Memes / Splatoon

aka: Splatoon 1

it splat tim, he does it

Yes! Splatoon, its sequel, and its threequel have enough memes to warrant their own page! It's all part of the Squid Invasion of TV Tropes! Mwahahaha!

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Splatoon Commercials Memes

• The North American commercials, with their Narm Charm and So Bad, It's Good lyrics, became a bit of a hit on the internet. To quote:
  "YOU'RE A KID NOW, YOU'RE A SQUID NOW, YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID"
  "SPLATATATATATATATATATA— SPLATOON!"
  • Referenced by Callie and Marie describing Camp Triggerfish:
    Callie: Being here makes me feel like a kid!
    Marie: Really? I feel more like a squid.
  • A great example of this meme would be this parody of the "Man or Muppet" musical number from The Muppets (2011).
• The silly looking middle stages of Inkling development seen here◊ (especially the second-to-last stage) have become quite popular, maybe thanks in part for being prime targets for the whole "YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID" thing.

Splatoon 1

• Squid puns are everywhere. Most popular include lines like:
  • Are you Squidding me?
  • Japanese puns revolving around Ika.
  • Jokes (and Double Entendres) revolving around Ink also abound.
  • Calamariachi
  • Stop all the squid puns, you're Kraken me up!
  • The sheer volume of puns in the fandom can be said to be inkredible.
  • The official Squid Research Labs gets in on the flood of puns with the announcement of the H-3 Nozzlenose, with howlers in the hashtags like "one-hit krill", "krill possibility", and "you know the krill".
• Squid ink can't melt steel beams.^ExplanationA snowclone of "Jet fuel can't melt steel beams", a meme poking fun at 9/11 conspiracy theories.
• "Stay fresh!!!" ^ExplanationCallie and Marie's sign off at the end of their news broadcasts.
• Fans commonly joke about possible themes for Splatfest, ranging from Product Placement to more mundane topics. Due to the European/Australian Splatfests having especially weird themes, suggestions for European/Australian Splatfests are either about bizarre subjects or something lame, most prominently "Left Ear vs. Right Ear".
  • Dancing Queen ^ExplanationThe European/Australian Splatfest featuring Singing VS Dancing, coupled with the fact that they use the term (TOPIC) Queen for sufficiently ranked/well-played players in the Splatfest, means that it is possible for female Inklings to become Dancing Queens. Cue the ABBA jokes. Fans of Singing countered with Singing Kings.
  • "Team Science can't spell their team name right." ^ExplanationThe many posts of Team Science supporters spelling the word incorrectly. It also crossed over to Team Art making fun of them.
  • "At least Team Science has jobs." ^ExplanationTeam Science supporters promptly made fun of Team Art supporters using the Starving Artist stereotype in revenge. Marie herself uses it to take a jab at Callie and suck all the fun out of her victory at the announcement of the Splatfest results.
  • CARS vs PLANES ^ExplanationDisney started promoting a mini-game inside their Infinity franchise that was a poorly-implemented ripoff of Splatoon, complete with a poor imitation of Arowana Mall. Splatoon fans were not amused. With the announcement of the US Splatfest for October 2015 of cars vs planes, some wags guessed that Nintendo of America stripped the branding from their Splatfest and made fanart to match.
  • The late October 2015 Splatfest for Japan was Love VS Money. Cue the fanart from the international fandom, complete with jokes like "Loadsofmarie" making the rounds.
  • LoadsaMarie ^ExplanationA reference to Harry Enfield's LoadsaMoney, this first surfaced during the Japanese "Love VS Money" Splatfest, and with the New Year's 2016 Splatfest for Europe being "Get Fit VS Get Rich" with Marie siding with Team Money again, this joke resurfaced in the English side of the fandom.
  • Callie wants the booty. ^ExplanationThe Late October 2015 Splatfest for North America was Pirates VS Ninja. Callie spoke up about her desire to plunder dat booty in the Splatfest announcement itself.
  • Naughty Callie. ^ExplanationThe American Splatfest that was announced on December 11th 2015 was the Christmas themed Naughty vs Nice. Once it was announced, the fandom immediately ran wild with naughty Callie posts. (Most of them being... well... sexual.)
• "Woomy!" ^ExplanationOne of the female Inkling's in-game sound bites. This clip also serves as the Inkling Girl's side taunt in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • "Man-men-mi" (マンメンミ) ^ExplanationAnother female Inkling soundbite, which had been latched onto by the Japanese fandom in much the same way as Woomy. In the English fandom, this line is associated with the fan animation "Splatoon Simulator", which uses it extensively. Although it sounds more like "Woo-may-be", some interchangeably refer to Man-men-mi as "Woomy". This clip also serves as the Inkling Girl's taunt in Super Mario Maker, and as a down taunt in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • "Ngyes!"^ExplanationThe equivalent voice clip for the male Inkling.
• Squid Parties. ^ExplanationPlayers simply stop attacking each other and just flop around in squid form.
  • This has become a common celebration practice after a successful Salmon Run, as well as after a victory in Turf Wars or Anarchy Battles in Splatoon 3.
• Squidbagging/Seabagging. ^ExplanationSimilar to teabagging in other shooters, players bunny-hop while rapidly transforming between kid and squid forms after splatting an opponent, so they can see it on their killcam view.
  • Japanese players have come up with a similar post-splat taunt, wherein they drop a Squid Beakon on the spot where their opponent last stood, like a grave marker, before 'bowing' to it ironically (or respectfully).
• 90's Nick: The Game. ^ExplanationThanks to the graphics style, overall 90s aesthetics, and the ink being highly reminiscent of slime, many have compared this game to something that would have been on Nickelodeon in the 90s.
• "This is the Octolings' revenge against us for taking back the Great Zapfish." ^ExplanationDuring some online matches, there were reports of a hacker who managed to hack in the model of an Octoling as a playable character. While it works okay in matches, since the plaza isn't programmed to handle Octolings being in it, exiting the match afterwards results in the game soft-locking and preventing players from accessing ANYTHING in it. Naturally, amidst all the panic and chaos that ensued, many jokes about the "Octolings' revenge" followed as well.
• Remember: October = Octob = Octo = OCTOLINGS CONFIRMED!!!!11!!one ^ExplanationPrior to their actual release, "Octolings confirmed" slowly became the "Hoenn Confirmed!" or "Half-Life 3 Confirmed!" of the Splatoon community. Nowhere did this meme mutate more than the logic of why they'd be released in October. Unfortunately, October 2015 came and went without any sign of playable Octolings in sight. The fans' wishes were finally granted with the second game's Octo Expansion in June 2018.
• On This Very Wiki, with the Pirate versus Ninja Splatfest resulting in pirates winning by having a higher win rate despite ninjas having a popularity rank over 70%, many jokes about the Conservation of Ninjutsu being in full effect for team ninja ensued. The jokes about this only intensified when the Ninjas lost their second Splatfest to the Barbarians under nearly identical popularity/win rates.
• Eternal Phalanx Omega^ExplanationIn the Japanese and British English versions, whenever Museum d'Alfonsino is playable one possible skit has Marie use this term for when an entire team shares a Bubbler in the last moments of a match. It's taken off pretty well in the Japanese fandom. Its American English equivalent is "The Bubble Huddle".
  • Final Crystal Dust^ExplanationSimilar to the above example, one of the skits for Mahi Mahi Resort in Japanese and British English has Marie use this term in referral to the tactic of using Inkstrikes in the last seconds of the match. In American English, she calls this "passive aggression".
• "I love the salt" ^ExplanationA cropped screenshot◊ with a Callie line, typically used as a reaction image.
• Blue has Vulpix though! ^ExplanationVulpix is one of the more popular mons from Generation I of Pokemon, both due to the design of its evolutionary line and due to the fact that before Flamethrower became a TM in Generation III, Vulpix could learn the move 15 levels before Growlithe, who took until level 50; the fact that the Vulpix and Growlithe lines had nearly identical base stats in Gen I helped. During the Pokémon Red and Blue Splatfest, it was the argument Marie made for picking Blue. Naturally, it quickly caught on with quite a few players, especially those who were picking Blue for this exact reason. Even Callie comments on how Vulpix being on Blue made that Splatfest a hard choice!
• This image of an S+ E-Litre main◊ is often used in the Splatoon community to mock min-maxers who spend hours of Save Scumming for perfect rolls to get pure gear for their builds ^NoteIt's worth pointing out that, due to diminishing returns, at least a quarter of those abilities do nothing at all, especially if said gear clashes horribly with each other and looks ridiculous as a result.
• The prominence of Ranked Battle and all the Serious Business it entails helped to foster the use of common competitive/pro-gamer memery, from MOBA-style 'carrying' and the 'SALT' of losers with poor sportsmanship, to the aforementioned Squidbagging.
• Tree House senpai noticed us. ^ExplanationDuring the Splatoon 2 part of the Nintendo Switch stream, one of the presenters mentioned how they pay attention to r/Splatoon in making the game. Naturally, r/Splatoon exploded in response.
• haunted callie calamari doll that drinks all your pepsi and calls you a bitch ^ExplanationAn image floating around of an eBay listing for a Callie plushie with that description. Eventually led to variations for other Splatoon characters.

