Memes / The New Order: Last Days of Europe

"Holy shit. I have a moral obligation to tell people to not do this kind of shit. Don't get fucking hoodies with an actual fucking Nazi's face on it, oh my god. People might actually think you're a fucking nazi."

Considering that it's an extremely bleak mod with a relatively small community (or possibly because of it), it's surprising that TNO has generated a lot of memes.

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Please add entries in the following format:

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

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General & Community

• Killed by a sledgehammer ^ExplanationWhen some person asked in Discord about the fate of Leon Trotsky, the lead developer answered them that Trotsky was killed with a sledgehammer. Since then, "killed by a sledgehammer" has become the stock answer to explain what happened to historical figures not present in the game. "Sledgehammering" also describes retroactively killing figures off because the developers forgot to include them in the game, such as Joseph Goebbels.
  • ded^ExplanationUsed on Reddit when someone asks about the fate of a historical figure who is unimportant to the lore of the mod.
• Big building in Neu Berlin/:panzersbreakingpoint:^ExplanationOne day, discord user Baxter asked a question in the former #ask-a-dev channel on the official TNO Discord. The question said "can you create neu berlin with that giant building" The question, answered in the very first dev diaries, broke Panzer on the spot, who proceeds to rage in the channel (while Baxter replies "oh thank you"), and shuts down the channel soon after. The incident soon became a meme in the community, and an emote called ":panzersbreakingpoint:" was added to the official Discord server referencing that incident, which is often used as a response to something that would drive the developers crazy. This is also the Fan Nickname of the Volkshalle, and to a lesser extent, Welthauptstadt Germania.
• REALLY GOOD IDEA^ExplanationThe South African War dev diary describes the creation of the Central African Republic to rule over former German African territories as a REALLY GOOD IDEA. The term has since been applied to any bad idea that a player can obviously tell will end in failure, but the leaders in the game are totally oblivious.
• R5 : Removed for low effort content ^Explaination In mid 2023, moderators on the TNO subreddit began to remove a large amount of posts for being "low effort" (despite most people thinking otherwise). The community quickly caught on and began to troll "R5 : Removed for low effort content" under posts containing any sort of actual quality content. The backlash against R5 later resulted in it quickly being scrapped.
• This Isn't Working^Explanation A reference to beta focus trees teased for the DSR◊ (and, to a lesser extent, Azad Hind◊), who, in their quests to eradicate any trace of Nazism/Bengali identity, respectively, would have committed what basically amounted to auto-genocide. The term has since come to be used in reference to those who realise that they aren't getting anywhere with their killing... so the solution is clearly to double down!
• "Sane Path"^ExplanationAnother common shitpost snippet, discussing the possibility of a "sane path" for some horrific country like the HRE, Burgundy, or Omsk. The phrase itself alludes to a potential chance for a nation and its leaders to adapt more practical approaches and goals or even gain some sort of Redemption Arc. "Does [random horrific country] have a sane path?" are usually newbie questions on the TNO discord/subreddit, and shitposters quickly caught on and turned the format into a meme (an early "sane path" question on the subreddit even briefly became a copypasta), since questions of this kind really grinds the devs' gears.
• The Funny Countries/funi countri^ExplanationA nickname for the particularly oppressive, radical and/or just plain dystopian countries that are predominantly the subject of shitposts related to the mod. These include Burgundy, the HRE, and Omsk, among others. In addition, localization for the Brotherhood of Cain, added in the After Midnight Update of March 2021, is labelled with "FUNNI SATANIC GANG" (yes, in all-caps), making this an Ascended Meme of sorts.
  • Gamer ^ExplanationAlso used to describe dystopic or oppressive paths such as imposing nation-wide segregation as Wallace, with emphasis on sheer racism; the more racist, the better. For example Yockey is universally known as the Gamer President, while the SS state of Burgundy is the Gamer Utopia. (In partial reference to the "heated gaming moment" meme)
• Nuclear Shrimp^ExplanationA bug in the mod's first day of release resulted in a dispute between the Americans and Japanese over shrimp fishing almost immediately resulting in a war, which leads to World War III, nuclear bombs, and The End of the World as We Know It. Alternatively referred to as the Random Shrimp Event or simply SO LONG.
  • "It is highly recommended that you switch to two or three game speed" ^Explanation The warning that comes up right before Thermonuclear War occurs, due to the processing power needed to simulate every country on Earth falling into anarchy. Needless to say, when that pops up, nothing good is going to happen.
• r/TNOporn^ExplanationA subreddit dedicated to Rule 34 of TNO characters. Initially gaining notoriety on r/DSRfunny, it was closed, before being revived a few months later, much to the fandom's chagrin.
  • "Don't sex the terrorist" ^ExplanationWhen the DSR was revealed, fans quickly latched onto its leader Ulrike Meinhof, despite fully knowing of her effective auto-genocide of Germany if she gets into power and the actions of the Red Army Faction if she doesn't. The devs immediately admonished this and any sexualization or ideation of the more murderous characters in the mod, but that didn't stop people from creating things like the aforementioned r/TNOporn.
  • Heydrich's "birthing hips" ^ExplanationThe historical Heydrich had wide hips he was apparently sensitive about (in a manner similar to John Mulaney's "he's got feminine hips" skit) to only allow photos from the waist up. Jokes abounded until Discord and subreddit moderators clamped down on it for sexualizing a Nazi.
• X with Y characteristics^ExplanationA reference to "Socialism with Chinese characteristics", the broad term for the ideology of the Communist Party of China. Due to the amount of Realpolitik lying in front of more likely leaders and the esoteric beliefs of darker horses, it's common to describe the resulting ideologies in this format — particularly if it results in an absurd combination, i.e. "Fascism with Mongol Horde characteristics" for Gumilyov or "Libertarian Communism with Authoritarian characteristics" for Sablin/Bukharina.
