Uterine Replicator across the landscape led many people to joke that the product only existed as a setup for a "delivering a baby" pun.
• A Hideo Kojima Game. ^Explanation After the E3 2018 trailer, many fans expressed relief that, after three years, it was confirmed that this is a video game, since every trailer before this one has been entirely cinematic. They've even gone as far as to say that Sony has finally stopped holding their breath since hiring Kojima.
• Many people have joked about how cool Léa Seydoux's jacket in the trailer is, (retractable spikes!) and conversely how totally impractical her umbrella looks.
• Run like hell/Hauling Ass Simulator. ^Explanation When footage showed an enemy siccing a huge monster on Sam, fans responded to the previous complaints about the game being a Walking Simulator by joking that it was actually about running for your life.
  • Ironically, when a trailer first introduced the game's combat mechanics, it started with Sam futilely trying to run from enemies and getting slapped around by them for several seconds.
• Homo demons. ^Explanation The enemy faction Higgs belongs to call themselves Homo demens ("insane man"). In context it makes perfect sense as a spin on the term Homo sapiens, but spoken aloud it sounds a lot like they're saying "homo demons" instead.
• Die-Hardman's name immediately became a trending topic due to how outrageous it was, with many bringing up parallels to Peace Walker's Hot Coldman.
• [Adjective Noun]-Man^Explanation Riffing on the above examples of Anvilicious character names led to people giving other characters similarly cheesy nicknames, whether from Kojima works or otherwise.
• Following the release of every trailer, article, and other news regarding the game, a common reaction is "I still don't know what this game is about." ^Note  Information about the game's story and other content has been deliberately vague, making it nigh-impossible to piece together the plot before release.
• Heartman is AVGN.^Explanation Heartman's costume of being a white dude with close-cropped brown hair, a white dress shirt and glasses, has led more than a few people to compare him to The Angry Video Game Nerd.
• "Rebuilding America isn't gonna get rid of the BTs."
  • "HOW TO KILL BTS" ^Explanation Due to the all-caps banner, the IGN video tips were written as that in the thumbnail. It eventually changed to "HOW TO KILL A BT".
• A widespread social media hoax in Brazil claimed Hideo Kojima is a scientist who's developing actual uterine replicators for future use in Japan's workforce.
• The urinating mechanic has garnered comparisons to the equally strange horse testicles mechanic from Red Dead Redemption 2, like this:
  Rockstar Games: You can see your horse's testicles realistically expand in our game!
  Kojima: Hold my beer.
• The "piss controller".^Explanation There's a limited-edition version of a PS4 console and a controller themed after the game, with the latter being colored a translucent yellow. The controller's color is supposed to emulate the yellow fluid contained within the baby-holding tanks as seen in-game, but many fans interpreted it as a different kind of yellow fluid.
• "The first game isn't even out yet and Kojima Productions has already announced Death Stranding 2: Days To Go!" ^Explanation  A small scale joke that erupted due to a rather poorly designed poster teasing that Death Stranding will be released in two days. The design actually caused some to do a double-take because at a quick glance, the only things that stood out was the Death Stranding logo and a huge number 2.
• Hideo Kojima's harem ^Explanation Norman Reedus, Guillermo del Toro and especially Nicolas Winding Refn tend to use very suggestive wording when talking in interviews about how much they love Kojima and how happy they are to be working with him (things like "I love this guy", "I'll do anything (Kojima) wants", Winding Refn talking about how he "submitted himself to Kojima" when talking about him using his appearance in his game). This, coupled with the suggestive situations their characters are put in in the game, and their seemingly close personal relationships with Kojima that go past strict business, led to some gamers joking that Kojima, Reedus, Del Toro and Winding Refn live in some kind of a polyamorous relationship in which Kojima is the center.

Post-release

• "Perfectly balanced, as all things should be."^Explanation A major gameplay mechanic is keeping Sam balanced and upright to avoid damaging packages, causing some to compare the game to Thanos and his infamous obsession with keeping things "balanced"
• Considering basically all of the major characters and most of the preppers are modeled on real world actors, celebrities, and entertainment figures Kojima knows, many have joked that the game is depicting a post-apocalypse scenario where the only survivors are Kojima's friends.
• Good thing Monster Energy™ survived the apocalypse ^Explanation Despite the fact that the game takes place in an un-unified USA in the future, ravaged by rain that ages what it touches and Eldritch Abominations, apparently Monster Energy has still managed to maintain creation and distribution of their energy drinks, as evidenced by cans of the beverage being in every safe house. This has not gone unnoticed by players, many of whom chide it as hilariously ridiculous.
• "Sam, this is Die-Hardman." Or, alternatively, just "Sam."^Explanation Die-Hardman begins almost all of his Dialog During Gameplay radio transmissions with these phrases, using the exact same inflection.
• Basically anything from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Pizza Delivery" due to the show's Fountain of Memes status and the episode being about SpongeBob being determined against all odds to deliver a pizza, much like with Sam and his packages... and later, pizzas.
• Fuck the Wind Farm ^Explanation The Wind Farm is a location that you hit up pretty early in the game... and also one of the most annoying places to make a delivery to. First of all, it's very out of the way, so any deliveries to it require a sizeable detour off of your route. Second, the terrain is incredibly hostile, requiring you to go up a hill with a strong headwind and through a forest with incredibly uneven terrain. Third, the aforementioned forest is also a BT area that the game bottlenecks you into so you're forced to either sneak past or fight through a BT in order to make any deliveries. All of this leads players to deliberately ignore any deliveries to the wind farm, while also making this one location a major pain in the ass for anyone trying to reach 100% completion

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