Memes / Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The Hero draws near! And so do the salty fans...

EVERY MEME IS HERE!

For a series that is as memetic as it is, Ultimate alone has accrued a vast number of memes that warrant its own page.

Please note, if you wish to add an example here, leave a note or labelnote explaining why it's an example. Zero-Context Examples are not allowed on TV Tropes. Similarly, please try to keep the memes actually related to Ultimate in some way and make sure they're relatively well known already in the community. This page is not for forcing anything you find funny to become a meme.

Memes specific to the competitive scene for the game have their own page.

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General

• The Inkling's eye^ExplanationThe Reveal of Ultimate in the March 8, 2018 teaser came with a fiery Smash logo being reflected in the Inkling Girl's eye. Within hours, people went about inserting other things for the Inkling to gaze in shock at. Alternatively, people began making parodies of the teaser where a different character is gazing at the Smash logo.
• Sm5sh ^ExplanationBack before the subtitle was known to be Ultimate, the game was sometimes jokingly referred to as "Sm5sh" in reference to the previous game being called "Sm4sh", with the obvious joke being that you would expect them to replace one of the S's with the 5.
• THE most ambitious crossover in history. ^ExplanationA meme from Avengers: Infinity War in regards to it being the biggest superhero crossover on film, which is now being applied to Ultimate, due to it bringing back every character ever in the series. Yes, including Snake, the Ice Climbers, and Wolf, as well as the Inklings and Ridley as newcomers, and Daisy as an "echo fighter". Even characters that few people even cared about like Young Link and Pichu. It got even more ambitious with the additions of Simon, Richter, Chrom, Dark Samus, King K. Rool, Isabelle, Ken and Incineroar as fighters, and Joker, four Dragon Quest heroes, Banjo-Kazooie and Terry Bogard were later revealed as DLC characters. Taken to new heights right after Joker's announcement, at which point both Geoff Keighley and Reggie took a crack at this right in front of Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors of Infinity War.
• RIP Shelf ^ExplanationWhen noted video game blogger Etika saw the character reveal video, spotting Solid Snake caused him to leap up and smash one of his shelves (as well as his thumb) in excitement.
• "But I didn't die though, it was a joke" ^ExplanationEditing the gag from JonTron's Space Ace review where he shows a gravestone with his face and the above line on it to display other characters who were absent from previous games but are returning in Ultimate (mostly Snake and Wolf). Others have done the same with the scene from Ridley's introductory trailer where he appears to brutally murder Mario and Mega Man, and later Death taking Luigi's soul in Simon and Richter's trailer, and King K. Rool smacking King Dedede in the former's trailer. Most frequently the last one as Dedede's injuries are by far the least fatal of the group.
• EVERYONE IS HERE!^ExplanationFrom the reveal trailer for Ultimate, celebrating that every fighter from previous games was returning. Some fan videos of the trailer allow characters of all different types of media, such as Jimmy Neutron, Thanos, and others in Smash Ultimate, making fun of the title.
  • "Sakurai, who's gonna be in the new Smash game?" "Everyone." "What do you mean 'everyone'?" "EVERYOOOOOONE!!" ^ExplanationAs soon as the reveal trailer showed that every character ever playable was going to return, fans quickly associated said meme with the game.
  • Everyone is dead!^ExplanationFans took note of the copious amounts of Family-Unfriendly Violence shown in the newcomer trailers, from Mega Man getting stabbed by Ridley's tail to Luigi getting his soul ripped out of him by Death. This has led to many jokes about all the heroes (and King Dedede) being wiped out by the time that the game gets released. This meme became even more memetic thanks to the World of Light trailer which shows almost every character being killed off. Oddly, in spite of being the biggest focus of the meme and their treatment in the character trailers, Mario and Luigi aren't among those obliterated on-screen (though Mario is used to demonstrate to the viewers what the vaporized/captured fighters are being used for).
    • Except for Kirby ^ExplanationAfter the World of Light trailer happened which shows Kirby becoming the Sole Survivor, the "Everybody Is Dead" meme had this to follow.
    • Thanos confirmed for Smash.^ExplanationWith everyone but Kirby falling to Galeem, many people have compared it to the infamous villain.
    • Sakurai pulled a/is Thanos ^ExplanationRelated to the Everyone is Dead meme mentioned above, in which the November 2018 trailer seemingly evisceration of the characters drew similarities to Avengers: Infinity War scene of Thanos wiping out most of the heroes at the end of the movie.
  • Everyone is Sora. ^Explanation Due to Sora being a DLC fighter (even the last), this meme is prone to be imported.
    • Everyone is Xehanort. ^Explanation Thanks to Just A Pancake having Mario be a Xehanort incarnation in his "Everyone is X E H A N O R T" video, this meme is prone for imports as well.
• Ultimate's knockback is like punching a balloon. ^ExplanationThe most common and accurate explanation for how knockback functions in Ultimate, where characters rocket forward at high speed before suddenly stopping.
• Censored menu option ^ExplanationDuring the 8/8/2018 Smash Direct, Nintendo showed a picture of the main menu and the things you could select on it, except for the green button on the bottom left (Spirits mode), which was pixelated to illegibility. Naturally, people began photoshopping their own silly mode selections into the censored menu option.
• Thanks to Ridley being confirmed playable, there are jokes about how Samus is taking the fact that the dragon who killed her parents is going to join her for a friendly battle.
• Captain N reunion ^ExplanationSimon Belmont, Pit, and Mega Man were all teammates in Captain N: The Game Master; the fanbase didn't take long to realize that they were together again. With the TV series having a Legend of Zelda crossover episode, Samus appearing in the Valiant comics and Palutena being the inspiration to Princess Lana, the group is even larger. This also inspired a sub-meme where Smash is revealed to be a decades long project to secretly reboot Captain N.
• The TRUE PlayStation All-Stars ^ExplanationA general response to the fact that Smash Bros. managed to get characters like Solid Snake, Cloud Strife, and Richter Belmont, who are generally associated more with Sony consoles, while Sony's Smash clone, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, didn't include any of them. This also spun off into jokes about how Sony-related characters like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, or Nathan Drake are inevitable additions. This was also referenced when Sakurai revealed the new stage morph mechanic and Final Smash meter in Ultimate, which was somewhat similar to PlayStation All-Stars's level invasion gimmick and super meter, respectively. This was only heightened when Sony announced a PlayStation Classic, set to launch 4 days before Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, even made more hilarious considering that both Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII were confirmed to be on it. The meme was somehow made even more relevant with the DLC addition of Joker, a character from Sony's mainstay Persona series that also had no reps in PlayStation All-Stars, in addition to Sephiroth, the main antagonist of the aforementioned Final Fantasy VII. The relevance was made much stronger when Tekken received a proper playable representative with Kazuya Mishima, especially when knowing his father Heihachi (along with Raiden from Metal Gear) was originally a part of the aforementioned Sony crossover. Not only that, but both Tekken 3 and Revelations Persona were a part of the aforementioned PlayStation Classic as well, to further highlight their significance to Sony's gaming history more than Nintendo's. Finally, the meme hit its apex when Sora was revealed, as the Kingdom Hearts series debuted on the PlayStation 2 and its main installments had began life as PlayStation exclusives prior to spinning off to other platforms.
  • Xbox reps soon ^ExplanationConsidering the hype that Sony's characters got when they were introduced to the Nintendo giant, some joked Microsoft wouldn't even bother with making an "Xbox All-Stars" game and would just send their characters to the next Smash, rounding out the modern Console War trinity in the process. This then became Hilarious in Hindsight when Banjo and Kazooie (who have been owned by Microsoft since 2002 and used to have games on Nintendo consoles) were confirmed to be DLC for Ultimate, as well as Steve and Alex (along with Zombie and Enderman, all of which have been owned since 2014).
  • Capcom vs. SNK 4 confirmed. ^Explanation As Ryu, Ken and Terry are all in the same game again, fans of the Capcom vs. SNK series joke that with Akuma and Geese's inclusion in Tekken 7 technically being Capcom vs. SNK 3, Ultimate has turned into CvS4. Squad Strike mode even allows all three of them to fight together in a rotation, just like they did more than a decade ago.
• Joke Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tiers ^ExplanationThere's a tier list maker online for Ultimate. People have used this to put characters in all kinds of random lists unrelated to tiers or fighting in general, like how they would act at Christmas, how they would eat a Kit-Kat, or how they make money◊, or even things unrelated to the characters themselves like how much their mains complain about their character not being good enough.
• Chairs ^ExplanationFollowing the 8/8/18 Nintendo Direct, parts of the fandom, for whatever reason, latched on to the two yellow and purple chairs in the background behind Sakurai◊ and began creating theories based around said chairs, such as suggesting that Waluigi will be playable after all or that they're hinting at Skull Kid (as they, coincidentally or not, share the same colors as the fairies Tatl and Tael). The chairs are often treated as a symbol of the fanbase's tendency to find hints toward new playable characters in even the most ridiculous of places or constantly twisting the words that anybody at Nintendo (much less Sakurai) says into hints at new characters and features for Smash. Even after the game came out and proved all theories regarding the chairs wrong, people still unironically tried to find connections to game content with the chairs (such as saying that they were hinting at Galeem and Dharkon), which quickly turned the chairs into a Discredited Meme. Though to be fair, the entire reason that it started was because in the previous Direct, a variety of barrels and the like were in the room with Sakurai, looking very Donkey Kong-esque, with K. Rool being revealed in the following trailer. This led the fans to think that the chairs in the following Direct hinted at Skull Kid, Shantae, or even Waluigi—if they hinted at anyone, it would have been Isabelle, as she was in the following Direct and creating a furnished house is part of Animal Crossing.
• Sad Tom Nook ^ExplanationThe trailer announcing Isabelle for Smash (in the Direct cut, at least) ends with Tom Nook watching the video in the dark, before his computer turns off, leaving him in the dark. He then turns on his desk light and turns to the viewer, all with the same Perpetual Frowner-like expression he usually has. This was of course to announce Animal Crossing for Switch, but the Reaction Image potential was just too strong for people to ignore. The scene got memed within seconds.
  • Tom Nook Died Inside^ExplanationIsabelle's trailer, understandably, doesn't include any deaths or violence, unlike the previous reveal trailers. Fans still joke that it was Nook's spirit that was the death for that trailer, mainly by not being in Smash himself (outside of both Villager's and Isabelle's Final Smash, of course).
  • Tom Nook joined Smash Bros! ^ExplanationOn the day Isabelle was revealed as a fighter for Ultimate, the official Animal Crossing Twitter account, which at the time was controlled by Isabelle, posted a tweet celebrating their inclusion. After the Animal Crossing Direct of February 2020 however, the Animal Crossing Twitter account changed management to Tom Nook, causing the tweet (and therefore the whole 'Sad Tom Nook' meme) to become Hilarious in Hindsight.
• Isabelle and Cloud ^ExplanationWhen Isabelle was added to the "Everyone Is Here" artwork, many people noticed how awkward it was◊ to have the extremely peppy dog Isabelle next to the very morose and serious Cloud Strife.
  • Sephiroth and Pichu ^ExplanationHistory repeated itself when another Final Fantasy VII character was placed near another cutesy yellow character.
• The Grinch Leak/How The Grinch Leaked Smash Bros. ^ExplanationA very detailed "leak" from a French marketing firm purported to show an extended version of the "Everyone Is Here!" illustration on a banner made the rounds around September-October 2018, featuring Ken, Shadow, Isaac, Geno, Mach Rider, the Chorus Kids, and Banjo and Kazooie. It also featured yet-unseen promotional renders for Illumination's The Grinch in the background, which many have seen as adding to their credibility. From there it became a joke to say that the Grinch himself was the leaker. Ultimately, however, the leak was revealed fake with the November 1, 2018 Nintendo Direct, as Ken did make it in, but Incineroar was revealed as the only other base fighter left. The leak itself, though, could be considered Hilarious in Hindsight (see below).
  • Alternatively, after the November 1st Direct, the meme soon became "How the Grinch Duped Everyone" or "How the Grinch Stole the Hype". ^ExplanationAs said, the leak was ultimately proven fake thanks to the Direct. Considering just how much effort was put into it, though, many people believed it was really legitimate. Unsurprisingly, people also became disappointed that it wasn't real.
  • The Grinch isn't in Smash, you guys! ^ExplanationA common misconception about the leak among people who hadn't seen it and had only heard the name was that the Grinch himself was being added into the game, which is simply not the case.
  • #TeamReal and #TeamFake ^ExplanationIn the weeks between the leak and the Nintendo Direct, there were just as many people supporting the leak being real as there were those who disproved it, to the point where teams were formed around them. Ultimately, #TeamFake was the winner.
  • The Grinch and Piranha Plant were in cahoots. ^ExplanationDue to the aforementioned hype theft, combined with the last character revealed for the Direct being the oddball pick that is the Piranha Plant, people commonly joked that the plant was in on the Grinch's plot to steal the fans' hype, adding to its Memetic Troll status.
  • The Grinch Leak survivors. ^ExplanationOut of all the characters that were seemingly confirmed by the Grinch Leak, only Ken ended up getting revealed as a playable character in the base roster, with Shadow and Isaac being assist trophies and Geno, Mach Rider and the Chorus Kids all ending up as spirits. The only implicated characters not to be in the game in some capacity were Banjo & Kazooie; come E3 2019, and it was confirmed that the bear and bird were coming to Ultimate as part of the first Fighters Pass DLC pack. Inevitably, jokes about Ken, Banjo and Kazooie surviving the Grinch Leak, or the latter two coming Back from the Dead got made. This image◊ compares it with the ending of Stardust Crusaders.
• Two songs. ^ExplanationIt has not gone unnoticed among fans that compared to every other third party franchise, Final Fantasy is very barebones in representation. While Cloud speaking Japanese has an explanation, other factors, like there only still being two songs, avoiding namedrops to other Final Fantasy characters or elements even more than For 3DS & Wii U, and the only Final Fantasy spirits being Cloud as depicted within Smash in both styles — not even the Summons already in the game — make fans less forgiving of Square Enix. The chant of "ONLY TWO SONGS" is a very common outcry whenever Cloud or Midgar is mentioned in Smash. Sakurai even subtly got in on the action during the demonstration for the Hero. The meme fell out of use once Sephiroth was announced as a DLC fighter, bringing 9 more songs, 4 of them being remixes.
  • Stingy Square Enix. ^ExplanationAnother common way to criticize Square's lack of cooperation is "stingy". This resurged when the Dragon Quest heroes were confirmed, and their reveal trailer had, just like Cloud's, two songs, no remixes, and Japanese voice clips. While this doesn't completely rule out more music, the fact that all Dragon Quest music is legally owned by the rather... contentious Koichi Sugiyama does not inspire much confidence. Thankfully, come the demonstration for the Hero, it turned out Dragon Quest would be getting more music and spirits after all (though all the Heroes still only have Japanese voice actors, there are still only two songs per game represented (with the main Overture being reduced to a victory fanfare), and those songs are pre-existing MIDI remixes without any new ones created for Smash). Of course, once it was revealed that Final Fantasy's content, especially music, was distributed between several different copyright holders, the extent to which Square Enix was actually stingy has been thrown into question.
• One official picture◊ showing Inkling happily and somewhat mischievously smiling as Young Link drinks Lon Lon Milk inspired many jokes that she slipped something into the milk. Either that, or she just really wants that milk.
• RIP Mario Bros. ^ExplanationThe brothers have a tendency to die during character trailers: Mario gets his neck broken by Ridley in the E3 2018 presentation and gets trapped in a Creeper-filled cave in Steve's trailer, while Luigi gets his soul ripped out by Death in the August 2018 Direct. Sephiroth's trailer implies that Mario was impaled, only to reveal Sephiroth only hit the space between Mario's overall straps and body.
  • "Luigi is okay" ^ExplanationA tweet from one of Nintendo's Twitter accounts trying to get on top of the aforementioned meme stressed that "Luigi is okay", which many fans took as a case of Of Corpse He's Alive and inadvertently became memetic in its own right.
  • "What a horrible night to be Luigi." ^ExplanationThe Signature Line from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is frequently repurposed to refer to Luigi's plight during Simon's reveal trailer.
• DK's and Diddy's Jaw Drop and Eye Pop during the early parts of the King K. Rool trailer became very popular "reaction image/.gif" fodder mere hours after the trailer was released.
  • People showing up outside Donkey Kong's house.^ExplanationBoth King K. Rool and Banjo & Kazooie's trailers involve someone disguising themselves as the revealed character plus the Kongs' reaction to it, leading to jokes about other potential characters showing up outside DK's house (a popular one involves the Kongs going back to sleep when it turns out to be a Fire Emblem character).
• Several members of the fandom have posted videos of the K. Rool reveal trailer, only having the DK characters' and Dedede's grunts replaced by their voices from the Donkey Kong Country and Kirby: Right Back at Ya! cartoons.
• "They'll never get in" Crew ^ExplanationWithin the Smash fandom, there's four characters who have massive popularity and fan requests behind them, but for one reason or another were expected to not be added by most people; Ridley (for the infamous "too big" meme), King K. Rool (for being "outdated" and having not appeared in-person in a game for upwards of a decade), Banjo & Kazooie (for being owned by Microsoft), and Geno (for Square Enix's presumed stinginess, the Mario series developers' desires to stay within its own boundaries, and the "fanrule" that being a spirit means a character can't be made playable). When King K. Rool was announced as joining the roster, memes of him regrouping with Ridley and the two celebrating together became incredibly popular◊. Once Banjo and Kazooie were announced at E3 2019, they also joined back up with the other duo in artworks. Geno is the only one of these four to not be playable yet, although his costume from Smash 4 made a return alongside Sephiroth.
• Adjustable Echo Fighter Selection ^ExplanationAn image showing that the character selection screen can be set so that Echo Fighters occupy the same spot as their base has attracted edits where both the main fighter and the echo fighter in the corner are replaced, either for the sake of a pun (such as Cloud Strife and Randall the cloud from the Yoshi's Story stage here), to jokingly claim two characters are similar (such as Ness and Sans here◊), or to show characters one would like in the game (such as Hat Kid and Bow Kid here◊).
• #BoxGate ^ExplanationWhen somebody pointed out that the special edition box has all the characters arranged in a way that, after Isabelle, left only two characters left to be revealed (which was later proved accurate: two more characters were all that were left on the base roster at that point, who fit among the other characters in precisely the way the box suggested), many people were quick to argue against it because of how it seemed to go against everything they were speculating about. The discussion around the theory got so rampant that people started to make fun of the situation.
• X Theory ^ExplanationBoxGate also went by the name of Box Theory, paving the way for a number of wild theories such as Blog Theory (trying to determine the number of newcomers by looking at the rate fighters appear on the blog against the game's release date), Music Theory (trying to determine the number of new franchises by looking at the weekly music with the logic of each franchise having just one track on the blog), Smashdown Theory (the total number of fighters is a multiple of 12 so every fighter gets played in Smashdown with any number of players up to four), etc. All of these and more, besides Box Theory, were Jossed at one point or another before release.
• Isabellemont ^ExplanationA punny portmanteau name for Isabelle (her English name at least) that combines it with "Belmont" and is associated with fan-art that puts her in a Castlevania context.
• Kirby has to defeat an Eldritch Abomination by himself for the 100th time/Not This Shit Again/Kirby's Slightly Unusual Thursday. ^ExplanationDue to most Kirby final bosses being some kind of Eldritch Abomination, a lot of people have been saying that, since Kirby is the only one left in World Of Light after everyone else got taken out, it's nothing new to him. Some even joked that Sakurai tricked them into buying another Kirby game just after they finished playing Star Allies.
• After the "World of Light" trailer came out, the fanbase had a field day with creating various scenes in which unsuspecting characters (such as the aforementioned Tom Nook) are hit by the light or comparing the scene to other, more humorous scenes, such as the chase scene in SpongeBob SquarePants' "Texas" with Patrick being hit by the light instead of being grappled.
• Adding music to this commercial for Ultimate. ^ExplanationMany fans took note of the fact the "More Fighters. More Battles. More Fun." trailer lacked scoring, and took it upon themselves to find compositions to fill it in, such as the game's two themes, one that used Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now", and one that used The Turtles' "Happy Together" (which was used in a famous commercial for Smash 64). It's essentially the inverse of Guile's theme, as that's a song that goes with every scene, while this trailer is a scene that goes with every song, including Guile's theme.
• Super Smash Bros Ultimate really is something special, man.
  In what other game can you have a 4 man match where Cloud, Joker, Mario and Sonic face off, with pokeballs and assist trophies going off left and right, despite those 4 players all searched for 1v1 no items.
  Amazing. ^ExplanationA tweet by competitive Smash player William "Leffen" Hjelte, summing up the problems players had with Quickplay in Ultimate's launch week with an epic Bait-and-Switch.
• Nintendo has no chill ^{Explanation (spoilers)}Spirits fights tend to have references that fit a character. Several of the Spirit Fights in World of Light end up being a little too far. The biggest example is Paz Ortega Andrade having a Bob-omb equipped, which is a reference to her death due to a bomb planted inside her. Another example is how Lucas's mom is easy to launch (referencing her death). Aside from Spirits, there's also Cloud and Zelda recreating Aerith's death scene in Cloud's picture for challenge mode.
• "Well, at least they're with us in Spirit." ^ExplanationA joke regarding characters who weren't picked as fighters or Assist Trophies (such as Geno or Shantae) and are only "in the game" in a sense by way of the spirits in World of Light.
• Hypothetical Ultimate DLC character memes:
  • Porky is a lamp. ^ExplanationPorky Minch from the Mother series is completely absent in Ultimate despite being the series' main antagonist, which lead to the speculation that he would eventually be added to the game later as a DLC. To counter this argument, other people noted that the Lamp (the tutorial enemy from EarthBound Beginnings) was also missing and thus ironically claimed that it would be playable as well. This led to the off-the-wall theory that this enemy actually was Porky the whole time through spacetime shenanigans, as the lamp bears Porky's blue face and grin.
  • BFF Sylux and Adeleine. ^ExplanationTwo other characters missing from the game are Sylux from the Metroid series and Adeleine from the Kirby series. After this was noticed, these two characters were then often paired together as an Adventure Duo to play on the contrast of cute and innocent Ado trying to calm down Sylux's Unstoppable Rage against the Federation (often expressed by Atomic F-Bomb).
  • Geno and Doom Slayer ^ExplanationIn November of 2019, a supposed leak of Mallow and Cacodemon Mii Fighter hats led to people assuming Geno and Doom Slayer were in the works as DLC. Similarly to Ridley and King K. Rool, this led to people depicting the duo as◊ very◊ close◊ friends◊.
  • Isabelle and Doom Slayer^ExplanationDue to Doom Slayer being a popular request for Super Smash Bros, and his latest game so far being released on the same day as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, people have quickly latched onto the idea of the big, burly demon killer either hanging out with Isabelle, the two buying each other's games at launch, or even the two switching roles. The reveal of Doom Slayer as a Mii Fighter costume has caused fans to express joy as it is finally possible in a way for the two to team up.
  • Silver confirmed ^ExplanationIn Pokémon Gold and Silver, Silver is referred to as ??? before given an actual name. The preview of Challenger Pack 5's presentation also refers to it as ???, leading to jokes about Silver.