• Fanmade Superevents^ExplanationIn-game, important events such as the German Civil War are marked by special events called "superevents", which include an image, a quote, and sound that is often a Leitmotif song about the important situation. Post-release, it became common for fans to make their own superevents using the format, and eventually started using the concept for other mods and games as well.
• Send them the mod^ExplanationA crossover from Red World, when a player emailed Noam Chomsky about him being the leader of a post-American country. The TNO community began joking about doing the same for other leaders still alive today, the more unsavory their depiction, the better. Such targets include (or formerly included, before their deaths) John Morris, Nikolay Ryzhkov, Andreas Meyer-Landrut, Wittekind zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, Maciej Giertych, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Régis Debray, Isabel Martínez de Perón, Farah Pahlavi, Li Ka-shing, the 14th Dalai Lama, Ralph Nader, Dmitry Yazov, Pierre Sidos, Mikhail Gorbachev, Queen Elizabeth, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Hissène Habré, Tullio Moneta, Mishake Muyongo, Ahmed Jibril and Henry Kissinger.
• "Dengism"/Dengist X^{Explanation (spoilers)}Before the mod's release, many fans noticed the parallels between Yagoda's economic reforms for his Communist state and the reforms of OTL's China under Deng Xiaoping. As seen in the Germany folder, after the official release, people extended their comparisons to Speer's plans for Germany, earning him the Fan Nickname of "Dengist Speer", which then saw use for other oppressive figures that sought any sort of economic reform. Criticism was eventually levied at the fandom's tendency to describe vast swathes of world leaders as "Dengist", causing sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek use, to the point where Deng Xiaoping himself is occasionally brought up so he can be redundantly described as "Dengist" or called anything else but that.
  • Dentist^ExplanationA corruption of "Dengist", spawned from the above exasperation of the term's overuse.
  • "GET OUT OF MY HEAD"/"I CAN'T FUCKING TAKE IT ANYMORE"/"DON'T THINK IT! DON'T SAY IT!"^ExplanationAny mention or allusion to the (extremely over-simplified) definition of Dengism, no matter how vague or intentional, is met with this response. A carry-over from Among Us memes, with the tendency to make something resemble a Crewmate replaced with mentions of "economic reform" and the like.
• Fanmade "Leaks"^ExplanationAs the developers would give updates to upcoming content with teasers, fans would imitate their pattern of listing potential leaders, accompanied by their portraits, ideologies, maps of their nations, event messages, and titles for each of them. Some do this to portray submods or suggestions for alternate scenarios not in development, while others use the format for humor.
  • The X/The Other X^ExplanationA popular form of leak for a long time was revealing a selection of leader portraits with "The _____" underneath, providing a one-word description of them, seemingly derived from The Death of Stalin posters. This was so popular, and caught on with so many fanmade submods, that it quickly became oversaturated, to the point where the devs themselves began poking fun at it, including a "Göring leak" in which every single character was described as "The War Criminal."
• Egg^ExplanationUsed to describe the various bald, round-headed leaders, such as Bormann, Bennett, 70's Matkovsky, and Scorza.
• "The Discord has been liberated..."^ExplanationA common phrase used in TNO-related subversions/parodies of fashwave videos, these videos depict fashwave-like VHS aesthetics and dark wave music over archival footage of soldiers marching and overlays of national symbols, but show soldiers from OTL Allied countries instead of Axis ones. Two famous examples are "liberated by Rokossovsky" and "liberated by OFN".
• TNO's least complicated UI / Denmark GUI ^ExplanationThe mod's unique aesthetic and different mechanics are not only ambitious but also overwhelming with how the interfaces present themselves, not helped by having certain factions and states also coming with their own unique mechanics and menus. This is both a source of humor and criticism from players, leading to jokes over whatever "the least complicated UI" in TNO could look like, culminating with a fake "leak" of Denmark's minigames, which covered the entire screen, handled extremely trivial matters, and had needlessly convoluted mechanics that are overwhelming to even look at. The fanbase has joked that the mod will soon transcend to this level of puzzling gameplay.
• Is that a motherfucking TNO reference^ExplanationSimilar to fans of Jojos Bizarre Adventure, fans of the mod often claim obscure historical figures like Francis Parker Yockey, Alexander Kazembek (who only has a very minor role), Siegfried Müller, Hans Hüttig, Ulrike Meinhof and Sergey Taboritsky (and not-so-obscure figures like Lazar Kaganovich and Genrikh Yagoda) as theirs, and call their appearances in other mods and Alternate History media in general 'TNO references', sometimes even accusing other mods of stealing ideas from TNO.
  • Vyatka's Law: as a TNO related-song is published on Youtube, the probability of the comment section being invaded by the TNO fandom approaches 1^ExplanationA somewhat self-explanatory observation of what happens when a superevent with new music gets released, so-called because it was first made on a video of "The Song of the Cadets of the Nikolaev Cavalry School", the unification theme of liberal Vyatka. Also applicable to fanmade superevents (see above) that get popular enough.
  • ‼️‼️HOLY FUCKING SHIT‼️‼️‼️‼️ IS THAT A MOTHERFUCKING TNO REFERENCE??????!!!!!!!!!!11!1!1!1!1!1!1!^ExplanationThe first line of an infamous copypasta which is basically a long chain of TNO-related memes and phrases. Any time someone, especially on Reddit, makes a post or comment referencing the mod, someone is likely to post the copypasta in the replies.
• The Drip^ExplanationUsed to describe portraits depicting historical figures with fashionable clothes and/or Cool Shades, highlighting their "based-ness". Seemingly derived from the "hypebeast Goku" meme.
  • #PACKWATCH ^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}Komai's Personalist route has his pic◊ feature him with Sinister Shades and him smoking a cigar. Considering how "Rip Bozo" memes often feature a clip of someone with shades and them smoking as part of a way to insult their hated ones that just died, Komai's Personalist pic is often used as a reaction to After-Action Reports that feature a successful Hitachi Personalist playthrough, or for extra Black Comedy, any unfortunate incident involving Chinese.
• killpeopleism^ExplanationA satirical term used to refer to dystopian countries or oppressive leaders in TNO that are perceived to be shallow and contain little narrative depth beyond dystopian massacres. The word originated within the HOI4 modder community, but was popularized by its usages in the context of TNO.
