Memes / Vocaloid

Hi, I'm Scott, president of Dominos Pizza. Have you heard of Hatsune Miku?

Given the large size of the fandom, its boom on the internet in the mid-2000s, and the extremely fan-friendly and versatile nature of Vocaloid, you can bet plenty of memes have spawned over the years.

Please add entries in the following format if possible:

• 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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Hatsune Miku Memes:

• SEKAAAAAAAAI DE ICHIBAN OHIME-SAMA! ^explanation Supercell's "World is Mine" is so famous that it basically became Miku's signature song and thus subject to various memes.
• Miku on The Late Show with David Letterman^ExplanationOn October 9th 2014, Hatsune Miku would make a notable appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, which would spawn dozens of jokes and memes, ranging from waifus becoming real, to "anime" invading America, to David Letterman destroying her and ending anime.
• "Miku created X" ^ExplanationOriginally created to facetiously Un-person Minecraft creator Notch after various online scandals, this phrase is often used to similarly reclaim other works if their original creators have a Role-Ending Misdemeanor, leading to portrayals of Miku as a Memetic Badass responsible for creating everything. The meme did see some controversy, as it fell back into patterns that the Vocaloid fandom was guilty of in the late 2000s-early 2010s — namely, declaring songs as "Vocaloid" songs and giving no credit to the original composer. The meme's overuse also led to many within the fandom, including the meme's very own creator, disowning it, as mentioned above.
• Shiteyanyo^ExplanationA very bizarre fan character that was created by Pixiv artist Ryūsei in 2010. The character consists nothing more than a Miku head who uses her pigtails as legs, which became incredibly popular due to how weird it is. It has since become an Ascended Meme thanks to Project Diva. The name comes from the original drawing that spawned the character, which is titled "Mikku Miku ni Shiteyanyo", a parody of the song "Miku Miku ni Site Ageru"
• The Domino's Pizza mobile app commercial^ExplanationIn promotion of a collaboration with Hatsune Miku at the time, Domino's Pizza's Japanese branch would make a now infamous commercial featuring then CEO of the Japanese branch at the time, Scott Oelkers promoting the app, Domino's feat. Hatsune Miku. The commercial would go on to spawn dozens of memes and jokes due to Scott Oelker's awkward So Bad, It's Good performance and the sheer bizarreness of the ad.
• Bacon wrapped hotdogs^ExplanationIn 2011, Toyota would create a series of ads featuring Hatsune Miku to promote the 2011 Toyota Corolla. Many of these ads though would feature the strange running gag of Miku liking Bacon wrapped hot dogs, which has led to numerous jokes and memes about how bizarre it is, on top of jokes about how it funnily contrasts with the common fanon of Miku being a vegetarian.
• PoPiPo (ぽっぴっぽー) dance^ExplanationA widespread dance meme based on the PV for PoPiPo
• Mikudayo^ExplanationA nickname given to a giant oversized costume of a Chibi Miku, which has spawned a large number of memes due to its Unintentional Uncanny Valley design, with many of them putting an emphasis on how goofy or how unintentionally creepy it is, to the point that it's often depicted as being an entirely seperate deity from Miku herself. This has since become an Ascended Meme with Good Smile Company quickly embracing the nickname and the costume's memetic reputation (even making a Nendoroid based on it).
• Miku is hiding in your wifi ^Explanation Referencing "Miku" by Anamanaguchi. Now also extended to Vocalsynths in general.
  • Miku Miku oo-ee-oo ^Explanation Another meme from Anamanaguchi's "Miku", this one refers to the refrain part.