Splatoon 2

• HAIRCUTS CONFIRMED ^ExplanationA much wanted feature that wasn't in the first game, Splatoon 2 allows Inklings to customize their "hair" style. Naturally, the fandom went ballistic, to the point that it overshadowed the new map that was shown off.
  • PANTS CONFIRMED ^ExplanationAnother much requested feature, pants can now be customized separate from an Inkling's shirt.
• Abilities are no longer attached to clothing. THERE IS A GOD!! ^ExplanationOne of the major problems of the original Splatoon was, despite having a wide variety of clothing options to choose from, most Inklings end up looking like Rummage Sale Rejects for the sake of having the most optimal abilities for their loadout. Naturally, when it was announced that Splatoon 2 would do away with this, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive.
• "Can't believe Callie is dead." ^ExplanationThe Splatoon 2 trailer shows a shot of Marie facing away from the camera. As Callie hadn't been shown in the trailer at all, this led some to believe that she would be absent from Splatoon 2 due to losing the final Splatfest.
• "Another reason to hate my team."^ExplanationIf a squid gets splatted in Salmon Run, they need one of their teammates to hit them with the team's Ink to revive them. Naturally, people almost immediately started anticipating it ending how you would expect it to end.
• Splatoon 2 and Octo Expansion invited more puns into the mix:
  • "For eel?" ^Explanation Another pun, used by Marie as an expression of disbelief.
  • Pearl threatens to cut a fish if anyone tried anything against Marina.
• I'm actually a demon/Octoling. ^{Explanation (PASWG Spoilers)} The possibility of Callie siding with the Octarians and double crossing Marie opened the gate for comparisons of PASWG's reveal that Stocking was a demon the whole time.
• #NotMySquidSisters ^ExplanationThis hashtag started seeing the rounds amongst diehard Squid Sister loyalists after the 7/6/2017 Nintendo Direct, with Off the Hook taking over the airwaves from the Squid Sisters.
• "That's right, bitch!" ^ExplanationDespite the game's music being entirely in Simlish, some fans heard a certain phrase during Color Pulse. Whether they meant it or not, the fans latched onto it and won't take any substitute.
  • "PUSSY! PUSSY! MOTHERFUCKING PUSSY!" ^ExplanationSimilar to the above, a lot of people misheard the chanting at the start of Nasty Majesty. Considering Pearl is canonically the series' resident Sir Swears-a-Lot, it makes a hilarious amount of sense.
• And I brought this sweet new coat! ^{Explanation (spoiler)}Octostomp returns as a boss in Splatoon 2. His boss subtitle is 'I'm BAAAAAACK!' at first, but once you damage him once, he puts on padded armor with another boss subtitle containing the former line. Naturally, the sheer genius comedic timing of it makes it one of the highlights of Splatoon 2's story mode.
• Team Plain/Mustard/*insert other condiments here*. ^ExplanationThe first official Splatfest of Splatoon 2 was Mayo VS Ketchup. Naturally, to those who prefered neither, responses along the line of this were common when asked what team they were on.
• Lesbian Pearl ^ExplanationA dialogue for Sturgeon Shipyard has Pearl state that she likes "octo pie", which leaves Marina confused on whether she should be touched or terrified. The fanbase being what it is, well...
  • Naughty Marina ^ExplanationMarina makes some... interesting double entendres about the power of Invisibility in the second Splatfest dialogue.
• "Your corporate-shill game is on point today." ^ExplanationJapan's third Splatoon 2 Splatfest was between McDonalds products. The fanbase cottoned on immediately.
• Toilet paper. ^ExplanationThanks to the higher propensity for weirdness, the European/Australian Splatfests are seen as inferior to the North American and Japanese ones. This reached its peak in October 2017, where the North American Splatfest was Vampires vs. Werewolves, the Japanese one was Agility vs. Endurance, and the European/Australian Splatfest was... different ways to roll toilet paper.
  • "Who allowed Europe to choose the Splatfest theme?" ^ExplanationThe general reaction to the Orange Juice with Pulp vs. Orange Juice without Pulp Splatfest coming up for North America was that it's a dumb theme to go on. Due to the above, people began joking that European and Australian players got to pick the theme.
• The Great Zapfish is missing! ^ExplanationAn error in the Version 2.0 patch caused the Great Zapfish to inexplicably disappear from the square, even if the player had completed Hero Mode already. Although this bug was fixed quickly, it wasn't fixed quickly enough for people to not notice.
• We Overwatch now! ^ExplanationAfter 2.00 updates added the ability for players to reset after reaching level 99 to give them an option of returning to level 1 and start leveling up again, many players started comparing the game to Overwatch, which has a similar system.
• "It's funny because we're all living in a simulation and free will is a lie." ^ExplanationOne of Marina's lines before the "Chicken vs Egg" Splatfest. It breaks the fourth wall but also references real life concepts, making it incredibly jarring and unsettling.
• Dabbing Pearl ^ExplanationDuring the February 2018 concert in Japan, Pearl dabbed during "Now or Never".
• East Coast vs. West Coast Splatfest ^ExplanationAfter fans noticed how closely Pearl's and Marina's Octo Expansion outfits resembled those of legendary rappers The Notorious B.I.G and Tupac, jokes began to abound about reviving their infamous feud.
• Savage Marina ^ExplanationPeople tend to call Marina savage whenever she iceburns Pearl over particularly stupid or unfunny comments.
  • #FIREPEARL ^ExplanationMarina trended this hashtag over a Piranha Pit commentary where Pearl made a tasteless joke, and the internet saw where she was coming from.
• "Veemo!"^ExplanationThe Octoling equivalent of "Woomy".
  • "Oomi!". "Weyo!" and "Ngweh!"^note being an Octoling equivalent of "Ngyes" also received memetic jokes as well.
  • *moans*^ExplanationMost male Octoling voice clips are more aroused than male Inkling voice clips.
• "[Insert Mistake]— test failed." *Explosion* ^ExplanationC.Q. Cumber will always say that phrase whenever you fail a criterion such as running out of time, running out of limited ink, losing the 8-ball, etc. And he will detonate a bomb bag underneath your tank. Eventually this turned into Disproportionate Retribution with people drawing C.Q. detonating the bag for things like stepping on enemy ink (which actually happens in one of the later Octo Expansion levels: Touch enemy ink at all, and you explode) or breathing.
  • Then Perish ^ExplanationThis often accompanies the phrase for people who really want to show C.Q. Cumber's Memetic Psychopath status.
  • EXPLODE CHILD ^ExplanationYet another phrase associated with C.Q. Cumber, originating in this picture◊ as the label on the bomb's remote.
• Congrats on making it out, Agent 8! Now, pulp or no pulp?^{Explanation (Octo Expansion spoilers)}The first Splatfest after Octo Expansion dropped was if people preferred their orange juice with pulp or no pulp. Its announcement also coincided around the time most people beat the expansion. As a result, many jokes were made over what Agent 8's reaction to the Splatfest must have been, especially since they nearly got turned into pulp and just saved the world from someone who wanted to destroy Inkopolis for this exact pettiness.
• The Octo Girl peek.^ExplanationA particular expression an Octoling girl can make during the Off the Hook opening segments ended up becoming extremely popular in the fanbase, both for being adorable and serving as perfect reaction gif fodder.
• Race war!^ExplanationWhen the July 2018 Splatfest was announced to be Squid vs. Octopus (complete with players being locked into playing as their side's respective race in Splatfest battles), people began making jokes about how easy it is to interpret it as a racially charged conflict, as shown in this video. Even better, Nintendo noticed the Unfortunate Implications in advance if Marina's comment is any indication ("Uh... Pearl? Don't you think this theme is kinda... I don't know... DANGEROUS?"). A lot of Splatoon communities will drop the hammer on this one, though.
• The Octoboy afro.^ExplanationThe Octolings afro haircut option is practically a meme in itself, with many considering/joking that's the best hair option in the game and jokingly deriding anyone who says otherwise.
• Referring to the Bloblobber as a toilet. ^ExplanationThe Bloblobber is based on a bathtub. However, mostly amongst those who dislike it, people have taken to referring to it as a toilet, as its design could also be mistaken for a urinal.
• FRESH FISH ^ExplanationThe Octoling Octopus amiibo contains the Fresh Fish gear, which assembles a Goofy Suit of Wahoo World's mascot, Fresh Fish (or Hireo-kun in Japanese). It was deemed by the Splatoon fanbase to be the most terrifying thing they ever saw due to its oversized head, hands, eyes and feet, as well as the fact it has a permanent smile on its face. The Japanese fanbase ran with its strange appearance by dressing up as Fresh Fish or making highly detailed artworks of Fresh Fish in Inkopolis Square. The Western fanbase, on the other hand, went with the depiction of Fresh Fish being a Memetic Molester preying on young Inklings and Octolings, with many players calling for the mascot to be killed with fire.
  • Balloons not included. ^ExplanationNintendo's Octoling 3-Pack trailer shows Fresh Fish holding balloons, but has a small disclaimer that balloons are not included with the gear set. Many fans joke that they are cancelling their preorders because of this.
  • Cursed face◊ in the sky...^ExplanationThe Global Splatfest, Knights vs. Wizards, has an official artwork depicting the Pearl and Marina in the Knight and Wizard amiibo gear sets respectively, with a cloud formation of Fresh Fish's head looking over them. The moment fans notice, they couldn't unsee it and the fear of Fresh Fish resurfaces across the fandom again. This particular meme also has minor variations, with words like creepy mascot face, demon, god, and villain being used to describe the face in the sky.
• Friendship Bracelet^ExplanationOne of the Salmon Run specific clothing items available at the start of June 2019 was "footwear" called the Friendship Bracelet - an anklet around the player's, well, ankle that happened to leave them barefoot. The plaza and the subreddit went crazy over it, with jokes about foot fetishists becoming quite pleased with the addition thrown all over the place.
• Sheldon is a war profiteer^ExplanationWhen Sheldon got his reveal for the Final Fest, he turned out to be neutral, since he'll keep selling guns as long as there are squids who want to splat other squids. Needless to say, the jokes started flying fast.