• Secret BurgSys/EsoNaz Path^{Explanation (spoilers)} After the discovery of Sergey Taboritsky's Burgundian System path for Russia in the form of the HRE (as Esoteric Nazism used to be called) at release, many players jokingly began to speculate about other possible Esoteric paths in the game, with some using edited captures and events to "Reveal" them. Usually applying them to benevolent countries such as Sablin's Buryatia, WRRF, or even Humanist Tomsk.
• "apolitical strongman"^ExplanationA meme in the TNO dev community, originating from the earlier portrayals of Michał Vituška as an unaligned dictator and a master manipulator, summarized as "apolitical strongman". Said portrayal was greatly reworked after the devs did more research on the figure and found out that he was in fact a dedicated Nazi collaborator, and that his original portrayal was unabashed whitewashing. The statement became a meme when old Vituška became an Old Shame in the dev community.
• Brain Rot X% / Brain Rot +X% / The brain is rotting. ^Explanation One fan made a joke update making fun out of the extended development of the Toolbox Theory update, the fanbase's growing unrest, and the glut of low-quality or deranged content that was becoming increasingly common. (Note that even in the original update, the devs have passed the point of no return and exceeded the 40% threshold after which everything goes wrong.) Ever since, whenever someone posts poorly-received or low-quality content, especially if it's either copypasta or easily copypasta'd, other fans will mock them by either suggesting it is a symptom of Brain Rot topping yet another threshold on its march to 100%, or that it's caused a growth in the overall Brain Rot percentage. Following the release of Toolbox Theory, the fanbase collectively celebrated by joking that the Brain Rot percentage has conversely decreased to 0% or some other low percentage… though others have ominously predicted that it’s only reduced for now.
• The 1964 Winter Olympics ^ExplanationWhen Toolbox Theory was finally released, it came with a quickly-patched bug that fired a single news event - the success of the Canadian Winter Olympics after Innsbruck had to cancel for obvious reasons - 192 times at once. For everyone in the world. Unsurprisingly the sheer noise all those events made as they came up blew out many an eardrum, and even higher-end PCs struggled to process the code behind them all, leading to massive freeze-ups if not outright crashes. It quickly became a source of humour for the community, as shown here.
  • 1964 Winter Olympics a Success! ^ExplanationThe title of the news event, and the first thing people remember when memeing about it.
  • All that, in just three months? ^ExplanationThe dismissal option for the news event, and has become similarly memetic for much the same reasons as above.
  • February 3rd, 1964 "Calgary Incident" ^Explanation A popular Trollge/Trollface Incident-derived meme for the 1964 Winter Olympics.
• X-onomics ^ExplanationMaking a portmanteau of a leader's name with "economics" (e.g. Bormannomics, Glennonomics), often to show off incredibly successful or incredibly unsuccessful economies in the game after Toolbox Theory was released.
• Boston War ^ExplanationDuring 2022's r/place event, a war broke out between the r/tnomod and the subreddit or the Boston Bruins. Several jokes about destroying or slandering the city soon came up, such as SS-Ordensstaat Boston and nuking the city.
• Manul^ExplanationRandom images and gifs of Pallas's cats or manuls (Otocolobus manul) became popular on the TNO Discord, usually obsessing over how cute they are. One particular developer posted an in-game event from one's perspective and a faux-teaser about them taking over the Russian Far East.
• TNO Factions^ExplainationA meme posted on the mod's Discord, made in the style of the game's UI, dividing the fanbase into various "factions" based around their perception of the team's controversial decisions to rework certain content, including routes that had been well-received in some circles, such as Reinhard Heydrich and John Glenn, and their relative popularity among various areas of the community, like the subreddit or Discord. The faction names have since been used as slang terms in the fandom, ironically and unironically, or posting after announcements to describe the change in influence and popularity of "factions" according to how they will change fan perception of the mod among various communities.
  • Ewatta Clique^ExplanationOf special mention, the Ewatta clique was one of the factions mentioned in the meme, representing the most extreme elements of the fandom and mod team who want the mod to be completely overhauled and shed of all "unrealistic and implausible elements," including Burgundy and the National Progressive Party. It is named after Ewatta, a user who posted a series of critiques on the subreddit criticising the portrayal of SS-Aktionsgruppe Moskowien on the grounds of historical inaccuracy. This imagined “clique” has been jokingly (and not so jokingly) scapegoated and blamed by the fandom for ruining the mod by stripping it of all content that people enjoyed. Ewatta in particular has been less than enthusiastic about being made the "face" of the anti-implausibility crowd, not least because they don't feel it reflects their real-life views very much, although they admit it's probably because they were responsible for sinking at least one popular idea and were not temperate in their distaste for it.
• Toolbox Theory [X]^ExplanationA meme concerning future iterations of the "Toolbox Theory" update, something that has been confirmed by the developers to never be coming. The number can range between 4 to memetic values, like 69.
• very liberal team^ExplanationA random Steam comment on the mod was just these three words verbatim, made by a blatantly neo-Nazi account called 'Volkssturm', whose profile picture was a Nazi Eagle coat of arms. Its audacity made it extremely memorable and it's now used as a cheeky, non-serious insult against the development team over irrelevant or nonsensical complaints.
• The Seoul of TNO^ExplanationA large number of changes were implemented in TNO over the years, primarily unrealistic occurrences such as Göring's World Conquest ideology and the reduction in role of Burgundy. Many of the changes arecontroversial, as some believe the changes are removing the character and "wackiness" that defined TNO in the past, which has lead to the creation of the phrase "The Seoul of TNO" for removed or soon-to-be-removed parts of the mod that are controversial. This later expanded to label other, minor removed pieces of content such as the Iranian Civil War as a way to mock those who argued for older, cut content to remain.
• X Civil War ^ExplanationThe mod has a staggering amount of multi-sided civil wars and conflicts, making it a common subject of fanart, leaks, and parody "leaks" with the smaller the country and more diverse the factions, the better.