• Man marries Hatsune Miku^ExplanationOn November 2018, news abrupted that a real life person in Japan would marry Hatsune Miku (as if she's a real person), even hosting a ceremony for it. Unsurprisingly, this would immediately led to jokes and memes revolving around Miku being real and/or that nobody is allowed to have Miku as an waifu or ship her with anyone thanks to her already being "taken".
• PLEASE MIKU! JUST GRAB MY HAND! I'M GONNA FALL^ExplanationA post that was originally posted on 4chan, which depicts a man begging for Miku to save him from a cliff, only to end up falling due to Miku being against holding hands with a guy until marriage. The post would later lead to a dub by Gianni Matragrano and Tabster Blaster, which would quickly gain widespread popularity (with the video having 7 million views as of this post) and would give way to many parodies and recreations of the post.
• Miku is balding ^ExplanationA popular meme that sprung up following the release of Miku's V4X design which depicted her with thinner, spikier twin tails. Fans began to joke that Miku was losing more hair with every update and that she would be fully bald by the time she updates to V5.
  • Miku got her hair back! ^Explanation After Miku's NT design was revealed, it turned out Miku's hair became very thick than even her V2 design. Cue jokes such as Miku finally found the perfect hair care product or how her neck could stand the sheer weight of her hair .
• Bottle Miku ^Explanation A once extremely popular derivative of Hatsune Miku wearing a sailor fuku and having twin tails of semi-solid water with fish swimming around in them. She was introduced in 2013 by the artist PAR. and quickly the attention of many fan artists, who churned out many pieces for her. She was so popular that many fans began to believe that she was an official derivative of Hatsune Miku rather than a fan creation. Her creator had also made bottle versions of Rin and KAITO in the wake of her creation.
• Top ten rappers Eminem was too afraid to diss. ^Explanation Miku's extremely fast singing in "Disappearance" and "Intense Voice" by cosMo leads Miku being jokingly compared to Eminem
• Hatsune Mikuo ^ExplanationA memetic gender swap version of Hatsune Miku that was introduced in 2008, the year many Vocaloid-related memes that persist to this day came to prominence. While there have been many gender swap versions of Miku, he's the only one that's "officially" acknowledged by fans who either regard him as Miku's twin brother, lover, or the gender swap of her that he's intended to be
• Miku with her twin tails tied in a bow◊ ^Explanation First seen in the Hatsune Miku x Sanrio's Cinnamonroll Pop up shop, the image quickly went memetic with dozens of artists drawing Miku with her hair in this style alongside Cinnamonroll. Some other Vocaloid's have been drawn alongside her as well, such as Luka because of her long hair, and KAITO, with fans parodying the hairstyle using his scarf
• You will never be Hatsune Miku ^ExplanationA meme that has begun to pop up from 2020 due to the rise of virtual performers on Social Media and the media's insistence on treating them as revolutionary, with Vocaloid fans making it their duty to remind them that Vocaloids like but not limited to Hatsune Miku predate them by several years
• Miku's hair is allergic to her arm ^ExplanationFans noticed the tendency of Miku's twintails to violently flail away from her arms whenever the two came close(likely done to prevent clipping on the riggers' part). Because of this, it became popular to joke about her hair's supposed allergy to her arms.
• MIKU MIKU BEAM!^ExplanationA section of the winning song for Miku Expo's 2024 song contest, "M@GICAL☆CURE! LOVE❤SHOT!" has Miku firing a "Miku Miku Beam" at the audience. The pose she makes while doing it quickly became a redraw meme over X/Twitter.