Splatoon 3

• WHAT DID YOU DO, PEARL?^Explanation Due to Team Chaos winning the Final SplatFest and Splatoon 3's reveal trailer having what appears to be an Eiffel Tower turned upside down, many fans joked about what the hell Pearl must have done to have caused all of this.
• Splatoon hates France^ExplanationWith the appearance of the Eiffel Tower and the seemingly "chaotic" and apocalyptic setting of the game, it is often joked that the cast of Splatoon, either indirectly or deliberately, destroyed France. Tying into the above with Team Chaos' victory and outcome, Pearl is often given the blame. The fanbase has also pointed out how Hilarious in Hindsight this official promotional art of the Squid Sisters taking a selfie in an intact Paris ends up looking, leading to further jokes that they wrecked France.
• The World if Team Order Won^ExplanationAs the next installment's lore and campaign is influenced by the outcome of the Final Splatfest from the previous game, fans mourn the lost potential of a world themed around Order, as opposed to the wasteland that Team Chaos has seemingly caused. Many speculate that it would've been a utopian world or a Cyberpunk dystopia, based on Marina's outfit and colors during that time.
• Gender is gone^Explanation Like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, gender options have been changed so that you now choose your "style". Adding on to the fact that all hairstyles and legwear are now unisex, many fans have joked that Splatoon abolished gender restrictions/roles. Even the highest Splatfest title is now gender-neutral, having gone from "King/Queen" to simply "Ruler".
• The Train Ride^ExplanationThe scene of riding a train◊, heading from the tutorial area to Splatsville. There's a space between the Inkling and a jellyfish, giving some fans the idea of editing various characters into the seat. Alternatively, object-labeling the Inkling and their excited Smallfry companion.
• Little Buddy^ExplanationThe Smallfry Salmonid companion revealed in the trailer has gained a huge following among fans, generating meme gifs, artwork and even cults within 24 hours of its reveal. It's collectively and affectionately referred as "Little Buddy" based on the customization description.
• TOTSUGEKI^ExplanationOne of the new specials in Splatoon 3, the Reefslider, drew comparison to May's Mr. Dolphin special attack in the Guilty Gear series thanks to a combination of a similar concept of mounting and riding a marine animal to charge forwards for a big hit (in the case of Splatoon 3, an inflatable shark pool toy) and the cyan color scheme of the shark toy used to demonstrate the special in the Splatoon 3 Direct being a close match with Mr. Dolphin's. Combine this with Guilty Gear Strive being far and away the most successful GG game ever and bringing it to comparative mainstream attention in the run-up to S3's release, and you end up with Totsugeki For Days.
• [[BIG SHOT]]^ExplanationDuring the Splatoon 3 Direct, a cannon-wielding Boss Salmonid called "Big Shot" was introduced. Fans were quick to start attributing the enemy to Spamton from Deltarune, due to "Big Shot" practically being his catchphrase. It's gotten to the point where more than a few video creators will just have the song "BIG SHOT" (or a variant of it) play whenever a Big Shot appears, or in the case of Scott Falco, go the whole mile and straight-up parody Spamton.
  • Gay Big Shots ^ExplanationBecause of their size, the Big Shots Salmonids sometimes get in each other's way and get stuck in the same spot. The resulting sight makes it look like they're making out, which combined with their burly designs, led people to joke that the Big Shot Salmonids are Manly Gay.
• Frye's Forehead ^ExplanationLike Pearl before her, Frye of Deep Cut has a quite impressive Forehead of Doom, one that actually surpasses Pearl's due to Frye's hairstyle. It didn't take long for fans to make similar jokes calling attention to this fact, with some jokingly claiming that Nintendo made her forehead that big specifically to spite people who took issue with Pearl's design. It was also basically inevitable that a a particular joke from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was used.
• Inklings dabbing. ^ExplanationInstead of being locked into one victory animation based on weapon choice and character gender/species, players of Splatoon 3 can choose from a variety of different poses to take at the end of a match. One of these is a dab, something the Splatoon 3 Direct went out of its way to highlight.
• AMOGUS^ExplanationFollowing the launch of the Splatfest World Premiere demo, the plaza was infested with drawings of the Crewmates from Among Us much to the chagrin of most players.
• Welcome home, cheater!^ExplanationBorrowed from the general meme of the same name. The day after the Splatoon 3 World Premiere Splatfest, some players returned to playing Splatoon 2 with a lingering sense of shame for "betraying" it—accompanied by multiple plaza messages, naturally. The meme saw a resurgence following the start of Fresh Season 2023, this time aimed at players returning to Splatoon 1's Inkopolis Plaza via the train, and again after Side Order released and Inkopolis Square returned to the series as one of its rewards.
• "Look at me. I am the captain now." ^Explanation When it was revealed that Agent 3, the protagonist from the first Splatoon game back on the Wii U, was now the Captain of the New Squidbeak Splatoon with Cuttlefish going into retirement, a few folks on the internet applied the situation to this line from Captain Phillips, as shown here and here.
• Shiver's Cheeto Fingers^ExplanationDeep Cut's female members are unique in that their finger highlights don't match their tentacle colour like they did with Marina. Shiver's specifically are a reddish-orange where her tentacles are a purple-y blue. Fans were quick to equate the colour with Cheeto or Taki dust, often with fanart of her enjoying them or simply shoving her hands into a bag to achieve the effect, like so.
  • Shiver has a Blahaj^ExplanationDue to her affiliation with sharks and early confusion (and continued headcanons) over her gender, it's usually joked that Shiver owns a massive amount of Blahajs; plush sharks sold at IKEA that for whatever reason have become an icon of the LGBTQ community. Fanart often shows her buried in a mountain of them during off hours, or Frye buying her another one either out of love or to cheer her up, as seen here.
• Team Autism vs. Team ADHD ^ExplanationA joke Splatfest idea pitting Shiver (whose obsession with numbers and statistics recalls a common symptom of autism) vs. Frye (who is energetic, excitable, and shown to have a hard time focusing and committing to ideas). The jury is still out as to what neurological disorder Big Man has.
• "What the fuck!?" ^ExplanationMuch like Pearl's "That's right bitch!" listed above, one of Frye's sound bites is very easy to mishear as a Precision F-Strike.
• Delay Lama in Splatoon ^ExplanationMusic tracks using the Delay Lama vocal synthesizer, such as "Fire Temple", have been compared to Splatoon's music, with some believing that such songs served as an influence to the series' music. Come the track used for the Crater levels, and fans happily noted the heavy similarities to the VST when it comes to the song's chorus, to the point that many thought the Omnisphere 2 sample being used was Delay Lama.
• Manta Storm Flashbacks^{Explanation (story mode spoilers)}Fans were quick to notice that Big Man's boss fight is almost an exact replica of the Phantamanta boss from Super Mario Sunshine, which was notorious for being That One Boss.
• Octo Expansion Flashbacks ^{Explanation (story mode spoilers)} The levels in the world of Alterna are remarkably similar to those found in Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion. Additionally, O.R.C.A. has a number of similarities to C.Q. Cumber, including being a Memetic Psychopath who makes a very clear threat before bidding you a nice day, and will dump a lethal amount of ink onto New Agent 3 should they violate a stipulation of the level.
• Harmony is a stoner^ExplanationHarmony's absentminded, Cloudcuckoolander nature has been jokingly speculated by some fans to either have some form of Autism, or the result of her being constantly high, to the point of some fan comics being made that make it more obvious. This would spread to other idols as well, mainly Shiver, Frye, and Marie, with the headcanon they smoke seaweed during off-times.
• "Hallelujah, dame el sombrero" ^ExplanationThis line comes from misheard lyrics of the chorus of "Anarchy Rainbow", the Deep Cut Splatfest Splatsville music. It has gotten to the point that searching the phrase on YouTube will get you the Nintendo Spain post of Anarchy Rainbow.
• Don't call it "Hairmageddon." HR doesn't like it.^{Explanation (Major Spoilers)}Mr. Grizz, CEO of Grizzco Industries, plots to cover the world with Fuzzy Ooze to restore mammals as the dominant species in the story campaign. But being a professional businessman (or rather bear), he doesn't want anyone calling it Hairmageddon due to HR's opinion. Many fans would quote this line anytime someone calls the apocalyptical event Hairmageddon and other hairy-related terms.
• The Moai head ^ExplanationIn Splatoon 3, players can decorate their lockers with various knick-knacks and stickers for others to see. One of the decorations earned in Story Mode is a stock Moai head statue, and it's become a common sight in lockers, usually set up to look like it's "wearing" shoes and accessories, or, quite often, with a gun pointed at it (occasionally in a way that looks like it's being Driven to Suicide). Or at you.
• Love is in the air? Wrong! Flyfish ^Explanation With the Flyfish being a notorious demonic spider in and of itself, it wasn’t long before people began making memes about it based on the “WRONG! gas leak” template.
  • Love is in the air? Wrong! Glowflies!^ExplanationThe meme eventually mutated into memes about glowflies, both because glowflies resemble romantic fireflies and the fact their presence means a Zerg Rush of Chums are out to kill you and your crewmates, which is pretty much a death sentence for a team of randoms.
• Bears dancing ^{Explanation (Major Spoilers)}Taking the video from the previously existing "Bears dancing to Sweet Dreams" meme and putting the audio of "Bear With Me", the final boss theme from Return of the Mammalians, over it. The already trippy video combined with the Boss Remix of Happy Little Workers makes for an... interesting experience. Plus the fact that the final boss is Mr. Grizz, a large grizzly bear makes thematic sense with the dancing bears of the video
• UNAUTHORIZED FUCKING THING! BLOW IT UP NOW!^ExplanationA line from an otherwise unrelated meme took on new life with the Splatoon fandom when Splatoon 3 released, both for the AI Octarians and Octolings being incredibly easily distracted by Smallfry when thrown onto the ground, and for players getting incredibly easily distracted by Flyfish when they spawn in Salmon Run, doing everything in their power to take it out first.
• The Salmonids are invading Wahoo World? They can keep it.^ExplanationOne of the new community events in Splatoon 3 is Big Run, a special Salmon Run where the Salmonids invade one of the game's regular stages. The mode was announced showing the Salmonids in Wahoo World, which ended up being the first Big Run event a few months later. Since it is one of the less popular stages, it became common to joke that players should just let the Salmonids keep ownership of the theme park.
  • Wahoo World is a better Salmon Run stage than most of the actual Salmon Run stages.^ExplanationIt turns out Wahoo World is a surprisingly fun stage to play Salmon Run on, and the layout makes it easier to handle most waves aside from Glowflies. Naturally, a lot of people want Wahoo World to be a permanent Salmon Run stage... Or for the Salmonids to make their own ersatz Wahoo World as a stage.
• The Off the Hook wedding DLC. ^ExplanationDue to the numerous early teases that Pearl and Marina would be the stars of the DLC and the overall popularity of the "Pearlina" ship, many fans have taken to predicting the Side Order campaign will be about their wedding. Before its official name was revealed, many fans simply referred to it as "the wedding DLC" (and some still do). The name would end up sticking around after the release due to the sheer amount of Ship Tease between Pearl and Marina, including a line where Pearl mentions wanting quiet time with Marina, which was taken by many as her wanting to propose.
• Bang Bing. ^ExplanationThe Return of the Mammalians track "Seep and Destroy" stands out due to its bizarre-sounding vocals (Which sound like the singer is saying "Bang bing"), even by Splatoon standards. Despite this, it became a fan favorite of the soundtrack, and is often associated with the also-memetic Moai (even though, ironically, "Seep and Destroy" doesn't play in Relic Restoration, the one level that prominently features a moai).
• #TUBERSWEEP ^ExplanationOne of the game's early LAN tournaments was dominated by two players equipped with Goo Tuber, which is otherwise considered one of the silliest and most gimmicky-to-use weapons in the game. That upset led to competitive community joking a lot about Goo Tuber's alleged supremacy, including the hashtag above.
• The REEF-LUX 450 turns you into a Flyfish. ^ExplanationThe REEF-LUX 450 is notorious for being able to use its special, the Tenta Missiles, very frequently thanks to how quickly it can cover turf. Since the weapon is otherwise mediocre in direct combat, a lot of casual players just focus on covering turf and spamming the Tenta Missiles as much as possible while staying out of the action. This makes them rather similar to the infamous Flyfish, who also stays far from the front lines while firing missiles.