Germany and the Einheitspakt

• "Speertard"^ExplanationA riff on the word "libtard", originating from Heydrich-themed parodies of Turning Point USA memes, eventually evolving into Heydrich-themed parodies of far-right stereotypes.
  • "Schmidtard"^{Explanation (spoilers)}A derivative that emerged after the mod's release, wherein Speer's route, the Gang of Four and in particular Helmut Schmidt are the primary drivers behind Germany's liberalizing reforms, and it turns out that Speer never truly believed in liberal reform to begin with.
  • Dengist Speer/"Without Speer, There Would be no New X"^{Explanation (spoilers)}A Fan Nickname for Speer that not only spotlights his true colors, but also points to how a successful Fascist route bears more than a passing resemblance to Deng Xiaoping and the People's Republic of China, which involves shedding the self-destructive traits of Nazism and applying improved economic policies for a reinvigorated fascist Germany.
• Speer Hoodie^ExplanationA shitpost topic that pops up on the subreddit from time to time, usually as a response when users ask if TNO will have merch like Kaiserreich. Originated from a memetic exaggeration of a line in Speer's bio: "The students have turned [Speer] into an icon, his face being held up on picket signs and printed on shirts." The meme saw its first brief revival when one fan had an actual Speer Hoodie made, much to the chagrin of the developers. The second one happened after PDXCON 2022, when a member of Polish TNO community got a photo with Johan Andresson while wearing it.
  • Burgundian Crocs^ExplanationSimilar shitpost merch idea.
• Kaiser Spet^ExplanationA reference to an infamous parody post about a hidden monarchist path for Albert Speer that has him become Kaiser. Bonus points if "Kaiserin" Ulrike Meinhof is included.
• Hermann Vöring^ExplanationThanks to the game's abundance of prominent Nazi individuals, memes from Hitler Rants tend to cross over into the game, in particular Göring's voracious, indiscriminate appetite. Jokes are abound where Göring does outlandish things such as drink a big chunk of the Mediterranean Sea and take a massive piss in the Congo jungle, and invading countries to eat what they have, up to and including Burgundy's nukes if the "Fall Schwartz" plan is put in motion. Whenever Göring successfully invades a country, it's common for fans to say "Göring vored [X]".
  • Vöring will eat McDonalds, at all costs!^ExplanationThis joke specifically refers to Fall Rockwell, the German invasion of the United States, which results in the destruction of human civilization via nuclear exchange.
  • Mr. Vöring's Wild Ride!^ExplanationPre-rework Göring's story if he wins the civil war and becomes the new leader of Germany is a twisted deconstruction of the time-honored tradition of the "world domination" playthrough in Paradox games, wherein Göring (or at least the militarists that puppeteer him) try to fix the gaping holes in Germany's money-hemorrhaging economy by conquering and plundering other nations until the nation either gets bogged down somewhere and undergoes total collapse or picks a fight with someone with nukes and ends human civilization in atomic fire. This leads to the joke that Mr. Göring's Wild Ride— itself a reference to a notorious Rollercoaster Tycoon meme— keeps on rolling until it derails or explodes, and even inspired a joke sub-mod literally called "Mr. Göring's Wild Ride," which not only cleans up many of the bugs surrounding some of the more-impossible conquests but gives a bit more content as an increasingly-unstable Göring ultimately declares himself God after conquering the United States.
• "Get on the desk"^ExplanationPre v1.0.5, the "Court of the Brown Kaiser" event◊ had Bormann boasting to his secretary about his plans to legalize polygamy and ordering her to get on his desk when she didn't reciprocate his advances. It pretty much turned Bormann into the Memetic Molester of TNO. The clumsy writing of the event (some comments on Reddit compared it to a sitcom scene) didn't help. Became a Discredited Meme after the devs got fed up with all the rape jokes going around and, post v1.0.5, the event was changed to have Bormann arguing with Gehlen about polygamy's legalization.
• Burgerkrieg^ExplanationThe German Civil War being parodied as a war between factions of hamburgers. In German, "Bürgerkrieg" merely means "civil war" (note that "Burgerkrieg" — without the umlaut — actually means "Burger War".)
• Reichskommissariat Mittelmeer^ExplanationA nation that existed in super-early TNO builds, when the entire Mediterranean was drained and the Germans set up an RK on it headed by Karl Dönitz. The sheer ridiculousness of the situation resulted in RK Mittelmeer becoming a meme, and the face of ancient TNO lore.
• Hans Hüttig's "yee yee ass" Haircut^ExplanationHüttig's old portrait◊ was taken from an especially unflattering picture◊, with a haircut that defies description. As a result, jokes abound that the worst atrocity the Spartanist Nazi, Africa-purging, native-slaughtering madman ever inflicted upon the world was showing around with a haircut like that. It has also been popularly referred to as a "yee yee ass haircut" on the official subreddit. After the Cutting Room Floor update replaced Hüttig's portrait with one featuring a much more respectable hairdo◊, many fans mourned the loss of the terrible hair. However, it was soon discovered that the new portrait was not actually him, and Hüttig's horrible hair returned with a vengeance◊, to the community's rejoicing and/or horror.
• Poland is Not Yet Lost!^Explanation A reference to both the Polish Underground State and the exiles in the Kazakh SSR. Even in the face of the Nazi behemoth and myriad threats, the Poles’ utter defiance have reached meme status.
  • “Poland is lost. Perhaps this time, forever.”^Explanation Taken from the defeat screens for the Polish factions, it’s a more cynical take, pointing to how the Poles would more likely lose their struggle for freedom. Invoked whenever a horrible outcome involving the Poles is brought up.
• NAKAM/“Six Million Germans”^ExplanationA reference to both Abba Kovner’s real-life plot to avenge the Holocaust (which he mercifully abandoned), and his pre-rework TNO counterpart’s far more brutal and unhinged exploits in Ostland. More often than not, this includes quoting the lyrics from Daniel Kahn’s song “Nakam”.
• Heydrich Avengers/Reichsvengers^{Explanation (spoilers)} After Germany collapses into numerous warlords during the SS civil war, following Heydrich's victory in the GCW and his subsequent betrayal of Himmler, he ends up having to gather an unusual coalition of loyalist SS, Speerites, conservatives, militarists, and even Jewish slaves and Polish partisans in order to defeat Himmler's Burgundy, drawing comparisons to Marvel's Avengers.
  • Heydrich Redemption Arc^{Explanation (spoilers, again)} Heydrich's rebellion against Himmler's plan to nuke the world lead people to describe his path in such terms, despite it being a clear case of Evil Versus Oblivion. The developers had to reemphasize that Heydrich was one of the worst mass murderers in history; the shattering of his worldview does not lead to reform but he instead kills himself as he believes he is Beyond Redemption, leading to the death of Germany as a concept.
• The Death of Hitler^ExplanationThe Succession Crisis after Hitler's death resulted in the creation of memes parodying the movie, such as posters. Panzer even got in on it, writing script excerpts.
  • The Death of Panzer ^ExplanationAfter Panzer's departure as lead developer, memes of the supposed succession crisis resurfaced.
• Poland is 100% German^ExplanationUsed to mock pre-rework Hans Frank's delusional declaration about the General Governorate being fully Germanized, even though the Home Army and other partisans don't even need to hide themselves.
• Punished Speidel/Speidel had Enough^ExplanationThe fandom paints Speidel as an Iron Woobie / Determinator for having endured multiple wars, coups and the like and coming out victorious out of it, especially in a Heydrich run. Due to his Historical Hero Upgrade portrayal in the mod, he is well-regarded by the fandom for his apoliticism and genuine love for Germany and his decision to take matters into his own hands in the Anarchy Stage of the Civil War, where he can take over Germany as Schutzzone Germania.
• Backe Croc^ExplanationOne fan photoshopped Backe's portrait to wear an oversized, brown croc as a hat, which is often used as a reaction image to someone making a dumb statement
• Lib status: Owned^ExplanationA reference to Theodor Oberländer, leader of the NSDAP hardliners opposed to both Führer Albert Speer and the Gang of Four. Like the Gang of Four, Oberländer also wants to introduce representative democracy to the Reich, but unlike the Gang of Four, he has no desire to get rid of Nazism itself.
• A minor issue with [X]^ExplanationThe second incarnation of the SS-Aktionsgruppe Moskowien was criticized in a megapost titled "A minor issue with Pleskau" (Pleskau being the German name of its capital city Pskov). Despite its name, the megapost spent dozens of pages criticizing the depiction of Herbert Backe, Richard Walther Darré, and the ideology of the SS, deeming them a "mischaracterization" of all three. The term has now been used for similar megaposts criticizing the mod's depiction of historical figures, in turn leading to an ironic usage where a fan takes umbrage with anything, no matter how trivial.
• The murder of Stepan Bandera in the Mauthausen concentration camp was the greatest crime of the 20th century^ExplanationThis line was written in the beginning of Klyachkivsky's bio in this Ukraine teaser, intended to be a horribly myopic viewpoint for the OUN (b), given Bandera's fascist beliefs, collaboration with Nazi Germany and complicity in multiple genocides. For how memorable it was, the fandom began parroting this sentence whenever the OUN (b) was mentioned, even when Klyachkivsky's bio was updated to remove this line. Eventually, the line became an Ascended Meme in "The Dispirited, Deranged Domevoy" national spirit for the UPA, whose description begins with an almost identical sentence, except "Mauthausen" is changed to "Sachsenhausen".
• Kaminski Movies^ExplanationAn in-joke among the RK Moskowien development team, depicting Russian collaborator Bronislav Kaminski as a bootleg film producer. Referenced on the discord through the :kaminski_movies: emote and occasionally on the subreddit in the form of a (fake) shifty download link such as "kaminski.movies.1080p-HIND.SUBS-free.COLLABORATOR-WATCH.com."