  • Geno, Shantae, Rayman, and Bandana Waddle Dee ^ExplanationOf the characters in Ultimate who were reduced to Spirits, these four are some of the most popular requests to become playable characters. As such, after Min Min got into Ultimate and proved that Spirits can be Promoted to Playable, it became common practice to group these four together as friends with renewed hope that they could join the fight. Geno, ended up deconfirmed within months, as his Mii Costume from Smash 4 has made a return alongside a playable Sephiroth. Shantae followed suit once a brand-new Mii costume was introduced alongside Kazuya. As for Rayman and Bandana Waddle Dee, they never got anything beyond their Spirits (unless the Rabbid hat counts for Rayman).
  • The Number 7 ^ExplanationThe number 7 has become synonymous with Geno during DLC speculation, due to his origin game's subtitles being "Legend of the Seven Stars" and him possibly being Fighter #77. Thanks to Min Min allowing the possibility of spirits being Promoted to Playable, speculation for Geno, already a highly speculated character due to being highly requested, has increased dramatically. Because of this, people have poked fun of Geno fans by depicting them overreacting to the number 7, such as having them believe he would be revealed on July 7th and the existence of an in-game notification of having played 7777 matches. May officially be a Discredited Meme now that the 7th fighter has officially been revealed to be Steve.
• High energy! Move that body! ^ExplanationOne of the predefined messages you can send at the start of an online match is this, based on Wii Fit Trainer. However, many people have this as a message despite them having no relation to the character, or possibly even not caring about them, just because it's silly.
• Waluigi is in the game, and so is Waluigi, and Waluigi, and Waluigi, and Waluigi...^ExplanationWhen the Isabelle Infinite Assist Trophy glitch was discovered, the first thing most people proceeded to show with it was Isabelle summoning an army of Waluigis to curbstomp the other Isabelle. This has since been patched out.
  • & Knuckles & Knuckles & Knuckles & Knuckles & Knuckles & Knuckles...^ExplanationAn extension of the "& Knuckles" meme in his home series, this glitch is also possible with the Knuckles assist trophy, allowing you to summon an army of Knuckles.
• Merida made it into Smash ^ExplanationA datamine shows data files for three DLC fighters, with one of them labeled "fighter_kind_brave", which turned out to be the Dragon Quest Hero(es). Before the reveal, some fans began joking that the protagonist of the animated movie with the same name got into Smash.
• #ProjectWendy ^ExplanationOn New Year's Day of 2019, as a prank, dozens of Super Smash Bros-related gaming channels uploaded videos all about Wendy O. Koopa the Koopaling; touting her as the most OP character in Ultimate. The fanbase (after mass confusion) collectively shrugged and ran with it.
• Inkling enfile son gilet jaune !^TranslationInkling puts her yellow vest on !^ExplanationDue to the "Gilets Jaunes" protest movement in France, Inkling Girl's Palette Swap became popular there in (sincere or ironic) support to the movement.
• Ring A Ding ^ExplanationMany fans noted that the song Ring A Ding from Style Savvy, which can be played on any "Other" series stage, is... not a very appropriate battle song (especially if characters like Ganondorf, Ridley or Sephiroth appear on said stages with that song). As a result, the song has became slightly memetic in some circles.
• jpeg/png ^ExplanationWhen discussing the potential of spirits getting Promoted to Playable, this is often used as shorthand to make fun of the idea that still images could possibly be seen as disconfirming fighters, seeing as Lucas and Mewtwo having entire 3D models in For 3DS/Wii U didn't stop them from getting into that game.
• Goku did get into Smash Bros.! ^ExplanationAside from Lucario sharing Goku's English VA as noted above, one of the spirits you can obtain in the game is "Goku and Chao" from Famicom Mukashibanashi: Yūyūki or Famicom Fairytales: Yūyūki, which was a game for the Famicom Disk System and is based on the Chinese literary classic Journey to the West. Both Gokus (this game and the one of Dragon Ball Z fame) are based on The Monkey King. This meme resurged when it was revealed that four heroes from the Dragon Quest series would be included as DLC characters, since Akira Toriyama does character designs for both franchises.
• Yoshikage Kira confirmed.^ExpanationBack when the game was getting datamined, Galeem's Japanese name was found to be Kiira, which means Killer in Japan, and the Smash website in Japan had a clip of the trailer playing backwards just like how 'Bites the Dust' works. In addition to that, the Final Destination theme plays in reverse halfway through the song. As such, people made jokes about how Kira was going to be the last DLC character for the game. It got brought up again after Sephiroth's reveal, as Kira and Sephiroth are both voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa in Japanese.
• Regarding Stage Builder:
  • Time to remake Poké Floats. ^ExplanationThe much more in-depth Stage Builder added to Ultimate in 3.0.0 includes things like moving platforms. Cue people announcing intent to rebuild the infamously ridiculous stage.
  • RIP Stage Builder in Ultimate (4/18/2019 - 4/18/2019)/Stage Builder was a mistake^ExplanationKnowing why we can't have nice things, no less than a day after the update, players have quickly made some very...crude and questionable stages as well as downright explicit and offensive content. Jokes have been made that Sakurai and the Smash team will promptly remove Stage Builder or never feature it in a game ever again. Most of the infamous and offending stages have been removed since then.
    • "(Let's Hit the) Climax!" ^ExplanationThe most notorious stage which is a crude drawing of a man and a woman having sex doggystyle. And yes, they move... It's especially notorious for using the aforementioned theme from Bayonetta.
    • "September"^ExplanationA stage that is based on the September 11th attacks with planes crashing into the buildings.
    • "Mario Pissing"^ExplanationA meme that spawned from a bizarre video of Mario taking a piss. Notably, all the variations use Symbol Swearing (p***, s***, etc.) to get past the game's profanity check.
• The Jiggy that broke the internet.^ExplanationBanjo and Kazooie's reveal trailer was kicked off with a familiar little puzzle piece bouncing across the screen. Cue countless live reaction videos showcasing the channel owner/owners absolutely squeeing the moment it appeared, knowing full well what it meant.
• Nintendo DLC selection privileges reinstated^ExplanationAfter the flame wars that broke out over Nintendo selecting Corrin to add as a DLC character in Smash 4, everyone was wary when Sakurai announced that Nintendo made the list of characters Sakurai could pick to make into DLCs for this game, fearing that all of them would be similarly there to promote upcoming games (notably, nearly everyone was expecting a Fire Emblem: Three Houses character). Cue the unexpected, but quickly memetic Piranha Plant, the out-of-nowhere Joker, the massive-in-Japan Heroes, and especially the highly requested Banjo & Kazooie changing everyone's tune... Then Sakurai dropped the Three Houses character on us!
• 8000 hours of coaching hell ^ExplanationOn June 9th of 2019, 2 days before Nintendo's E3 presentation, competitive Smash player Mason "Locus" Charlton made a tweet: "if banjo gets announced for smash on tuesday i’ll give everyone that retweets this tweet a free hour of coaching [2 line breaks] it’s not happening". Unfortunately for Locus, he didn't seem to have noticed the increasing amicable relations between Nintendo and Microsoft, Microsoft having Nintendo's E3 Direct on their own schedule, or the fact that several prominent leakers were all in agreement that the duo's appearance was incoming. Naturally, this bet then proceeded to blow up in his face, with him panicking as soon as the heroes vs. villains pictures showed up. While everyone else was joyous over Banjo and Kazooie's triumphant return, Locus had his DMs blown up on the spot with people coming in to claim their hours. To his credit, after the initial shock wore off, he took it like a champ and started looking forward to giving help to all those who retweeted him.
• September 12th. New Smash character reveal. Female character. She's not a demanded character and will disappoint and confuse a lot of people. That is all.◊^ExplanationAn anonymous 4chan post made on August 25th, 2019. Cue fans posting a screenshot of the original post alongside one of the following: their most-wanted-for-Smash female character, who they believe it will be, or a complete joke choice to Troll people. The post turned out to be a lie, as Terry Bogard is not (normally) a female.
• Square Enix, Microsoft, Atlus, SNK, H??? ^ExplanationThe first four companies to make it into Ultimate's Fighters Pass Vol. 1 can be rearranged to form the word "Smas": Square Enix's Hero, Microsoft's Banjo & Kazooie, Atlus's Joker, and SNK's Terry Bogard. This resulted in a meme theory where people pull a company that starts with H, serious or not, and pick a character from their repertoire in order to make the company names spell out "Smash". Popular candidates for this are anyone from Humongous Entertainment, HAL Laboratory, and House House's Horrible Goose. Ultimately jossed when the fifth character was revealed to be Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, as none of the companies involved with that game (Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, Koei Tecmo) start with H, though people have jokingly connected it with Three Houses or "Hoes mad" (see the Byleth section in the Characters folder above).
• Character mashups ^ExplanationA derivative of both the "Bayonetta's legs" and "Terry's legs" memes above, eventually people started making all sorts of strange characters by adding traits from one to another. Examples include Yoshi as Pac-Man◊, Joker and Arsene as Duck Hunt◊, Banjo and Kazooie as Duck Hunt◊, Donkey Kong and Falco as Banjo and Kazooie◊, and Rosalina and Luma as Joker and Arsene.
• Future Smash memes.^ExplanationIn mid-October of 2019, a number of Twitter users started posting various memes referring to hypothetical future content for Ultimate — usually DLC fighters, ranging from plausible and/or highly-requested characters (like Doomguy, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sora^note who are a Mii Costume, Assist Trophy, and playable character, respectively) to humorous, much less likely picks (including Goku, AiAi, and Reimu). Several of these revolve around hypothetical cutscenes for a successor to the Subspace Emissary, another highly-requested feature.
• ah gottem ggs ^ExplanationA meme that makes fun of people who always rely on cheesy ledgetraps (whether simple, effective, both, or neither), all drawn with intentionally poor art. Examples include Samus◊, Luigi◊, Ness◊, Mr. Game & Watch◊, Lucas◊, Robin◊, Shulk◊, and Joker◊. This has only gotten more prevalent with Steve, who has multiple ways to edgeguard the player, the most infamous being his blocks.
• Every leak is dead! ^ExplanationNovember of 2019 was one of the first times since the November 2018 Smash Direct where the Smash fanbase had no info to anticipate; none of the identities of the upcoming DLCs were known, none of the dates of any upcoming presentations were known, and everyone had assumed that the next reveal wouldn't happen until The Game Awards 2019 (though this was disproven by the Awards passing by with no info), which weren't until December 12th, so as a result of the dearth of knowledge, the days were spent speculating who the next fighter could be based on all manner of theories. Several "leaks" came out during this time, claiming that everyone from Geno to Crash Bandicoot to Gordon Freeman to Dante was the fifth member in the first Fighters Pass. However, unlike most leaks, which get to exist and be discussed for a bit before eventually being proven right or wrong by new info, noted leakers began squashing all of these within the weeks they started growing; most notably, Dante's leak didn't even last half a day before getting shot down. Several companies also got disconfirmed during this time, including Bandai Namco Entertainment, Level-5, Nippon Ichi, and Ubisoft. When Resident Evil was announced to be getting Spirits on November 26th of 2019, many began joking that Nintendo was just going to start disconfirming characters and stopping speculation themselves, rather than waiting on the leakers. The massive amount of disconfirmations as to who the fifth member in the first Fighters Pass could be led to everyone comparing it to the Thanos snap or Galeem's lasers, due to characters never getting thrown out of the running so fast in any speculation period prior. Ultimately came to a head when the fifth fighter was revealed to be Byleth, meaning that every potential speculation on who the new fighter could be, at least for the time being, was crushed in one go.
• The Altaïr/Vault Boy/Travis/Doom Slayer/etc. series.^Explanation A particularly odd form of Bowdlerization noticed on the US trailers for Mii costumes featuring M-rated series is that the titles for their games were replaced by the name of the main character instead. Naturally, this resulted in many fans saying that they enjoy playing Altaïr IV Black Flag or Vault Boy: New Vegas. Doom is especially notable as it was even censored in Nintendo of Europe's presentation. What makes Doom's censorship even more hilarious is that despite the penchant of using character names in place of franchise names since 2020, the name of the franchise is still in the Doom Slayer's name.
• Thumbs up Ken ^ExplanationIn September 2018, before Ken was revealed, an image leaked online showing him performing his thumbs up taunt on Moray Towers. Later, in November 2019, another image appeared showing Ken performing the same taunt next to unrevealed Mii costumes of Mallow and a Cacodemon on Yggdrasil's Altar. People started joking that a leak is fake unless it contains Ken doing a thumbs up, which resulted in Ken being photoshopped into any image that could be construed as a leak, with a Twitter account being dedicated to the joke.
• Six additional fighters will join the battle! ^Explanation"Mr. Sakurai Presents "Byleth"" elaborated on Fighters Pass Vol. 2 DLC characters for the first time, and included a picture of six envelopes, for Challenger Packs 6 through 11. The establishing shot of this was naturally perfect for people to edit in their own preferred picks, or a series of related picks for the sake of a joke. Some used it to jab at Fire Emblem by saying◊ all six◊ would be reps from that series, and others joked that the pass would contain other notable groups from other games. Some◊ used it to be punny instead.
• 7.0.0 patch notes:
  • I changed the angle of the squirt. ^ExplanationThe 7.0.0 patch notes weren't released in English for more than an hour after the update was released, leading to people going to Nintendo's Japanese site and running the patch notes through Google Translate. One of the changes made to Ryu and Ken was described as this, leading to several jokes, from the Accidental Innuendo types, to saying that Ryu and Ken were somehow connected to Squirtle.
  • Made the lips briefly invincible after deactivating shield. ^ExplanationMany characters received minor buffs to shield size or invincibility on certain parts of their body in the notes (such as Donkey Kong's head and Diddy Kong's arm when deactivating shield, and Snake's head when activating shield), but one of them was notable for how ridiculous it sounded with no context: Piranha Plant's lips being made briefly invincible when it puts its shield down.
• The fighter included in wave six of the paid Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC will BE... ^ExplanationThe announcement of Fighters Pass Volume 2's first member started seeing edits to add different characters after this statement almost immediately.
• But Rex was too late? ^ExplanationWhen Byleth was revealed, some ended up confused not by them, but by Rex; he was specifically made a Mii Swordfighter costume because his game came out too late for him to be in Ultimate, but Byleth, whose game released after Xenoblade Chronicles 2, managed to get in. This meme returned in March 2020 once ARMS was announced to be the universe that the first member of Fighters Pass Volume 2 was coming from, as Sakurai said the base game's character planning ended before ARMS was released, and the series was represented in the base game by other content (5 spirits, 2 Mii costumes, and an Assist Trophy of Spring Man) before getting a fighter anyway. Finally died in February 2021; while Rex himself is still not playable, he acts as an assist character to the true Xenoblade 2 representatives, Pyra and Mythra.
• Everyone hates everyone ^ExplanationWithin the online community and especially within the subreddit r/smashrage, every character on the roster has some group of people that hates them for things such as unique abilities and skills no other character has, That One Attack within a character's moveset that many despise, unattractive playstyles heavily associated with certain characters, any scale of either High-Tier Scrappy or Low-Tier Letdown (or in some cases, a low tier character that someone insists on secretly being broken), and/or just simply existing in the game at all (especially in regards to highly-demanded characters that have yet to be added). Discrimination based on any of these factors is very common within the community, to the point where if you look up something like a compilation of people raging at the game in tournaments, most of the comments will consist of people relishing in the frustration of those in the video, due to the commenters not liking whatever character the ragers were playing in their respective clip. This naturally led to jokes exaggerating this by claiming nobody in the community actually likes any character, and that the only way to make the game "fair" is to remove the entire roster from it.
• The Spirit fanrule is dead! ^ExplanationOne of the most popular fanrules, i.e. rules that many fans assume as fact: due to the lore stating that Spirits were characters that lost their bodies due to Galeem's attack, people were quick to assume that the Spirit collectibles, unlike trophies in 3DS/Wii U, actually disconfirmed characters by their mere presence. This was a hotly debated topic until Min Min was revealed in late June of 2020, which fully debunked the rule that Spirits couldn't get in and gave people hope that their favorite characters already represented by Spirits, such as Geno, Shantae, Rayman, and Bandana Waddle Dee, could still make it.
• Small Battlefield ^ExplanationOn August 4th, 2020, the stage in question was shadowdropped; a smaller Battlefield with only two platforms and a smaller blast zone. People started memeing it right out the gate due to how random and insignificant its addition was, especially since 8-Player Smash can still be held on the stage.
  • Keep believing that this map is legit ^ExplanationA tweet from competitive Smash player Vitch mocked people who believed Small Battlefield should be competitively legal by showing a supposed combo where Mario down-throws R.O.B., follows with two up airs, and KOs R.O.B. off of the top blast zone with down air, all of this starting with R.O.B. at 23% damage. It quickly came out that this situation could not happen in a competitive game as depicted, as the launch rate was set to 1.3 instead of 1.0, but the original tweet quickly resulted in two activities. Either discussions on whether Vitch was simply making a joke or trying to manipulate the fanbase into banning the stage because of a supposed fear of new factors in competitive play, or people mocking it by claiming Small Battlefield shouldn't be legal for reasons that are more obviously jokes, such as Villager being able to kill King Dedede with a Home-Run Bat at 32% after burying him with down smash, or Donkey Kong being able to stock Bowser at 0% by equipping a Lightweight-trained Shaymin (Sky Forme) spirit along with 3 Lightweight spirits, grabbing Bowser, and jumping off the top of the screen and throwing him upwards.
• "This is a real game."/"Imagine showing this to someone X years ago."^ExplanationMany people have made social media posts using one of the mentioned phrases, juxtaposed by a screenshot of Ultimate with one or several of its many Guest Fighters, or simply the character select screen, to show how many different franchises have been included in the game and how it continues to "wow" fans with each new character added. It's become incredibly common to see such kinds of posts on social media sites such as Twitter, especially very close after a new character's reveal. It reached quite the peak after Steve's reveal because of how much of an Unexpected Character he was, to the point where many people have decided to parody or simply take the piss at such posts. Examples include comically declaring that such posters essentially race each other to make said posts first, and showing the game to ancient cavemen who don't care about it and proceed to beat the person senseless.
• "Another Anime Swordsman?!"^ExplanationA term used by fans when a character that fights with a sword is added, as with very few exceptions like Meta Knight and Toon Link, they usually have an Animesque appearance and hail from Japanese role-playing games. It was originally used to refer to just about any playable Fire Emblem character due to the franchise's high representation in the game with currently eight playable characters, but it has expanded out of that field because of the inclusion of the Dragon Quest Hero, Sephiroth, and Pyra & Mythra.
  • Cereal Box Mascot/Cartoon Animal/Scrimblo Bimblo^Explanation Derogatory terms used against Funny Animal and Cartoon Creature characters that come from platformers, stemming from how fans who complain about anime swordsmen tend to prefer these kinds of characters in the game instead, making their complaints about the roster becoming oversaturated with reps from one genre ironic. "Scrimblo Bimblo" in particular comes from a now suspended viral Tweet◊ mocking such fans, and even saw a fair amount of fanart portraying it as an actual character.
    • Sora's inclusion and the handshake between him and Mario led to many considering it a final reconciliation between the Scrimblo Bimblo and Popular McJRPGGuy crowds as well. Also helped by Sora's design, as well as the design of Kingdom Hearts in general, being a blend of both Square Enix and Disney styles.
• The Big Bad Bosses Reunion ^ExplanationSeveral prominent gaming YouTubers and composers created a concept album based around a boy band formed by prominent video game villains. After Sephiroth's reveal, it's been joked that one of the final characters in the second DLC season is going to end up being Dr. Eggman to round out the band's representation in the game alongside Ganondorf and Bowser being mainstay veterans.
• What about Azurda? ^ExplanationPyra/Mythra’s stage is the first time a Smash stage has consisted primarily of a single living being. This has caused a few fans to worry about the Titan in question being forcibly squashed and molded into different shapes for the Omega and Battlefield versions of the stage. In his introduction to the pair, Sakurai even addressed this concern himself, before revealing that said modes swap him out for a flying platform.
• Smash speculators are legal experts ^ExplanationWhen it comes to fan requests for new playable characters, Guest Fighters are far and away the hottest topic of discussion. Many fans clamor for certain characters that belong to non-Nintendo companies, but almost nobody can agree on whether said characters have a chance to be in the game due to potential copyright disputes. While this has generally been a problem for Smash game discussion since the days of Brawl, the large number of Third-Party Fighters added in Ultimate made the problem worse, and has led to jokes that fans in the Smash speculation scene are lawyers and legal experts (because they totally understand what goes on behind the scenes of the game's development and playable character selection).
  • Sakurai v. The Walt Disney Company ^ExplanationSora from Kingdom Hearts is one of the most highly requested characters among the fanbase (in fact, he turned out to be the winner of the Smash Ballot overall), but discussion about his potential inclusion always leads to heated debates about his copyright ownership. Many people can't seem to agree on whether Square Enix or Disney have "true" ownership of the character, whether Sora can count as a video game character at all, and whether or not Disney would be able to be negotiated with in regards to lending Sora to Smash due to their generally tight grip on their many properties. And all that's not even mentioning how the Disney aspects of Kingdom Hearts would be reflected in Smash (if at all) because of the officially stated rule of "all characters have to either be from a video game, or be significant to gaming". Due to the heated discourse surrounding Sora's inclusion, the concept of Smash-related discussion about him has become a meme in and of itself. It finally became a Discredited Meme when Sora was indeed revealed.
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate vs. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl ^ExplanationWhile All-Star Brawl was already ripe for memes due to it being a Smash clone featuring Nickelodeon characters, this got ramped up when the presentation for the final DLC character for Ultimate was announced to be on October 5th, the same day as All-Star Brawl's release date. This led to jokes on how Ultimate's final character is SpongeBob, Nintendo being afraid that All-Star Brawl was going to become more popular than Ultimate, or how Nintendo just couldn't "handle the Neutron Style".
• Unnoticed 4chan leaks ^ExplanationWhile 4chan has been home to many, many fake Smash leaks, posts that mention offbeat characters (such as Piranha Plant or Sora) alongside other correct things tend to get no attention until after they were archived. This has lead to jokes stating that if no one pays attention to a Smash leak on 4chan, it's real.
• SMASH KILLER? ^ExplanationDue to Smash fans infamously labeling Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl as a "Smash killer" even though its devs specifically went out of their way to say they weren't trying to kill Smash, a meme popped up making fun of this tendency. Parodying a Hungrybox thumbnail, it features him making a shocked face on the right and something else on the left labeled as a "Smash killer", even if it's not a dueling game or a game in general, from Minesweeper◊ to the great outdoors.
• Final Smash edits. ^ExplanationVia mods, Byleth, Steve, and Sephiroth have received several meme-inspired edits to their Final Smashes, since their centerpieces can be easily edited. For Byleth, it's just an image swap and audio swap for Sothis, while for the latter two, their usage of MP3 video files means that it's possible to put in a snippet of a video. One popular one for Byleth is replacing Sothis with LowTierGod; Steve received popularity for the House of Boom being replaced with the scene from Dream's "Mask" of Dream receiving Normal Pills; and Sephiroth's was popularized by a video which replaced Safer Sephiroth with a Sephiroth-themed edit of the "OHHHHH SHIT, A RAT" meme.

