A large amount of this originates from the American cartoon series and the first live-action film. A good portion of the memes relate to M. Bison.
For the best example-reading experience, listen to Guile's theme
in the background. It goes with everything, after all.
Please add entries in the following format:
- The meme. [[labelnote:Explanation]]The explanation behind the meme, if necessary.[[/labelnote]] Explanation Like this.
- Further mutations and successor memes, if any.
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Games
- "What strength!! But don't forget there are many guys like you all over the world!" Explanation Every opponent (except for Sagat) says this to you after being defeated.
- "You've got a lot to learn, before you beat me! Try again, kid! Eh, heh, heh, heh, heh!" Explanation The opponents' quotes when they beat you. Sagat even says "Try again, kid" as a winquote in Capcom vs. SNK 2. Sagat would say this winquote again (and in all caps for good measure) if you select his SFI costume in Street Fighter V.
- OOWAH! OOWAH! OOWAH! Explanation The generic Death Cry Echo for all male characters in the original CPS1 versions of SF2. Later became relegated to just Ryu, Dhalsim, and Akuma (only in Super Turbo, as in Hyper his K.O. scream is replaced by Balrog/Boxer's, as originally intended by the developers).
- Guile is basically the series' Fountain of Memes:
- E. Honda's flying headbutt◊ Explanation This doesn't need much explanation, though. For instance, it would be parodied in The King of Fighters with Hinako Shijou attempting to mimic the move and falling on her face every time.
- "Dosukoi!" Explanation An exclamation commonly used by sumo wrestlers. Honda uses it whenever he does his aforementioned flying headbutt, as well as in one of his win poses.
- "Can't you do better than that?"
- HELLOOOOOO~KEN! Explanation Each and any of these are mishearings of attack names. For the sake of clarity, though, the explanations will contain the attacks referenced. For example, this one is "Hadoken."
- "The fight is all!" Explanation Ryu's motivation for Walking the Earth and seeking out stronger opponents than he is.
- "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance." Explanation "Sheng Long" was a mistranslation of the "Shoryu" in Shoryuken, which left many fans scratching their heads as to what Sheng Long meant. This led to an infamous April Fool's joke by EGM, which in turn is believed to have influenced the creation of Akuma in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. It eventually was folded back into Gouken, the basis of the Sheng Long hoax, becoming a playable character in IV.
- "Ha ha ha ha ha! Yatta!" Explanation Chun-Li's quote during one of her winposes. It has appeared in most of her subsequent appearances.
- "I'm the strongest woman in the world!" Explanation Chun-Li's win quote.
- All of the win quotes from the original versions count.
- OYAJI!!! Explanation One of Dan Hibiki's Catchphrase, referencing his father, Go Hibiki. Dan would also say this as his K.O. scream in Street Fighter IV.
- I AM RED CYCLONE!!! Explanation Zangief's Catchphrase.
- Everything the announcer from Alpha 3 says. EVERYTHING.
- 天 ("Ten") Explanation The kanji character on Akuma's back which is prominent in both his official artwork, and one of his winposes.
- Shoushi! ("Worthless!") Explanation What Akuma says during one of said winposes.
- "I am power made flesh! Fell how weak you truly are!" Explanation What Shin Akuma says to you just before you fight him. In Alpha and Alpha 2, "Feel" was misspelled as "Fell".
- Dudley is an endless spring of 'em, thanks in part to the vocal stylings of Francis Diakowsky (his 3rd Strike voice actor, the one most commonly associated with him):
- "Jazzy NYC," the theme of Alex from III, has started a movement for slapping the name "Jazzy" on anything with even the slightest hint of jazz in it. As of Super Street Fighter IV, we now have "Jazzy Russia" (Zangief), "Jazzy Metro" (Guy), and "Jazzy Kyoto" (Ibuki).
- N-N-N-N-NOW! FIGHT A NEW RIVAL! Explanation III's version of "HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!"
- Due to Twelve's fighting stance making him look like he's dancing, short videos of him "vibing" to Brazilian funk songs went viral on YouTube and TikTok in Latin America, which led to people cosplaying as the character and imitating his stance. There he acquired the Fan Nicknames of "Venom blanco" (White Venom) or "Venom con derechos" (Venom with rights).
- "Twelve's best move is the one where you stop playing as Twelve." Explanation One of Twelve's Super Arts is X.C.O.P.Y., which lets him temporarily shapeshift into his opponent. Since Twelve is considered one of the worst characters in the game, people joke that this is his best move.
Most of these are related to the characters'
catch phrases.