Burgundy

• STRENG GEHEIM^ExplanationWhen controlling another country, all the names of Burgundy's focuses are replaced with "STRENG GEHEIM" ("TOP SECRET" in English) to represent the secrecy of its workings. The fandom has turned it into Burgundy's and/or Himmler's Catchphrase, using it like how the SCP Foundation community uses "[DATA EXPUNGED]".
  • There is only pain and suffering under the Black Sun.^ExplanationUsed to encompass the sheer despair that is living under a Burgundian System, and sometimes to relate with players that got smacked in the face with the true horror of something like Himmler's Burgundy not expecting things to get that dark. A key example that is used is simply "From Cradle to Grave" one of Burgundy's first events.
• Poopenfärten ^ExplanationA literal shitpost that took an Among Us X TNO fan superevent and applied it to Burgundy. Its complete stupidity, Panzer's exasperation, and the discord and subreddit mods' efforts to suppress it propelled it to infamy.
  • Interstellar Poopenfärten ^ExplanationA sequel of some sorts to the infamous superevent, crossing over with Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, using Panzer's quote of exasperation as the text.
• Chungus Himmler^ExplanationA running joke of putting Himmler's face on a fat Bugs Bunny, not helped by Himmler's overweight 1970's portrait.◊

Russia and the former Soviet Union

• Comrades, is X not Fascist?/This will divide the council. ^ExplanationA meme template based on the Orenburg Worker's Council, which is extremely inefficient and often breaks down into people accusing each other of being fascists.
• Berezniki must go!/Who must go?^ExplanationThe minor faction Berezniki has not only resisted all attempts to remove it from the mod before the Toolbox Theory update, but has also outlived multiple devs who left development before it could be removed, greatly increasing its pedigree. The meme itself is a variation on the "Assad must go!" meme.
  • Final Score: Devs, 1; Berezniki 11◊ (WHO MUST GO WHO MUST GO)^ExplanationWhen the time finally came for Berezniki's ultimate erasure, the developers decided to livestream it. It was an hilarious comedy of errors, with constant setbacks, up to and including potentially causing the dev problems with their microphone and internet connection, all while other devs watched and chanted "Who must go?!" into the voice chat, while spamming the meme.
• VERIFY YOUR CLOCK^{Explanation (spoilers)}A reference to the source of Taboritsky's reunification superevent's soundclip being the introduction of a Soyuzmultfilm "children's" short of the same name. Usually used in conjunction with references to Taboritsky's Russia.
  • Funny Clock Man^{Explanation (spoilers)}A nickname for Taboritsky, in reference to the use of clocks as a motif in his route. This was even acknowledged by the developers with the addition of the :funnyclockman: emote to the official Discord.
  • ALEXEI LIVES^{Explanation (spoilers)}Another reference to Taboritsky, this time concerning his belief that Tsarevich Alexei is still alive.
  • "There is much to be done"^{Explanation (spoilers)}A reference to the Trauma Conga Line that ensues following Taboritsky's eventual death. The quote showing up once the Holy Russian Empire finally collapses into complete anarchy.
  • Tabby caused Loli^ExplanationIn real life, Sergey Taboritsky killed Vladimir Nabokov's father in 1922. The event caused Nabokov to stay in Berlin, where he became a writer, later writing Lolita, which, in turn, inspired the Lolicon phenomenon. Hence, Sergey Taboritsky accidentally created Loli.
• Tetris Tsar^ExplanationLiberal Vyatka's unification super event soundclip, the Song of the Cadets of the Nikolaev Cavalry School, shares its melody with Korobeiniki, the Russian folk song made famous by Tetris.
  • "Ah yes, I enjoyed listening to vyatka_super for the third time, how can you tell?"^ExplanationA reference to the first version of the Russian Reunification Compilation which, after playing the Vyatka reunification soundclip for a third time (when Vyatka's three paths all shared this song), shows the above quote alongside GigaChad.
• Wholesome 100 Big Chungus Sablin/Sablintard^ExplanationA derivative of the Wholesome Keanu Chungus meme, used both by fans of Sablin when discussing many of the heartwarming events in his libertarian route, and by Sablin's detractors to mock the common perception of Sablin among his supporters. Notably, the meme was started in part and popularized by Sablin's detractors for his borderline-saccharine idealism and perceived status as a Creator's Pet, with many of Sablin's fans ultimately taking the meme as a compliment and fully embracing the "wholesome" image. Future Sablin reworks will downplay a lot of the idealism and make it more hellish to get the ideal result, so this meme may be downplayed in the future, but even then Sablin will be one of the best unifiers for all of Russia and a win-state for the nation.
  • YagodaChad^Explanation In addition to mocking Sablin, detractors also lionize Genrikh Yagoda, the NKVD chief Sablin rebels against. It's not helped by in-universe events describing propaganda emphasizing Yagoda's masculinity, as well as the fact that OTL, a massive amount of sexual paraphernalia was found in his home.
• OMCKbird^ExplanationOmsk is notorious in certain meme circles for its personification as a grisly-looking bird who claims there is no exit from the horror that is Omsk, which originally began in Russian social media before it was popularized elsewhere with the Polandball series. From there, it jumped fandoms once again and became associated with the Black League centred on Omsk in TNO. With the reveal of a Satanic cult emerging in the city after the collapse of Taboritsky's Holy Russian Empire, fans concluded that there must be truly something wrong with that place.
  • Shovels^ExplanationOmskian soldiers are often described as shovel-wielding maniacs (because firearms are in short supply in early game) whose behaviour is an amalgamation of stereotypical gopnik, S.T.A.L.K.E.R zoners, the Death Korps of Krieg and stereotypical cavemen with an insane obsession for destroying Germany.