Characters

General

• HOES MAD ^ExplanationA whole flock of users began posting this image meme quoting Famous Dex's song "Hoes Mad" in response to the backlash coming from the introduction of the Dragon Quest Hero among non-Japanese fans. The meme also at times gets used against those that were instead mad about Banjo & Kazooie's inclusion. Since then, the term is also been used in regards to people who are mad at Hero's RNG-based moveset. Nowadays, it is often used in reference to any character that causes the Vocal Minority to complain, sometimes with variants and sometimes not. This saw a massive resurgence when Byleth was announced as the final character in the first Fighters Pass, as the meme had previously been used within Three Houses discussions the year before. It was around this iteration that people were getting sick of it, though despite this, it kept coming back with almost every DLC character since then. Following the reveal of Steve, which prompted heavy criticism from fans expecting another character, especially older ones who didn't grow up on Minecraft, the meme returned in response to these complaints, but this time accompanied by an image of Steve holding a hoe, or just the hoe itself. Then came the reveal of Sephiroth, which while generally well-received caused a few fans to complain about either not caring or knowing who he is or about "another anime swordsman" getting added to the roster. After that, it was the reveal of Pyra and Mythra which caused the meme to saw a big resurgence yet again. Criticism towards this meme has been growing with every instance that it's used, with some thinking it only exists to invalidate any opinion of new fighters other than positive.
• "Don't you hate it when a Japanese company chooses Japanese characters for their Japanese game director who speaks Japanese to implement into his Japanese game with his Japanese game developers who also speak Japanese?" ^ExplanationA fanrule that started around the time of the game's DLC releases, people started making fun of fans who get salty whenever game characters of Western-origin (Usually Doomguy, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, or Shantae) don't get announced over game characters of Japanese-origin, stating that as a game made by developers based in Japan, of course they're gonna prioritize Japan's games over everyone elses. And while the statement about there being more Japanese-originated fighters than not in the game is not inaccurate, it also ignores that there are three fighters (Diddy Kong, King K. Rool, and Banjo & Kazooie) from the Twycross-based Rare, one fighter (Dark Samus) from the Texas-based Retro Studios, and a four-in-one fighter (Steve and his alts) from the Stockholm-based Mojang. Sometimes, the person saying the line will try and fit the word "Japanese" into it as much as they possibly can. That being said, Diddy, King K. Rool and Dark Samus may have been created by non-Japanese studios, the series they were created for are Japanese created ones anyway, leaving just Banjo-Kazooie and Minecraft as the only non-Japanese created series to be represented with a fighter.
  • "Don't you hate it when Nintendo puts Nintendo characters in their Nintendo game on a Nintendo console?" ^ExplanationThe amount of Guest Fighters in Ultimate's DLC, combined with all the big first-party requests fans have had over the years either already being playable or seemingly deconfirmed for DLC, has caused a group to sprout up that thinks Smash DLC should only consist of third-party stars. On the other hand, there's still a crowd that thinks Nintendo characters should still join the roster even as DLC, and/or that it should be considered inevitable that not every DLC fighter would consist of a third-party.

Veterans

• Mario:
  • Mario Confirmed For Smash! ^ExplanationWhile already a popular meme beforehand, the video introducing Steve into the game has Mario immediately dropping in and fighting numerous combatants caused a minor resurgence of jokes that they were introducing Mario into the game.
  • They Killed Mario Again ^ExplanationSome of the reveal trailers for Ultimate have quite the tendency of having Mario brutally assaulted by the Newcomer that is joining the roster, with these being getting his neck snapped by Ridley, getting blown up by a Creeper in Steve's reveal trailer and then getting impaled by Sephiroth's sword... only to reveal seconds later that he narrowly missed.
    • Mario finally catches a break.^ExplanationMario wasn't shown being brutally assaulted in the reveal trailers for Pyra & Mythra or Kazuya, as those reveal trailers use different sets of characters, leading to many jokes on how Mario has finally been able to catch a break from being the punching bag for the new fighters.
  • YIHOO ^ExplanationWhat Mario utters during his forward air attack, a staple of his moveset and his flashiest and most popular KO option. Rather infamous among players fighting against Mario as many of his players will fish for any opportunity to use the move when he sends his opponent offstage, as he shouts "YIHOO" the same way every single time.
    • SpongeBob's forward aerial.^ExplanationIn Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, SpongeBob is basically the Alternate Company Equivalent to Mario, being the "mascot" of the game/company and a Jack of All Stats great for new players. When his moveset was revealed, fans were very quick to notice that his "Down Swing" aerial attack was very similar to a certain plumber's most infamous move (although the input isn't a "forward aerial" due to the differences between the two games), further heightening the comparisons.
  • Keyblade Master Mario. ^ExplanationIn Sora's trailer, Mario opens the door for Sora by throwing the last of the flaming Smash Logo's embers, which turns into Sora's iconic Kingdom Key. The way the Keyblade doesn't instantly return to Sora's hand after Mario does this (like it does with most other non-Keyblade wielders) led fans to speculate that Mario is (or has the potential to be) a Keyblade wielder himself. Sakurai later explained that this wasn't the case, and that the Keyblade simply took a form that Mario could wield temporarily (although Mario was to wield the Keyblade in an earlier draft of the trailer), but like with Captain America and Mjolnir, it hasn't stopped fans from dreaming.
    • Italian Xehanort ^Explanation One of Mario's Palette Swaps bears a vague resemblance to Xehanort, the Big Bad of Kingdom Hearts's "Dark Seeker Saga". This meme is Older Than They Think, as seen here and here, courtesy of Just A Pancake.
• Donkey Kong:
  • "We lose this matchup." "We know." ^ExplanationDonkey Kong is infamously combo food for many characters due to his large hurtbox and unimpressive defensive options. Starting after the addition of Byleth (who has a true zero-to-death on the big ape off of a single up special) in January 2020, it became common to joke that Donkey Kong◊ is just languishing in the low tiers and falling into a depression every time a new DLC comes out and inevitably has new ways to bully him.
• Happy 35th anniversary Link! Let's treat you to the same "fun" Mario went through during his. ^ExplanationA number of fans noticed following the reveal for Pyra and Mythra how Link was chosen as the new Chew Toy to get assaulted in place of Mario, with plenty of them also noting the change coinciding with going from the Super Mario 35th anniversary to The Legend Of Zelda 35th anniversary.
• Yoshi:
  • Yoshi killed Mufasa.^ExplanationYoshi's new Final Smash in Ultimate is a stampede of Yoshis, referencing the intro to Super Smash Bros. Melee. Many people have compared it to Mufasa's death scene from The Lion King (1994).
    • This became Hilarious in Hindsight as of Sora's inclusion in Smash, especially because of the "Super Smash Bros. is canon to Kingdom Hearts" meme, since Sora actually visited the Pride Lands (the world of The Lion King (1994)) in Kingdom Hearts II.
• Kirby:
  • Kirby is the most powerful Nintendo character/the Chosen One/Jesus.^ExplanationKirby escaping Galeem's lasers when everyone else fell victim, coupled with how fast he would have to be moving to escape, led to a lot of The Chosen One jokes, Memetic Badass, and religious symbolism proclaiming him to be the most powerful being in existence. And note that in Kirby canon, this explanation is actually plausible.
  • Cube Kirby/The Holy Trinity of Square Kirbys ^ExplanationKirby's form when copying Steve turns him into a Minecraft-styled version of himself with blocky features. Fans frequently post it alongside the square versions of Kirby from the crossovers his series had with BoxBoy! and the Square Kirby April Fool's Day joke.
  • All my friends are dead!^ExplanationKirby being the sole survivor of Galeem's attack prompted several parodies of Avery Monsen's children's book "All My Friends Are Dead" with Kirby on the cover.
• Pika pancake ^ExplanationPikachu is infamous among the community for having a number of moves with ending animations that flatten Pikachu when they hit the ground, which often has the effect of causing them to avoid enemy attacks by complete accident. This is commonly called "Pika pancake/pancaking" because the food in particular is also known for being flat and short.
• Luigi:
  • I can't believe Luigi is dead/What a horrible night to be Luigi. ^ExplanationDuring Simon Belmont's reveal trailer, Luigi gets his soul ripped out of his body by Death. It even shows his ghost as it attempts to reunite with his lifeless corpse. Naturally people reacted as if he actually died. The joke sometimes gets extended to Mario, Mega Man, and Dedede, as all three have also been offed in Ultimate reveal trailers (the first two by Ridley and Dedede by K. Rool).
    • Luigi is okay. ^ExplanationNintendo UK's official response to the above was assuring gamers that Luigi was fine.
  • The real Luigi Death Stare ^ExplanationA reference to the Mario Kart 8 Luigi Death Stare meme, referring to Luigi staring directly at Death in pure horror in Simon's trailer shortly before being killed.
  • Luigi fishing for grabs ^ExplanationLuigi in Ultimate has a zero-to-death combo that involves beating the enemy down with his neutral and down aerials before finishing them with a sweetspotted up special. However, the only way to lead into this is with his down throw. As a result, it's common to exaggerate Luigi players' propensity for doing grabs such that it's all they do.
• Put that down, Ness! ^ExplanationThe response to Ultimate’s August 8th 2018 Direct's item showcase having Ness use the Death's Scythe item and immediately killing 2 other competitors with it.
• Captain Falcon:
  • Captain Falcon eating ramen^ExplanationMin Min's trailer shows Captain Falcon and Kirby eating at the Mintendo Noodle House where the former works at. As one would expect from the series' legendarily memetic bounty hunter/racer, his over-the-top ramen slurping quickly took off.
  • Ryō Horikawa came back just to eat noodles.^ExplanationCaptain Falcon's voice actor, who hadn't provided new lines for him since the original Super Smash Bros, actually came back for a bit to voice the captain in this trailer, which, once again, consisted of Captain Falcon eating Min Min's ramen. Sakurai even pointed this out in his presentation.
• Zelda:
  • :D ^ExplanationZelda's Ultimate look is based on a combination of her The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds appearance. She sports a cute, happy face in the game (especially when doing the wave taunt) when compared to the more stoic-looking The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess version of her from the past two games.
  • TRIFORCE BEAM!!!^ExplanationZelda's new Final Smash, Triforce of Wisdom, has her place her hands to form a triangle-shaped opening, almost exactly like Tienshinhan in Dragon Ball Z when he famously keeps Cell at bay with his Tri-Beam Attack. Thus an image of Zelda readying her Final Smash cuts to her target (Cell, Ganondorf, etc.) being seen through the triangle between Tien's hands.
  • Zeldass/Zelda dummy thicc! ^ExplanationWhile digging through the game to document frame data for each character, one dataminer discovered that Zelda's hurtboxes appear to give her a surprisingly pronounced rear end◊ during a specific frame. The tweet documenting this quickly spawned a number of jokes and fanart, many of which revolve around using "hitbox" as a tongue-in-cheek euphemism for big butts.
• Giant Pichu ^ExplanationUltimate patch 3.1.0 nerfed Pichu in several ways, one of which was making its hitboxes bigger so it'd be easier to hit. The fact that its hitboxes were changed and not the character's size were not mentioned in the patch notes, so people quickly made pics showing an exaggerated size change for Pichu.
• Falco: "Hands off my COCK" ^ExplanationA mishearing, occurring from canceling Falco's down taunt ("Hands off my prey!") into his down smash ("CAW!").
• Young Link is TOO BIG!/Little Big Link ^ExplanationThe E3 build of Ultimate had some bizarre scaling issues◊ in regards to the three Links, namely, that Young Link appears to be roughly the same size as his older counterpart. The first version is also a spin on the "Ridley's too big" meme.
• Ganondorf:
  • DORIYAH! ^ExplanationThe sound Ganondorf makes when performing his forward smash in Ultimate. It's arguably the most infamous move in his arsenal due to its range, power, and deceptive speed for such a damaging attack, so expect to hear it a lot.
    • 0% is kill percent! ^ExplanationGanondorf's Ultimate incarnation has become infamous for killing at surprisingly low percents with a majority of his moves (for example, his forward smash - which does about 40% damage when fully charged - has been known to generally kill light to middleweight characters at ~30% and heavier ones at ~60%), and being able to get enemies to kill percent with only a few well-placed moves. Naturally, fans have had a field day with this.
  • "Chadondorf." ^ExplanationGanondorf's pose in his official art has frequently been compared to Chad Thundercock's pose from the Virgin vs. Chad memes. People like to make "Virgin vs. Chad" pictures comparing the Ultimate Ganondorf with his previous versions from older Smash games.
  • "Pubertydorf." ^Explanation In something of a reverse to how massively swole Ike was in Smash 4 compared to Brawl, people who weren't familiar with the origins of Ganondorf's Ultimate design joked about it being Ganondorf when he was still going through puberty, due to his lanky proportions, large nose and lack of a beard compared to his huge muscles and Beard of Evil in Brawl and Sm4sh.
• Racist Mr. Game & Watch ^ExplanationOne of Mr. Game & Watch's animations in Ultimate originally resembled The Savage Indian in a reference to Fire Attack. Many people online complained that this was racially offensive, which prompted Nintendo to apologize and promise to edit the animation in the Day 1 Patch. On the other end, some have mocked the fact that a public outcry was made over two whole frames of animation, ironically making the response to the incident a meme as well.
• Zero Suit Samus:
  • The bounty hunter's physique in Ultimate gained a ton of attention upon release for the more toned and buff appearance, leading to a massive amount of fanart and appreciation shortly afterwards.
  • Nerfed boobs, but overall buff. ^ExplanationOthers noticed that ZSS's bust size was noticeably reduced, but joked that it didn't matter since she was now toned and it was a net gain.
  • Zero Suit Shantae/Samus: Half-Genie Hero. ^ExplanationThe World of Light trailer showed a battle against Zero Suit Samus with Shantae as her Spirit, complete with transformation items to replicate her abilities. This led◊ to fan art◊ and jokes◊ about how Samus would take on some of Shantae's mannerisms, such as belly dancing or dressing like a Bedlah Babe, as a result.
  • Space mommy ^ExplanationOne Zero Suit Samus cosplayer would express her affection for the character and her newly toned body by repeatedly referring to her as "space mommy" on various platforms, which coincided with the rising popularity of "mommy" as a term of endearment. This resulted in the nickname effectively being wrenched from Rosalina, and Samus in general being referred to as "mommy" quite often.
• Solid Snake:
  • Good Dad Snake ^ExplanationSnake being a good father to Isabelle has already gave rise to fanart where he takes her on a sneaking mission and assures her that he's using tranquilizers, and asks her what's the basics of CQC, with her answer being "Caring quality compassion" and accepts this. This relationship likely came about due to the fact that, in his home series, Snake is shown to be very fond of dogs, and Isabelle is a dog.
  • They nerfed Snake's ass.^ExplanationSimilar to Samus, Solid Snake's, erm, assets being considerably reduced has led to outcries and a plethora of jokes.
  • Snake is Ness's dad. ^ExplanationThanks to World of Light including a Spirit of Ness's Dad featuring an invisible Snake (a joke on how Ness's father is never actually seen in EarthBound, only spoken to over the phone), a meme sprang up that Snake really was Ness's dad, and that the reason he's never home is because he's always on secret missions. Similar to the Isabelle memes, these usually also include jokes and images about Snake engaging in fatherly activities with Ness, further helped by one of the images on the challenge board showing Snake playing baseball with Ness.
• Ike: "Prepare yourself." "Prepare yourself."^ExplanationThe E3 2018 reveal video for Ultimate demonstrated that Ike's two different designs were voiced slightly differently by having them both use their side taunt. However, in English, the taunts barely sounded different.
• Sonic can punch you so hard, he sends you to Minecraft.^ExplanationThe Steve reveal trailer opens with Mario fighting various characters, only for him to eventually be punched hard by Sonic, causing him to fly off the stage and into a Minecraft cave. Naturally, jokes about Sonic being strong enough to punch anyone into another game followed soon after. Some people noted with amusement that, because Sonic is so memetic nowadays, people just headcanoned Sonic as able to send people to Minecraft with a single punch and it doesn't feel out of place at all.
• "You thought it was King K. Rool, but it was I, DeDeDio!"^ExplanationDedede's pose in the reveal trailer when he points to himself, grinning that he fooled the Kongs is quite similar in nature to the infamous "You thought it was X...but it was I, Dio!" meme from Phantom Blood. Fans of both works then preceded to make jokes riffing the similarity.
• Wolf:
  • Punished Wolf ^Explanation Wolf returns in Ultimate with his one-eyed character design from Star Fox Zero, and given that he's returning at the same time as Solid Snake, some people have joked that Wolf now resembles Venom Snake, or perhaps more closely, D-Dog.
  • Daddy Wolf/Wolf is bi/Bisexual Pride Wolf^ExplanationDue to Wolf's default color in Ultimate prominently featuring shades of purple and pink (which are the colors of the bisexual flag), this led fans to believe he is proudly bisexual. Since Wolf is extremely popular in the Furry Fandom, many were saddened by his exclusion and grateful for his return. This also means there is a resurgence of fan art and Foe Yay Shipping between him and Fox and Falco. (The whole bisexual outfit not helping matters.) And he returns with his leather biker look which is popular in the LGBT community which many fans give him the nickname "Daddy Wolf" or "Leather Daddy".
  • Armpit fetish/Bi-bitch ^ExplanationWolf dons magenta bandannas around his neck and on his left leg. People joked on how bandannas relate to "fetish signals" with armpits and is teased with accordingly. Also occasionally called a "bi-bitch" due to his default colors.
• Mii Fighters (includes Sans, Cuphead, Vault Boy, Travis Touchdown, Dragonborn, Dante, Shantae, Doom Slayer, etc.):
  • The Miis' taller proportions compared to 3DS/Wii U have proven quite popular upon their unveiling, especially the default Mii Gunner.
  • Suddenly, Mii Gunner mains. ^ExplanationThe Sans Mii Gunner costume led to a noticeable number of people suddenly caring about Miis in Smash, to the point of many of them deciding to main Mii Gunner just because one of the most memetic characters is a skin for them.
  • Sans was too lazy, so he just sent a costume. ^ExplanationOne of Sans's primary character traits is his laziness. Seeing as his representation in Ultimate is in the form of a costume and not a full-fledged character, many jokes have ensued that Sans received a Smash fighter invitation, considered all the work involved, then either sold costumes of himself to characters wanting to be in Smash or paid a passing Mii to dress up as him for the fights.
  • Mii Gunner: "No one cared who I was until I put on the mask." ^ExplanationThe Mii Gunner's boost in popularity from the Sans costume led to many jokes quoting this line from Bane.
  • Banjo/Terry got overshadowed by a costume. ^ExplanationThe announcement of Sans costume caused more Mii Gunners to appear online than Banjo-Kazooie players, despite the fact that the latter were the most anticipated newcomer at the time. Likewise, due to not a whole lot of younger Smash players not knowing or caring who Terry was, more focus was put on the costume than the next character in the first Fighters Pass. Note that while it would seem that the Cuphead costume was going to overshadow Byleth in a similar way, the latter's divisive nature caused them to be more talked on than the costume, despite it being better received by the fanbase.
  • "Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!"^ExplanationThe reveal of Cuphead as a Mii Gunner costume was met with much excitement, similar to that of Sans's reception. In response to the similar levels of hype, many fans quoted this line from Kung Fu Panda, with one of the Mii Gunner characters saying it to the other.
  • Cupsans/Sanshead ^ExplanationOnce the Cuphead costume was released, the Miis section of Shared Content consisted almost entirely of Cuphead's head on Sans' body, and vice versa.
    • Combining Sans with other Mii Costumes ^ExplanationIn general, placing Sans' head on the body of any other costume became a popular thing to do, with notable examples including the Creeper costume and the Shantae costume.
  • TODD!^ExplanationThe Vault Boy Mii outfit was revealed alongside Min Min, who coincidentally was the 76th fighter (excluding echo fighters) in the game. Fans were quick to realize exactly what this meant, and quickly decided that Todd Howard was responsible for this master act of trolling.
    • Todd dropped Skyrim on us AGAIN!^ExplanationA little over a year after Vault Boy's reveal, the Dragonborn (Dovahkiin in dragon tongue) from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was revealed as a Mii Costume alongside Kazuya. The game itself has become rather infamous for seeing port after port, which led to jokes about Todd porting Skyrim content into Smash Bros. as another troll move.
  • Travis Scott is in ^ExplanationIn the Mii Costumes wave for Steve was one labeled as coming from "Travis". This was referring to Travis Touchdown without naming his home series of No More Heroes directly, but due to Travis Scott becoming a huge meme in Fall of 2020 because of the Travis Scott McDonald's meal, some joked that he was the actual Travis being added to the game. Not helping matters was the fact that Travis Scott did an in-game collaboration with Fortnite, leading some to joke that he's a video game character now.
  • #RIPTravis ^ExplanationWhen Travis Touchdown was revealed as a Mii Costume, his fanbase was quick to mourn his chances at being playable with this hashtag on Twitter. This is notably the first time since the Smash 4 days that a highly requested character getting added as a costume caused people to mourn rather than celebrate, especially when compared to the positive reception of the Sans and Cuphead costumes. Amusingly, some people mistook this hashtag for Travis Scott dying, rather than Travis Touchdown as a Mii Costume.
  • What the hell is this? ^ExplanationA video from CodexEntry, superimposing Byleth's reveal splash screen behind a scene from Devil May Cry 4 where Dante is incredibly confused upon seeing a rainforest where one shouldn't be. Prior to the reveal of the 5th DLC fighter, many expected Dante to be the new challenger for Smash thanks to V's voice actor saying how great it would be for Dante to appear in Smash, in addition to one of dates for information about new features for the Switch port of the third game being on the same day as the presentation. This has since become a Running Gag every time a fighter that's not Dante gets announced, with him being put in environments relevant to who was announced. Came back with even greater force with Dante's reveal as a Mii Costume, with the appropriate edit.
    • Say the line, Dante! ^ExplanationSome people who were tired of the meme getting quoted every time a new character who isn't Dante got confirmed have responded with this, giving the impression Dante is tired of saying it too.
  • Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series ^ExplanationOnce Dante's Mii Costume was revealed alongside Kazuya's presentation, no time was wasted in referencing the meme from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, especially since Dante is technically "featured" now.
    • Not Featuring the REAL Dante from the Devil May Cry Series ^ExplanationA response used by DMC fans upset that Dante is merely a Mii costume and not an actual fighter in the game.
    • Featuring Dante from Dante^explanationA variant of the meme mocking Nintendo's habit of using the character names instead of the actual series names whenever they announce a Mii costume based on something M-rated, including with Dante himself.
  • Tiny Slayer^ExplanationWith the reveal of Doom Slayer as a Mii Costume also came the revelation that he is positively tiny as a result, even in the trailer barely reaching Dark Samus' hips. With the fan headcanon that Doomguy and Samus (in power armour) are roughly the same height (concrete figures vary or don't really exist, but most sources say Doomguy is 6ft, and Samus hovers around the same area depending on what source you choose), fanart began pouring out of Samus interacting with the mini Slayer, mostly for comedic effect. The shortened height also makes him closer to Isabelle's size.
  • The Dream is Dead! | ________ DECONFIRMED! ^ExplanationA character being revealed as a Mii Fighter costume is treated by the fanbase as the death knell to their chances of actually joining the roster proper. Reaction videos to these announcements typically came with some combination of reactors saying their dreams were killed or the character was definitively deconfirmed. This was particularly apparent when the costumes for Geno and Dante were announced.
• Palutena's dick grab ^ExplanationPalutena's grab hitbox in Ultimate is much larger than the animation◊ would lead you to believe. Since it's very long and positioned at crotch level, people chose to describe it with variations on the phrase "it looks like Palutena has a dick◊". As of patch 11.0.0, the meme has lost traction due to the update shrinking her grab range.
• Pac-Man cheerfully embraces his imminent demise ^ExplanationDuring "Mr. Sakurai Presents Min Min", Pac-Man is the opponent used when Sakurai shows off her Final Smash. Since Pac's default expression is standing there and smiling, this led to a bit of humorous Dissonant Serenity as he happily looks at the ARMS roster coming to beat the crap out of him, with the frames just before he gets hit becoming popular similarly to the "heheh! I'm in danger!" meme from The Simpsons.
• Robin summoning Chrom to beat up Chrom. ^ExplanationDespite Chrom being Promoted to Playable, Robin's Final Smash was not updated, allowing this to happen. Their victory animation with Chrom hasn't been updated either, leading to more mockery as well as suspicion that Chrom was added very late in development.
• Cloud can't escape Sephiroth^ExplanationSephiroth's reputation as a Super-Persistent Predator to Cloud who constantly manages to torment him, whether it be in the future, another series or even in the remake of their game, makes its way into Super Smash Bros. Cue jokes about how, no matter where Cloud goes, Sephiroth is sure to follow.