- INDESTRUCTIBLE! Explanation The original version of SFIV featured "The Next Door" by the Japanese boy band Exile as its main theme, with an English version ("The Next Door -Indestructible-") serving the same role for the international release. Despite (or likely because of) the atypical choice of music for Street Fighter's big comeback, it caught on very quickly with fans, becoming something of a Signature Song in the process. Many lamented its exclusion from Super and all other revisions (likely due to licensing fees), and it's not uncommon to see various SF-related videos edit in the song.
- Jumping HK! > Did I hit him? > Yes > SHORYUKEN!!1 - The flowchart is civilization, AKA Flowchart Ken. Explanation A flowchart from the SF competitive community. It would be later referenced by Ken's winquote in Super Street Fighter IV: "See? The best fighter always wins. As easy to understand as a flowchart."
- Turn The Beat Back! Explanation Cody's theme, which repeats this line.
- Thanks to several of his epic and hilarious win quotes, Balrog (Boxer) has achieved this status.
- Dudley's "Keep it classy!" Explanation Dudley during his EX Machine Gun Blow. This one actually comes from Stuart McLean, Dudley's voice actor in Super Street Fighter IV. Acknowledged and ascended by Capcom in Street Fighter X Tekken, where Dudley once again says the line during the move despite all of the game's audio being newly-recorded and not 100% to SFIV for the Street Fighter side.
- "The answer lies... in the heart of battle." Explanation Ryu's intro.
- "PROFOUND SADNESS!" Explanation Guy's K.O. quote.
- "MUNEN!" (or as the fans hear it, "MUNANG!") Explanation Japanese equivalent of the above.
- Real ninjas wear nikes. Explanation Guy wears Nike Dukes—or a pair of suspiciously similar shoes—as part of his combat attire. This is a Take That! to Naruto, which was made even funnier by the fact that Guy's alternate outfit in SSFIV is almost as implausible for a ninja as Naruto's getup. In Addition It's also a crossover meme with Mortal Kombat, more specifically Reptile in the movie: if you slow down the footage of the Liu Kang vs. Reptile fight, you can see what appears to be the Nike swoosh in the soles of his shoes. Further inspection revealed that they're actually Otomix brand athletic shoes (as evidenced by the word "Otomix" written on the soles of the shoes), but even those aware of the misconception continue to call his sneakers Nikes due to Rule of Funny and this particular meme.
- Aside from the nikes things, there was a surge of YouTube comments turning Guy and the story of Final Fight into a parody of Blaxploitation films due to the funky style of his theme in IV. Its name? Bushinryu Jones.
- "SONNA BAKANA!" Explanation Japanese for "that's impossible!", said by Juri when defeated. In the English dub, she says "I'll have my revenge!" instead.
- "NANDATO!?" Explanation Translated as "what the hell!?" in Japanese. M. Bison says it after being K.O.-ed in an Evil Is Hammy Norio Wakamato fashion.
- "CHIKUSHOOOOOOOOOO!" Explanation Rufus' K.O. quote, which means "goddammit!" in Japanese. In the English dub, that quote is replaced with "Oh, Crap!". Ed and Dan would also say this as their K.O. scream in the Japanese version of Street Fighter V.
- "DON-CHAAAAAAAAAAN!" Explanation Said by Ibuki after being defeated.
- "Go home and be a schoolgirl." Explanation A variation of Guile's "Go home and be a family man!" winquote, said to Ibuki after beating her in Arcade mode.
- "Looks like it's time to oil up!" Explanation Hakan's Catchphrase.
- As of Super Street Fighter IV: Flash Kick, Focus Attack Dash Cancel into Shades! Explanation In SSFIV, one of Guile's additions to his moveset is a special whereupon he simply dons his Cool Shades. Certain fans ran wild with finding various ways to "utilize" it in matches.
- Dee Jay's SSFIV valentine's card message: Let's get horizontal!
- There was a short-lived trend on YouTube videos with each character's (Super) Street Fighter IV theme to declare "X FOR PRESIDENT!"
- Due to the bemused and downright irked reactions to Akuma's Demon Armageddon, his second Ultra Combo in SSFIV, there were comparisons to Beyblade and Looney Tunes (here, here, here, and here), which in turn led to the Ultra's other Fan Nicknames of Shun Goku Beyblade and the Akumanian Devil.
- "Fei Long needs/wants WATEEEEEEEEEEERRRR!" or "What does Fei Long love to drink? WA-TAAA!!'" Explanation Yet another mishearing, now of Fei Long's Kiai screams.