General Vocaloid Memes:

• Referring to songs based on their cliched subject matter has become a popular joke amongst the fandom; for example, "Len dies song", "Gumi doesn't get the guy song", "Yandere song", etc.
• Talkloids^ExplanationA series of videos that depict Vocaloids in comedic situations, notably having them simply speak instead of singing
• Besides Miku, apparently Len often spawn these:
  • Len dies again.^ExplanationMany viewers have noticed the high frequency of Len dying in videos featuring him, which has led to many jokes about how Len is doomed to always die
  • Len is a pervert.^ExplanationAn alternative to the Len is always dying meme is how viewers will often joke that if Len isn't dying in songs centering on him, he's being a massive pervert instead, as a lot of songs centering on him will have him lust after the female characters (or the occassional male character).
  • Damn you Len^ExplanationA sentence that originated from a comment by Youtube user, purplegirlove◊, that has a doctor cursing Len after learning that his patient is getting major nosebleeds because of him. The comment would later be uploaded onto Tumblr as a screenshot, which led it to quickly take off, leading to many copypastas and derivatives, often ending with "Damn you Len".
  • Len singing the Banana Song. ^Explanationthis video is rather famous because how Len looks genuinely innocent like a child, unlike how much of the fandom portrayed him. Also, the song itself is an Ear Worm
  • Len's maracas dance ^Explaination for some reason, a clip from Project Diva F where Len, in swimwear, dances in a beach-themed Diva Room with a maracas became popular in TikTok.
• Rin is DIO's child. ^Explanation Rin, especially in the fandom's earlier days, is often likened with DIO. This came from a tongue-in-cheek joke in Niconico that they both have blonde hair and Rin's name sounds like DIO's vampiric screech ("WRIIIIIN!!")
  • The Kagamines' road roller ^Explanation a continuation of the entry above. A big, yellow roadroller became another Character Items for Rin and Len. Expect anything and anyone got flattened with it if they brought it up. KAITO is especially a favorite victim of their rampage.
• Rin the stage destroyer ^Explanation Several music videos in Project Diva, including "Tengaku" and "The Lost One's Weeping" are infamous for trashing the stage whilst Rin was performing.
• Kagamine Rin just wants to live a quiet life. ^Explanation In "Fear Garden" by Chaa (gore warning!), Rin is portrayed as a killer with a hand fetish. The similarity to a certain villain from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure was not unnoticed.
• Gumi can't get a boyfriend^ExplanationSimilar to the above tendency for Len to get killed off, there was a bit of a trend around the same time that Gumi's songs very frequently ended up having a Love Hurts theme, usually involving her either losing her shot at love or even having her love interest die; this ended up being common enough that people started memeing on it.
• Takoluka^ExplanationA fan-made character inspired by Megurine Luka, which depicts Luka's head as an octopus. The character was birthed by Pixiv fanartist Sangatsu Youka on January 6th, 2009 and would quickly become popular due to how strange, yet adorable it is. It has since become an Ascended Meme thanks to the Project Diva series.
• "Vocaloid anime when?"^ExplanationThe term is a common cry by fans who desire an full Vocaloid anime, considering that some Vocaloid songs are adapted into anime. Becomes even more memetic when other less-popular musical mascots like Super Sonico and Miss Monochrome had anime adaptations.
• "Vocaloid is dying/dead"^ExplanationThe saying has become a meme in the Vocaloid fandom due to how often it's been reiterated by cynical fans and detractors of the software and the characters attached to it. It's not uncommon to see the phrase being used jokingly (and sometimes not) in discussions about Vocaloid. It should be noted that this doesn't always apply to just the software itself, but also the characters (as it's often used to "back up" claims that Hatsune Miku is losing popularity and thusly "dying") and the general practice of using software to sing songs with software such as CeVIO AI and Synth V being lumped in with it.
• Magnet's cover art.^ExplanationThe cover artwork of Magnet (depicting Miku and Luka looking at each other about to kiss) has been subjected to many parodies and recreations.
  • Vocaloid MV cover art redraws ^ExplanationWhile "Magnet" is famous enough to be its own example, this has been an ongoing trend since the early days of Vocaloid; redrawing (or tracing) a still image from an MV and replacing the original character(s) with someone else, usually one's favorite character (Often a Vocaloid but not always) or favorite pairing if the original art is shippy. This is also a common practice when a song receives a cover version so that it's easier for people to make the connection to the original song/art being referenced. For older famous examples with "Magnet" aside, there are "Just be Friends" and "Butterfly on your Right Shoulder". Recent famous examples have been "Goodbye Sengen", "The Vampire", "Roki", and "King".