• "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it..."^ExplanationA catchphrase associated with Kazuya Mishima and his infamous "Rage Drive" combo from Tekken. As it starts the default line Mr. Grizz says during a Big Run, the circulation of the former made the latter a popular line to parrot. It also served as a good general image to react with due to how blunt it is.
• Suggestive titles ^ExplanationThe titles players receive are gained randomly, with some combinations sounding rather suggestive, like "Right-Handed" "Shiver Fan."
• Tetronimos/Tetronimo maps^ExplanationSplatoon 3's maps are widely loathed by the playerbase for their overly-simplistic design, which many have likened to the overly-simplistic design of Tetris pieces. This has been partially mitigated by the addition of stages with nonstandard layouts such as Humpback Pump Track and Shipshape Cargo Co., but the problem remains.
• You know what, fuck you. *unthrees your Splatoon*^Explanation With the announcement of the first wave of the Splatoon 3 Expansion Pass being revealed to be access to Inkopolis, a Splatoon version of the "Unverbs your Noun" meme has surfaced. Case in Point
• Splatoon Automata^ExplanationDuring the February 8, 2023 Nintendo Direct, after the Inkopolis preview, the "Side Order" preview was shown briefly. The music and images had people comparing it to NieR: Automata, wondering if there was going to be a crossover.
  • de Blob 3 confirmed!^ExplanationThe setting of "Side Order" is shown to be an Inkopolis Square completely purged of its color. The de Blob games revolve around the player restoring color to a black-and-white world, leading some to joke that the images of the DLC were from the long-awaited third de Blob game, or that the ones responsible for whitewashing Inkopolis were the INKT Corporation.
• Sheldon fucks.^ExplanationIn the trailer for Wave 1 of Splatoon 3's DLC, Sheldon's Suspiciously Similar Substitutes found in Inkopolis are two children horseshoe crabs named Shelly and Donny. Seeing as they're Sheldon's species and their names are derived from Sheldon, many fans speculated that the two of them are Sheldon's kids. This comes with the implication that Sheldon had sex at some point, which many theorizing fans were left aghast by due to how nerdy and polarizing Sheldon is.
• Ouroboros ^ExplanationWhen the March 2023 Big Run was announced, it revealed a new King Salmonid named Horrorboros would appear. As its name is derived from Ouroboros, this lead to a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 jokes, since the term Ouroboros is prominently used in that game.
  • SO BREAK THROUGH IT ALL ^Explanation The Horrorboros being a giant flying eel soaring through the sky for a boss fight drew some small comparisons with the Wyvern fight from Sonic Frontiers, leading to the odd joke or reference on Twitter.
  • "I Quit/They can have Inkblot" ^Explanation The Horrorboros is, true to its name, horrifying. When its intro cinematic got leaked before Big Run was open, the roar it produces is simply terrifying. Many have joked of their player character quitting Grizzco right then and there, leaving Inkblot Academy to the Salmonids and stating Mr Grizz really does not pay them enough to fight it.
  • Changing the Roar^Explanation After the initial shock had worn off, people started changing the roar to other memetic screams, most infamously the "femur breaker" scream.
• The poles.^ExplanationFresh Season 2023 made some changes to certain stages in an attempt to make it easier to fight long-range weapons with more cover, which unfortunately didn't do much to fix the core issue. Among these changes are some laughably thin, unpaintable columns in Wahoo World and Hagglefish Market, which looked out of place and weren't very helpful - to the point where they are basically useless against Chargers despite their supposed purpose. Players were eager to crack jokes about poles being added to the game as a worthless fix for anything and everything seen as problematic in Splatoon 3, a trend that resurged when a mid-Chill Season 2023 update removed both of the poles from Mincemeat Metalworks... only to add another one smack in the middle of the stage, albiet one that provides semi-decent cover and utility via paintable walls that enable access to the grate bridge from the middle of the stage.
• Small indie company ^ExplanationCross-pollinated from the Pokémon fandom, some players who are frustrated by their expectations not being met (whether that be more substantial DLC or better meta balancing) use this phrase sarcastically to poke fun at Splatoon 3's flaws, joking that Nintendo, for all their resources, still can't seem to give it their A-game.
• S-BLAST '92 might as well have no sub or special.^Explanation The Sizzle Season 2023 trailer debuted the S-BLAST '92, aka the SNES' Super Scope adapted into a Blaster weapon, complete with a cool range change mechanic based on whether you're grounded or jumping. Unfortunately, the weapon's loadout (Sprinkler and Reefslider, considered two of the worst sub-weapons and specials in the game, with the inoffensive Sprinker being poorly suited for Blasters and the easily-thwarted Reefslider needing some serious buffs to be viable compared to other specials and right now is both too easy to avoid and leaves you far too vulnerable after using it) handicaps the weapon's potential until a second version with a new loadout comes out, and everyone's expecting that to only happen in after least six or nine months. Ironically, some people still think the S-BLAST '92 might be the best Blaster in the game regardless, due to its versatility and nonexistent ink refill delay, such that its ho-hum kit is its only real weakness.
  • S-BLAST '92 is dead! All hail S-Blast '91!^ExplanationTrue to form, revealed as part of Chill Season 2023 was the S-Blast '91, with a paint job inspired by the colour scheme of the western SNES. Its sub is the Burst Bomb, which is hailed as one of the best subs in the game (especially for combos) and its special is the Booyah Bomb, which is on the higher end as far as specials go (albeit not quite top-tier). While it's not the best kit out there, it's still very likely to be high tier and is significantly more usable than the '92's loadout in functionally every way, ensuring that the '92 is practically obsolete in serious play.
• Where is Gold Dynamo?!^ExplanationThe Gold version of the Dynamo Roller was seen periodically since before 3 came out (in gameplay footage, promotional art, the game's files, and even hanging on the wall of Ammo Knights), yet was continually been skipped over during new weapon drops. It was only added in September 2023, nearly a year after the game's release. Many were perplexed about the weapon's seeming status as The Ghost, asking what's taking so long or joking that it would never come out.
• Splatsville being New York City.^ExplanationThe June 2023 Big Run caused the sky around Splatsville to turn red, as it usually does when a Big Run happens. Around the same time in Real Life, New York City was bathed in a hazy orange fog thanks to wildfires, causing a ton of players to make questionably-tasteful jokes relating the two.
• "Blue ProChara"^ExplanationIn late June 2023, Twitter artist BabanaLatte posted a doodle of competitive Splatoon player Arashi (posed in the same way as Tulin). The image started circulating around Twitter, used as a Non Sequitur punchline for jokes, in the same vein as the "anime replaced with Breaking Bad" meme, as seen here. The drawing (and Arashi) have been dubbed "Blue ProChara", tongue-in-cheek referencing the fact that Arashi's teammate ProChara is the most recognizable name in the scene by the wider fanbase. The meme itself got popular enough for Arashi himself to have acknowledged it.
• HIS NAME IS JOE!^ExplanationThe Megalodontia King Salmonid's Japanese name translates to "Jaw", but Twitter's auto-translate feature on an official Japanese tweet about the creature mistakenly translated its name as "Joe". People found it hilarious and rolled with it, posting memes about the creature's new name as well as flooding the comments of other official posts about the Megalodontia and "correcting" Nintendo about the name.
  • It's Joever^ExplanationA similar meme, in reference to an image macro of Joe Biden looking down solemnly, with the caption "It's Joever". People who took on the Joe name tend to use it as a way to express their general despair about fighting him.
• From Side Order:
  • Homophobic Acht^ExplanationPearl and Marina's interactions in the Side Order DLC up the Les Yay even further, particularly in the elevator conversations between floors, and Acht tends to respond to the two's sugary comments towards each other with indifference or mild irritation (such as saying, "Times like these, Eight... I'm glad you're here"). As such, many remarks have been made about Acht having to sit through Pearl and Marina's incessant flirting, with some fans joking that they're outright homophobic.
  • Power! Range! Support! Mobility! Lucky! Drone! Full Spectrum... Final Color Wail!^{Explanation (Side Order Spoilers!)}Fans noted that the final phase of the Overlorder fight ends in a very similar way to the end of the Mega Wisp Armour fight from Sonic Colors, including a special attack (Final Colour Blaster) which is used to take out the boss, leading to people adapting Colours' announcements during its final boss to Side Order's final boss.
    • Overlorder: NO!! NO!!!!! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO OBEY ME!! The six color chips: ^{Explanation (Side Order Spoilers!)}It's also common for fans to jokingly compare the final phase to the ending of Photoshop Flowey's boss fight in Undertale where the human souls he collected fight against him, leading to comparisons to Eight using the Color Chips' power to fight Overlorder. Funnily enough, the human souls and the Color Chips both share the same value of six.
  • Side Order is just Pearl and Marina making out in an elevator for five hours.^ExplanationThe sheer amount of Les Yay/Ship Tease between Pearl and Marina in Side Order has caused some Splatoon fans to joke (or observe) that the only thing keeping Pearlina from being an Official Couple is the lack of explicit confirmation from Nintendo. To this end, a huge amount of fanart has come out of the two literally making out in the elevator to Acht's disgust and Eight's either horror or dulled acceptance.
  • PT8D/"I'M BACK IN THE FUCKING BUILDING AGAIN!!!"^ExplanationThis being not Eight's first time stuck in a hellscape forced to battle nightmarish elements alongside Off the Hook, fans have gleefully taken to portraying Agent 8 as being truly upset at escaping one hellhole only to have to do it all over again. This is often paired with an infamous scream of a similar mood from the infamous Snapcube Sonic Adventure 2 dub, courtesy of Alfred's Eggman.
  • Four the Loser/Lonely Four^ExplanationAgent 4 is the only Agent, and one of the few Splatoon characters in general, to never appear in Splatoon 3. They do get a few more nods in Side Order, but still don't appear in person — while they have a Palette, its pixel icon doesn't show their face. Fans were quick to turn Four into a Memetic Loser over this, whether out of amusement or genuine pity, portraying Four as being lonely or depressed over their "abandonment."
  • One must imagine Eight happy.^ExplanationWith perhaps the hardest level in Side Order named Cruel_Sisyphean_Eight-Shaped.Floor, this was the logical evolution of the 'one must imagine Sisyphus happy' meme. Ironically, the stage that involves rolling an ∞-ball uphill is actually far easier.
  • DRIZZLING CAPRICCIOSO^ExplanationAn enemy found in Side Order which, as the name suggests, drizzles ink onto the ground beneath it. While it has no means of directly harming players, it became rather infamous for being extremely annoying, with several posts expressing contempt for it.
• They took the crane/sign! ^ExplanationDue to a bug, any object that changes color during a Splatfest disappeared from the Inkopolis Square hub area during the Big Run at Eeltail Alley, including some very prominent landmarks like the Shoal sign or the origami crane statue. This resulted in some fans joking that the Salmonids had dropped by to steal them during the Eeltail Alley invasion.
• Revenge of the Pencil^ExplanationSnipewriter 5H was initially considered a Low-Tier Letdown due to an unfavorable Meta Game full of things that countered it. Then Tacticooler was buffed to define a new metagame oriented around it... of which Snipewriter was the most meta-defining Tacticooler user for its sheer paint and range yet still being effective at fighting thanks to a fast two-shot. It's remained ubiquitous in competitive play from Sizzle Season 2023 to as late as Fresh Season 2024, somehow managing to avoid nerfs longer than the previous meta-defining weapon. Needless to say, people were quick to remark how quickly Snipewriter went from being considered useless to people clamoring for it to be nerfed.
• We're So Back^ExplanationNintendo of America accidentally released the video for Off the Hook's "We're So Back" a day early, in place of "Color Pulse (2024)". The mistake was fixed after an hour or so, but the song's ironic name prompted people in the comments to joke about how the song really is "so back" once it was reuploaded the following day, in addition to jokes about the poor intern who made the mistake being "so fired."
• The Undertow Hole^ExplanationUndertow Spillway was given a "rework" with the 7.2.0 patch (though most people consider the changes to largely be so minor as to mainly be unnoticable and that calling it a "rework" is a somewhat charitable description of the changes, hence the air quotes), but one of the more noticable aspects is the dip in the middle of the rise in the center of the stage that players can jump on rather than needing to swim up like the rest of the rise, where people were expecting a pole like some previous stage changes. While the actual "hole" in the rise has had mixed reception, especially on Splat Zones, the hole has already become the next stage design meme, with players joking that the new trend is the developers cutting holes in certain spots.