- Oni is banned. Explanation Oni isn't really banned, but people love to joke about it because he's a rare character and his overall design just screams "broken." Amusingly, in the past, Oni was considered a poor character, and characters in other games that were low tier were "banned" as well.
- "FOR MOTHER RUSSIA!" Explanation Zangief's quote upon activating his Ultimate Atomic Buster Ultra. Also doubles as a Fan Nickname for the Ultra itself.
- "I AM THE PROTECTOR OF RUSSIA'S SKIES!" Explanation Same as above, but with Gief's Siberian Blizzard Ultra instead. Cue jokes pertaining to the Red Cyclone being the last line in Russia's missile defense system.
- "SKY PROTECTED!" Explanation Commentary from Chris Hu during a match between Dragon God (Akuma) and Aquasilk (Zangief), where Zangief catches Akuma with his Siberian Blizzard. Branches off of the above "I am the protector of Russia's skies!" quote. Since Aquasilk primarily uses this Ultra, this meme is also heavily associated with him, which can lead to even funnier moments of role reversal.
- "FUCK OUTTA HEA STANDING STRONG!" Explanation Again, Chris Hu. Done in response to Aquasilk's Zangief using his standing MP to stuff Dragon God's advance with his Akuma twice. Let's just say Chris Hu is something of a mini-factory of memes himself and call it a day.
- The day after Ultra Street Fighter IV was released onto Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, we had Maximilian Dood having the misfortune of an A.I. Hugo powering through a Metsu Hadoken with an EX Monster Lariat and winning. Max's scream of shock and disbelief certainly helped.
- The various Street Fighter IV mods. Explanation This was a trend during the run of Street Fighter IV and its later updated versions on PC where players would use mods to swap character movesets with different character models, causing hilarious results to occur.
- Unable to log in to server (2100d) Explanation The dreaded error message which resulted in the first beta being postponed. Nowadays, it's the official message for when the servers are down for maintenance.
- Disconnected from server Explanation Yet another dreaded error message that happened during the first beta. Much like the above, this happened frequently.
- Connection with opponent was lost (40002) Explanation The message you get when your opponent disconnects. Became increasingly prominent at the game's launch and beyond, when it was discovered that ragequitting allowed you to keep your win streak and online rank, something that still lingered from the beta. Became less prominent after Season 2 finally fixed the ragequitting issue by banning those who do so immediately for 48 hours and making them lose 1000 rank points.
- ANOTHER FIGHT IS COMING YOUR WAY Explanation The "Here Comes a New Challenger" pop up for the game. During the beta tests, this would happen rather frequently since there was no way to turn off the Fight Request function in the Training Mode settings, leaving little-to-no time for players to actually practice.
- RAAAAA-SHIIIII-DOOOOOOOOOO~! Explanation Rashid's theme music has a chorus singing his name in Japanese phonetics.
- Hot Ryu Explanation Ryu's alternate costume, consisting of Messy Hair, Manly Facial Hair that puts Kenshiro to shame, and a god-tier Heroic Build complete with Walking Shirtless Scene. Everyone, and we mean everyone, went ga-ga for him. Admit it, you would too.
- Everyone is gay for Ryu Explanation Due to his newfound sex god status, people took this infamous Guilty Gear meme and applied it to Ryu. This is actually true in-universe as well, since there are several characters who are interested in Ryu. Interpret that as you will.
- UNGA Alex◊ Explanation Shortly after screenshots of his moves began to appear, this image began circulating the internet poking fun at Alex's appearance, eventually gaining exposure on FGC commentator Aris' stream (AvoidingThePuddle). In particular, how he looks as though he's built like a gorilla and how his hair looks like a package of McDonald's french fries. The UNGA meme naturally followed, carried over from Guilty Gear in regards to Leo Whitefang.
- ALEX TRAILER Explanation Before Alex was officially revealed, every single tournament broadcast on Twitch would have people waiting until the end expecting Alex's trailer to be shown. Even after Alex was released, people still ask when they're going to show the Alex trailer.
- OH-HOHOHOHOHO! Explanation Karin's laugh, already memetic as is, experienced a rise when two players (Magneto1080p and Mago) from Final Round 19 imitated her laugh after earning a win. Then it experienced further rise during NCR Regionals.
- I'll show you the divide in our class! Explanation Karin's intro quote.
- Guile's crouch walk. Explanation One of Guile's new tricks is being able to move forward while crouching (being able to charge his Flash Kick at the same time), improving on his offensive capabilities quite a bit. Unfortunately, the motion happens to make Guile look like a stalker.