• Triple Baka.^ExplanationAn incredibly popular song released by Lamaze-P in 2009, featuring Hatsune Miku, Kasane Teto and Akita Neru. The song would soon lead to many parodies that replaced the aforementioned characters with different characters from other works or the creator's own OCs, such as Terezi, KarKat and Sollux from Homestuck, Broly from Dragon Ball Z, Doge, and Anne, Sashe and Marcy from Amphibia, amongst many others
• Sweet Ann's scary design.^ExplanationThe original illustrations for Sweet Ann◊ (which depicts her in a style reminiscent of 20th century artwork), has become notorious amongst fans for how unintentionally creepy and scary it looks (not helped by the background looking like fire), and has led to many recreations and parodies riffing on the design's uncanny appearance. Especially in contrast to the anime styled Vocaloids that were becoming more increasingly standard at the time.
• Cyber Diva's visor.^ExplanationWhen Cyber Diva was unveiled for Vocaloid4 in 2015, many fans, especially on the VOCALOID Otaku forums, would would begin to add her visor to a wide variety of images, including profile pics, images of celebrities, cover art and a whole lot more.
• Kaito sounds like Kermit the Frog.^ExplanationSome Western fans believe that KAITO's V3 voicebank sounds a lot like Kermit the Frog in certain songs when he is tuned a certain way, particularly when he sings in English, which has led to a number of memes comparing the two of them. At times, some will joke that KAITO is Kermit himself cosplaying as an "Anime" guy
• MEIKO is an alcoholic ^ExplanationA popular meme back during the early Vocaloid-Niconico Douga days where MEIKO would often be depicted as a Hard-Drinking Party Girl. These memes were so prominent that, while she was never depicted as an alcoholic officially, Crypton instead made her official character item either sake or wine
• Palette-swapped versions of KAITO / The Shion Family ^ExplanationStarting from 2008, a prominent meme during the olden days of the Vocaloid side of Niconico was to take KAITO's base design, change the color of his hair and certain parts of his outfit and give this "new" character (Also known as a "Fanloid" or a "Derivative") a name, usually with "-to" on the end to match KAITO. Eventually, this meme became so popular that characters born from it began to be referred to as the Shion family, "Shion" being a fan-given last name for KAITO that means "first sound", with various different palette-swapped and genderflipped versions of him being part of it. The most popular members of this "family" were Shion Akaito, who was the first to be introduced, Shion Taito, and Kaiko, a popular gender flip of the male Vocaloid
• Crypton Genderbends ^ExplanationAs mentioned with Hatsune Miko and Kaiko above, there have been many gender bends of the Vocaloid characters over the years, with the Crypton's being the most likely to receive them due to their popularity as mascots. Due to their popularity, the most recognizable of these gender bends, as well as the ones that have been "officially" accepted by the Vocaloid fanbase due to their recognizability, have been Hatsune Mikuo, Megurine Luki, Kagamine Lenka, Kagamine Rinto, (Sakine) Meito, and Kaiko
• SeeU in jail^ExplanationSeeU gained a stint of infamy in the community after the arrest of her voice provider Dahee Kim in 2014, leading to various tongue-in-cheek memes depicting SeeU in jail over sites such as deviantART.
• The North American Miku Expo 2024 tour slowly became a Fountain of Memes, for better or worse:
  • Miku on a TV^ExplanationA noted change in the shows that were initially held in cities such as Vancouver, Portland, and San Jose, were the replacement with of the trademark hologram projections often used in Vocaloid concerts with a flat, LCD video wall.
  • Elmo^ExplanationPrior to the show in San Jose, the venue displayed a loop of advertisements for upcoming concerts and events, including one for a Sesame Street Live show. Cue the crowd cheering whenever it came on, and even setting their light sticks to red and chanting "We want Elmo!"
  • KAITO Water^ExplanationAfter the San Jose show, an unofficial afterparty with DJs playing Vocaloid remixes was held at a local bar; a drink specials menu had multiple cocktails on offer themed around major Vocaloud characters. Except for KAITO, who was represented by "a plain ol bottle of water"—a potential reference to the Flat Character reputation he has historically had.