Splatoon 3 Splatfests

• Grass vs. Fire vs. Water:
  • "She has to lose!" ^ExplanationUpon the announcement of the third Splatfest, Shiver boasts about having won two splatfests in a row as her reason for being team Grass. Most people interpret Frye and Big Man taking huge enough offense to this that they agree they need to beat her.
    • "Look! Shiver fell off!" ^ExplanationFollowing the results of the third splatfest with Big Man winning, quite a few players took a story mode quote in Shiver's boss fight to poke fun of her losing a splatfest for the first time.
    • Let Frye win ^ExplanationWhile many celebrated Shiver losing for the first time, there were still a good number of people who felt bad for Frye on account of the fact she still has yet to win a splatfest, making posts and art of her all sad.
  • #BIGMANSWEEP ^ExplanationA take on the "Morbius Sweep" meme, referencing Big Man's overwhelming popularity with fans. And this was before the third Splatfest (the November 2022 Pokemon one), where Big Man's team actually won in every single category. It happened again with the February 2023 Chocolate Splatfest.
• Spicy vs. Sweet vs. Sour:
  • They really want Frye to win this one. ^ExplanationWhen the Splatfest was announced, fans joked that the developers intentionally put Frye on Team Sweet so she could win this time, since Frye hadn't won even one Splatfest at the time and sweet flavors are widely considered more popular than spicy or sour. Frye would indeed win the Splatfest.
  • Big Man eating a lemon ^ExplanationAs Big Man repped Team Sour during the January 2023 Splatfest, fanart of Big Man eating a lemon whole and having his face scrunch up from the sour hit made the rounds on Twitter, becoming a fairly popular fad for a while. Amusingly, while the initial announcement had Big Man talk about sour plums (possibly a manga reference), the official Splatfest promo art does have him eating a whole lemon, skin and all.
  • Big Man eats a lemon and dies ^ExplanationAn off-shoot of the Sonic eats a lemon and dies meme, but with Big Man, like this.
  • Shiver suffering from spice ^ExplanationWhile not quite as widespread, Shiver repping Team Spicy created a headcanon of Shiver enjoying spicy food despite having no tolerance for the heat. To that end, tons of fanart was created of her eating super hot ramen or curry and suffering the effects. The official promo art also seems to corroborate this, as Shiver looks quite pale and is sweating heavily while eating the noodles in that picture.
• Nessie vs. Aliens vs. Bigfoot:
  • BIGFOOT IS REAL AND HIS NAME IS MR. GRIZZ ^{Explanation (spoilers)}April 2023's Splatfest is Nessie vs Alien vs Bigfoot, where the topic question is which of the three is most likely real. Many fans joke and insist that Bigfoot is real... because he's really Mr. Grizz, pointing out how Mr. Grizz's true appearance fits the description of Bigfoot by being a bipedal, hairy behemoth with big feet. Interestingly, some scientists believe that Bigfoot may have in fact been mistaken sightings of a bear on its hind legs.
  • Where's team Bigfoot? ^ExplanationDuring the Splatfest, people on teams Nessie and Aliens noticed that they almost never encounter team Bigfoot players. This led to jokes that Bigfoot players are just as rare or elusive as Bigfoot itself, which would be confirmed by Splatfest's end with the news that only 8.69% of players chose Team Bigfoot; not only the very first Team to get under 10% of the vote, but the least popular Splatfest team across the entire franchise.
• Power vs. Wisdom vs. Courage:
  • JoJo Shiver/DBZ Shiver ^Explanation The official artwork for this Splatfest depicts Shiver with a bright red Battle Aura similar to the Kaioken; with Big Man standing across from her in a very similar fashion to the "Oh? You're approaching me?" meme, fans were quick to make edits of this.
  • SUAVEMENTE ^ExplanationTeam Power, representing Ganondorf, frequently posted Tweets and in-game posts of this TerminalMontage meme; made all the more common when Team Power ended up winning via full sweep.
  • #SHIVERSWEEP / #POWERSWEEP^Explanation In identical fashion to #BIGMANSWEEP, this Splatfest ended up with Shiver getting her first full sweep victory. Celebratory hashtags quickly followed from members of Team Power online.
• Money Vs. Fame Vs. Love:
  • How was Money more popular?!^ExplanationMoney's victory was a bit of a surprise, considering the last two times Money vs. Love was done in Splatfests, Love won, and nobody was expecting Fame to win either. It didn't help that by and large western Love players experienced a lot of mirror matches. Needless to say, Money's victory was unexpected and shockingly controversial.
  • Japan decides again^ExplanationWhile the popularity difference between Money and Love was relatively small, it's believed that Japanese players were responsible for Money being so popular, considering western Love players reported experiencing a lot of mirror matches. White Chocolate's victory has also been attributed to Japan's liking for it, hence the "again".
  • SHIVER NO^ExplanationDuring the post-Splatfest dialogue, Shiver proposes starting a pyramid scheme, which immediately alarmed basically everyone. It doesn't help that Frye is interested.
  • At least Frye got 12p?^ExplanationVery few people were expecting poor Frye's side to get any points, so Fame players took the fact that they got the bare minimum outside of nothing at all to be a win. How this stacks up to Team Fame being the second least popular Splatfest team of all time (only to the abovementioned Team Bigfoot, and even then there is half a percent difference at best) is up for debate.
  • Love Lost, so They're Getting a Divorce^ExplanationAfter Team Love lost the Splatfest for the very first time, people have joked of the various fan-favourite pairings (Agent 3 x Agent 8, Pearl x Marina, Cuttlefish x Octavio, etc) as splitting up due to Splatfest law.
• Frye gets the worst Splatfest themes.^ExplanationFans joke that the reason Frye has such a poor track record with Splatfests is because the developers keep giving her the least appealing themes. The usual setup is Shiver and Big Man get something likable while Frye gets something repulsive. In truth, Frye has managed to win the popular vote a few times and usually gets the second most votes or a close third by a voting difference of less than 10%; the perception is mostly colored by the then-recent Money vs. Fame vs. Love, in which Team Fame had the shockingly small playerbase of 9.1% of players.
• Shiver vs. Frye vs. Big Man:
  • "Oh God not again."^ExplanationThe reveal of the next Splatfest after Money vs. Fame vs. Love, celebrating the one year anniversary of Splatoon 3, was which member of Deep Cut would make the best leader. People who still remembered the fallout of the Callie vs. Marie Splatfest back in the first game were understandably very concerned with this. Add into the fact that there was already a controversy around Shiver's winning streak in Splatfests being blamed on overly loyal supporters, and debate got ugly very quickly.
  • Callie and Marie panicking^ExplanationA common reaction is showing the Squid Sisters being very much aware of the potential fallout of such a Splatfest and raking Deep Cut over the coals for their hubris, such as seen here.
  • Frye and Big Man plotting to get rid of Shiver.^ExplanationShiver winning her fifth Splatfest in a row has led many fans to depict Frye and Big Man plotting to kill Shiver so they can have a chance to win a Splatfest. Since this particular Splatfest establishes Shiver as the leader of Deep Cut, expect Frye and Big Man to be The Starscream.
• Zombies vs. Skeletons vs. Ghosts:
  • "WHERE'S SPLATOWEEN"^note In the weeks of late September and early October 2023, Splatoween became the topic of fixation by Splatoon fans, with many of them expressing their anxious wait for the anticipated event by spamming it into the replies to any post made by the Splatoon North America twitter account, a behavior noticed and lampshaded by many other fans. Naturally, when the Splatfest did get announced, there was much rejoicing in the replies.
  • The streak is broken, Frye was actually competitive this time, and Shiver got nothing! Time to celebrate!^ExplanationThe results of the Splatfest resulted in Big Man's team winning in three out of five categories (sneak peek, popularity and Tricolor wins), while Fyre's team won both Open and Pro categories - had they won Tricolor instead of Open or Pro, they would've won instead. And Shiver's team got absolutely no points this time and scored last in every category but one, breaking her winning streak. It wasn't the result Frye fans were hoping for, but the fact that they were this close to winning is a nice consolation prize, and both Frye and Big Man fans were feeling cathartic over breaking Shiver's winning streak. People who picked Shiver expecting her to win again and came stone dead last were...less than enthused.
• Handshake vs Fistbump vs Hug:
  • Team Fisting^ExplanationIt didn't take long for the less innocently-minded fans to corrupt Frye's team into something...dirtier. Memes revolving around this sprung up soon after.
    • TOGETHER WE CAN SHOW THE WORLD WHAT WE CAN DO/Frye Forces^ExplanationA more innocent meme based on Frye's team, tying into the main song of Sonic Forces, Fist Bump. Memes and crossovers followed soon after, up to Frye daydreaming being in the place of the Avatar.
  • "Clearly, you don't own an Air Fryer."^ExplanationFor whatever reason, Frye was somewhat fixated on air fryers during the announcement banter, mocking Shiver's red fingers on two occassions in relation to the appliance. With the "air fryer" meme already a thing, as well as a pun with Frye's name, it didn't take long for images of Frye saying the phrase in question to pop up everywhere.
  • Extra Teams^ExplanationA chain meme of sorts where fans would continuously add further ways to greet someone as extra teams, eventually snowballing into a double-digit battle royale that involves such teams as "Kiss", "Raw Egg Ass Slap" and "Death Stare".
  • Everyone still fistbumps.^ExplanationTeams Handshake and Hug still did the fistbumping animation upon winning and doing well, leading to jokes how everyone is really on Team Fistbump, while also chiding Nintendo for not bothering to add hand shaking and hugging victory emotes.
  • Schrodinger's Frye^ExplanationDue to the fact that Handshake vs Fistbump vs Hug Splatfest was the first regional Splatfest in a long time, it was speculated that Frye would win this Splatfest but lose the Japanese Splatfest (which is Kaiten-yaki vs. Oban-yaki vs. Imagawa-yaki). Said speculation came true with a twist: Frye lost the oversea Splatfest to Shiver in a stunning upset... but won the Japanese Splatfest.
    • Turns out we were the Shiver simps all along.^ExplanationFor the longest time, the fanbase blamed Shiver's long winning streak on Japanese players, stating that Shiver's popularity in Japan combined with skilled Japanese players prevented Frye and Big Man from winning any Splatfest in 2023. Many believed that if the regional Splatfests were held, the Japanese players will no be a factor and Frye would win for once. Then the oversea Splatfest results came out with Shiver winning in an upset turnabout, and adding salt to the wound, Frye actually won the Japanese Splatfest, debunking this fan notion for good.
• Friends vs. Family vs. Solo FrostyFest:
  • They're guilting us!^ExplanationThe introductory banter for the fests' announcement has a surprisingly sad moment where it's revealed the friends' Shiver wanted to spend the holidays with were her own bandmates, with her failing at hiding 3 half-off coupons for 3 different activities (all 3 being a Call-Back to previous moments in-game and lore-wise). The announcement ends on with Shiver not openly admitting what she wanted to do and allows her friends to spend the holidays how they want, even if it ruined her hopes. Fans were quick to express sympathy... before many realized how many Splatfests she's won by this point and began to mock this moment as Shiver giving off crocodi-, err, shark tears. Either way, safe to say it didn't work, as Big Man won with his third sweep of the season.
  • Sad Shiver^ExplanationGoing off from the above, viewers are treated to a moment of Shiver's utterly sullen face. It quickly became a reactionary meme among the community.
  • "Of course they won."^ExplanationIn the end, Team Solo won in every single category, giving Big Man his third sweep so far and his fourth win overall. While there are potentially some factors towards its overwhelming popularity (including an unfortunate reigniting of the "Japan Bias" from previous Splatfests), a lot of people joke bitterly that Team Solo would logically be comprised of people who don't really spend any time with their friends or family, and spend all their time playing (and therefore getting good at) Splatoon.
• Christian Big Man^ExplanationFrom the announcement that Big Man would be Team Sunday for the best day of the weekend, jokes that Big Man is a practicing Christian ensued, thanks to the fact that Sunday is a holy day for Christians.
• Baby Chicks vs. Li'l Bunnies vs. Bear Cubs SpringFest:
  • Unpleasant Gradient^ExplanationWhile the Springfest outfits for Off the Hook have been widely praised for using concept art designs, Shiver and Frye's Springfest outfits received mockery from certain fans due to their perceived low-effort and gaudy natures. Shiver, in particular, has a garish green-to-teal-to-purple gradient that many have compared to the "Unpleasant Gradient" meme, in ways such as this.
  • Joining Team Bear So Grizzco Doesn't Cut My Pay ^{Explanation (Splatoon 3 spoilers!)}Bears aren't usually considered a cute animal for the spring (let alone Easter), and the only lampshaded connection is to Grizzco being run by an actual bear, so people joked about getting more petty obligations to the company in the name of one of the last mammals to exist.
• Tricolor is Mirror Match Hell ^ExplanationThe revamped Splatfest system turned Tricolor Turf War from a special comeback gimmick for the two losing teams into its own battle mode where everyone can enjoy on defense and offense. At first, players enjoyed the ability to play defense and offense at the same time... until they notice that mirror matches, a bane for all competitive Splatfest players, occur much more frequently in this mode than any other mode. And the Tricolor category has the highest amount of points, becoming almost essential for a Splatfest team victory. This gave Tricolor Turf War an infamous reputation of being nothing but mirror matches, with the tiniest fraction being actual matches that count. Whenever a Splatfest occurs and it becomes clear one team has higher popularity than the other two teams, expect to see social media posts from the popular team asking if Tricolor Turf War is freed from mirror matches.

In-game Posts

Splatoon 1

• "My plaza is full of memes!" That's right, thanks to Miiverse integration, you can "enjoy" everything listed on this page and more just by walking around Inkopolis Plaza with the internet up... ^note Well, you could until Miiverse shut down. But at least its sequels still allow you to post on Twitter. Hooray?
  • There's a lot of Miiverse posts asking for hair styles, apartments, and especially pants to be added to the game.
  • There are recurring Miiverse posts about the game being really addictive, with "horror stories" of players staying up late (the usual time given is 3am), or posts like "Who needs sleep?"
• "I wish [thing that actually exists] were real" ^ExplanationSimilar to the furry wars, this quickly became the Running Gag post in the lobby. It started as a Miiverse community post stating "I wish squids were real" before snowcloning into numerous variations. It's since been used for a few memes in the mainstream. This is referenced by Marina while discussing Shellendorf Institute.◊
• "The only thing better than Splatoon is Communism!" ^ExplanationA Miiverse post that became infamous for coming completely out of nowhere, even by Miiverse standards.
• The phrase "this game is fun my mom and dad have been fighting a lot" and its variants, first seen on the Miiverse board for Super Mario 3D World, saw a major resurgence with Splatoon.
  • Let me call you Daddy, because like my actual Dad you always let me down.^ExplanationJust another one of those Miiverse/Tumblr quotes, this time comparing players' competitive experiences to their rather depressing home lives.