- 8 frames Explanation Much like the "20 tick" meme for Overwatch, it was discovered that Street Fighter V had a native 8 frames of input latency even offline, which alters the timing many players are used to. Many other fighting games only have 3 to 5 frames of input latency. It's become a point of derision for the game, even moreso after it was announced that Capcom made it that way on purpose in an attempt to make the netcode feel naturally smooth. However according to Capcom's Peter "Combofiend" Rosas, the information about the 8f input latency being a design choice was a mistranslation.
- Urien's thong/banana hammock Explanation Many veteran fans, while happy that Urien would be returning, were disappointed that he was actually wearing clothes in this game other than his signature loincloth, and that said costume seemed to be missing at first. However, it was later discovered that his original costume was in the game, but not able to be selected normally. Capcom then later showed a picture of him doing an alternate intro involving him burning away his clothes, and upon his release players searched high and low for some way to do this. They quickly discovered the method to use the thong, and were ecstatic upon learning that the button combination to choose the costume was a nod to 3rd Strike, being the same combination (holding down LP+MK+HP before the start of a match) to choose his fan-favorite 7th color.
- Akuma Matata Explanation The initial reaction to Akuma's new default look; long hair and beard resembling a lion's mane, causing inevitable comparisons between him to Simba or Mufasa from The Lion King (1994).
- "Capcom only has one guy managing the server." Explanation After the beta period had ended, Capcom themselves openly admitted that the server was handled by only a single employee. Needless to say, the internet ran wild with this and now uses it whenever there's an issue with getting the server up, as a means of mocking their incompetence in terms of getting their servers up and running within their stated time frames.
- V-Triggered Explanation A pun on the new "V-Trigger" mechanic and Trigger, used when fans are disappointed with an announcement to hyperbolically compare their disappointment to PTSD.
- ABI-GAAAAAIIIIILLLLL! Explanation Anything and everything regarding Abigail, due to his strange yet hilarious mannerisms.
- VROOM VROOM Explanation Abigail's intro, where he dances as though he's driving a car before the fight begins.
- POWER TO THE EARTH! Explanation G's catchphrase, shouted out as he activates his Critical Art. Considered one of the hammiest and quotable lines of an already pretty hammy and quotable character.
- POWER TO THE ASS! Explanation Related to the above, some fans have noted the rather... interesting way G's Japanese voice actor pronounces the word "Earth", leading to this mishearing.
- NOT MY DAY! Explanation G's K.O. scream in the English version.
- Laura X Zeku Explanation Laura and Zeku's victory quotes mutually display Ship Tease, leading many to believe that they would make a good couple.
- Chun-Li Costumes Explanation Chun-Li has received a lot of DLC costumes and seemingly continues to get more and more. Whereas most characters have four or five costumes, Chun-Li has more than a dozen.
- Chun-Li's new skin Explanation Imported from the "Tracer's new skin" meme in Overwatch. People have come to expect a new Chun-Li skin each time a new batch of DLC costumes arrives.
- #BlankaChan Explanation Within a very short amount of time, Blanka's Story Costume, which is him dressed in a mascot costume of the plush toys made in his likeness during his Story Mode, immediately became popular with the fanbase. Capcom then decided to acknowledge it, leading to these pictures.
- Codell Traverson Explanation A Fan Nickname for Cody's new design for the game with him in a stylish suit fitting his role as the new mayor of Metro City. Popularized by this reaction to the Arcade Edition trailer.
- Street Fighter V has a better Capcom roster than Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Explanation While Infinite was heavily criticized for a very unimaginative roster that mostly consisted of returning characters from the last game, the crossover costumes in Street Fighter V were praised for doing a better job of representing characters and games from across Capcom's history. These included Nero's outfit from Devil May Cry 4, as well as franchises that were entirely absent from Infinite like Viewtiful Joe, Breath of Fire, Red Earth, Forgotten Worlds, Captain Commando, Star Gladiator, Cyberbots and even Haunting Ground!
- Beth Explanation A Fan Nickname for Seth's new design, which involves him inhabiting a brand-new, female body that looks like Juri. Jokes quickly ensued.
- Abigail the Car Whisperer Explanation Abigail's V-Skill 2 in Champion Edition involves him summoning a giant tire that rolls in from the edge of the screen, which he can manipulate to hit the opponent from odd angles. This, along with his animation being a beckoning gesture that looks like he's calling an animal to come to him, led him to being called a car whisperer.