Newcomers

• Inkling:
  • "First, ya yeet the loli, and then, YA BEAT THE LOLI!!!"^ExplanationA quote by WeegeePlays during his guide on King K. Rool, often humorously used against Inkling mains, though this usually happens in reverse, which leads to...
  • "Now you can yeet as the loli, and beat as the loli!!" ^ExplanationAnother quote by WeegeePlays, this time, during his guide on playing as the Inkling. Commonly used against non-Inkling mains who simply judge the character for obvious (and sometimes questionable) reasons
• Daisy:
  • Daisy Ridley confirmed for the new Super Smash Bros. ^ExplanationDaisy and Ridley were both confirmed for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the same stream, leading to an abundance of jokes akin to this one. Coincidentally, as if adding fuel to the fire, James Farr's Nintendo-based parody of The Force Awakens just happens to star Daisy (the Princess) as Rey.
    • Come Isabelle's reveal, the meme becomes even funnier since Daisy's middle name is Isobel.
    • Because 3/4 of Daisy Ridley's full name^note Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley are playable in Smash Bros., fans jokingly speculate that a character named Jazz (Jazz Jackrabbit or Jazz from Transformers) or a jazz-related character will be playable. Barry B. Benson is also a popular suggestion (because "ya like jazz?")
• Ridley:
  • NOT TOO BIG! ^ExplanationWith how widespread the notorious "TOO BIG" rebuttal to Ridley becoming playable was, his debut in Ultimate was met with many overjoyed cries of this. Most famously, the crowd at Nintendo's NYC store erupted into a chant of this during his trailer during the E3 presentation.
  • ENGAGE RIDLEY MOTHER FUCKER ^ExplanationA password that monumentally screws with the original Metroid, to the point of being able to brick the console if used on the 3DS port. Once Ridley made his long-awaited debut in Super Smash Bros. franchise, fans started using it as part of their hype train.
  • MARIO FUCKING DIES ^ExplanationRidley's introductory trailer had him make himself known by apparently brutally killing Mario via breaking his neck with only his trademark hat left behind.
  • Ridley's hat spin. ^ExplanationRidley left quite an impression on people in his reveal trailer, wherein he brutally murdered Nintendo's flagship character (and Mega Man) and then taunted Samus by spinning Mario's hat around on his finger with a terrifying smile on his face. A common joke is to replace Mario's hat with the headgear of other characters who didn't make it into Ultimate, especially Waluigi.
  • This image of Ridley wielding a hammer◊ made the rounds not too long after it debuted with the official site, and is frequently edited into other pictures involving people swinging hammers or other blunt instruments.
  • Ridley is Captain America.^ExplanationThe story is that Japanese players started saying this due to the fact that Ridley's popularity in the United States was what caused him to finally be included. It was later disproven — even if Japanese fans shared the sentiment about Ridley's Western popularity, most weren't comparing him to Cap — but not before it caught on with the American fanbase and briefly became a meme there.
• Simon Belmont:
  • What a horrible night to have a leak.^ExplanationIn the hours before the August 8, 2018 Smash Ultimate Direct, the Galaga Medley was uploaded with the title of "Bloody Tears/Monster Dance", two songs from Castlevania II. As soon as that happened, Simon's reveal in the following Direct was no longer a surprise. The only thing missing is how this mistake happened.
    • And because of that, people tend to refer to Galaga Medley as Bloody Tears/Monster Dance, or is sometimes joked as "a.k.a. Bloody Tears".
  • The Captain N Reunion^ExplanationSimon, alongside Pit and Mega Man, was one of the main characters in the infamous Captain N cartoon, leading to jokes about the three of them reuniting in Smash and/or the titular character being announced as a new fighter.
  • Sheik Side B^ExplanationPeople who are unfamiliar with Super Castlevania IV often refer to the movable Belmont whip as this... in almost every reaction video. It's a Fandom-Enraging Misconception for Castlevania fans, as Simon's version of the move predates Sheik's version by about a decade.
  • "I terrify them, Mega Man disorients them, Pit goes over the top and we support him."^ExplanationAnd other similar variations. Originally a YouTube comment that became repeatedly copied throughout the Smash community with varied teams that featured Simon or Richter. It references the battle at Dracula's castle at the end of the second season of the animated series when Trevor "strategizes" their method of attack: "I terrify them. Sypha disorients them. Alucard goes over the top and we support him." And for bonus points, the scene featured "Bloody Tears" in the background, one of the themes representing Castlevania in Ultimate.
• King K. Rool:
  • K. Rool's bizarre official character pose has been compared to him being sassy with the Kongs, going grocery shopping, or doing other casual things like using a light switch or operating a vending machine.
  • Due to K. Rool finally becoming a playable character in Ultimate, K. Rool's Finest Hour made the rounds. It was even used before he was formally announced, as something of a (joking) rallying cry for him to make it in.
  • 12 ^ExplanationWhen the preview snippet of Gangplank Galleon as arranged by ACE (the team who worked on Xenoblade Chronicles and many other Smash Bros. tracks in the past) was put onto the Smash Bros. Ultimate website, people discovered the unlisted YouTube video used to play the track was simply titled "12" as a result of being the twelfth track uploaded. The rename was due to the leaked song incident mentioned above and has now since then been uploading songs with numbers as titles (the songs themselves are unlisted in YouTube and instead you can play them on the website, where the actual names are found). The song itself being almost disproportionately lavish in its production, including an actual rap chorus that seems to be an answer to the DK Rap, meant the track became popular with a lot of people, especially for those who already wanted K. Rool as a character.
  • King Kraid Rool^ExplanationK. Rool's reveal was part of the same Nintendo Direct that announced the return of Brinstar Depths from Melee, which featured Kraid as the main stage hazard. Since the Metroid roster was already doubled in Ultimate, fans joked that they should just keep expanding the number of Metroid reps by making Kraid a K. Rool Echo Fighter, since they're both fat, green reptilians. Post-launch, it was then discovered that this was something the creators themselves planned, as K. Rool acts as a stand-in for Kraid as both a Puppet Fighter in Spirits mode and a stand-in for Fake Kraid in Samus's classic mode.
• Isabelle:
  • After Isabelle's reveal trailer, many examples of fanart surfaced. Some of them have her encountering and taking revenge on Villager, others have her being so cute that other fighters refuse to harm her, and yet others have her be psychopathic in the same way Villager was in Smash Bros For Wii U and 3DS.
  • "They wanna Smash me?" ^ExplanationAn intentional misquote of Isabelle's "They want me in Smash?" line in reference to her sizable "popularity" in the fandom.
  • Thick Isabelle. ^ExplanationWhile it was already decently common for Isabelle to get Self-Fanservice as a shortstack, when Sora's reveal trailer showed that he was lighter than her despite being taller and normal-human-proportioned, she got a massive boost in fanart that depicted her being especially chubby and thick-bodied as an explanation for her being heavier despite being much smaller than Sora. A good deal of them even include jokes based on Sakurai's statement about the weight difference, where Isabelle claims she's not heavy, Sora's just way too light.
• Incineroar:
  • EGG.^ExplanationIn his reveal trailer, he leaps into the ring to challenge Ken who asks, "So, you wanna fight fire with fire, eh?", to which he responds "IN!", the first syllable of his name. But many fans had a field day with mishearing this as "egg" and use it as a Non Sequitur to a serious question and you'll find many comments spamming "egg" and sometimes the letter "A" in videos about Incineroar.
  • Incineroar is number 69. ^ExplanationIncineroar, who is classified as fighter number 69, is a Pokémon known for its several innuendos in its home series, such as its special attack animation being a pelvic thrust and the fact that it can use Savage Spin-Out, a Z-Move that involves the user spewing out a white sticky substance (guess which animation Incineroar uses for that attack). Adding extra fuel to the fire is its very large appeal to the Furry Fandom, which is notorious for its numerous explicit portrayals of anthropomorphic animal characters. Other jokes are made about how it saved Isabelle from being fighter number 69 by letting her be premiered ahead of time.
    • Ejaculation salt ^ExplanationDue to the flaws of the system, when using Google Translate to translate the Korean Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website into English, Incineroar's Korean name, 어흥염 (Eoheungyeom), somehow translates to "ejaculation salt", which only added more fuel to the "Incineroar is number 69" meme.
  • Big made it into Smash before Shadow.^ExplanationOne of Incineroar's alternate colors is primarily purple with black stripes and white fringe. Exactly like a beefed-up version of Sonic the Hedgehog's Big the Cat. Shadow is specifically mentioned because the Direct that confirmed Incineroar also showed that Shadow would remain as an Assist Trophy despite being speculated to be Sonic's Echo Fighter.
  • Incineroar punching or performing a lariat on Lucas has developed its own collection of fanart due to how Lucas was used as a punching bag to demonstrate Incineroar's side special move. Some even depicted them as some weird alternate versions of Calvin and Hobbes.
  • Because Incineroar is a feline-esque character, Incineroar-in-a-box is a common piece of fanart done to it, particularly using Snake's cardboard box.
    If I fits, I sits!
  • If you're angry, he did his job right. ^ExplanationThere was some minor backlash at Incineroar being the last base game reveal, leading others to respond that since he's a Heel, that was the entire point of what Incineroar was doing.
  • "But wrestling's Fighting." ^ExplanationPart of the anger towards Incineroar was the fan stigma against Fire/Fighting Pokémon, leading some to be angry that such a Pokémon would get into Smash only to learn that Incineroar is Fire/Dark to couple with its Heel persona. Similarly to the "Steel's heavier than Feathers" bit from Limmy's Show, some of Incineroar's detractors seem to be incapable of making the connection that Incineroar isn't Fire/Fighting because of his wrestling theming.
  • Incineroar's recovery ^ExplanationIncineroar's ability to recover leaves a lot to be desired; his up special sends him straight up and then diagonally downwards with very little horizontal distance, making it obscenely easy to gimp Incineroar the moment he goes offstage.
  • Alolan Whip puts Incineroar up close to the enemy, more than the usual grabbing space. A plethora of screenshots having Incineroar doing the move mid-way is quite popular. And then there's his back throw suplex animation, which has a part where he actually embraces the enemy, putting him as a Memetic Molester doing this kinky grab with multiple characters. There is an abundance of him doing this to Wolf for some odd reason, most likely due to both of them being very Popular with Furries who like to portray the two as Manly Gays even in their home series.
• Piranha Plant:
  • Yo, somebody got me this plant, make some noise for this plant [crowd cheers] ^ExplanationThis clip by San Holo became associated with Piranha Plant, who was a character that virtually no one predicted joining the Smash Bros. roster as a fighter.
  • A potted plant got in before ______. ^ExplanationIn the final direct before Ultimate's launch, the last character to be revealed was a Piranha Plant. Many people were in disbelief that a random enemy managed to become a playable fighter before characters highly requested by fans, and it became common to make jokes about it, particularly those reducing Piranha Plant to just PLANT as an exaggeration.
  • Piranha Plant is Waluigi's pet/son ^ExplanationAfter the reveal of Piranha Plant, a piece of artwork◊ from Mario Party 3 of Waluigi with a potted Piranha Plant in his hand made rounds on the internet. Jokes were made that someone tried to convince Sakurai to add Waluigi into the game using this picture, but he chose the Piranha Plant instead. Other people concluded that Waluigi raised the Piranha Plant himself and he's proud of his baby being in Smash in his stead (as it's one of the few beings he genuinely loves).
  • Dancing Piranha Plant ^ExplanationAn animated gif of a Piranha Plant doing a Fortnite dance is also making its rounds on the internet, usually in conjunction with either somehow becoming a top tier character or getting in the roster over other characters like Waluigi, Shadow, Geno, and Isaac.
  • Plant Gang^ExplanationA term used to describe people who main Piranha Plant, based on the This Post Was Made by ______ Gang meme.
  • Viridi is a Piranha Plant fangirl. ^ExplanationDuring the Palutena's Guidance conversation covering the plant, Viridi is confirmed to have a vast knowledge on Piranha Plant species and starts rattling off several different types instead of giving any time for Pit to learn how to deal with the fighter. The conversation quickly took off.
  • HA ^ExplanationTwo cropped◊ pictures◊ of Piranha Plant, cropped in such a way that all it contains is the "ha" part of its name, as well as the plant itself looking smug. Good as reaction images.
  • say sike right now ^ExplanationAn image of Piranha Plant with this caption is used in response to unpleasant news.
• Joker:
  • You'll never see it coming/We never saw it coming. ^ExplanationAfter Joker was revealed as the first Fighters Pass Vol. 1 DLC character, Last Surprise has become a meme yet again in the context of Smash, given his status as an Unexpected Character. Even Atlus themselves got in on it.
  • Joker saves Christmas yet again!^{Explanation (spoilers for Persona 5)}A reference to the fact that the Final Boss in Persona 5 is defeated on Christmas Eve, and the fact that Joker was revealed for Smash in early December 2018. It's also based on how Joker's reveal reignited excitement towards potential new characters after the infamous Grinch hoax, which teased several popular yet long-shot new characters, left many fans disappointed with the final base game character reveals.
  • "Man, What a buncha jokers!!"^ExplanationOne of Reyn's memetic lines from Xenoblade Chronicles 1 became Hilarious in Hindsight once Joker was revealed to be one of the fighters in the first Fighters Pass.
  • The Announcer is in Smash! ^ExplanationEver since Joker's reveal, there has been many jokes that the Announcer is now a playable character, since Joker's English voice actor, Xander Mobus, also voices the Announcer.
  • Joker stole the Smash Bros. invitation from ______. ^ExplanationAccording to this tweet, the Phantom Thief stole a Smash Bros. invitation from someone, with people concluding that it was originally for a fighter like Geno or Waluigi.
  • Persona 5 has the best representation in Smash^ExplanationSince Joker's reveal, many fans have taken to making comparisons between Persona 5 characters and other Smash fighters. Sure enough, these comparisons ended up being mostly accurate predictions for the set of Persona's spirits included with Joker's DLC.
    • Futaba? Is that you?! ^ExplanationFans have made jokes about how much Futaba looks like an Inkling. Joker's appearance in Smash has reignited this joke. The creators seem to have caught onto this, as Futaba's spirit is an Inkling, notably the default orange palette where Spirit Battles tend to avoid using any default palettes except in special scenarios.
    • Yusuke is in Smash too! ^ExplanationChrom looks similar to Yusuke from Persona 5 and even has the same voice actor in both English and Japanese, making the comparison inevitable. Yusuke's spirit does indeed use Chrom.
    • Ann finally got to be an action heroine!^ExplanationAnn Takamaki is compared to Zero Suit Samus, which — aside from appearances — is based on her confidant in Persona 5 where she expresses a desire to become an action movie star. Sure enough, Ann's spirit also uses Zero Suit Samus.
    • Morgana, have you been working out?!^ExplanationMorgana is of course compared to Incineroar, with the obvious difference in size and musculature. This one didn't translate into Morgana's spirit, as it uses Pikachu Libre instead, likely for the sake of Actor Allusion. However, a black-furred Incineroar does appear in the spirit battle representing Morgana's Persona, Zorro.
  • Bayonetta is Joker's mom^ExplanationMany fans have picked up on the resemblance between the two characters as well as both being false-god-slaying badasses and started making jokes and fan art that this either this is their reunion after the events of Persona 5 or Bayonetta has adopted Joker. This does have the side effect of neglecting her other "son" Sakamoto (no relation to Persona 5's own Ryuji Sakamoto)
    • Sakurai once stated in an interview that aside from Kirby, Bayonetta and Palutena were also considered as likely to survive Galeem's onslaught, leading to many portraying the two as a couple adopting and taking care of Kirby, which rapidly extended to Joker following his announcement. Pit and Dark Pit are also included on occasion as well.
  • I can't believe Robin and Joker got in before Batman!^ExplanationA joke on the DC Comics characters of the same names.
  • Hitler confirmed for Smash!^ExplanationSince Adolf Hitler (actually Nyarlathotep in disguise, which isn't much better) appears in the Persona series as the Final Boss of Persona 2 Innocent Sin (It Makes Sense in Context), many people have made memes about how Hilter is now present in one of Smash Bros'. universes and thus could show up in the game in some fashion, such as a Spirit.
  • Gun ^ExplanationSmash Bros. actively avoided the use of firearms due to being a family friendly title, which explains why Captain Falcon and Snake never use their guns. Joker's neutral special is a pistol which is simply named "Gun", which he can fire for light damage, while also being able to dodge when using it. Both the sudden inclusion of a gun, as well as its simple and blunt name, have been the subject of memes making fun of the subject of Smash being family friendly, as well as making fun of the special attack's bland name. (In Persona 5, the gun is actually a toy, which is likely the reason why it appears here at all without being treated as taboo, but in Smash Bros., it's never implied to be anything but real.)
    • For his neutral special, he wields a gun. ^ExplanationThe sentence used to suddenly introduce a gun as a move in Smash became highly quotable due to sounding silly, as well as its incredible nonchalance towards the subject. It's often used in instances of other video game characters using guns.
    • Oh god, Kirby has a gun! ^ExplanationSince Joker's neutral special is a literal gun, and Kirby's neutral special allows him to copy other character's neutral specials, Kirby is also allowed to use a gun. Memes generally prompt people to "Watch out" since Kirby is now armed. It also makes the "Perfect Kirby" shorts from Newgrounds (where Kirby was characterized as a trigger-happy Heroic Comedic Sociopath) Hilarious in Hindsight.
    • Setting Joker's gunshots to music. ^ExplanationFans were quick to notice that the steady gunfire that Joker shoots off when simply holding the button down fits very well to some music (specifically, songs with 120 or 144 bpm).
  • "I'll reveal your true form!"^ExplanationSince Joker attacks shadows in Persona 5 by jumping on top of them and ripping off their masks, people have made memes about him mistaking masked Smash characters like Lucina and Meta Knight for shadows and attacking them in the same way.
  • Joker crashes the servers! ^ExplanationThe sheer volume of people attempting to update to 3.0.0 all at once severely crippled Nintendo's servers, resulting in a lot of the playerbase being unable to experience Joker and the new features. Nintendo's tweet acknowledging this led to several jokes at the company's expense.
    • Error Code: 2137-8056
      A server communication error has occurred. Please try again later. ^ExplanationThe infamous error code and accompanying message that many received whenever their 3.0.0 update data for Ultimate failed to start downloading.
    • "This would've never happened if you just went to sleep." ^ExplanationBecause the update didn't drop until 17:00 PST, many have joked that Morgana would suggest going to sleep early as an easy solution to the server overload.
  • Joker hitting on the Smash ladies ^ExplanationIn Persona 5, Joker can romance any of the female confidants (with the exception of Sae Nijima). People were quick to start drawing fanart of him romancing the female playable characters of the game, sometimes even the male ones.
    • Valentine's Day, Smash Bros. style! ^ExplanationIn the original game, the player can potentially make Joker enter a romantic relationship with more than one girl at a time... which gets him in trouble on Valentine's day if the player has him do so. In the game, the player can choose to not spend Valentine's day with any of the girls they are dating, which leads to all of them showing up to deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Joker. Naturally this lead to fanart of what would happen if the Smash ladies caught Joker cheating on them.
• Hero:
  • Goku is finally in Smash!^Explanation Dragon Quest III's Hero, being designed by Akira Toriyama, looks a lot like Goku (and even sounds similar to Goku's Japanese voice), who is a popular (and unpopular) potential Smash fighter, especially ironically. Because of this, many people have joked that Goku IS in Smash. Taken even further with the addition of the Martial Artist costume from that series.
    • The Dragon Quest heroes get compared a lot to other Dragon Ball characters. For instance, the Luminary gets compared to Trunks and/or Android 17, Eight looks like a male Pan or an older version of Gohan, and Four loosely resembles Bulma or Future Trunks (who, coincidentally, shares the same voice actor with Four).
