Memes / ULTRAKILL

The face of the community.

Since its Early Access release, ULTRAKILL has spawned lots 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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• The tagline is memetic for being something you'd expect from a stereotypically violent game, and this game delivers. It also sums up the game's premise.
  MANKIND IS DEAD.
  BLOOD IS FUEL.
  HELL IS FULL.
• Thanks to V1's Cyber Cyclops design, fans compare them to a GoPro camera to the point where fans call them one. Just don't call them Pathfinder.
• While Gusic the staring cat and Hampter the wide hamster◊ are older than the game, they become popular memes within the fanbase, as they're called Dreamed Cat and Florp respectively. Hell, there's even a mod that replaced almost ALL of the game's textures with the former. Yes, even the text and fonts aren't safe. Their likenesses are engraved in 4-4, and Florp itself can be found in 5-2.
• Gabriel's lines are memes in their own right, including his intro speech where he tells V1 to turn back, and especially his Villainous Breakdown speech where he calls V1 an "insignificant fuck".
  • Calling Gabriel "cringe" is a sub meme, as is making him match every stereotype of a Christian gaming clan moderator.
• "YOU ARE CRINGE, MACHINE! YOU ARE NOT POGCHAMP!"^ExplanationFor some reason, it has become popular to clown on Gabriel by implying that he would overuse a lot of Twitch gaming lingo, as part of the greater effort to portray Gabriel as an unfunny loser who thinks too highly of himself. This was later said by the actual voice actor for Gabriel.
• Minos Prime's lines have become memes in their own right, such as his Badass Boast and his Boss Banter. "JUDGEMENT" and "DIE" are especially popular with fans, thanks to how hammy his attack lines are. Sisyphus Prime is similarly quotable, with "BE GONE" and "KEEP 'EM COMING" becoming memes of their own thanks to his deep voice and the enthusiasm he puts in your destruction.
  • DIE! Thy end is now! CRUSH! Prepare thyself! WEAK! ^Explanationa clip of Minos voicelines set over 50 Cent's Candy Shop, combining it with the earlier Big Shoe meme. This would spread to encompass other bosses and their voicelines as well.
  • "Minos Prime often says "Die!". This is a subtle nod to the fact that he will kill you. This reference is best observed on Violent Difficulty."^ExplanationThe official wiki has this line as part of the trivia on Minos Prime's page.
  • "Only video game boss where when they say "Die" they actually do just fucking kill you."^ExplanationVariations of this line are often used to describe Minos Prime in videos and forums.
  • "A visitor? Hmm, indeed."^{Explanation (P- 2 Spoilers)}Sisyphus Prime's intro dialogue has become a veritable copypasta throughout the internet, especially in conjunction with the general rise of Sisyphus-posting unrelated to Ultrakill; UK fans will usually take the time to either post his whole intro, or start a comment chain with multiple fans coming in to complete it.
• Fans love comparing Flesh Prison with Ramiel, due to their geometric shape and angelic nature. Half-angelic for the former at least.
• A screenshot from May the 22nd features V2 smugly sitting on a throne. It didn't take long for fans to photoshop V2 everywhere, especially in locations from the Devil May Cry and Castlevania series.
• "Maurice" being used as the name for the Malicious Face, originating from this meme. May now be an Ascended Meme thanks to the Malicious Face object in Sandbox being known internally as "ultrakill.maurice" and the fact that the Malicious Face and the boulder in 4-S grant a unique +MAURICED bonus if they crush enemies.
  • In a similar vein but not as well known, "Andre" being used to refer to Cerberus, being the name for its model mesh.
  • The Earthmover in 7-4 has been refered to "Benjamin", not unlike the memes above.
• ASS^ExplanationThe Gameplay Grading ranks your time, kill count, and style in that order, ranging from D to S. Sometimes, a player can get an A in time but an S in everything else, resulting in the ratings being vertically read as ASS. Fans like to joke that this is the game's way of telling them that their gameplay sucks.
• "Playing the game exactly as Hakita intended."^Explanation This phrase is often attached to footage of a player performing an insanely silly and ridiculous challenge run, like playing the game with max vertex warping on or restricting their only weapon to the Whiplash.
• The Ferryman is holding a comically large spoon.^ExplanationA community meme based on a Vine video. A small version of The Ferryman's oar made an early appearance in the official 2021 Christmas artwork where V1 holds it like a spoon. Come 2022 and The Ferryman wields it as his weapon.
• WRATH /// FIRST: IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON^ExplanationThe days leading up to Act 2's full release saw many videos showing up on Twitter parodying the opening sequence to Wrath's first level, which depict someone jumping into a body of water, usually synched up with the level introduction text as well as the opening piano notes of the level's theme.
• V1 ballin!^ExplanationA fan-made animation of V1 dunking a Drone like a basketball became popular with the fanbase, often used as an alternative to the Vine boom.