Splatoon 2

• "Gender is a myth invented by the Church to stop you from eating all the Communion wafers." ^ExplanationA Plaza post that's become the Splatoon 2 version of 1's Communism post, though this one is considered to have even more of a WTF factor than the above. Ironically, the next game would remove gender as a customization option, with hairstyles instead being moved to "Style."
• Using the Switch to make photorealistic posts, thanks to the new way to draw pretty much forcing people into the 'hyper pixel' style. ^ExplanationSplatoon 2 now features a one-pixel-at-a-time drawing canvas, which allows for insanely fine detail that wasn't possible in 1. This has caused those who are already skilled at the craft to really stand out amongst the crowd.
• Not-Miiverse. ^ExplanationThe go to phrase used when referring to the posting feature in Inkopolis Square since Miiverse isn't supported by the Switch.
• BLOOD^ExplanationThe first Splatfest of the actual game was between Mayonnaise and Ketchup, which were colored in accordance to their condiments. Some Ketchup players made Miiverse posts and ink sprays with this word written out in their color, for obvious reasons.
  • CUM^ExplanationTeam Mayonnaise's version of the above meme. Nintendo were the ones behind the accident; any players who made this did so on purpose. This made a comeback during the Chicken vs Egg Splatfest.
  • PEE^ExplanationTeam Egg had solid yellow ink, and you can guess where this is going based on the above.
  • POOP ^ExplanationTeam Time Travel in the Time Travel vs. Teleportation Splatfest had light brown ink. After several memes involving Splatfest-exclusive ink colors and human body fluids, you can probably see where this is going.
• The furry wars. ^ExplanationAt first, there were only 1-2 furries visible in posts at any given time, if there was one to be seen. This came about after one post complained "stop drawing furries" to which furries, being prolific artists, responded by drawing more furries. As another post put it best: "To be honest, furries are the only ones who know how to draw well on this." The discussion on this eventually got so heated that r/Splatoon had to eventually ban discussion about furries.
  • This meme saw a bit of a resurgence during the Vampires vs Werewolves Splatfest, where fanart and official art depicted Marina (representing Team Werewolves) in various states of furrydom.
  • And then there's 3, in which the finale of the story mode, Return of the Mammalians, featured New Agent 3 attempting to stop Mr. Grizz from restoring mammalian life to Earth at the expense of marine life. With that in mind, all the "furry wars" jokes are definitely Hilarious in Hindsight.
• Trans Pride ^ExplanationThe third major running post theme in the Splatoon 2 square.
• #BringBackCallie ^ExplanationThe fourth major running post theme in Splatoon 2, showing support for the missing Squid Sister, who got hit particularly hard with the Out of Focus stick in this one. Callie is also said to be an honorary member of Team Invisible for the second post-release Splatfest... because she's hardly ever seen in the game.
  • #BroughtCallieBack ^ExplanationVersion 3.0 adjusts the single-player experience so that Callie is present in Octo Canyon after all. The fans' wishes were most certainly granted.
• If (Splatfest team) wins I will throw my Switch in a lake^ExplanationAround the time the Ketchup vs Mayo Splatfest was going on in Europe and Australia, one player made a plaza post threatening to throw their Switch into a lake if Team Mayo won, with many other players expressing concern, or daring the poster to do it. Team Mayo won, resulting in the player making a follow-up post simply reading "Uh oh." Players declaring that they would dump their Switches the same way if the team they didn't join wins has since become a Running Gag of Splatfests, with a variant emerging in the Splatoon 3 World Premiere demo, where someone said they would cut their Switch in half if Team Scissors won.
• Booyah back so I know it's real^ExplanationMany players appreciate it when they use the "Booyah!" communication at the start of the match and their teammates return the favor.
  • If you don't booyah back...^ExplanationThere are players who are serious about this sort of etiquette, and get angry when they don't get booyah'd in return. It later becomes an Ascended Meme with the introduction of the Booyah Bomb special, which charges up faster if players booyah during its charging phase.
  • Kids these days don't booyah back... ^Explanation With the release of Splatoon 3, the frequency of players booyah-ing back has taken a noticeable nosedive, leading to several posts in Not-Miiverse complaining about the noticeable lack of the time-honored Splatoon tradition in online matches.
• Team Spork^ExplanationThe Splatfest for August 24-25, 2018 is "Fork vs. Spoon". Naturally, this led to a lot of Plaza posts basically asking "why not spork?" Hilariously enough, the Nintendo News article acknowledges this by saying that spork isn't an option.
  • Spoon^ExplanationSeveral plaza posts feature the Splatoon logo edited to read as "Spoon" or "Spoon 2".
• THE BLEACH IS COMING!!! ^ExplanationWith Side Order DLC of Splatoon 3 being released on February 22, 2024, it became inevitable that Splatpost activity would spike up since the DLC takes place in a bleached version of Inkopolis Square. Visit Inkopolis Square around February, and you'll find countless posts either warning the players of an impeding disaster known as THE BLEACH or mockingly stating that they wish nothing bad will happen to their city hub.

Splatoon 3

• I LOVE MEN/I LOVE WOMEN ^ExplanationPossibly the earliest trend of Splatoon 3's lobby; from almost the very start of Splatoon 3 Splatfest World Premiere, a lobby post simply saying "I LOVE MEN" spontaneously took off for everybody, and the innate humor of such a blunt statement as well as Splatoon's prominent LGBT Fanbase caused it to snowball from there. Even after the game fully launched a few weeks after the Splatfest World Premiere had concluded, the phrase and snowclones thereof could be seen just about everywhere.
• Dad left me at Target^ExplanationA frequently seen and shared post during the Splatoon 3 Test Fire Splatfest. Due to not entirely understood circumstances, a small number of user posts were seen much more frequently than normal, this being one of them. It's also a follow-up to the "Mom left me at Best Buy :(" post that made the social media rounds during the original game's launch.
• RIP DA QUEEN SHE WOULD'VE LOVED SPLATOON 3 / First Nintendo game the queen doesn't see ^ExplanationQueen Elizabeth II passed away hours before Splatoon 3 hit store shelves. On launch day, Splatsville was flooded with crass jokes of players poking fun at the queen and her death, including the aforementioned lines and wall graffiti. The fact that Queen Elizabeth II was also a Nintendo fan adds on to this.
• INK YOUR BASE ^ExplanationEarly on in Splatoon 3, players would rarely, if ever, ink their bases, leading to various upsets; this would, in turn, create a deluge of players making posts such as "INK YOUR BASE" and variants thereof. This, hilariously, backfired, as players tried to apply this to other modes where this isn't as important, namely Anarchy Battles.
  • TAKE MID FIRST ^ExplanationA more Anarchy Battle-focused variation, where rushing to the objective as fast as possible for an initial push is very important; much more so than just inking base for free points, which can be done easily later on. Also occasionally applied to Turf Wars, though it's a bit less important due to the nature of the mode.
  • KILL THE FLYFISH ^ExplanationIn a similar vein to "INK YOUR BASE" or "TAKE MID", Due to their unique status as the most hated Salmonid by a long shot, players would often give joke "advice" for Salmon Run that boils down to taking out the Flyfish as fast as possible. Often combined with the "UNAUTHORIZED FUCKING THING, BLOW IT UP NOW" meme (see the main Splatoon 3 folder) when mentioned outside of the game.
• "⬇ Full of [X]" ^ExplanationOne of the recurring post themes is to write "Full of [X]", with X being something (anything from intangible adjectives like "full of gay" or "full of gamer rage", to physical descriptions such as "full of food" or "full of antidepressants"), with an arrow pointing to the bottom-middle of the post canvas so that it'll point to the player's character when the post bubble appears over their head. The meme has seen multiple periods of popularity in the game's lifespan, and has led to a spinoff that ditches the "full of" prefix to just write the adjective and have it point at the player's Inkling/Octoling.
• The Animal^ExplanationIn late November 2022, a player named "aple ipod" posted a doodle of a blobby quadrupedal Cartoon Creature. The Splatsville plaza began to fill up with other related doodles of their own Animals in response.
• "Throw me to the Salmonids and I'll come back pregnant."^ExplanationA Lobby post from a player shortly before the Big Run became popular due to how ridiculous it sounds. They would later make another post saying that they're 9 months due, and after Horrorboros was revealed the player referred to it as their son.
• "New Players!"^ExplanationSome players were making posts addressed to newbies in late 2022, anticipating a Newbie Boom of fresh squids and octopi getting the game for Christmas. This started out with some supportive tips, then turned to Trolling ("throw bombs at the Steelhead, which is invulnerable against bombs"), before diving into bizarro humor (like new players being yelled at by Walter White).
• "[X] Kisser"/"I Kiss [X]"^ExplanationPosts about who the author prefers to kiss were a recurring background theme for most of the game, thanks to the LGBT Fanbase the series has. For a while, it seemed like it would stay that way... until someone complained about all the posts that are about kissing people, at which point the plaza filled up with posts about kissing preferences.
• "Hi John!"^ExplanationIn September 2023, a user named "John" uploaded a post greeting the other players, leading other users to create posts in response saying "hi John" or something similar. John would later make another post thanking everyone for saying hi back to him.
  • "Who's John?"^Explanation...of course, not everyone was aware of who John was, leading to several people asking this question.
• "I'm so pooped."^ExplanationFor some reason, this phrase announcing the player's exhausted spread like wildfire in the plaza around early December 2023, with many players posting this or variants of it. Only nearly as common were the reaction posts wondering why everyone's posting this, misinterpreting this as everyone shitting themselves, or making adjacent jokes (like complaining that everyone's pooping but nobody's cleaning up the public park they're doing it in).
• Smollusk.^ExplanationAlmost a week after the release of Side Order, Smollusk started appearing in posts all over the place, despite pleas to avoid mentioning spoilers for the expansion. However, the kicker was that very few of these posts actually hinted at the context for who or what Smollusk was, a lot of people just saw a bunch of posts of an oddly realistic-looking but adorable baby octopus speaking like Elmer Fudd. At most, the only context ever hinted at was that 'Smollusk' had something vaguely to do with Side Order, when in reality Smollusk was actually the Big Bad of the entire plot.
• "As a straight person..."'^ExplanationIn March 2024, a user posted a rant about the Splatoon community, talking about how they felt unwelcome because "all anyone talks about is GAY GAY GAY". The post was subsequently mocked to hell and back by the fandom, and it even spread to other fandoms as a copypasta.
• "I think I have SCR"/"WEAR A MASK!!!"^ExplanationIn April 2024, Twitter user FernShaw made a fictional disease called Salmonid Corpse Rot (abbreviated SCR), based on the real life phenomenon of salmons decaying after mating, where Inklings and Octolings alike become desperate for affection and have their own body begin to decay after catching the disease from a Salmonid. This then subsequently brought everyone to start warning against SCR, and some people started to claim that they have it. The ensuing horror basically got the entirety of Inkling and Octoling kind to have their own version of the COVID-19 Pandemic, with many people urging others to wear masks and start quarantining.