    • Related to the above, some fans like to joke that the Dragon Quest characters simply are the above mentioned characters, just wearing alternate costumes. For example, Erdrick is Goku in disguise.
    • Not even Sakurai is above these jokes; he posted a picture with two Heroes that heavily resembles the Father-Son Kamehameha on his Twitter.
  • DQ and BK ^ExplanationThe initials for Dragon Quest and Banjo-Kazooie resemble those of Dairy Queen and Burger King, respectively. Cue fast food jokes.
  • Me and the boys ^ExplanationThis meme gets frequently associated with the Dragon Quest heroes due to players getting the option of four of them, all of whom are male.
  • Fair and balanced ^ExplanationWhen it was announced that Hero is able to have random critical attacks, comparisons with Team Fortress 2 (a game which also has random crits) popped up almost instantly, including transplanting of their meme phrase "Random crits are fair and balanced."
  • Ban Hero.^ExplanationPrimarily a joke thrown out by pro player Leffen, who argued that Hero's reliance on random chance with regards to critical hits on Smash attacks and the selection of the Command Menu's spells make him a fundamentally-busted character... despite the fact that Hero's subpar performance in other areas (like his frame data, especially in the air) counters the notion that he is this absolutely all-encompassing Game-Breaker. Hero has since been banned by the South Australian Smash community, but whether this ban will stick and whether it'll spread to other regions remains to be seen.
    • Language Barrier^note Another point of discussion regarding Hero is that the spell names are in whatever language the game is set to, with no icons or other indicators as to what spell it is, which puts players at a disadvantage if they're playing the game in a language they don't understand, such as at international tournaments. Some Dragon Quest fans will occasionally reply by jokingly claiming that Square's general reluctance to localize the series in the west has prepared them for this.
  • Two songs for every character. ^ExplanationFans noticed that Sakurai got two songs from every Hero's game, not unlike Cloud being accompanied by a scant two songs from Final Fantasy VII, which led to the not-very-serious theory that he tricked Square Enix into giving more than two songs by putting in four Dragon Quest heroes instead of just one. It helps that Sakurai took a jab at SE himself in the Hero's introduction video, saying that it'd be "unfortunate" if Ultimate just had two songs from the franchise.
  • "I need a Hero"/"I'm holding out for a Hero". ^ExplanationBonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" quickly became associated with the character as the song fits fans who are waiting for the release and download of Hero as well as the lyrics amusingly match Hero's abilities. It's also not uncommon for people to use Jennifer Saunders' cover from Shrek 2 due to personal preference.
  • Whack ^ExplanationA crossover with The Eric Andre Show, a common reaction image is to edit Hannibal Buress's face next to the spell "Whack" in Hero's Command Selection◊, or draw over the original "Wack" picture to make Hannibal look like Hero◊.
  • Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series^ExplanationThe palette swap for the Hero from Dragon Quest XI has red and black clothes with white hair, meant as a Shout-Out to Angelo. However, Eleven's shoulder-length hair and choice of a sword for his weapon had made the palette swap resemble Dante. Adding onto that is that his Spiritual Successor, Bayonetta, has been in Smash since the previous installment, and Ken is voiced by Reuben Langdon and is also owned by Capcom.
  • Ultimate homie stock ^ExplanationThe "homie stock" is when a player intentionally Self-Destructs out of respect for their opponent, typically because they died to something that wasn't really their fault (like expecting to grab ledge, only to barely miss it and fall too low to recover). Normally homie stocks are done by just running offstage, but because Hero has Kamikazee, a move where he kills himself in a large, fiery and colorful explosion, Hero players will often elect to homie stock with that spell instead because it's funnier and more flashy.
• Banjo & Kazooie:
  • Banjo-Kazooie would be a Duck Hunt clone. ^ExplanationAnother modern-day replacement for "Ridley's too big", stating that the existence of a mammal and bird duo on the roster prevents another from being unique. This was taken to its logical conclusion in Banjo-Kazooie's reveal trailer, where Duck Hunt disguised themselves as the beloved duo to prank Donkey Kong, Diddy, and K. Rool, only for the actual Banjo and Kazooie to scare them off.
  • Steve is inevitable! ^{Explanation (Spoilers!)}Many people thought Steve from Minecraft was the Microsoft rep for a while, so when Banjo ended up getting the victory, people used the Thanos "I am inevitable" template from the end of Avengers: Endgame and had Banjo defeat Steve through a finger snap as Banjo replaces Iron Man. Steve would eventually make his way in later on.
  • Breegull Bash ^ExplanationBanjo & Kazooie's side Smash is the Breegull Bash, a move from Banjo-Tooie where Banjo slams Kazooie on the ground like a club. People unfamiliar with the Banjo-Kazooie games (which are full of Black Comedy like this) found the move surprisingly brutal-looking and made jokes about it, ranging from art depicting a heavily bandaged Kazooie to speculation that she actually enjoys getting bashed like that.
  • Thousand-Yard Stare Kazooie◊ ^ExplanationDuring the ending frames of Breegull Bash, there's a point where Kazooie is completely expressionless, which looks awkwardly funny compared to the rest of the animation. In the full picture, Banjo is also looking awkwardly at Kazooie◊, and both of these images became ripe for labelled memes and use as reaction images.
  • Banjojo ^ExplanationPeople noticed that two of the alternate palettes for Banjo & Kazooie resembled Dio/The World and Jotaro/Star Platinum, leading to jokes about Kazooie being Banjo's Stand (piggybacking off of preexisting memes about the dog from Duck Hunt being a Stand User) and parodies of the final battle between Dio and Jotaro. Other jokes were made about another pallette being similar to Polnareff & Silver Chariot while his normal colors could look like Avdol & Magician's Red.
  • Kazooie is a girl though ^ExplanationThe first Fighters Pass prior to Byleth (who comes with a female alternate costume) consisted of mostly male characters: Joker, all four Heroes, Banjo, and Terry Bogard. Many have tried to take this to its logical conclusion and claim the Fighters Pass is all-male, but they inevitably get reminded that Kazooie's mere presence disproves this.
  • Once the first Fighters Pass concluded, many people have noticed how drastically different Banjo & Kazooie look compared to the other fighters in the Pass◊, who are all humans with a fairly realistic art style. Many fans have made jokes about this, such as Banjo being the furry or Western Animation fan among their group of Anime-fanatic friends.
  • Nobody plays Banjo ^ExplanationThe online Smash fandom has a weird obsession with discrediting popular requests for made-up reasons, including ones that are already in the game. One of the more prominent examples is claiming that nobody plays Banjo & Kazooie and they're just a wasted slot◊ (sometimes using the competitive scene as "proof" of this, in spite of competitive bear and bird players existing◊), a statement that can easily be disproven by spending more than two minutes on the internet.
• Terry:
  • WHINING FOOLS BEGONE! ^ExplanationThe "SNK Leak" occurred when a copyright notice for SNK was found on the webpage for Challenger Pack #4 on Nintendo's European websites, leading many to conclude the 4th DLC would a representative from them. Naturally, some fans complained that, like Hero, an SNK character was not relevant enough to be in Smash. The quote, taken from Geese Howard's reveal trailer for Tekken 7, is used against said complaints about a potential SNK fighter joining the roster, essentially becoming a second "Hoes Mad".
    • ARE YOU OKAY? ^ExplanationWith several leakers corroborating that the SNK Leak is indeed real, and the company's representative would be Terry Bogard, his memetic Gratuitous English phrase became a third "Hoes Mad" towards people annoyed at an SNK representative. It certainly helps that the Buster Wolf was incorporated into his moveset, allowing him to say the iconic line like he normally does.
    • HOES FATALLY FURIOUS ^ExplanationA fourth "Hoes Mad" variation, playing off the title of Terry's home game.
  • Ken with a hat ^ExplanationA common put-down against Terry from unsatisfied Smash fans is to claim Terry is just a Ken clone with a hat. Has become a Berserk Button for fans who actually know the characters' playstyles have very little in common. The nickname has also resulted in crossover art with Bandana Waddle Dee, being a character who receives the similar put-down of "Hat Goomba". Oh, and it's Older Than They Think to compare Terry to Ken, with the two being friendly rivals in the SNK vs. Capcom games.
  • Muscular Pokémon Trainer/Buff Red ^ExplanationMany young kids aren't familiar with Terry Bogard and called him this upon his reveal. (Other comparisons included Terry being Red's dad, like how Bayonetta is Joker's mom, or Terry is Simon in Red's outfit.) Cue the flood of images of Terry becoming a Pokémon trainer himself or beating up Team Rocket with his bare hands. If this screenshot is an indication, even the Smash devs think the two look similar.
  • Human Diddy Kong^ExplanationYet others noticed between the hat, red clothing with stars, and cheerful attitude that Terry was in many ways similar to Diddy. There is also the fact that Terry actually has a pet monkey named Ukee in Fatal Fury canon. Though this one is more lighthearted and sometimes done specifically to parody the other two, it's popular to depict Terry being a friend and mentor to Diddy.
  • Hobbies: Playing video games, trolling. ^ExplanationA tidbit from Terry's bio in The King of Fighters 2006/Maximum Impact 2, a possible mistranslation of trawling, that has become more popular with his Smash announcement.
  • Terry's legs. ^ExplanationA meme originating from the Smash Ultimate Subreddit where people have been photoshopping Terry's legs onto other characters, not unlike a previous similar meme involving Bayonetta's legs. This time around, the meme further expanded to giving any character the legs of any other character on the roster, which in turn led to a slew of general character mash-ups.
  • RIP Geese Howard/Geese didn't die, he just landed in Tekken 7. ^ExplanationGeese Howard joined Mario, Mega Man, Luigi, King Dedede, Little Mac, Ken, and King K. Rool as an instance of a person in a Smash trailer dying, through a Mythology Gag to his death in Fatal Fury where he falls off Geese Tower, as seen when he jumps for the Smash invitation in Terry's trailer but ends up falling to his death again. However, some people joke that he instead landed in Tekken 7, as a nod to Geese's own status as a Guest Fighter in that series... which also has a Street Fighter and Final Fantasy representative (Akuma and Noctis, respectively), and is also developed by Bandai Namco, who developed Ultimate.
  • You can play as female Terry too!^note A few people noted that one of the games Terry was in was SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, which turned him into a woman. Given Smash Bros' habit of allowing the players to play certain characters as either gender, there were jokes about doing the same for Terry. For better or for worst this was jossed in the final game, when Sakurai showed off Terry’s Alternative colors, no female form was in sight. Given how skimpy Cutie Terry is, there was no way this was actually going to happen.
  • 50 songs ^ExplanationIn Terry's presentation, Sakurai explained that their team selected 50 songs to submit to SNK, expecting them to pick roughly 10 to 20 songs out of the 50. Instead, SNK simply responded to their request with Terry's trademark "OKAY!", which Sakurai's team took as a green light to add all 50. Naturally, many fans were amused at the contrast between SNK having 50 songs while Final Fantasy (initially) only had 2 songs, and various jokes were often made about how Challenger Pack 4 was actually just a bunch of music that just happened to come with a playable character.
    Cloud: Gee Terry, how come your company lets you have 50 songs?
    SNK: OKAY!
  • The great command input debate ^ExplanationWhen Terry was shown to have command inputs for certain moves like Ryu and Ken do in "Mr. Sakurai Presents "Terry Bogard"", a Vocal Minority of players didn't seem to like that, complaining and calling it bad design because it's not typical of how most characters in the game are played, apparently having overlooked the fact that most of Terry's command inputs aren't mandatory, and Buster Wolf and Power Geyser, the only moves that require command inputs to execute, have a simplified way to input them that was covered in the presentation itself, in addition to the original commands. The reasonable side of the Smash fanbase, as well as players of traditional fighting games where inputs like Terry's Smash commands would be on the basic side, decided to take the complaining part of the community's heavy dislike of command inputs and run with it, mocking their apparent fear of traditional fighting game inputs and making jokes about the whiny players in situations like getting locked outside of their house because they have to turn the doorknob a quarter circle.
  • Cover up that cleavage. Have you no shame, Mai? ^ExplanationTerry's win quote against Mai in Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory. Used in the context of Mai not making an appearance in the game due to her Ms. Fanservice design.
  • The "Come on!" club. ^ExplanationTerry joins Captain Falcon and Sonic in having a "Come on!" taunt.
  • "Wubba wubba, I'm in the pink today, boy." ^ExplanationTerry's bizarre win quote from Fatal Fury Special takes on a whole new meaning now that he's able to fight (and be eaten by) Kirby. The quote itself is a mistranslation of the original line, which was just "Sorry, but I guess today's my lucky day."
  • Jab 1 → Jab 2 → Power Dunk ^ExplanationThe one Terry combo that practically everyone knows, even people who haven't played as him, due to its simplicity, speed and ability to kill.
• Byleth:
  • Featuring Byleth from the Fire Emblem series ^Explanation An edit◊ of the "Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series" meme. It also helps that female Byleth's Edelgard palette resembles Dante.
  • "So joining Smash consumes even the darkness itself!" ^ExplanationIn Byleth's reveal trailer, Solon's line and overall reaction over male Byleth escaping his trap comes off as hilariously ridiculous and out of place when considering his character in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Adding to that, his second reaction over seeing female Byleth fly out with the House Leaders' Heroes' Relics was an equally hilarious Jaw Drop, which also perfectly summarizes many fans' reactions.
  • Sothis: What will you do?! Byleth: (becomes a woman) ^ExplanationIn the trailer, after male Byleth was defeated and came back to Sothis, she asked him about what is he going to do to ensure victory. Immediately after Sothis asked that question, female Byleth ended up showing up in the trailer. This leads to jokes to how Byleth's strategy to winning is literally becoming a woman.
  • Oops! All Fire Emblem ^ExplanationAfter Byleth's announcement, many began spreading edited◊ versions◊ of the "Oops! All Berries" box of Cap'n Crunch, edited in a way that refers to the number of FE characters in Ultimate.
  • Byleth teaches Smash ^ExplanationSince Byleth is a teacher in their home game, there's been plenty of fanart depicting Byleth teaching the other characters in a classroom. Joker is commonly featured as well since he's a high school student in his own game (and even has his high school uniform as one of his alternate outfits).
  • Byleth is genderfluid ^ExplanationByleth's sudden change from a guy to a woman in the trailer when confronting Sothis for the second time led to many reactors saying that Byleth is genderfluid, changing their identity from male to female whenever they feel it suits them. This also plays into the increased amount of LGBTQIA+ representation in Three Houses, with fans claiming that thanks to the Smash trailer, Byleth is now genderfluid on top of already being bi/pansexual.
  • Sothis:
    • "Too many swordsmen, are there?" ^ExplanationFrom Byleth's reveal trailer, Sothis drops in meta awareness over a common issue fans have towards Smash Bros, namely the amount of characters that use swords to fight. After being beaten up by sword-wielding characters, male Byleth seemingly remedies the issue by switching to female Byleth, technically making her a "swordswoman". Sothis cheekily applauds Byleth over the supposed plan before gifting them the three Heroes' Relics belonging to Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude for them to use, basically making them more than a sword fighter with an axe, lance, and bow to use.
    • Sothis holding the Smash envelope. ^ExplanationAlso from Byleth's reveal trailer, Sothis presents Byleth's Smash invite with a smug grin. This image spawned a large number of edits, ranging from Sothis Talking with Signs to her holding an assortment of other flat objects.
    • Sothis meeting Morgana^ExplanationCarrying over from her game's own meme page, Sothis and Morgana are both voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris in English, which fans have wasted no time in pointing out. It's not uncommon to find comments of the two meeting and expressing confusion over why they sound alike.
  • HOES MAD (musical reprise)^ExplanationYet another instance of HOES MAD. The addition of Byleth, and subsequent revival of the HOES MAD meme, saw a revival of one clip in particular: Allegra Clark, the voice actress for Dorothea and Shamir, singing HOES MAD as a Carmen operetta. Dorothea's inclusion on the accompanying stage only adds to this.
• Min Min:
  • Melee Marth confirmed ^ExplanationWith the March 26, 2020 Direct merely stating things like the fighter's ability to extend their arms, jokes about Melee Marth's ridiculously long grab range popped up.
  • Lanky Kong confirmed ^ExplanationJokes about the Kong that can stretch his arms out also popped up from saying the fighter can extend their arms.
  • Schrödinger's DLC ^ExplanationAs the identity of the character joining Smash was not originally given, this led to jokes about how the ARMS rep is all of them, but also none of them. The possibilities of the character defying multiple fanrules based on who it is have also brought remarks that they simultaneously break all fanrules and no fanrules.
  • Paper Mario confirmed ^ExplanationOn May 14th of 2020, a trailer for Paper Mario: The Origami King was released. One of the new abilities Mario was shown to have in it was the 1,000-Fold Arms, which temporarily turns his arms into accordion-like origami arms that can reach much farther than his normal ones. Since this game was announced before the ARMS character was revealed, people quickly started joking that Paper Mario was actually the ARMS rep the whole time.
  • Don't mess with us ARMS fans, there's like 3 of us^ExplanationA joke about how few people played or even remembered ARMS before its announcement for the next DLC character. Subsequent variations poked fun at existing characters with few mains.
  • Fighter 76^ExplanationIn terms of full-fledged, non-echo characters, Min Min is the 76th fighter in the roster. In the same presentation where she was announced, a costume based on Vault Boy was also shown. As the latter's series' latest installment was named Fallout 76, the coincidence was not lost on the community.
  • Etika would be proud^ExplanationIn a case of Heartwarming in Hindsight, Min Min's inclusion brought to mind the late Desmond Amofah, a.k.a. Etika's fondness for the character. Many of his fans were quick to remind everyone just how much he would have freaked out over her announcement.
  • Sakurai mentioning he has to "Fight at a distance" when he fights off Captain Falcon and Kirby lead to jokes about the social distancing for the COVID-19 pandemic and Min Min giving the two noodles using her ARMS.
  • Ramenman Vs. Springman^Explanation Sakurai pointed out that, when you Google Spring Man in Japan, the results involve a similarly-named major antagonist from the famous wrestling manga, Kinnikuman. Japanese viewers (and some English viewers) went on to realize that Sakurai was also referencing Springman's defeat at the hands of Ramenman/Mongolman, and that a ramen-themed fighter had yet again defeated a spring-themed one.
  • Min Min and Incineroar on Spring Stadium^ExplanationReferencing a fake leak◊ made prior to Ultimate being fully revealed involving Spring Man and Decidueye on Spring Stadium, there have been fans who "remade" the leak using the ARMS and Pokémon Sun and Moon newcomers that actually did make it in.
  • Min Min for the Win Win/Min Min is in in^ExplanationA pre-existing ARMS meme that saw an increase in usage (with "win win" sometimes getting switched out with "in in") after Min Min was revealed for the DLC.
  • Chilling out at the ramen shop ^ExplanationAfter Min Min's trailer dropped, the ramen shop that her trailer (and a subsequent artwork) took place in became a popular setting for people to draw other members of the Smash roster hanging out at.
  • Min Min giving hope^ExplanationAs Min Min was already a Spirit in Ultimate, her inclusion sparked the support of several characters who were already in the game as fellow Spirits such as Geno, Shantae, Rayman and Bandana Waddle Dee (and by extension Rex due to both his and Min Min's home games not getting fighters for the same reasons). Fanart exploded of such characters expressing their gratitude to Min Min for proving that Spirits could get in. Eventually, a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 character who was already a spirit in the game got in, but it was Pyra and Mythra, not Rex.
  • Min Minception!^ExplanationSince Min Min has a spirit, she can naturally have it equipped to herself. This led to several videos online of this. Some take it a step further and have her fight the Min Min spirit with the spirit on.