• "add sex to ultrakill"^{Explanation (NSFW Warning)}A joke "criticism" of the game where the reviewer is disappointed that there is no Optional Sexual Encounter / Hot Coffee Minigame somewhere in the game. The joke may have been taken a bit too far, as there's been an uptick of negative Steam reviews solely about the lack of sex and consequently dethroning ULTRAKILL's near-perfect user rating on the platform. Has become an Ascended Meme since one of the devs, PITR, made an official mod for the game adding rumble that happens to use an API that can be used with... interactive toys, even calling it the "Sex Update" on the game's official Twitter.
• "Panopticon"^{Explanation (Spoilers for P-2)}The days leading up to P-2's release saw Hakita releasing a teaser of a soundtrack for P-2 alongside a cryptic message. The community was quick to attempt to decode it and then found an image with an unnerving similarity to Flesh Prison's texture map with the "Panopticon" text, which in the level proper was indeed a boss similar to Flesh Prison, the Flesh Panopticon. Due to the hype for P-2's release, this image's popularity exploded in hours, complete with shitposts.
  • Live Panopticon Reaction^Explanation The ULTRAKILL fandom version of the "Live Tucker Reaction" meme using an image of the Flesh Panopticon, usually conjoined to footage of insane or wacky ULTRAKILL gameplay.
• Mayo% Runs.^Explanation An ULTRAKILL review done by UnderTheMayo became infamous among the fanbase for its negativity towards the game's use of intrinsic motivation. The most contentious aspect is how, to prove his opinion that the game failed to encourage players to use its arsenal, Mayo near-exclusively used the default Piercer with no Alt Fire or advanced movement techniques to complete the game's campaign. However, because he still carried every other weapon, his weapon freshness meter for the Piercer was constantly depleted. This meter is one of the ways the game encourages weapon swapping, and many felt he either conveniently ignored it or refused to understand it. Thus, a Mayo% speedrun subcategory was made to ridicule his critiques; it uses the same restrictions Mayo placed upon himself, with some modifications to the player's arsenal to account for the style meter and allow for P-Ranks. Here's one exemplary run where a player perfects P-1: Soul Survivor—using only the Piercer and the Marksman's primary fires and quick-swapping between them.
• Size 2 Fish.^Explanation5-S "I Only Say Morning", being a Fishing Minigame, of course has an Ultrakill-esque twist to it. Hidden in the well is a hideout containing a book with the deranged ramblings of someone who is on the lookout for a Size 2 Fish. Considering the only fish you can get in normal gameplay are Size 1, the community of course went on a wild goose chase trying to find a Size 2 Fish, even though it may be a literal Red Herring. This phrase thus comes up whenever something posts something fish- or fishing-related that is large. The meme came back in full force when 7-S's secret room featured a Message in a Bottle which was just a mocking note from the Size 2 Fish, further solidifying it as the ULTRAKILL community's metaphorical White Whale.
  • "Fixed Size 2 Fish being uncatchable." ^ExplanationStarting with patch 12b, all patch notes include some variant of "Fixed a bug preventing Size 2 fish from being unable to be caught", in the same vein as Minecraft's "Removed Herobrine" Running Gag.
• Gabriel listens to Nine Inch Nails ^{Explanation (Spoilers for 6- 2 (and mild NSFW Warning))}In Gabriel, Apostate of Hate's second phase, he gains a new set of taunts, one of which is "Come on, machine! Fight me like an ANIMAL!" That, combined with the high amount of Foe Yay Shipping and gay jokes that spawned from the Apostate of Hate fight and its aftermath, led to this line frequently getting compared to the line "I wanna fuck you like an animal" from NIN's "Closer". As such, it's become a joke in parts of the fandom to depict Gabriel as a fan of the band, listening to their music or even owning their merchandise.
• "it's a good thing you guys aren't designing ultrakill or it would suck" ^ExplanationA stray comment by Hakita that became a memetic rebuttal to any suggestions or criticisms the fans find to be badly thought out or outright bad (ex: UnderTheMayo from the Mayo% speedruns above). It also gets dropped for the occasional grousing about a patch balancing weapons.
• It's Ultrakillin' Time/"I am going to ULTRAKILL YOU!"^ExplanationJokes parodying a hypothetical Title Drop in the game, as well as tying in to this video by Gianni Matragrano, in which he says the latter quote.
• The Weezer Room. ^ExplanationP-2's very first encounter features an abrupt confrontation with no less than four Cerberus at once. With Weezer being as weirdly memetic among the Ultrakill fandom as it is, it didn't take long for fans to connect this encounter to the evenly-spaced stances of the eponymous band on the cover of Weezer (The Blue Album).
• "6 DOLLAR SRIMP SPECIAL!!!"^ExplanationThis Word-Salad Humor video by Gianni Matragrano using his Gabriel voice was instantly picked up on and animated in multiple different mediums by the fandom, jokingly proclaiming that "6 DOLLAR SRIMP SPECIAL" is just something Gabriel shouts when he's surprised or angry.