• Money...^Explanation The title of an infamous focus in Oktan's Samara path, that best exemplifies just how openly corrupt and greedy he is. Commonly followed by other similar phrases such as "Dollars..." or "Gains..."
• A Million Ways to Die in Southern Urals^ExplanationOskar Dirlewanger, an irredeemable monster he is, is basically always doomed to die a horrible death, and the staggering 70+ events for it reflect that, ranging from being darkly humorous to absolutely hilarious.
• PAPAPARAPARAPAPA/Batov Posting^Explanation Given Yeltsin's poor reputation, both in OTL and TNO, Batov is commonly considered the best West Siberian unifier, and one of the best in general, thanks to his devotion to protect Russia and its people, the strong Russia that he creates, and of course the catching tune of his unification theme.
  • Shock Therapy^Explanation A reference to Boris Yeltsin's infamous policy of reforming Russia's socio-economic fabric from OTL. In TNO, he not only implements a very similar plan decades ahead of schedule and under the same name, but in an ironic twist of fate, it leads to a fairly prosperous and democratic Russian Federative Republic. That he retains his notorious drinking habits from real life doesn't help matters.
  • "Who is Batov?"^ExplanationOne of Omsk's focuses is erasing the existence of Pavel Batov from records, resulting in their population not knowing who he is. Players jokingly go along with it, asking "Who?" at Batov's mention and referring to him as "a man that does not exist." As Batov will spearhead a resistance against Omsk when they unify their region, which is successful nearly every single time when Omsk is controlled by the AI, this also further adds to his status as a Memetic Badass for rising above the Unpersoning.
• State Mandated gf^Explanation A reference to some rather infamous incel community rhetoric, thanks to the presence of an early game focus in Lazar Kaganovich's Tyumen called "Wives for Soldiers", where he can choose to arrange state marriages between single women and Red Army soldiers, as well as his overall policies regarding women's rights in his version of the USSR. With some jokingly calling his path as "Incel Communism"
• Serov Posting^ExplanationA reference to anything involving Ivan Serov and Ordosocialism. More so if references are made to him as the "New Marx" or racist diatribes against "Hereditary Reactionaries."
  • "ooga booga nazbol gang unite"^ExplanationSimilar to "oh god oh fuck its kishi", Serov's decision tab to manage the Fascist and Communist wings of the Ordosocialist party had placeholder text in place of actual information.
• A Clash of Gods^{Explanation (spoilers)}A reference to the final focus◊ in the Aryan Brotherhood's initial regional tree, depicting a confrontation between Gutrum Vagner and Zigfrid Shultz over leadership of the Brotherhood. The focus is often captioned and posted in a similar manner to the JoJo Approach meme. It is also used to mock a conflict between two individuals or factions, in Real Life or otherwise, by comparing them to Vagner and Shultz's Evil Versus Evil conflict.
  • Two Retards Fighting^{Explanation (spoiler)}An infamous edit◊ of the Aryan Brotherhood's "A Clash of Gods" focus, which is also a reference to an old Youtube meme. It's nonetheless an apt description for how abhorrent both "combatants" are for Russia, no matter who wins.
• SUSlov^ExplanationWith the rise of ironic Among Us memes, people began associating Mikhail Suslov with the term "sus" due to his name, usually in the pun shown here. It doesn't help that he's pretty purge-happy among the "revisionists" he sees himself as surrounded by, leading to ironic situations right out of the game, like everyone trying to find "one fascists among us" and Suslov being such a pill they vote him off. This culminated in the :SUSlov: emote being added to the TNO discord.
• Communist Super Mario^ExplanationRefers to the fact that Lazar Kaganovich's portrait that was given during the Cutting Room Floor Update makes him look a lot like a certain Italian plumber. This meme is also followed by people referencing Matpat's theory about Super Mario being communist, jokingly saying that he was right.
• Dreams of Federation^ExplanationA reference to the Russian Unification super event that plays should Vasily Shukshin's Novosibirsk triumph, and how genuinely democratic it is compared Alexander Pokryshkin's prosperous, yet bleak path. Bonus points if additional references are made to Eduard Artemyev's music.
• Punished WerBell^{Explanation (spoiler)}Mitchell [WerBell] III's West Alaska path, which results from his forces usurping Magadan from Matkovsky's RFP, is heavily inspired by both Cold War-era mercenaries and the Metal Gear franchise. This has inevitably led to comparisons to Outer Heaven and Big Boss, alongside references to songs like "Jungle Work."
• Prolong Voroshilov's Life^ExplanationRefers to the continued request of one user on a slew of threads on TNO's subreddit to extend the life of Kliment Voroshilov, who originally occupied Alexander Yegorov's current role (as the WRRF's starting leader who dies shortly after the German Civil War begins). The meme became popular on r/dsrfunny and on the TNO discord, especially after Voroshilov was replaced.
• Ukrainian game United States of Siberia^{Explanation (minor spoilers)}In January 2024, Russian TV channel REN TV, known for their conspiracy theory-laden documentaries, made a documentary where, among other things, TNO is claimed to be part of a secret Western plot to balkanise Russia. Alongside general conspiratorial hatemongering and disinformation (for instance, the documentary tells that the player must "hold on to their piece of the pie", ignoring the fact that their goal is actually to unite Russia and restore it to greatness), REN TV made a number of factual mistakes, like calling the mod "United States of Siberia" (which is actually the name of WerBell's state at the superregional stage), or claiming it was made in Ukraine. Needless to say, Russian (and to a lesser extent Western) fans found the documentary amusing, and "United States of Siberia" became an ironic nickname for the mod.