  • Min Min T-Posing^ExplanationA glitch that could be performed is that somehow Min Min will start T-posing if you do a few actions very quickly, which has naturally led to memes about Min Min asserting her dominance. Needless to say, lots of people have replicated the glitch. As of the 8.1.0 update, this glitch has been patched.
• Steve/Alex/Zombie/Enderman:
  • Steveposting/Grotesque Steve ^ExplanationBefore Steve would eventually be revealed as a character, plenty of rumors and a supposed "leak" surrounding Steve's inclusion way back in late 2018 led many to assume that he would get in over Banjo and Kazooie, hence the "Steve is Inevitable" meme above. This led to a series of shitposts where a 4chan user would keep reminding everyone that Steve had the edge over Banjo due to series popularity, often accompanied by an HD version of Steve that would subsequently become a Memetic Molester by harassing other unrevealed (and even actually revealed) fighters. This particular meme went through a rather extensive journey, being thrown into question when the Grinch Leak made the rounds, coming back with a vengeance when the Grinch Leak turned out to be fake, died down for a long while when Banjo and Kazooie were revealed as the third Fighters Pass member, then saw a minor resurgence with Steve actually making it into the second pass. Compared to the myriad of Minecraft related memes, it's become slightly less prominent within both communities, though it's still referenced decently often and is often seen as an Evil Knockoff of the original Steve. (This is despite the fact that an evil doppelgänger already exists canonically in the form of "Herobrine", a creepy version of Steve without pupils.)
    • Mocking Steveposting/HE'S BACK^ExplanationWhen Banjo and Kazooie were revealed as a character, "Grotesque Steve" got absolutely destroyed by those who were sick of the Steveposts, getting put through various humiliating defeats such as getting pummeled by the 7-Page Muda, among others. Variations occurred back when the Grinch Leak was thought to be real as well. Of course, when Steve was confirmed to be getting in after all, some have joked that "Grotesque Steve" has come Back from the Dead for revenge.
    • "Kazooie! This isn't Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! We're in MINECRAFT!"^{Explanation (NSFW)}An infamous, extremely NSFW 2019 animation made by Minecraft animator FuturisticHub, which involves Banjo and Kazooie peacefully walking through the world of Minecraft (with Banjo saying the above line) before being ambushed by "Grotesque Steve", who proceeds to murder and devour Kazooie, sodomize Banjo, and then trap and shrink Banjo in an Assist Trophy and sodomize himself with Banjo, all in extremely graphic detail. The sheer depravity of the animation caused it to become a meme within the community, with the simple sight of the animation's first frame (or even just Banjo's first lines) being purposefully used to induce revulsion. The meme received a revival after Steve was revealed in the game, and once Minecraft stages were released, it became a meme to post images of Banjo in the stages accompanied by references to the animation.
  • Steve crashes Twitter!^ExplanationWithin seconds of his announcement as a new fighter, Twitter servers were so overloaded that they actually crashed for a few minutes on a scale not seen since Michael Jackson's death in 2009. Sakurai himself made a note of this.
  • Creeper! Aw man...^ExplanationCaptainSparklez's Minecraft cover of Usher's DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love was already a meme itself, but it later gained a resurgence due to the reveal trailer having Mario be attacked by an actual Creeper. This escalated further with the reveal of a Creeper Mii Costume two days later.
  • X gets blown up by a Creeper^ExplanationFollowing Steve's inclusion it is common to Photoshop other potential newcomers in place of Mario, such as any of the character under the "Min-Min Giving Hope" meme above or other highly requested characters such as Dante, Sora (who eventually got in), or Crash Bandicoot.
  • POV: You are going to Minecraft ^ExplanationSonic launching Mario into the Minecraft world spawned images of Sonic attacking the viewer and started the idea that fighters get sent to Minecraft whenever they get knocked outside the blast zone.
  • Mario reacts to Steve ^ExplanationThe scene where Mario meets Steve quickly became memetic due to Steve's stiff posture compared to Mario's shocked Looney Tunes-esque pose, along with the halo of light surrounding Steve. The image has become a meme format with Steve either representing or being replaced by something unexpected, and may or may not also involve the following scene where the Creeper blows up Mario.
  • Steve's intro quote, "Steve rocks the block!" has become the subject of many memes, most of them editing the phrase to be much cruder.
  • Enderman looking into Snake's box ^ExplanationThis scene from the trailer also became a fan favorite, spawning variations on Snake and an Enderman looking each other down such as this.
  • Enderman himself being out of proportion (the regular Enderman looks like this) to match Steve's mesh has been lovingly called a baby Enderman.
  • After the announcement, some fans have joked that there are now three Steves in Smash. ^ExplanationThere's the Steve from Minecraft, the Piranha Plant named Steve from the old Newgrounds series Bowser's Kingdom, and lastly Steve the Trooper (a red Pikmin) from Chuggaaconroy's Pikmin 1 let's play. Before his announcement, people have joked that Steve was already in the game as a result.
  • I'm Pickel Steve! ^ExplanationSteve's internal codename is Pickel which is pronounced similarly to pickle which immediate drew references to the Pickle Rick meme from Rick and Morty.
  • Steve choking Captain Falcon.^ExplanationThis image of Captain Falcon being grabbed by Steve during Sakurai's gameplay demonstration trailer quickly went viral for similar reason's to Mario's reaction to Steve, as well as the fact that Steve appears to be choking Captain Falcon, and its general menacing aura. This immediately drew comparisons to the Sasuke being choked meme.
  • Steve's Meat^ExplanationOne of Steve's victory screens has him eating a steak. nothing out of the ordinary so far, but then once he's done, the way he holds it over his pants and the angle that the last shot is in... isn't particularly flattering. Its also unhelpful if you're playing as the default Steve, as the meat is the same color as the default's skin coloring. Patch 9.0.1 fixed the animation so the steak would no longer be rendered after Steve burped, therefore removing the joke.
    • R.I.P. Steve's Meat ^ExplanationAfter the victory screen was edited, many started mourning the loss of Steve's meat.
  • MINING AWAY ^ExplanationAn infamous Minecraft parody (sound warning) of A Ha's "Take On Me" made a resurgence after Steve's announcement and is usually accompanied by Steve's nonchalance in mining and gathering materials in the middle of a heated battle.
  • "Hello, young lady!" ^ExplanationIn 2014, YouTube channel Dudesons made a Minecraft in Real Life Pranks video where a clip of a Steve cosplayer talking to a young girl, only for her to groin-kick him, became rather memetic. And now that Steve is in Smash, the meme is recreated with Steve talking to any of the female fighters, usually Peach.
  • Steve using Bedrock^ExplanationA common joke between fans is Steve's Neutral Special hypothetically being buffed, enabling him to box in and annoy opponents by placing Bedrock, with some variants being him building a bunker with it to save everyone from Galeem's attack at the beginning of World of Light.
  • Custom Skins. ^ExplanationA joke spawning about how Steve has different skin options in his original game. There have been several mods about this, with mainly Minecraft YouTubers being involved. One of the most common jokes is recreating the Dream vs Technoblade battle in Smash. What helps is that Steve's in-game texture is literally exactly the same layout as the ones used in Java Edition that players can edit.
• Sephiroth:
  • THAT'S NOT SORA!^ExplanationSora is one of the most heavily requested characters to be put in the game (and would be revealed later down the line), so the reveal that a Square Enix character that wasn't him was getting in led to a number of jokes.
    • It's Trunks!^ExplanationSince Sephiroth ended up slicing Galeem in half, many commentators have joked that Trunks was the one showing up, due to the fact he cleaved Mecha Frieza in half.
  • Sephiroth (seemingly) impaling Mario^ExplanationThe shot of Sephiroth impaling Mario on the Masamune (at least before it's revealed that he very narrowly missed) went viral within seconds due to the ongoing trend of Smash reveal trailers killing off various characters, including the Mario brothers. The juxtaposition between one of gaming's most iconic villains and the happy-go-lucky mascot of Nintendo helped in this regard.
    • "You're lucky I liked Odyssey"^ExplanationA common joke that made the rounds shortly after the reveal was that Sephiroth only spared Mario because of how good Super Mario Odyssey was.
    • Sorry Mario, it's March 2021/March 31st be like:^ExplanationWith the infamous decision made by Nintendo to stop the availability of some of the Mario 35th anniversary releases and the online service of the first Super Mario Maker on the last day of March 2021, fans have been quick to make comparisons using the image of the impalement, implying that Sephiroth only spared Mario so he could kill him in the next year.
    • Sephiroth (seemingly) impaling Smash Bros.^ExplanationThe above scene led to several fan drawings of Sephiroth either hanging more of the Smash fighters on his Masamune, or stabbing Mario and them like a shishkabob.
    • Sephiroth (seemingly) impaling everything^ExplanationSeveral people also started editing the original screenshot◊ of Mario being impaled so that various other◊ characters◊ or things◊ were impaled instead.
    • Sephiroth pointing^ExplanationSome other people also started to edit out the sword and make Sephiroth do other things, like point at a map or play◊ Wii Sports.
  • "I have been waiting for this moment. Now, I shall give Smash 'dis pear."^ExplanationThe "Shall I gave you despair?" scene from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was the very first scene re-enacted during Sephiroth's reveal trailer, causing a resurgence of the infamous "dis pear" meme associated with it, this time in correlation to Smash.
  • Sephiroth is canonically the strongest Smash character.^ExplanationIn his trailer, Sephiroth introduces himself by killing Galeem in one hit; the very same Galeem that destroyed the physical form of nearly everyone in the universe in the introductory cutscene of World of Light (which inspired a lot of the memes near the top of this page) and also is a hard boss in-game.
    • Sephiroth is the second-strongest Smash character^ExplanationAs Kirby is still a Memetic Badass within the fandom, several people prefer to put Sephiroth right below him in terms of strength.
    • "I fear no man, but that thing [Kirby] scares me".^ExplanationMany fans note that Kirby has actually killed many abominations in his home series, so there have been plenty of jokes about Sephiroth — himself a Big Bad who turns into an Angelic Abomination as his One-Winged Angel form, as well as a Trope Codifier of the stereotypical JRPG Final Boss noted by The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Clichés — learning of Kirby's reputation and being terrified of the pink puffball.
  • One more song^ExplanationWith Square Enix's reputation for being stingy with the music representation for their franchises in Smash (only two Final Fantasy songs came with Cloud, the music from Dragon Quest being MIDI versions despite using the orchestra versions in Hero's trailer, etc.), some people started to joke that "One-Winged Angel" will be the only song that will come with Sephiroth. This subsided after the Mr. Sakurai Presents Sephiroth video revealed that Final Fantasy will be getting 9 more songs.
    • The number of songs that will be added with Sephiroth will be about as many as the number of wings he has.^ExplanationA similar joke, based on the name of his Leitmotif.
  • Sephiroth, the Super Persistent Stalker.^ExplanationSephiroth being portrayed as a Stalker with a Crush (Foe Yay Shipping included) towards Cloud was already a meme in the Final Fantasy fandom, as no matter what game or crossover Cloud appeared in, Sephiroth would almost always be there alongside him. Smash Bros. seemed to be the exception, leaving Cloud as the only major character to be shown in the game...at least until Sephiroth's reveal. Cue jokes that Cloud can never avoid dealing with his Arch-Enemy, and his growing exasperation at Sephiroth's sheer persistency when it comes to stalking him.
  • "Why do we hear boss music?"^ExplanationTaken from an existing meme, Sephiroth's arrival was heralded by "One-Winged Angel" playing in advance, prompting the appropriate reactions from the rest of the cast, especially Cloud.
    • "Why do I hear someone else's boss music?"^ExplanationSame as the above, but from Galeem's point of view.
    • "Can't you hear the music!? That's a 4/4 string ostinato in D minor! Every sailor knows that means death!"^ExplanationA clip taken from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Clams", though in this case it refers to a giant clam that ends up eating Mr. Krabs' millionth dollar. This is used to describe Cloud's reaction to Sephiroth getting in Smash Bros. It helps that One-Winged Angel is actually played in D minor.
    • Sephiroth is Jaws.^ExplanationSephiroth has drawn various comparisons to the cinematic shark, most notably having famous themes that foreshadow their arrival.
  • So that's where they went!^ExplanationIn Kingdom Hearts II, Sephiroth and Cloud vanish into light with Goofy wondering where they could've gone to, to which Sora responds by saying that Cloud went off to "fight a great battle". Fans immediately brought up that both swordsmen ended up in another crossover world. While this meme first came to be when Cloud was originally added to Smash, it exploded once Sephiroth was revealed.
  • THE Anime Swordsman^ExplanationSome people were upset that Sephiroth's inclusion was almost unanimously well-received, as the fanbase tends to react poorly to sword wielding anime-esque characters (particularly Fire Emblem characters). Needless to say, people were quick to remind them (and the people that did complain about him) that Sephiroth, (alongside Cloud) is not only one of the most iconic characters of his archetype, but in fact one of the Trope Codifiers of said archetype, and not just another generic anime swordsman.
  • "OH NO, HE'S HOT!"^Explanation The general reaction to Sephiroth's alternate costume.
  • His sword won't fit in the box!^ExplanationThe length of Sephiroth's Masamune has naturally led to jokes about how troublesome it will be for his amiibo to accomodate it in its packaging, such as the sword getting bent, or the figure just getting a bigger box.
  • "Thank you for saving us from Galeem!" "I wouldn't say 'saved.' More like...under new management."^ExplanationA slightly paraphrased exchange taken from Megamind, used in reference to Sephiroth taking out Galeem and thereby saving the other characters only for him to start taking them out himself.
  • Sephiroth and Kirby. ^explanation Perhaps just because of the massive stylistic clash, Sephiroth and Kirby have been used together a lot more frequently. Some of this is the logical joke of Kirby getting Sephiroth's "Hat" and Masamune. Others that point out that Kirby is the Adorable Abomination to Sephiroth's Humanoid Abomination. At least one comic has assumed that Kirby is what Jenova was running from in the cosmic backstory of FFVII. Sephiroth is also much lighter than he appears, somehow weighing the same as Kirby, which certainly didn't hinder the meme.
    • Sephiroth and Pichu. ^explanation Sephiroth's inclusion into the Smash Ultimate fighter mural has him placed slightly behind Cloud and directly to Pichu's right. This, combined with similar circumstances to Kirby above, has seen Pichu also being paired with Sephiroth in recent artworks as well. Ended up as an Ascended Meme as some of Sakurai's Pics of the Day had Pichu interacting with Sephiroth and later Dracula.
  • Supernova not long enough, 0/10 ^ExplanationSephiroth's Final Smash is to cast Supernova, a move infamous for having a two-minute long animation in the English release of FFVII when it's cast. Ultimate naturally shortened it down to a more reasonable time (shorter than even the original Japanese animation in fact), which caused mock complaints about how the move sucked now that it doesn't take forever to execute.
  • Spoilers! ^Explanation The Northern Cave, the new stage that comes with Sephiroth, is the final dungeon of Final Fantasy VII. The stage itself, while the physical stage doesn't change, plays out the final moments of the game starting from the party descending to Meteor VS Holy. Needless to say, this spoils the ending to the original game, made worse by the fact that Sakurai was literally explaining the events unfolding throughout the stage during the Sephiroth presentation, causing many who didn't want spoilers to look away during the entire segment.
  • Down Aerith^ExplanationSephiroth's down air is Hell's Gate, the infamous stabbing move he did to Aerith. And you know how puns work.
  • The winner is..."SEPHIROTH!"^ExplanationPlayers have noticed that the previous way the announcer calls the winner would've perfectly synced with Sephiroth's victory theme.
  • Sephiroth giving hope ^ExplanationSimilar to Min Min giving hope to characters that are spirits, with Sephiroth proving that third-party series can have multiple unique fighters, speculation involving them has risen after his announcement, most notably Dr. Eggman and Chun-Li. Humorous, given that Sephiroth is most notable for giving despair.
  • How Sephiroth got into Smash ^ExplanationSephiroth's appearance in his reveal trailer consisted of him butting in on the clash between Galeem and the Smash roster without any foreshadowing whatsoever, which prompted jokes about the many ways Sephiroth managed to get into Ultimate coupled with his status as an Unexpected Character. These range from him inviting himself to the roster without receiving an official Smash invitation envelope as previous newcomers did (sometimes doing so just to fight Cloud), to stealing the envelope from other frequently requested candidates, often through lethal means.
    • RIP Geno/Sora ^ExplanationMany fans who wanted Geno and Sora (both also belonging to Square Enix, though Sora is mainly owned by Disney's Japanese division) to join Smash as playable fighters lamented how the chances of this happening were greatly diminished — if not rendered dead in the water outright — by the official introduction of Sephiroth into the roster, coupled with Geno's Mii Gunner costume from 3DS/Wii U being announced to return the following week. Cue jokes about the two characters themselves having high hopes for being welcomed into Smash, only to have them unceremoniously dashed by Sephiroth. Combined with the above jokes about Sephiroth often attacking other candidates, some have even joked about Sephiroth Attacking Geno, stealing an invitation from him AND turning him into a Mii Costume just for the sake of fulfilling his promise to bring Smash despair. In terms of Sora at least, he did manage to survive Geno's fate, meaning this now only applies to Geno.
• Pyra/Mythra:
  • Think you can take me?^ExplanationA fan-favorite meme from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 thanks to the Ardainian Soldiers' voice lines, many were surprised and delighted to see it being given to Mythra as her down taunt, treating it similarly to Shulk's legendary "I'm really feeling it!". Some have also noted that Mythra appropriated the line from a different character, much like Shulk with "Now it's Shulk time!", and that if another XC2 character were to be added to a future game (such as Jin), they would need to have "Don't forget me!" as a taunt.
  • Mythra's leggings.^ExplanationTo comply with CERO ratings, Mythra's spirit was altered to give her leggings over her bare legs (and also covered up her Cleavage Window, just to be sure). People in Japan ended up loving this change and fan art poured out. Even people outside of Japan agree that the change was good, if not an improvement over the original design. Apparently, it was so well-received that they decided to add it into Xenoblade 2 as DLC, though slightly modified into a spandex bodysuit that also covers most of her back. Of course, she also wears the outfit as a fighter as well.
    • Pyra's pantyhose.^ExplanationFor similar reasons mentioned above, Pyra's outfit was altered to cover up her thighs and lower back with sheer pantyhose after she got promoted into a fighter. Eagle-eyed people have noticed that they're transparent enough to still see her skin, so it got seen as much less of a cover-up and was playfully mocked as a detail CERO somehow glossed over.
  • RIP Rex ^ExplanationRex was already shafted from the base roster and Fighter's Pass 1 as Nintendo and Sakurai already had the characters they wanted up to that point and thus was given a Mii Costume as compensation. Due to the second Fighter's Pass being decided later, as well as Min Min being upgraded to a playable character, many had hoped he'd be given another chance, only to find him relegated to being part of Pyra's and Mythra's Final Smashes.
    • Rex got Chrom'd/Rex is the new Chrom^ExplanationLike how Chrom before him, Rex, the main character, got passed over in favor of the same game's Deuteragonist, with the protagonist himself being relegated to a Mii costume, and an Assist Character during said Deuteragonist's Final Smash. If the trend continues, Rex will presumably get his time to shine in Smash 6, whenever that happens. As it later turns out, its due to development limitations, as implementing Rex and Pyra/Mythra as duo fighter is more complex than the Ice Climbers, who are already complex for the game to handle. This is in contrast to Chrom, who was only seen as bland in terms of moveset potential versus Robin, the chosen Awakening rep.
  • "Tired of Anime Swordsmen? Have an Anime Sword instead!" ^ExplanationA joke referring to how Pyra and Mythra are the Aegis Blade in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Mostly used against those who accuse them of being "another generic anime swordsfighter".