Crossover Memes

• Team CatDog ^ExplanationThe first American Splatfest and the sixth European/Australian Splatfest were both about cats vs. dogs. There was no third option in-game, but this was the proposed alternative. Sometimes complete with the drawing of the titular CatDog.
• Can't we get beyond Kelp Dome? ^ExplanationA play on Mystery Science Theater 3000's phrase namedropping Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, but with the stage name of Kelp Dome.
• Squid-themed Hat simulator ^ExplanationA mutation of the infamous joke about Team Fortress 2 being a War-themed Hat simulator.
  • This naturally resulted in jokes about the hats.
    • Leave it to Nintendo to get in on the fun.
  • With the appearance of the Heavy Splatling from a Japanese Testfire announcement, Heavy Weapons Squid jokes that have been circulating in the fandom have since become Hilarious in Hindsight.
  • Some Heavy and Mini Splatling users have taken to christening their weapons with names in a fashion similar to Heavy with Sasha and Natascha.
  • "This is a bucket." ^ExplanationThe Slosher has attracted lots of TF2 jokes circulating around some memorable scenes involving the Soldier and a bucket the Spy brought to a meeting in the "Expiration Date" video.
  • Squid Conga. Similar to Squid Parties, players just turn into Squids and form a conga line, just as the TF2 players often do on Conga servers.
  • Inked Lightning has appeared. Now Scout can be a squid too.
  • There's a mod that gives the Scattergun, Rocket Launcher and Sniper Rifle a Splatoon-themed paint job.
  • The Towering Pillar of Hats is another joke that has entered the Splatoon fandom. Fans are divided on whether you would get all the ability benefits of wearing all those hats at once.
  • Squidd VS Salmonn ^ExplanationSplatoon 2 has a horde survival mode called Salmon Run where the goal is to collect as many golden eggs as possible while surviving the Salmonid onslaught. Naturally, comparisons to the Mann VS Machine mode were quick to be made.
• When it comes to Miiverse, pretty much anything from SpongeBob SquarePants is fair game:
  • Squidward is particularly popular for obvious reasons.
  • "Don't shoot me!" -SpongeBob ^ExplanationSome single player missions in Splatoon have yellow sponges that change color and expand when you shoot them. This meme usually involves SpongeBob attempting to block ink splatters or running away from an inkling or being bloated just like in the episode "Suds".
  • "Welcome to the Salty Splatoon, how tough are ya?"◊
    • This one has received a variant in the form of "Welcome to the Salty Splatoon, how fresh are ya?" This one is actually pretty clever in that it references the attitudes of the in-game shopkeepers in a way that actually draws an interesting parallel to that episode of SpongeBob.
  • "Turf wars... at night!"^ExplanationNight, night, night, night... This is about how Splatfests take place at night, including all Splatfest Turf Wars.
  • And then they had an official SpongeBob Splatfest.
  • The chocolate themed Splatfest from February 2023 spawned a lot of jokes and memes crossing over with the fan-favorite Chocolate With Nuts episode. Especially references to Tom screaming "CHOCOLATE!"
• Aside from the above as well as the obvious Ika Musume references on the Miiverse, Cthulhu and Ultros occasionally pop up in some Miiverse posts in a rarer capacity. Octodad references are also fairly common.
• Squidbillies is another squid-related work that gets referenced a bit.
• Despite having virtually nothing to do with squids, Steven Universe-related Miiverse posts crop up a lot for some reason:
  • Just let him be a DJ! ^Explanation This Steven Universe quote has become popular, with the joke that Agent 3 stopped Big Bad DJ Octavio from being a DJ in the first place.
  • "If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs." ^ExplanationThis came up during the third American Splatfest, which pitted hot dogs against marshmallows.
  • "Let Pearl say 'fuck'".. ^ExplanationThis is a Steven Universe meme from Tumblr where one user posted that if Steven Universe was really pushing the barrel for kid's shows, that it would include profanity. Steven Universe and Splatoon both have characters named "Pearl", which led to the meme spreading to the Splatoon fandom. It also helps that Pearl being Sir Swears-a-Lot was already a popular fanon (See "That's right, bitch!" above.). Octo Expansion's sample of one of Pearl's pre-Off the Hook performances shows that she has, in fact, actually sworn. Heavily.
  • Pearl's secret rap career isn't so secret anymore. ^ExplanationSteven Universe's Pearl is voiced by a woman who was once in a rap group. When fans noticed it, Pearl having been a rapper in the past and treating it as Old Shame became a meme. Splatoon 2 introduced a character named Pearl who coincidentally happens to be a rapper.
• Inkay and Malamar are also frequently referenced. Tentacool does as well, but mostly by younger fans who don't know it's actually a jellyfish.
• "Honto ika!"/"I'm such a squidiot!"
  • Being Inkling is suffering ^ExplanationComes from crossing with another meme associated with Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Meduka Meguca.
• "SQUIDS IN HUMAN CLOTHING!" ^ExplanationKill La Kill fans who liked the concept of Splatoon when it was revealed in 2014 created this parody of Satsuki's infamous "Pigs in human clothing!" catchphrase. This joke has proved popular enough to stick around all the way up to launch and then enter the lobby via Miiverse art.
  • This inevitably resulted in the Squid counterparts of Ryuko and Satsuki popping up in fanart.
• Some fans jokingly compared Splatoon to Platoon, complete with fanart of an Inkling doing the famous pose from the poster.
• It has become popular to crack jokes about the Splat Roller and the Krakon Roller revolving around JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, mainly revolving around Dio Brando's infamous Steamroller attack on Jotaro from Part III. Here's an example.
  • Even Inkwagon's a-squid! ^ExplanationThe inevitable mutation of "Even Speedwagon is afraid!", another JoJo's meme
  • AWAKEN, MY SISTERS! ^ExplanationWammu waking up Esidisi and Kars was parodied by the Splatoon Fandom, substituting it into a Female Inkling posing and awakening the Squid Sisters.
  • KARS Vs Planes ^ExplanationAnother Battle Tendency joke revolving around the 'cars vs planes' US Splatfest.
  • Eventually, he stopped thinking.^{Explanation (Splatoon 3 story mode spoilers)}After the player defeats Mr. Grizz, the credits sequence shows him floating idly in space, much like Kars at the end of Battle Tendency. It's left unclear if Grizz died, so he may well share the fate of the last Pillar Man.
  • Sheer Auto-bomb has no weaknesses! ^ExplanationFans have noted the similarities between Splatoon 2's auto-bomb sub weapon and the stand Sheer Heart Attack in Diamond is Unbreakable, as both are bombs that relentlessly pursue opponents and detonate when they get close enough to them.
• They see me rollin'. They hatin'. ^ExplanationThanks to the Roller weapons, one can easily find references to "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire in Miiverse posts. Helped by the fact that rollers really did attract a lot of hate in the early goings when players hadn't adapted themselves against them, and later on could still attract focused fire from the opposing team.
• Due to their similarity to Bayonetta and Jeanne, Callie and Marie tend to be drawn in fashions that invoke a stronger resemblance. This also goes the other way. And then they start making puns about the whole deal.
• Now we know the true reason humanity became extinct. ^{Explanation (spoilers)}Tying into the Green Space Whale Aesop of Squid Girl, since the addition of the Squid Girl outfit as Ascended Fanon in August 2015, it has been argued that the actual reason for humanity dying off was the Squid Invasion led by the protagonist of said manga.
  • It has become common to crack jokes about Ika Musume's Stalker with a Crush Sanae, since the squidgirl-loving girl might really lose her self-control if she encountered Inkopolis, home of the cute Inklings.
• Since Transformers already has a ton of its own memes, many of those started to appear after the theme of the fourth American Splatfest, Autobots vs. Decepticons, was announced.
  • Jokes about the Maximal Squid in the Beast Wars toyline also made the rounds after fans were reminded of his presence.
  • Jokes about how Autobot supporters for the Splatfest should use Rollers and Brushes so they can "transform and roll out" also made the rounds.
• Touhou Project fans have noticed Splatoon, causing some memetic crossover in the fandoms. Yukkuri have invaded Miiverse, and somewhere out there some fans are jokingly asking if ZUN will add a Squid or Octopus youkai to Touhou next game.
• Due to some visual similarity, the Squid Sisters have been compared to Panty and Stocking. The jokes got further developed with the reveal of the Transformers Splatfest at the end of August 2015, and even further with the release of the Octo Valley trailer for Splatoon 2 which brought up jokes regarding Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt's infamous stinger.
• Memetic Juggernaut Metal Gear has gotten mixed up with Splatoon, with snowclones of character quotes and fanmade lyrics to songs like Rules of Nature.
  • It goes further. Fans have compared DJ Octavio with the quirky and eccentric supersoldier enemies from the Metal Gear Universe, imagined the radio chatter with Cap'n Cuttlefish and Agents 1 and 2 as codec calls, and even considered the Great Octoweapon mech bosses as Metal Gears in their own right.
  • Nintendo's "The Chicken or the Egg" Splatfest has Marina going a little too meta after the girls' brains start hurting from arguing their points. The internet did its thing in record time.
• There's been some crossover art and jokes with Rocket Power because one of the core characters, Sam Dullard was nicknamed "Squid" in the show. He was a kid and a squid before it was cool.
• Gorillaz has its share of crossover jokes.
  • they're turning us into squids now! ^Explanation Many fans noticed the pun potential behind "Kids with Guns", resulting in several parodies.
• Hail Hydra!^ExplanationThe release of the Hydra Splatling was preceded by several cries of this infamous line, punning on the weapon's name.
• Darkest Dungeon memes got crossed over into Splatoon graffiti.
• Splatwatch ^ExplanationJust like original Splatoon has attracted many comparison to Team Fortress 2, many players also compare Splatoon 2 to Overwatch.
  • "Cheers luv, the woomy's here!" ^ExplanationMany players, especially those who also play Overwatch, thought of this upon seeing Splat Dualies due to it resembling Tracer's iconic Pulse Pistols.
    • This became Hilarious in Hindsight when Overwatch released a new skin for Tracer, the Graffiti Skin, in which the weapon included with it looks even more like the Splat Dualies, down to the placement of the magazine.
  • Gremlin Pearl ^ExplanationPearl's bratty demeanor and odd appearance has led fans to (with varying degrees of charitability) label her a "gremlin" in the same vein as D.Va, complete◊ with◊ matching◊ fan-art.◊
  • Team Pharah vs Team Sombra ^ExplanationThe second Splatfest of the game was Flight vs Invisibility, which reminded the Overwatch players of the abilities of those heroes.
  • Because of the Splat Brella's ability to shield the player from enemy attack and detached if held too long, some users have compared this weapon to Reinhardt and Symmetra's shield.
    • With the appearance of the Tenta Brella◊ from a Nintendo Direct the Reinhardt jokes have become more common.
  • OH, LET'S BREAK IT DOWN! ^ExplanationThe Splashdown's special ability has garnered comparisons to Overwatch because of its resemblance to Lucio's "Sound Barrier" ultimate, albeit it cause damage to enemies rather than healing allies.
    • METEOR STRIKE! ^ExplanationDoomfist catches in on the Splashdown action with his ultimate also being similar in form.
  • JUSTICE RAINS FROM ABOVE! ^ExplanationExpect Pharah players to think of this when they activate "Inkjet" or "Tenta Missiles".
  • Crab Tank is Wrecking Ball ^ExplanationThe Crab Tank special weapon in Splatoon 3 also has garnered comparisons to Overwatch because of its resemblance to Wrecking Ball one of Overwatch Heroes, albeit it didn't have grapple hook or can deploy minefields.
• Pearlwise ^ExplanationWhen It (2017) hit theaters, Splatoon fans started meshing Pennywise with Pearl, mostly due to their stares and large foreheads.
• IMAGINE DRAGONS ^ExplanationThe boss intro beat for both the core game and the expansion sounds a lot like the intro from the song Believer from Imagine Dragons. And then the jokes were made. It is coincidental that the song was used to promote the Nintendo Switch during the Super Bowl LI.
• A great clam and then some. NOW SPLAT!/An Ink Storm is surely brewing. You're up!/A good day for a swell Turf War! And begin!/Here's a real high class splattle! Here goes!/This sounds like Cuphead.^ExplanationThe second of the two new bands, Ink Theory, has a song known as Riptide Rupture that sounds suspiciously a lot like Cuphead. As such, some "Ready? Wallop!" puns are bound to arise.
• What's reflected in the Inkling's eye?^ExplanationThe Super Smash Bros. Ultimate teaser that played at the end of the March 8, 2018 Nintendo Direct had a shot where a fiery Smash logo was reflected in the Inkling Girl's eye (which happened to act as The Reveal for what this was a teaser for). Within hours, people were editing other things into the Inkling's eye.
• Portal fans soon realized that Agent 8 was exploring abandoned underground lab facilities that bore a strong resemblance to Aperture Science labs. The jokes naturally took.
• Combining the song "Ink Me Up" with Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life".
• "Octo Expansion is the Dark Souls of Splatoon."^ExplanationThe "The Dark Souls of X" meme as applied to Splatoon 2, which is typically used half-jokingly to refer to Octo Expansion's skull-crushing difficulty.
• Bob/Octo Ross^ExplanationOne of the Octoling Boy's hairstyles is an afro similar to Bob Ross'. Players noticed this and started joining matches with the afro, an Inkbrush/Octobrush equipped, and their username changed to "Bob/Octo Ross."
• As a result of a Sanrio Splatfest in Japan, Splatoon fanart featuring Aggretsuko as one of the options started popping up, including ones where Agent 8 and Pearl take a liking to it. Jokes around Pearl's 40-second mixtape that was too crude to be published and Retsuko's similar-sounding style of metal came about, too.
• Pearl starts a race war.^ExplanationThis It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia-based meme caught on alarmingly quickly once the first anniversary Splatfest was announced as being Squid vs. Octopus, and Pearl dismisses the Unfortunate Implications raised by Marina.
• Pearl is the Dragonborn ^ExplanationPearl refers to herself as a dragon in the Octotune soundtrack interview with her, and she can SHOUT to destroy her enemies Thuum-style. The jokes wrote themselves before long.
• RIP SiIvaGunner ^{Explanation (Octo Expansion spoilers)}The final boss of Octo Expansion takes a form that is similar to the avatar of the infamous 'high quality rips' music channel on Youtube. The jokes quickly wrote themselves, and Team Off the Hook even participated in the King For A Day contest, losing only to Unregistered Hypercam 2.
• EVERYONE! LEND ME YOUR BOOYAHS! ^ExplanationThe Booyah Bomb is a giant energy ball of ink that is charged up by faster by the players pressing the Booyah! signal over and over, which is very similar to how a Spirit Bomb from the Dragon Ball franchise works (an energy ball where its strength is dependent by the organisms willingly to give their energy to it).
• The Splatoween's Hockey Mask has many players inevitably dress up as Jason Voorhees.
• Dancerush in Splatoon^ExplanationMany Rhythm Game fans have noted that the dance game cabinet in Splatoon 2's Inkopolis Plaza has a striking resemblance to the cabinet for DANCERUSH
• Fresh Fish is the Fairy Companion.^ExplanationThe Japanese dialogue for the end results of Knights vs. Wizards revealed that Fresh Fish is the fairy guide for the player in his titular game (alternatively, if Team Knights won, Fresh Fish would have been revealed to be the princess kidnapped by the last boss). It didn't take long for Japanese players to make artworks of Fresh Fish as an annoying fairy guide akin to Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
• Futaba Sakura also gets brought up quite a bit due to her resemblance to the default female Inkling. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate even lampshaded this resemblance with the default orange Inkling being the Puppet Fighter for Futaba in her Spirit battle.
• Splatoon 2 Final Fest is just Shin Megami Tensei^ExplanationThe theme of the final Splatfest, set to take place in July 2019, is themed around Order Versus Chaos, quickly leading to comparisons to Shin Megami Tensei and its tradition of pitting Law vs. Chaos against one another, or referring to the game as a Stealth Sequel to the SMT series.
• "Squid Game or something. I don't know, I don't have Netflix."^ExplanationWhen Squid Game was released on Netflix as one of its original Korean shows, many fans took note of how the show had "squid" in its title. It was not long before people called Splatoon and its sequels a Squid Game (a game about squids than can turn into kids and vice versa).
  • Similarly "What's this all about "Squid Game?" First of all, it's called Splatoon-" is a response to the above statement made by those who "literally" label Splatoon as Squid Game.
• Splatoon: Three Houses ^ExplanationThe moment the Splatoon 3 Direct revealed that Splatfests would later take a Mêlée à Trois approach, many people began to draw comparisons to Fire Emblem: Three Houses and how one of the most iconic moments of that game is this same type of battle. It especially helps that Deep Cut's colors for each idol (and in turn, the colors for the first Splatfest) use the same primary colors that the titular houses the Fire Emblem game uses. This has also led to people hoping there's an eventual Splatfest themed to that game.
• Splatting in order to live, and living to splat. That's the way of our world, Inkopolis.^ExplanationSplatoon 3 and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (both third games in a series developed by Monolith Soft) were released within months of each other, and many fans noticed that they had a surprising number of similarities; both are premised around Child Soldiers fighting for territory in a Forever War in a post-apocalyptic world. This led some fans of both games to draw the Xenoblade 3 protagonists as Inklings and Octolings and imagine what it would look like if Splatoon adopted Xenoblade's darker, War Is Hell aesthetics. The comparisons only got stronger once Side Order released and revealed the main villain, Order, was born from subconscious fears of change and a desire for order, which is pretty much the same origin as Z, the Big Bad of XC 3.
• Pearl Mag ^ExplanationDuring Side Order, Pearl transforms into a drone to assist Eight as they climb the Spire of Order. PSO(2) fans have compared Pearl's drone form to the Mags that accompany the player characters in those games. Her ability to use Specials independently of the player, not to mention her final Color Wail attack on Order, are likewise reminiscent of Photon Blasts from those games as well.
• TRIPLETS BORN, THE THRONE AWAITS ^ExplanationThe international Splatfest theme for March 2024 revolves around whether you'd play the drums, guitar, or keyboard, coincidentally the same instruments Sonic and his siblings play in Sonic Underground. Many cephalokids took to the city with art posts referencing the series' Expository Theme Tune. (This was helped along by the Splatfest colors being extremely similar to the hedgehogs' fur colors, although switched around — pink drums, green guitar, and purple keyboard instead of green drums, blue guitar, and pink keyboard.)
• FNAFfest^ExplanationThe next Splatfest was Springfest 2024, which had the teams revolve around baby chickens, rabbits and (inexplicably) bears. Fans, already reeling from the Sonic Underground comparisons above, immediately noticed that the teams were three fourths of the original animatronic lineup in Five Nights at Freddy's (Chica, Bonnie and Freddy/Golden Freddy respectively, excluding Foxy). To that end, plenty of memes have already been made of the coincidence, up to a mock-post from an in-universe Scott Cawthon.