• ULTRAKILL but V1 can speak^ExplanationA very common meme is to have V1 stop being The Speechless and add a Gag Dub over a level's gameplay, usually having them be a Deadpan Snarker or a Troll and often giving other characters voices so they can have back-and-forth banter.
  • WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE^ExplanationA memetic soundbite from Gears' takes on the above meme that V1 always says when they're sliding.
• Meep Meep, asshole.^{Explanation (spoilers for 7-1)} A joke about the Minotaur being an extremely fast Lightning Bruiser and The Juggernaut and comparing it to the Road Runner.
• "Wouldn't it be fucked up if there was a Minotaur?"^{Explanation (spoilers for 7-1)}In the year leading up to Violence's release, Hakita read House of Leaves and talked about it on his Twitter account. A decently funny reply got quote-retweeted with an image made by Hakita. While seemingly random and unrelated, the release of Violence would prove this tweet a lot more relevant thanks to the introduction of the Minotaur, who is a direct Shout-Out to the book in several ways.
• "Is Jesus canon?" ^{Explanation (spoilers for Violence)}A book in the Violence layer states that the cross represents the Tree of Life, but notably does not mention Jesus. This has led to discussion on if Jesus actually even exists in ULTRAKILL's universe, leading to this rather hilarious statement (which becomes even funnier when one considers the original definition of "canon" as it relates to Catholicism.)
• Jesus Prime/"Get ready to receive some Holy Spirit" ^Explanation Many fans have been theorizing or creating fan content on a Prime soul version of none other than Jesus Christ himself, interest in the concept skyrocketed with the release of Jesus’ Betrayal : What Really Went Down", which depicted a very memorable Kung-Fu Jesus interpretation of the Son of God. With many edits of Jesus' beatdown or speech being made with the unofficial Ultrakill-style theme song for Jesus Prime One video even replacing Jesus and Judas with Gabriel and V1 respectively.
• Lobotomy% ^{Explanation (spoilers for Violence)}On release, flying up to the Earthmover's head via various methods would allow for very easy access to the inside of the Earthmover's head due to poor collision hitboxes. This would trigger the fight with its brain, which usually requires going inside of the Earthmover, to begin. When this happens, the game doesn't know what to do, and the brain ends up killing itself. This skips going inside of the Earthmover, practically skipping the whole level as the insides is the only really required part of the level. Affectionately called "Lobotomy%", this was the most popular way to speedrun the level, as it gave way to huge time saves, with the level being beatable in under 30 seconds, though this was later patched out.
• "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it." ^Explanation A meme taken from the Tekken series, used to preface clips showcasing some of the insane combos and maneuvers a skilled player can pull off to decimate the opposition in seconds.
• HAKITA SPOTTED TRYING TO PARRY WITH THE KNUCKLEBLASTER^ExplanationA meme taken from a dev stream where Hakita accidentally tried to parry using the Knuckleblaster instead of the correct Feedbacker arm. This is a common slip-up that even veteran players make, but the fanbase was giddy to joke that Hakita can never be trusted on anything ever again because he doesn't know how to play his own game.
• Reconstruct WHAT?! THERE'S NOTHING LEFT!!! ^Explanation In a stream, lead dev Hakita says this after hearing that the fandom was making theories about V2 coming back even though he stated multiple times that V2 was Killed Off for Real and V2 gets turned into a bloody puddle upon impact with the bottom of the pyramid in 4-4 directly in front of the player, meaning there is literally no plausible way for them to have survived. Not only did it get turned into a reaction image, it also got an edited clip.
• Two Streetcleaners around a corner / Streetcleaner Yuri. ^ExplanationA reoccurring encounter throughout levels in Ultrakill are two Streetcleaners rounding a corner to ambush V1 as they are walking from one arena to another. While used sparingly throughout the first two acts, they saw much more notable use in Violence, with nearly every level in the layer featuring a Streetcleaner ambush. It didn't take long for someone to start shipping the two Streetcleaners together, and a decent portion of the Ultrakill server latched onto the idea, using "Streetcleaner Yuri" as a shorthand for this type of encounter.
  • Insurrectionist Yaoi. ^ExplanationThe two Insurrectionists that ambush V1 in P-2 after acquiring the skull key fulfill the same purpose as the Streetcleaner ambushes in the main game, as revealed on a developer commentary stream. There's a bit of irony in how two Insurrectionists of all enemies are reduced to a filler encounter, and that said encounter is the easiest part of P-2.
• Boston Dynamics made V1. ^ExplanationBoston Dynamics made a new Atlas robot iteration, with a surprising similarity to V1, even its back is labelled "001." This caused fans to create some videos using the new Atlas as a real equivalent to V1, seen here, with some comments on these videos even dreading the possibility of said robots committing an uprising as the game's lore.

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