    • "You said you were tired of Anime Swordsmen, so we added Anime Swordswomen!"^ExplanationIn response to the people who complained about Pyra and Mythra being "another anime swordsman", fans were quick to remind them that they are female.
    • SWORD ^ExplanationWith this supposed Moving the Goalposts (from an anime swordsman (Byleth) to the Anime Swordsman (Sephiroth) to an Anime Sword (Pyra and Mythra), many have joked that Challenger Pack 10 is just going to be a literal sword, or Aegislash...which wouldn't even be the first time Aegislash would be playable via DLC in a fighting game.
  • "I thought this was a game for good boys and girls!" ^ExplanationPyra and Mythra's designs, while edited for Smash to make them less revealing (especially in Mythra's case), have not gone unnoticed by fans, and this caused many people to question Sakurai's former "statement" that Smash was for "good boys and girls of all ages". CERO (Japan's version of the ESRB, and infamously more strict) is a bit weird like that.
  • BOOBA ^ExplanationPyra and Mythra's, erm, assets feature Jiggle Physics, a first for female playable characters. Naturally, people on the internet were quick to notice despite being very subtle as it is only a slight movement.
  • Pyraception/Mythraception! ^ExplanationJust like with Min Min before them, Pyra and Mythra were originally support spirits in Ultimate and have spirit battles of their own.
  • Pyra drinking your tears. ^ExplanationTaken from an already existing meme in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, we have a gif of Pyra drinking a cup of tea accompanied by the caption "the salt here is lovely", obviously directed at those who are upset at her and Mythra's inclusion as fighters.
  • Peach reacts to Pyra and Mythra ^Explanation Pyra and Mythra's position in the "Everyone is here" banner puts them close to Peach◊, whose expression makes her look like she is surprised to see them there.
  • Mythra vs. Kazooie ^ExplanationSoon after Pyra & Mythra were announced, plentiful examples of fanart depicting Mythra & Kazooie being Sitcom Arch-Nemeses began circulating the internet, very much because of their personalities being very similar to one another.
  • Kill la Kill Pyra and Mythra ^ExplanationPyra/Mythra's alts weren't revealed on the main website prior to Mr. Sakurai Presents Pyra/Mythra, with only one of them revealed through Sakurai's Pic of the Day on the 25th of February 2021. While the likely reference is actually Poppi Qt Pi from the their home game or Weltall from their spiritual predecessor Xenogears, many people compared the appearance to Ryuko Matoi due to similar usage of black and red in the colour scheme.
  • "Nuh-uh" ^ExplanationOne of Mythra's lines when Foresight activates, which is usually used to display how good the ability is as you use a counterattack. It's been used in fanart.
  • Donkey Kong/a Gogol/"Territorial Kongbart" as the Aegis' Driver. ^ExplanationSkye Bennett, the voice actress for Pyra and Mythra, streams Ultimate occasionally. During one viewer games stream with Alpharad, the prime primate himself showed up in a lot of matches, and Skye herself claimed that he was her previous main before her own characters were added. Viewers began to joke about Pyra and Mythra teaming up with DK, or even him becoming the Aegis' new Driver. Given that the Xenoblade Chronicles games are infamous for unnecessarily brutal gorilla enemies (Gogols) in early-game areas such as Territorial Rotbart and Immovable Gonzalez, fans were quick to extend the joke to them, claiming that the same result can be obtained by giving the Aegis to "a Gogol with a tie".
  • Pyra Flip ^Explanation This short animation of Pyra getting Mythra to watch her do a flip while she fights Kazuya, only for Kazuya to stop and start erratically backdashing, achieved a remarkable amount of attention, getting lots of edits and remixes and even a partial reenactment via cosplay.
• Kazuya:
  • Wavedashing returns ^ExplanationBefore it became an infamous part of competitive Melee, "wavedashing" was first seen in the Tekken series. Kazuya's trailer showcases the Tekken version of the technique.
  • Street Fighter X Tekken 2 ^ExplanationSmash marks the second time Ryu, Ken and Kazuya have appeared in a fighting game together... including variants of Mega Man and Pac-Man that wildly differ between Smash and SFXT.
    • Tekken 7 on Switch ^ExplanationTekken 7, through an assortment of Guest Fighters, included crossovers with Street Fighter (Akuma), Fatal Fury/The King of Fighters (Geese) and Final Fantasy (Noctis). Smash Ultimate, being developed by Bandai Namco, sees all these franchises reunite with Ryu, Ken, Cloud, Terry, Sephiroth and Kazuya all part of the roster. The only franchise missing is The Walking Dead with Negan appearing in Tekken 7, leaving some fans joking that if it weren't for Sakurai's "Video game characters only" rule, Clementine from the Telltale series could have a chance and be Negan's Smash counterpart.
    • Tekken X Street Fighter ^ExplanationTekken X Street Fighter was an intended companion game for Street Fighter X Tekken that has since been left in Development Hell due to the poor reception of SFXT. With Kazuya's inclusion fans have joked that Smash Ultimate is now Tekken X Street Fighter, especially since Ultimate is being developed by Bandai Namco.
  • Kazuya Kills Everyone ^Explanation One of Kazuya's signature scenes is tossing Heihachi off of a cliff in his Tekken 1 ending, recreated in Tekken 7 where he throws Heihachi into a volcano to end him for good. Kazuya proceeds to do the same to Ganondorf, Captain Falcon, Pit, Min Min, and Marth. It doesn't end there; in a piece of art on official Tekken accounts on Twitter, it shows Kazuya about to drop Ryu off of the cliff from the World of Light intro with the other characters looking in horror and trying to stop him.
    • Kazuya chucking things off cliffs ^ExplanationSeveral edits have been made using the scenes, with Kazuya throwing various characters and objects off the cliff.
    • Kirby lives again ^ExplanationWhen Kazuya tries to throw Kirby off of the cliff, Kirby simply flies away. Obviously Sakurai sparing his treasured character once again.
    • Kazuya throws dead franchises off cliffs. ^ExplanationA Black Comedy version with the frustration of the fans of some franchises in the limbo that Nintendo rarely ever brought back up. Since Captain Falcon and Pit are from franchises that haven't seen new games in a long time, and the rumored ARMS 2 hasn't come out yet, fans joked that if the franchise is ignored, then Kazuya would chuck them off the cliff (even though two of the victims from the trailer, Marth and Ganondorf, are from very much alive franchises).
    • Kazuya throwing Marth ^ExplanationThis specific part of his throwing-characters-off-the-cliff montage is used as either a Take That! towards Fire Emblem, or the subject of jokes stating that because Kazuya killed Fire Emblem, they had to make a new Advance Wars, as Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp was announced in the same E3 Direct as Kazuya's reveal. And for some reason, Kazuya raised his arm the highest when throwing Marth, like being relieved the most for throwing him in particular.
  • Phoenix Wright confirmed ^ExplanationBoth Kazuya and Phoenix have similar Anime Hair and Kazuya comes with his suit from Tekken 7, which some fans have edited to resemble Phoenix's own. Is a joke which is Older Than They Think; Project × Zone 2 has the resemblance between Nick and Kazuya's hair Played for Laughs.
    • DIO confirmed ^ExplanationP8 costume on Kazuya is a full gold customization of his Tekken 7 suit complete with golden-blonde hair. Of course this led to comparisons to a certain vampire who is decked out in a similar color scheme.
  • Kazuya is a Shoto^ExplanationWhen Kazuya was revealed, many commentators who hated the fact that a fighting character was the next character disparged him by claiming he was a Shoto Clone. While Kazuya doesn't fit the Shoto archetype defined by the FGC or by the Shoto Clone page, MaximilianDood explains that Kazuya can be interpreted as a Shoto if examined with different metrics such as protagonist status, having a fundamental gameplan related to their particular game, and wearing a gi, which are other common aspects of Shotos.
  • THIS DUDES DOING STRINGS ^ExplanationWith the 10 hit combo confirmed to be part of Kazuya's moveset, many have brought up one of Low Tier God's most memetic quotes and even played the sound over Kazuya using the 10 hit combo on Captain Falcon.
  • Banjo-Kazuya ^ExplanationGiven that Kazuya's name is similar to Kazooie's, several fans have photoshopped and made fan art of Kazuya in Banjo's backpack, thus making "Banjo-Kazuya" jokes. Originated from this post that came out in 2019, which ended up being Hilarious in Hindsight.
  • Kiryu confirmed/Kazuya Kiryu^ExplanationDuring Sakurai's presentation, one of Kazuya's alts was revealed to heavily resemble Kazuma Kiryu's iconic red and white suit, leading many to joke that Kiryu had joined the game. This alt is actually a reference to Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection however, and not Kiryu. For added bonus points, 'Kazuya' is an anagram of 'Yakuza'.
    • Dame Da Ne^ExplanationAlso during the presentation, Sakurai says the phrase ("No good, huh..." in Japanese), which is one of the most well-known lyrics to "Baka Mitai", a very memetic song in the Yakuza community.
  • Where is Infinite Azure? ^ExplanationMany streamers expressed disappointment that the song from the popular Tekken 7 stage Infinite Azure was not included. However, many of their chats had to point out that the name of the song was called "Moonsiders 1st"; "Infinite Azure" was the name of the stage the song played on. Moonsiders 1st was even played during the discussion of Kazuya's moveset.
  • Meta Knight is Devil Kirby ^ExplanationWhen copying Kazuya, Kirby gets the hair and the gloves, but because Kirby is copying Devil Blaster, he sprouts wings and devil horns during the attack, it even gives Kirby a dark purple tint when using said devil powers. Of course several have noted that the wings and color look like Meta Knight's wings and default color lending many to say that Meta Knight is just the devil form of Kirby.
  • DORYA ^ExplanationThe grunt Kazuya makes when performing several of his moves - particularly the Electric Wind God Fist - followed him to Smash, and it's about as memetic here as it is within the Tekken community. Overlaps with Ganondorf's "DORIYAH" due to sounding the same, and it's a joke to say that Kazuya targeted Ganondorf in his trailer due to having done that very grunt for far longer.
  • Level 9 Kazuya ^ExplanationKazuya's release with version 12.0.0 coincided with the CPUs getting better AI. Since everyone was rushing to try out the new character, people found out that when the Kazuya CPU is set to level 9 it is capable of pulling off some utterly ridiculous combos, which quickly garnered infamy. This lead to many jokes that the CPUs were far more competent than the actual playerbase.
  • Kazuya's taunt does more damage than Sheik combos ^ExplanationAn extension of Sheik becoming a Memetic Loser due to her nerfs, this refers to Kazuya's side taunt being his Demon's Wrath combo, complete with not only being able to deal damage, but up to 21.6% worth of it, and even having potential to kill.
  • The response from the Tekken community when Smash players complained about how busted Kazuya is, especially Electric Wind God Fist, was overwhelmingly:
    "Yeah, this is just what he's like, he's your problem now."^ExplanationThe Electric Wind God Fist in Tekken is considered to be the Signature Move for the Mishima clan in part due to it being Difficult, but Awesome; the move has to be performed out of a wavedash with frame perfect timing, and doing so leads to a fast and damaging launcher which is also safe on block, meaning that the opponent is pushed back and kept in blockstun for so long, Kazuya can follow up with anything he damn well pleases. Due to it retaining that same usage in Smash (with the input being far easier to perform than in Tekken) and a variety of other design choices that made Kazuya a high tier character in his home series being retained, many Tekken players had a field day explaining how Smash was going to experience everything they go through with Kazuya.
  • Kazuya is Joker's dad ^ExplanationAs a snowclone of "Bayonetta is Joker's mom", Kazuya's aesthetic, especially his business suit overcoat which resembles Joker's suit, and use of darkness-based powers led people to joke that he's the missing third member of the family. This also ties into the common fan characterization of Joker's parents as uncaring and/or abusive, and even portraying Yuuki Mishima, Joker's friend from Persona 5, as another son of Kazuya (usually The Unfavorite). Doubly funny since Kazuya was directly based on his potential namesake Yukio Mishima. Not to mention that people speculate Joker's Persona, Arsène, has some kind of connection to the Devil Gene since it resembles Kazuya's son Jin's Devil form, from the red and black color scheme, similar-shaped horns and claws along with black feathery wings.
  • Kazuya's reflector ^ExplanationLeft Splits Kick has become infamous for being the strongest reflector in the game despite its speed (reflection starting on frame 7), as it boasts a 2.4x damage multiplier (for reference, Ness's forward smash and the Home-Run Bat have a longer startup and only multiply by 2x). Videos have shown it reflecting things like Sephiroth's Scintilla, Pac-Man's Apple, Olimar's forward smash, and Piranha Plant's Ptooie, and killing their users at 0% while doing so.
• Sora:
  • The Handshake with Mario. ^ExplanationThe full trailer ends on a shot of Mario and Sora shaking hands in front of the flaming Smash logo. A great shot reminiscent of the iconic shot of Ryu shaking hands with Cyclops◊ in X-Men vs. Street Fighter.
  • Dark Souls? ^ExplanationThe Sora reveal trailer opens on the roster looking at the flaming Smash logo as it burns out and the world plunges into darkness. A small flame then appears, which Mario approaches and reaches towards in a manner reminiscent of lighting a bonfire in Dark Souls. This led people to believe this was going to announce a Dark Souls character.
    • Cinderace? ^ExplanationIn addition to Dark Souls, the fire starter from Pokémon Sword and Shield was a common assumption due to the same reasons, since Cinderace is... well, the fire starter.
    • Tabuu? ^ExplanationYet another common assumption was the Final Boss of Super Smash Bros. Brawl due to everyone turning into trophies during the trailer, which is what Tabuu's Off-Wings attack is known to do.
  • Smash Bros. is canon to Kingdom Hearts. ^{Explanation (Kingdom Hearts spoilers)}A meme referencing the Kudzu Plot nature of Kingdom Hearts and its use of spin-off material as crucial elements of its narrative, as well as the ending to Kingdom Hearts III and Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory establishing that Sora had traveled to an in-series fictional universe, claiming that Sora's inclusion in Ultimate is actually canon to Kingdom Hearts and would be important to the plot of a future game.
  • "What is Kingdom Hearts?"^Explanation Like many new fighters before Sora, Sakurai's presentation on him (after his announcement) started off with a fairly brief description of his home series, Kingdom Hearts. However, due to the series' incredibly long and convoluted narrative, many Kingdom Hearts fans joked that the rest of the presentation would just be Sakurai explaining Kingdom Hearts lore for 40 minutes.
  • Extremely expensive Mickey Mouse keychain ^Explanation One reason why detractors thought Sora was impossible to include in Smash was that his own franchise is a crossover with Disney properties, and that the latter were mandatory to represent Kingdom Hearts, thus breaking Sakurai's "No non-video game characters" rule for potential Smash newcomers. When Sora made it in, the only Disney reference that he had was the Mickey Mouse keychain on his Keyblade, which gets a closeup shot in his trailer. Cue many Sora fans joking that said Mickey Mouse keychain was the most expensive thing about getting Sora in.
    • "So we don't have a huge budget!" ^ExplanationFans take this quote from Sakurai and joke about how much of the budget went to getting the proper licensing from Disney.
  • RIP Donald and Goofy. ^ExplanationAny references to Donald and Goofy have been scrubbed from Smash, likely due to how expensive licensing their appearances would've been.
    • They've already been in. ^ExplanationSome fans like to joke that the Duck Hunt duo are Donald and Goofy, due to being a duck and a dog with a similar western aesthetic. Banjo and Kazooie work as well, since they also consist of a dimwitted furry animal and a snarky bird.
    • "Donald? Goofy? You're here too?" ^ExplanationOn a related note, there have been plenty of jokes involving Sora mistaking the Duck Hunt duo for his friends. This has been extended to other Smash characters, such as Pit being mistaken for Roxas, Robin for Riku, Pyra and Mythra for Kairi and Namine, Roy for Axel, etc.
    • Someone actually made a list of Disney characters Sora would associate the Smashers with. (And Sora mistaking Pyra and Mythra for Kairi and Namine is referenced in it, since the four appear together in that collection. Curiously enough, while several Mii costumes got their characters compared with Disney charas (Sans with Jack Skellington, Cuphead with Mrs. Potts, Vault Boy with Lewis, Bomberman with R2-D2, Shantae with Genie and Doomguy with Darth Vader), Mario did not; Fix-It Felix Jr., the one you'd expect to be paired up with Mario, got paired up with Luigi instead; while it's understandable for Cloud and Sephiroth to not be paired up, since they already appear in Kingdom Hearts, and it doesn't feel as strange that Shulk was left out as the fact Mario was left out. Fortunately, Cloud is paired up with Sergeant Calhoun while Sephiroth is paired up with Chernabog.
    • Sora, Paopu Fruit, and Raft ^ExplanationAs part of the aforementioned scrubbing of references, the pictures of Donald and Goofy in Sora's Station of Awakening have been replaced by a Paopu Fruit and a raft, respectively, taken from Birth by Sleep, while King Mickey's picture in Riku's Station has been replaced by one of Sora.
  • Chris Thorndyke is in Smash ^Explanation A number of people started referencing Chris from Sonic X, whose hairstyle bears a striking resemblance to Sora. Possibly as a result of Chris's less-than-popular nature, it became surprisingly common to joke that he got in, resulting in comments about a Sonic X reunion, or just making comparisons between the two. Similar to the Donald and Goofy memes above, there have also been jokes about Sonic mistaking Sora for Chris.
  • Smash 4 Bayonetta Version 2.0 ^ExplanationAs soon as Sakurai demonstrated Sora doing combos that carried fighters to near the top blastzone, people began comparing them to Bayonetta's infamous combos from the previous game.
  • Sora vs. Sephiroth, round 3^ExplanationMany Kingdom Hearts fans immediately pointed out that the third game that Sora can fight Sephiroth in (after Kingdom Hearts and II featured Sephiroth as a secret boss) was not III, but Smash Ultimate.
    • Sephiroth is scared of Sora^ExplanationIn a reverse situation to the "Sephiroth stalking Cloud" meme, it's become common to portray Sora as Sephiroth's own version of The Dreaded due to Sora having beaten him one-on-one not once, but twice. Hilarious in Hindsight since, in the webcomic Everyone Is Home, this is exactly what happened: Sephiroth was about to kill Bowser, only for Sora to pull a Big Damn Heroes moment, causing Sephiroth to run away.
  • Sora actually had TWO invitations!^Explanation Based on the previously-mentioned "RIP Sora/Geno" meme in the Sephiroth section, following Sora's announcement, people joked that Sora actually had two invitations to Smash and Sephiroth only succeeded in taking one.
  • Sora Takenouchi is in^Explanation After Sora's announcement, fans of Digimon made jokes that the character with the same name got in, just for the pun.
  • 30 dollars for a song ^ExplanationWhile Sora's Challenger Pack comes with 9 Kingdom Hearts songs by default, an extra music track was announced to be unlockable for those with save data from Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. This made people joke that the song is the most expensive one of all, since the game costs as much as the entire second Fighters Pass, if not more.
  • 13 ^ExplanationSora's reveal came with a barrage of symbolism for the number 13: he was the 13th DLC fighter (counting Pyra and Mythra as two fighters), the game was updated to Version 13, the window between the reveal and release date was 13 days, and there are 13 spirits (counting fighter spirits) coming with Sora upon release. While possibly coincidental, fans linked this to 13 being the Arc Number of Kingdom Hearts.
  • Sora is both a JRPG McSwordGuy and a Scrimblo Bimblo! ^ExplanationSpinning out of the notorious heated rivalry between JRPG and Platformer fans came jokes that Sora is actually the merger of the two styles. Sora being a Japanese designed sword-adjacent weapon wielder created by an artist primarily known for his work on JRPGs, but also being owned by Disney, having western cartoon influenced proportions and animations, having a fashion sense inspired by Mickey Mouse, and his original game being an action RPG with light platforming elements inspired by Super Mario 64 led to people proclaiming that Sora was also the crossover of two opposing character archetypes.
  • Sora is secretly a Fire Emblem character ^ExplanationMany joked that his choice of weapon and moveset, mainly his Counterattack, resembles the various represented Fire Emblem characters, that they ended up making a Fire Emblem character anyway.
  • Lifelight was written for Sora.^ExplanationA number of fans noticed how closely the lyrics for Lifelight match the events of Sora's reveal trailer, leading to jokes that the song was hinting at Sora's inclusion all along.
  • Sora and Pit ^ExplanationMany fans noted similarities between the two fighters, being goofy optimists with brown, spiky hair, even down to Sora appearing to reference Uprising's intro. They quickly made memes saying that the two are friends, or referencing the DEATH BATTLE! episode between them.
  • Sora's Reaction Command on ______^ExplanationWith Sora's inclusion in Ultimate and Reaction Commands being a popular gameplay element of Kingdom Hearts II, some fans are theorizing and even making animations of what Reaction Command Sora could use against different characters.