The United States and the OFN

• Calm The Hell Down!^ExplanationA reference to the "Bend To Segregationists" path for "The Civil Rights Dilemma" of Nixon's Focus Tree◊ - which, due to the In Medias Res nature of his presidency, he can never take - with the final focus named this showing a picture of an angry Nixon, with the implication that he's blaming everybody who's protesting/rioting against him for turning America into an Apartheid state for the mess his policies are creating. And in most Fanon interpretations, this results in Nixon being assassinated, in a way not too dissimilar from his VP JFK.
  • Nixon Posting/NOT A CROOK^ExplanationGiven how Nixon is very similar to his real life self in TNO, right down to his actions, there've been a lot of jokes and memes made at his expense. Bonus points if he's referred to as a "crook" at any given moment (which he totally isn't) and any pro-Nixon comments being appended with "AROOOOOO".
• Glenn Gang/Glenn!^ExplanationA tongue-in-cheek reference to John Glenn formerly being a potential electoral candidate in TNO. While also a partial reference to Jeb Bush's infamous campaign memes, here it's much more affectionate, given how Glenn's presidency prioritizes social programs, R&D, and the space program, culminating in an eventual manned landing on Mars.
  • Glenn died for nothing!^ExplanationWhile the actual situation is more nuanced than the meme suggests, when the at-least-conceptually popular John Glenn presidency was replaced by the Phil Hart presidency, one of the primary reasons given was that Space Race content was going to be expanded and made independent of individual presidents in an update called The Final Front. When the team working on the update decided to leave The New Order altogether to produce a standalone game instead, fans mourning the loss of the old Glenn content and unmollified by statements about the dev team looking into reinstating Space Race content in some new form at some point came out of the woodwork.
• "Was it worth it, Mr. President?"^ExplanationA reference to the relevant national spirit's description should George Wallace successfully enforce nation-wide segregation in the US. This also doubles as a jab at the player for actually pulling it off.
• Yock and Hall Torture^ExplanationA wordplay on cock and ball torture poking fun at the horrific nature of the policies enacted by the NPP-Y and the old depiction of the NPP-L and the suffering this inflicts on the American populace.
• America's First Gamer President^Explanation In reference to Yockey. A combination of previous "gamer" memes (see, General & Community) and a non-TNO meme from 2020 about "America's First Gamer President".
• Rocking the Boat^ExplanationWallace F. Bennett is a President known for prioritizing subtler policies over the radical agendas of other candidates, with his approach summarized as not "rocking the boat" (at least too much). While meaning to keep policies small and swearing neutrality for the sake of the country's stability, which is usually even very successful, it's also just as possible for his presidency to be so mismanaged that it sends America into severe disarray. "Rocking the boat" has since become a euphemism for whenever a President, even other than Bennett, causes radicalization and serious instability with their agenda.
  • The Boat Sank^ExplanationA continuation of the above meme used in such cases that the USA is utterly crippled politically or economically beyond any reasonable degree, usually to do with bugs and/or exploits that give supermajorities to the NPP-L or drop GDP to 0 somehow.
  • Bennett◊ abolishes reality^ExplanationAn utterly bizarre post on r/tnomod in which Bennett "abolishes reality" for being "too radical". Inspired by Red Flood's Antonin Artaud declaring war on reality itself as a culmination of his Accelerationist beliefs.
• Chad LeMay^ExplanationCurtis LeMay's astonishing one-term presidency should Wallace be impeached, which includes moments like insulting Martin Bormann on live TV to his face, and giving a gigantic middle-finger to the segregationists by signing a new Civil Rights Act even if it means committing political suicide ("Chad LeMay signs Civil Rights Act, refuses to elaborate further, leaves"). Recently bolstered by Lemay's notes to incoming presidents Hall and Yockey.
• Hart in Samara/Samara Incident^ExplanationThe fandom jokes that Hart was sent by the CIA to pose as an SS member (SS battalion "neu samara") in 1956. There, he directed a litany of war crimes on the Eastern Front, including against his own men, and was so horrible that the ROA were hailed as heroes when they liberated Samara.
• "Every American should be lifted out of poverty so they can afford a television AND WATCH TOKYO GET FUCKING GLASSED"^ExplanationA line from a fanmade 1972 campaign ad for the NPP-C. The phrase and variations of it have since become a popular way of summing up Henry Jackson's politics, and one of the bots on the official Discord will even say it in response to certain prompts.
• Hall apologia^ExplanationBefore the Unfinished Business update, supporting Gus Hall (the only potential communist President of the US in the first decade) was a bannable offence in the official Discord server, since the design philosophy back then was that he was no less evil than the neo-Nazi President Yockey. To call this policy controversial (among both team members and the player base as a whole) was an understatement. After said update gave Hall a more nuanced and accurate portrayal and allowed people banned for 'Hall apologia' to come back, it stopped being taken seriously.