Fan Work Memes

• It has become popular to make Inkling shipping fanart, as well as art of adult Inklings. Of particular mention is the artist ermame26, also known as Eromame, who has done several fan-manga of Inkling yuri shipping, as well as one comic starring Agent 3 and an Octoling who has fallen in love with her.
  • We like older Squids ^ExplanationEventually someone edited a Likes Older Women reaction image and adapted it for Splatoon.
• The ink was actually blood! ^ExplanationThe inevitable parody of bad creepypasta eventually surfaced after the game was released.
• Eleventh Tentacle ^ExplanationFirst, an official Splatoon Manga came out that had a large one-panel Naked People Are Funny joke revolving around a male Inkling forgetting to equip his clothing. Then, a fan-artist jokingly drew a comic where a male Inkling boasts to an unimpressed female Inkling that males have eleven tentacles rather than ten.
• White Ink ^ExplanationPlayers soon realised that certain colours were not being used (red, brown, white, black). Many naughty jokes were cracked about "white" ink. The jokes only got more intense when Marie (who is such a pale green she looks like she's white in colour) was revealed.
  • The jokes about white ink only intensified after a Japan Splatfest introduced white (milky-white) and yellow (pale yellow) ink for a Splatfest between Lemon and Milk Tea◊. The fanart immediately began cracking naughty jokes about the 'milk' and 'tea' and the Squid Sisters. It then saw a resurgence when the first splatfest in Splatoon 2 ended up being Mayo vs. Ketchup, complete with white and red ink.
  • Marie is the lewd Squid Sister. ^ExplanationMarie tends to have the more deadpan expressions and snarky comebacks to Callie's wisecracks, but there are many more factors in this one: first, she's such a pale cyan/teal many players mistake her for being white in colour (see the White Ink entry above). Second, she makes some really eyebrow-raising double entendres, and supported Milk Tea (which was the White Ink colour in that Japanese Splatfest), causing some Japanese fans to joke about where that milk in their tea was coming from.
    • Marie's armpit fetish ^ExplanationAs if all of the above isn't enough, Splatoon 2 has Marie say something...rather questionable about how Agent 4 must have sweaty armpits in a level in Octo Canyon◊ It got compared to some quite NSFW 4chan posts about Yoshi, and a few within the fanbase went and ran with it.
  • Not-so-fresh. ^ExplanationCallie and Marie telling players to "Stay fresh" can take a whole new meaning when taken in context of certain personal care products of a feminine nature, with phrases like "not-so-fresh feeling" and "heavy flow" being thrown around, and imagery of blue liquid being poured over white surfaces. Naturally, some players noticed this and started cracking jokes about it.
  • White Ink Confrimed/you should draw her giving birth ^ExplanationA one-two punch of a horny drawing of Marie and an equally skeevy comment which barrels headlong into fetish-posting. The latter later became a popular source of parodies on Twitter in 2021, where users would respond to character art by juxtaposing ridiculously mundane requests (e.g. "now draw her reading a book") with imposing images of buff men (usually from Dragon Ball Z screencaps).
• In the Splat-ZONE^ExplanationZone-tan inevitably got linked to Splatoon, what with all the cute squidgirls.
  • ZONE-sama has actually done artwork of Callie dancing.
• Splat Tim the Woomy ^ExplanationProviding the page image, a distorted picture of the Inkling boy from a Cats vs. Dogs Splatfest promo image◊ was posted on Twitter with the caption "it splat tim" (a corruption of "it's splat time"). It inspired a series of Stylistic Suck fake game covers◊, and tends to be associated with the phrases "He does it!" and "It's him!" (the latter being from one◊ of the many "sequels").
  • Splat Tim: Reloaded◊ ^ExplanationWith Splatoon 2 being announced, the Splat Tim meme saw a resurgence in popularity, usually with parody sequel covers of some kind.
  • Splat Tim Wiki ^ExplanationSomeone thought it would be a great idea to make a sort of comedy wiki (comparable to Wiki/Darthipedia) that documents Splat Tim game series staring the titular character who is described as a mutant Inkling called a "Splat Person".

Web Video Memes

• From a PeanutButterGamer video on Splatoon:
  • Hey Jeff, wanna Sploon? ^ExplanationThe line was used as a joke, and the word "Sploon" has cropped up on many a Miiverse post. There's even an unofficial group of Splatoon players called "Sploon Squad"
  • Sempais noticed me!! ^ExplanationSimilarly, PBG used the first person zoom to look into the studio where Callie and Marie were hanging out, who then turned to wave at him.
• "Splatoon isn't even that good." ^ExplanationAnother Web Video in the form of Alpharad made this phrase popular in the Splatoon and Smash communities, when a Youtuber by the name of JohnPaulArnett requested (rather rudely) to be a part of Alpha's "Challenge Mode" series. John lost all sympathy when he then insulted one of Alpha's other series "Squid Stuff," claiming it "Isn't even that good." Alpha and his Twitter following enjoyed the chaos that ensued.
  • “Splatoon 2 is a fucking stupid game”.
• This being a competitive multiplayer game, it's hardly surprising that there are a number of fans who like to edit their gameplay footage to parody the stereotypical MLG "pro-gamer" footage of other games (like Call of Duty and Battlefield), adding the stereotypical MLG sound and art clips like the shameless Mountain Dew and Doritos Product Placement, Unreal Tournament announcer samples, air horns, and the soundbites of overly-excited 14-year-old shooter fans freaking out over surprisingly skilled acts. Oh, and they replace all the player names with stereotypical MLG pro-gamer handles complete with [faze] clan designations.

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