Non-playable characters

• Waluigi:
  • "Everyone is here! ...except Waluigi." ^ExplanationThe main tagline of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's E3 Reveal Trailer is "Everyone is here!" However, many people discounted this tagline upon learning that their favorite purple maniac, Waluigi, was confirmed to be an Assist Trophy (and therefore not playable) yet again, with even big businesses like The Washington Post and Netflix getting in on the action with support for Waluigi.
  • "Here Lies Waluigi's Hopes and Dreams".^ExplanationSimilarly to the above, many people have started taking the scene from "One Krab's Trash" where we see that Squidward has a grave for his hopes and dreams and editing it to replace Squidward's name and/or face with Waluigi when it was revealed that he would, once again, remain an assist trophy and not playable.
  • Waluigi died for your sins/so that everyone else could live. ^ExplanationDue to the unexpected return of many characters, like Wolf and Snake, who the fandom had pretty much given up hope on ever returning to Smash, many have joked◊ that Waluigi heroically sacrificed his life or his chance to be playable so that others could return.
  • Waluigi gave his invitation to Daisy. ^ExplanationThis comic by rather unsavory artist Shadman shows a much nicer side to Waluigi, where he was thrilled to finally be given a Smash invitation after waiting nearly 20 years, but he gave up his roster spot to Daisy at the last second after seeing her crying, right when he was about to board a train to join the game. Jokes about how Waluigi's snub led a porn artist to draw something completely wholesome resulted.
  • Cold and Broken Waluigi ^ExplanationHallelujah, the Leonard Cohen song, but it replaces "Hallelujah" with "Waluigi", which has the same number of syllables. The song has been around for a few years, but gained more popularity due to Waluigi repeatedly not being in Smash.
    • Wallelujah^ExplanationA riff on the above, made by the creator of Brawl in the Family
  • Waluigi is too tall. ^ExplanationA variant of the "Ridley is too big!" meme, now that Ridley is actually in the game.
  • Press Γ to pay respects.^ExplanationA take on "Press F to pay respects", with the F being replaced with the Gamma on Waluigi's hat.
  • "I'll send Mr. Sakurai this fine potted plant. Surely it'll get me in!" ^ExplanationAfter Piranha Plant was revealed, a render of Waluigi holding one in Mario Party 3 lead to people joking that Waluigi sent Sakurai one in an attempt to get into Smash, only for Sakurai to make the plant playable instead.
  • Camelot Bros. ^ExplanationAnother character whose continued presence as an Assist Trophy was met with negative reception was Isaac, who was also created by Camelot Software Planning.
• Bomberman:
  • Yup, it's him. ^ExplanationDuring the E3 2018 presentation, Sakurai said this when revealing Bomberman as an assist trophy in Ultimate. Since then, fans would quote it (either jokingly or disappointedly, depending on if they were hoping he would be playable) whenever Bomberman shows up in gameplay videos. The meme quickly migrated to the Bomberman fanbase as well, immediately popping up in comments for the trailers for Super Bomberman R's multiplatform launch, which was released the same day as Nintendo's E3 presentation.
    • Nope, that's not him. ^ExplanationA variant of the above, used as a parody and further shame for Act Zero.
• Bandana Waddle Dee is just a Goomba with a hat.^ExplanationAn argument, used both facetiously and seriously, against the character's hypothetical inclusion. Effectively the modern "Ridley is too big", since Bandana Waddle Dee actually does have characterization and is a unique version of the species instead of a generic Mook with a bandana. This became a Discredited Meme when Piranha Plant was confirmed, since generic enemies without personalities were now explicitly not off of the table, although there are still some people who use the "hat Goomba" argument anyway.
• One Assist Trophy who has gotten a particular amount of attention is Krystal from Star Fox, who wears her outfit from Star Fox Adventures in Ultimate. While many of the other notable female characters with similarly explicit outfits had their design slightly altered^note or in Mai Shiranui's case, outright excluded from the game, Krystal's private area was outright modeled, and without anything on them to boot. Naturally, there have been several up-skirt^note Er, loincloth shots floating around as a result.
• Wildlife for Smash.^ExplanationInitially started as a joke suggestion, the idea of a character comprised of several wild creatures from the Pikmin series acting as one actually started to gain traction as several people liked the Mechanically Unusual Fighter, especially after the reveal of Piranha Plant. It also echoed the more common suggestion of Louie acting as a Pest Controller.
• Shadow DAMNs it all^ExplanationPrior to his deconfirmation in the November 2018 Direct, many speculated that Shadow the Hedgehog would be included in Ultimate as an Echo Fighter of Sonic, with a few special moves unique to him (i.e., giving him Chaos Control as a Mewtwo-esque recovery, or as a counter similar to Bayonetta's Witch Time). This eventually escalated to fans giving him moves referencing his infamous game, such as giving him guns akin to Bayonetta, or a move similar to Wario's bike.
• SUKAPON DEEZ NUTS ^Explanation Tricking someone into saying Sukapon by asking what the pink Assist Trophy's name is, leading to the punchline.

Character stereotypes

• Braindead Yoshi mains ^ExplanationIn the latter half of 2019, Twitter users started making fun of Yoshi mains, due to the character's best strategy amounting to "just spam his incredibly effective aerials out-of-shield constantly", saying things like "they eat crayons" or "they don't think at all". These terms have extended to more low-risk, high-reward characters such as Ness and Mr. Game and Watch.
• Facing Luigi at 0%.^ExplanationLuigi has a true 0-death combo that works on the entire cast stemming from his down-throw, in which he uses a plunger from his Poltergust to grab the opponent beforehand. The only thing that doesn't make it 100% overpowered is that he has one shot at it per stock and if he messes it up and damages the opponent beyond combo range, he has to fight normally. The internet had a field day with this one◊.
• Bowser up B out of shield ^ExplanationWhirling Fortress is fast and does good damage, so it's one of the moves that low-level online Bowsers use to get out of shield when being pressured. Which, of course, leads to mockery and a rude awakening once the move starts intentionally being baited out, since it also lasts very long and has no range outside of Bowser himself.
• Falco uptilt ^ExplanationFalco's up tilt attack has a lot of utility, being able to lead into combos or KOs, and because of this, it's gained a reputation as being "that move Falco players spam" due to its frequent usage.
• Mewtwo's Tail. ^ExplanationMewtwo's tail, unlike a lot of other characters with tail attacks, has a hurtbox at all times, including when he uses it in combat. This can result in him getting hit from utterly ridiculous angles◊, even allowing him to be spiked from an opponent near the middle of the stage. Mewtwo tends to be portrayed as a Butt-Monkey because of this, since there are several other characters with long hitboxes that don't put the attacker at risk (most notably Sephiroth, who is commonly described as "better Mewtwo").
• Ghostbuster Roy.^ExplanationCommon behavior from online Roy players involves randomly throwing out attacks and hoping that one of them hits even if they are nowhere near the opponent, due to Roy's disjointed reach and high kill power. This makes it appear as if they are fighting ghosts◊.
• $5.99 ^Explanation Refers to the price of DLC characters. It is the idea that DLC characters are generally better than the base fighters, since Nintendo wants them to be purchased and doesn't want to inadvertently create a bottom-tier DLC character that no one will ever buy. However, some feel that characters such as Joker and Pyra/Mythra were overtuned, leading to the use of this phrase, similarly to Bayonetta and Cloud in Smash 4, though to lesser extent. It is often used when a DLC character gets an early kill, racks up an incredible amount of damage in seconds, etc.
• "Haha funni [move]" ^ExplanationA term used by detractors of a specific move, technique, etc, saying that said users of the move only use it to appear funny or remarkable, especially if said move is easy to pull off, flashy but not optimal or intended for the very purpose that they use it for. Examples of this are Mario's spiking forward air for the first two cases, popularised by YouTuber Alpharad and his FLUDD pack for the third case.

Masahiro Sakurai

• The image of Sakurai punching Sandbag◊ during the E3 2018 booth has also gotten a few jokes.
• For a while, Google search would place an image of some random guy who looks nothing at all like Sakurai◊ instead of an actual photo of the man himself when "who created Super Smash Bros." or "who created Kirby" is typed in the search queue. Obviously, montage makers didn't let the opportunity slide.◊
• "Leak my roster? Here, have a potted plant instead!"^ExplanationAlthough it was ultimately proven fake, with just how convincing the "Grinch leak" was, many people have joked that the 'leaked' newcomers originally were real, but once they were leaked Sakurai axed all of them (except for Ken and later Banjo and Kazooie) and replaced them with Piranha Plant instead as a way to get revenge.
• "This man spoke English just to tell everyone to shut up."^ExplanationFrom Sakurai's official Twitter account, Sakurai made two tweets in regards to the DLC characters. Both of these Tweets were in perfect English, with the overall summation that the characters had already been decided, and for people to stop asking for such and such character to be in. As a result, the fanbase quickly started to joke that Sakurai learned English just to tell the fans to shut up about character requests. These tweets also led to jokes that this is the long and polite version of "Never ask me for anything ever again." Humorously, in early 2020 Sakurai made two more tweets in English after posting a screenshot of Ultimate that had For Wii U's version of Battlefield, with the message being that there was no deeper meaning to the old stage's use, as the photo was taken in a developer build. These tweets only supported the joke that Sakurai only speaks English when he's telling the Western fanbase to calm down.
• During pre-release of Ultimate, the segment in the E3 Direct and the two Smash Directs created Fountain of Memes of Sakurai quotes in the English version, including:
  • Did you notice that Pikachu Libre is a girl? ^ExplanationIt is pointed out that Pikachu Libre is female. This was also mentioned in Pikachu's blog post.
  • Lon Lon Milk, anyone? ^ExplanationSakurai's quote when Young Link is doing his "Lon Lon Milk" taunt.
  • We must be crazy. ^ExplanationWhen he revealed that the total of stages in the base game is 103.
  • But let's get back to Ken. ^ExplanationSakurai going back to detailing Ken after he's gone off-topic about Luigi being the original Echo Fighter.
  • ...I wonder if I'll ever get to take a break? ^ExplanationIn the November 1st, 2018 Direct, Sakurai solemnly says this right after revealing the first Fighters Pass will add in 5 more characters, 5 more levels, and varying amounts of music.
  • It has a nice curved form to it. ^ExplanationWhen he comments on the Piranha Plant amiibo.
• Livestreaming Sakurai ^Explanation"Mr. Sakurai Presents "Hero"" and the later "Mr. Sakurai Presents" videos were themed after livestreams, with Sakurai himself as the streamer. Cue people photoshopping him in the place of popular streamers' facecams or adding pictures from other games to make it look like he's playing them.
  • Sakurai is so good, the only person that can challenge him is himself. ^ExplanationAs soon as "Mr. Sakurai Presents "Hero"" was announced, people noticed that Sakurai was playing with two controllers, one per hand, leading to a lot of jokes about him secretly being a god at the game. This was referenced in "Mr. Sakurai Presents "Banjo & Kazooie"", when he said that he was doing this so that some of Hero's attacks wouldn't be blocked by the other Hero's shield.
• "So, if you want to play Banjo-Kazooie today, you can do so on the Xbox. I know this is a Nintendo broadcast, but please give the game a try - on Xbox."^Explanation"Mr. Sakurai Presents Banjo & Kazooie" has Sakurai inform the viewers that Banjo-Kazooie is currently playable on a competitor console, to the amusement of the other people in the room. The fact that he casually did this in a broadcast for a Nintendo-exclusive game, along with the others laughing in the background, made it a point of humor, with many joking that if you're nice enough to him, Sakurai will personally advertise for you.
• Poor souls^ExplanationDuring "Mr. Sakurai Presents "Banjo & Kazooie"", Sakurai referred to several characters from the Banjo-Kazooie series as "poor souls" while discussing the grim treatment the games gave them (e.g. Gruntilda getting stuck under a boulder, Bottles getting killed), an odd choice of words that quickly caught on as a meme afterwards.
• Toby Fox beat Sakurai to get Sans in. ^ExplanationSans's appearance as a Mii Fighter costume in Ultimate and Sakurai's anecdote about him visiting his house and going 50/50 with him in Smash, maybe even gaining more victories over him, has given rise to a ton of jokes painting Toby Fox as some kind of cryptid or supreme badass.
• No! This isn't how you're supposed to play the game! ^ExplanationWhile demonstrating two-player Home Run Contest where he was controlling both characters in the Banjo-Kazooie demonstration video, Sakurai said this quote, telling viewers that two-player Home Run Contest is meant to be played with two players, not one. Fans have quickly used this quote, such as when a player discovers a Game-Breaking Bug or when people joke about how the series is meant to be played.
• Smash is for good boys and girls of many different ages. ^ExplanationDuring the showcase of the cameos on King of Fighters Stadium in "Mr. Sakurai Presents Terry Bogard", Sakurai commented that SNK's resident Ms. Fanservice fighter Mai Shiranui was not in the game: unsurprisingly for a character who prides herself on being Ms. Fanservice, any attempt at removing Mai's fanservice qualities just doesn't fit her character, and so Sakurai reluctantly dropped the cameo rather than face the wrath of the ESRB/CERO. The English translation "simplified" the reason to this line, and the Smash fanbase ran wild with this statement because of its off-the-cuff nature, which led to Mai herself trending on Twitter shortly after the presentation. Fanart has since emerged of Mai attempted to break into Smash itself just for her cameo, only to fail. Similarly, there has also been an influx of lewd images showcasing Mai using her assets to try to bribe her way into the game.
  • And yet (character) got in!? ^ExplanationA criticism given to Mai's exclusion, citing how Bayonetta and Palutena are far more prone to sexualisation even in spite of the censorship. It is often directed at Sakurai despite PEGI/ESRB/CERO being the ones to blame, as Sakurai himself lamented that Mai had to be cut from the game, even if it was for just a cameo. This meme saw a huge (no pun intended) resurgence after the inclusion of Pyra and Mythra as DLC fighters, as people were quick to notice that their breasts feature Jiggle Physics.
  • Mai is too big for Smash!^ExplanationAn offshoot of the long-lived "Ridley is too big" meme where Ridley was deemed literally too big to be a fighter, Mai Shiranui gets her own spin where she is not literally too big, but rather her voluptuous assets and promiscuous nature makes her unsuitable for the family friendly Super Smash Bros.
  • Sakurai, the savior of No Nut November.^ExplanationTerry's showcase was broadcast in November 2019. Many people online, jokingly or not, try to dedicate the month of November to not masturbating. Thanks to the amount of attention Mai gets, Sakurai has been credited as saving the long-standing tradition. Of course this only works for people who are into women, as those into men get to enjoy all the attractive male SNK characters. In addition, there are jokes that Sakurai created a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy by inadvertently making people look up Mai and witness her design and possible lewd artwork, causing the effort to become moot for the weak-willed.
• Sakurai pointing ^ExplanationDuring Terry's showcase, he demonstrated the motions of Terry's super moves by doing them with his pointer finger. Fans quickly made memes involving screencaps of Sakurai doing this.
• Three finger Sakurai ^ExplanationThe tweet revealing when the final Fighters Pass 1 character would be announced showed a picture of Sakurai posing with three fingers pointed outwards. This led to people joking that the character will have something to do with the number 3, the letters M or W, or any character who has ever held up 3 fingers. Sakurai revealed in the video that he was representing the number 17 in binary, as Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the seventeenth main game in the series counting remakes (though since the DLC character, Byleth, comes from "THREE Houses", the jokey "3" theory still makes sense).
• Sakurai flipping you off◊ ^ExplanationWhen counting upwards through the Fire Emblem games in binary on his fingers, eventually Sakurai gets to a number represented by his thumb and middle finger, making it look like he was Flipping the Bird to the viewer. Naturally, this took off as a reaction image, with many using it in response to Smash getting yet another Fire Emblem character, or to show Sakurai's response to people who wanted someone else.
  • VIEWTIFUL JOE CONFIRMED! ^ExplanationViewtiful Joe creator Hideki Kamiya saw this and noting the similiarity to Joe's hand-signs, declared that he was in the game. Warning: Do not reply unless you want to get blocked.
    • CONFIRMED!! ^Explanation Hideki Kamiya edited a picture of Sakurai's cat staring at a red Among Us toy as another conformation that Viewtiful Joe is in Smash.
• Sakurai's shit-eating grin. ^ExplanationAfter showing the Byleth trailer, it cuts back to Sakurai hanging up posters of the new character, and then he turns to the camera and gives a devilish smile. Unsurprisingly, fans went wild with this.
• Good, there's Mom. You're in a good spot, Mom. ^ExplanationWhen showing off Byleth in gameplay, Sakurai got an Assist Trophy containing Mother Brain. He then proceeded to say this, causing the fandom to go nuts with it within the stream.
• Yes, that's correct. This is my home.^ExplanationIn "Mr. Sakurai Presents Min Min", Sakurai, due to the Coronavirus outbreak, ended up recording the presentation at his house while sitting on his couch, summarizing it with this quote. People◊ started◊ editing Sakurai sitting in other locations and saying that they were also his home.
• Sakurai's gamer credentials are often used for laughs, especially right after in the Min Min presentation where it showed his set-up featuring two large televisions and a plethora of consoles.
• You're a Wizard Sakurai ^Explanation When Sakurai told Steve's inclusion felt wizardly, many Harry Potter jokes ensued.
• "Even I didn't think this day would come." ^ExplanationSakurai's first words during the unveiling video of Steve, alongside his expression as the camera faded in, quickly became memetic. This became even funnier as Sakurai himself admitted he didn't expect going into the project that Steve would be a good fighter, and decided to try and give him a good moveset just to see if he could do it.
• Various images of Sakurai holding a toy Diamond Sword◊ (or switching the toy from pickaxe-mode to sword-mode) during the Steve/Alex presentation also went viral, often with captions implying that Sakurai is about to punish the viewer for constantly hassling him about Ultimate or including Minecraft content in the first place.
• Sakurai was horny on main ^Explanation During the Pyra & Mythra presentation, he commented that he personally prefers Pyra, but specified that it is strictly about combat ability only. It didn't take long for the internet to joke that Sakurai actually has more raunchy motives behind his preference.
• Sakurai's foot fetish◊ ^Explanation During the Pyra & Mythra presentation, Sakurai explained the presence of a pair of figures depicting Pyra and Mythra by stating that these type of figures can provide hints as to how to design new additions when what's shown ingame isn't enough, and provided the bottom of their feet as an example. The internet made jokes about Sakurai using this as an excuse to cover his foot fetish.
• The figures in Sakurai's drawer ^ExplanationRelated to the above, Sakurai notes that he had also used figures as a reference for many of the game's fighters, and mentions how he has hidden figures for the then-unrevealed fighters in a locked drawer. This spawned many jokes about who the figures are of, ranging from reasonable to ridiculous.
  • Sakurai's figures are for research purposes ^Explanation In addition, Sakurai states that these figures are usually used to share with the modeling team in order to get a near accurate recreation of the character in engine. Thus he can make this claim when buying figures like Pyra and Mythra who, let's just say, may not be safe for good boys and girls.
• Sakurai nerfed Min Min as revenge ^ExplanationIn "Mr. Sakurai Presents: Kazuya", when Sakurai tries demonstrating Kazuya's gameplay, he loses to the CPU playing Min Min. Kazuya's update features nerfs to Min Min, which fans think is Sakurai's way of getting revenge.
• Sakurai tweeting after Smash ^ExplanationOne of the first tweets Sakurai made after Sora's release was a picture of his cat in a box with an Among Us crewmate plushie, accompanied with a caption about how freeing it is to be able to tweet any photo he wants without fear of causing Smash speculation. Fans immediately took to this more freed tweeting style, culminating in a later tweet with a video of him petting his cat eventually becoming one of his most liked tweets ever.

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I have been waiting for this moment. Now, I shall give TV Tropes 'dis pear.◊

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