Other & Miscellaneous

• Guss^Explanation A cowboy leader of America from an unrelated mod for HoI IV who was featured in one of the dev-released videos as the leader of "Radical Left NPP Cowboy Coup" and became beloved by both the developers and the community. Eventually something of an Ascended Meme, as he'll show up whenever you get the command console out to tell you to "better fix your shit, partner". Guss uses the appearance of Ol' Jim Cathey, a cowboy poet from Texas.
• Shina^ExplanationA nation that existed in very early-stage TNO builds, in which a Japanese-occupied China controls a large piece of territory. The nonsensical existence of the faction, combined with the name led it to become a meme, representing the weirdness of ancient TNO lore.
• "oh god oh fuck its kishi"/Kishi Posting^Explanation The antics of Kishi Nobusuke's original TNO incarnation have become rather infamous. Whether it's the harrowing implications of Order 44, his prolonged "tenure" over Manchukuo, or how his views are practically unchanged from OTL but taken to their logical conclusion, there's no shortage of memes about how "cursed" his Ultranationalist path for Japan is. "oh god oh fuck its kishi" specifically comes from an early bug where the Placeholder version of Order 44 would fire, which had that as placeholder for actual news.
  • The Iron Lady Rises/Thatcher Posting^Explanation While pre-rework Margaret Thatcher's potential rule as Prime Minister is shown to not only mirror her OTL self's tenure initially, but also Augusto Pinochet's exploits by the 1970s, it's also heavily implied that by her British Reunification event, she has more than a few parallels with Kishi Nobusuke. It's inevitably led to overlapping memes.
• South America is a void/nothing happens in South America.^ExplanationAfter the mod's developers confirmed that The New Order would not include any content whatsoever for South America at launch, several users took to use that sentence as a meme, making a jab at how alternate history fics frequently ignore South America. Sometimes, fans also joke about this being an actual lore element in the mod, with South American countries having a Cozy Catastrophe during the apocalypse because everyone forgot to nuke it thanks to its irrelevancy (and then going on to take over the world), or even the entire continent being literally frozen in time, as a reference to a certain alt-history short fic. These memes have largely died down since the Cold Southern Springs submod began production, attempting to create detailed content for all South American nations, and subsequently released a demo with 4 years of Brazilian content. The final nail to the meme's coffin was the outright integration of CSS into TNO, making it a Discredited Meme.
• The Most Serene First Admiral/Fernando Posting ^Explanation Before release, Fernando de Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias, an admiral who turns the Gibraltar Dam Zone into his own fiefdom in the Iberian Wars, gives himself an absurdly long list of titles in addition to his Overly Long Name that quickly caught on with the community. Any mention of him is not complete without them. The full list is the Most Serene First Admiral, Lord Protector of the Most Magnificent Dam of the Gates of Gibraltar, Scion of Endless Seas, Light in the Darkness, First of his Most Splendid Title, Bearer of the Greatest Burden, Traveler of Ten Thousand Oceans, Lord of the Pillars of Hercules, Atlas of the Mediterranean, Slayer of German Influence in Iberia and Gibraltar in Particular, Lord of all the Fishes in the Sea, Guardian at the Gates to the Old World, Hero of Goa, Director of the Interior Fleet, Grand Peacekeeper, Most Honorable Son of the Republic of Portugal, Liason to the Mediterranean Nations, and True Successor To The Legacy of Holy Iberia.
• The Peronómetro/Perónposting^ExplanationJuan Domingo Perón is already the most influential figure in Argentina's political history and landscape, but jokes about his brand of populism and general Dreaded-ness exploded both from the sheer fear the starting Argentinian government in the mod shows to the idea of his return, and the mechanic governing whether he comes back to ruin your run, the Peronómetro: A memetastic image of the biggest shit-eating grin the man could muster◊.
• Adhemar!/Adhemarposting^Explanation Adhemar de Barros became popular as Brazil's leader by being extremely open about his opportunism and corruption, leading to memes about money similar to those from Oktan in Russia.
• Oran Tank Brigade ^Explanation In a dev stream for the Toolbox Theory update, the developer playing the game picked the Iberian Union to showcase the update's features and sent a single tank division to support the Comando Militar Argelino during the Algerian War. However, low fuel forced the developer to relegate the tank division to hold the Commando's capital in Oran to ensure that it didn't capitulate. Combined with some poor planning, the Algerian War ended up lasting for over two years, far longer than it should've in most games. As a result, much of the fanbase lightheartedly ribbed the subpar military performance in the game and how long the tank division had to stay in Oran. This even got elevated into an Ascended Meme in a loading screen quote.
• Critical Support for the (Brave) Freedom Fighters in X. ^ExplanationBased off a meme from a misremembering of the dedication in Rambo III ("to the brave Mujahideen fighters"), which urban legends say was secretly changed to "to the gallant people of Afghanistan" after 9/11, and a certain subset of Marxist-Leninists declaring "Critical Support" for any kind of dictator that opposes the United States and NATO, regardless of how oppressive they are or even whether they're (ostensibly) left-wing or not. In TNO fandom usually this line is used to joke about a country sending military, economic or diplomatic support to an unsavory or otherwise meme-worthy group. Or alternatively the group being aided is a legitimately deserving force but is being given "Critical Support" in the form of just words, thoughts and prayers.
• Also reminder that Cameroon's brand of pan-africanism is so imperialistic even other pan-africans can prefer to side with Free France^ExplanationThis comment on the PALF, made by a French developer, started a massive flame war in the fandom over whitewashing French imperialism and trying to draw a moral equivalent between both sides of the conflict. Though a later developer elaboration helped cool down the conflict, it's still a controversial topic in the fandom, which has since spawned memes about "Free French stans" parroting the comment as a form of ironic propaganda.

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