- The Fortnite buff/Chug Jug Ryu Explanation Not long after Ryu was announced as a skin for Fortnite, the patch notes for Season V dropped, showing that Ryu had finally, after three whole seasons of being considered one of the worst characters in the game, received a significant amount of meaningful buffs that almost completely reworked his gameplay. Jokes quickly began circulating that the buffs were because of him crossing over into that game.
- Smiling Ryu Explanation Longtime fighting game artist Shinkiro drew a special loading screen for Fortnite (also featured in SFV with ads turned on), which depicted Ryu giving a big cheesy grin. The picture quickly went viral and spawned even more memes, and has been used in conjunction with Ryu getting buffed in Season V.
- Wide Ryu/Ryu Redfield/Ben Swolo Explanation The first teaser trailer for Street Fighter 6 gave fan glimpse of Ryu's new design within the game's new engine; speculated (and later confirmed) to be the RE Engine, given the far more realistic albeit still stylized approach in art style. Ryu's chest is massive, covering almost the entire screen. Fans later instantly noted a resemblance to Chris Redfield, particularly his Resident Evil Village incarnation to the point where a new format of Chrisposting was created where they jokingly claim that Chris had to disguise as Ryu to convince Ken to continue the bloodline after Leon and Ethan refused to seal the deal. Comparisons to Ben Swolo memes from The Last Jedi were also made.
- Ryu's "Sheng Long" Explanation The first teaser trailer also had a low shot of Ryu and his opponent with what seemed to be a realistic take on his crotch, leading to even more jokes.
- Giga Chad Ryu Explanation With Ryu's beard, exaggerated muscular body, and stoic expressions, he drew comparisons to the Giga Chad meme.
- Teabagging Ryu Explanation Ryu's round winning animation has him turn around and kneel. This does not change on how close or far he is to the beaten enemy and can easily look like he just sit on their face.
- Logo memes Explanation The initial logo for the game received a wide range of reactions, with people comparing it to a Discord server icon with 6 notifications among other things.
- Capcom sent Hook Explanation Some fans noted that Luke's new design resembles AEW wrestler Hook, who is a major Memetic Badass among wrestling fans.
- Hobo Ken/Meth Ken/Sad Ken Explanation Leaked images of Ken depicted him sporting a much more disheveled appearance with a grungie hoodie and worn out hair that shows his natural brunnette roots. Immediately, many compared him to a homeless person or a meth addict. Turns out the truth is he's in hiding after his good name is threatened by a criminal organisation, and is thankfully still as strong as ever.
- Ken invested in crypto and/or NFTs, and lost everything/"My apes..." Explanation An alternate explanation of Ken being the way he is now was also joked to be because Ken spent the Masters' family wealth on cryptocurrency and/or NFTs, specifically Bored Apes, just before the crypto crash, costing him his wealth. Later became an Ascended Meme when Capcom made it canon via the prequel comic that Ken actually did invest in cryptocurrency.
- "She took the fucking kids, Ryu." Explanation Another explanation based on some potential story leaks involving Ken and Eliza having gone through a divorce, essentially taking Mel (his son) and Masters fortune with her and leaving him behind. As usual, fan art was quick to follow.
- "Look, Luke. I know it's our job to help this guy and everything, but I think this guy's a lost cause. He's obviously made up his mind, why don't we just cut our losses and get out of here?" Explanation A widely circulated redrawing of a scene from Smiling Friends, with Ryu as Charlie, Luke as Pim, and Ken as Desmond, went viral during the initial wave of Divorced Ken memes, implying that Ken's alleged Trauma Conga Line had caused him to become suicidal, much to Ryu and Luke's horror.
- Ken "story leaks" Explanations In a vein similar to Morbing, fans took it upon themselves to come up with more possible misfortunes for Ken after the alleged leaks, ranging from dark (ex. the belt Ken wears around his arm belonged to Sean, which is now worn by a grieving Ken because his pupil was murdered) to darkly hilarious (ex. Ken is now "impotent" as a result of the divorce and struggles to perform his flaming Shoryuken — not unlike the infamous Slightly Pissed Off Ryu). The ever-present "Family Man" meme was also thrown into the pile, with fan art often depicting Guile either giving his brother-in-law some Tough Love to whip him back into shape or outright lambasting Ken for completely falling apart (like so).
- "I used to wake-up DP, now I don't even want to wake up anymore." Explanation Said for comedic effect by Maximillian Dood in his take on the leaks (but Ken primarily). As a perfect fighting game in-joke, it ciruclated a bit online almost immediately after.
- ARE YOU OKAY, KEN?? Explanation Ken and Terry Bogard, owning to their respective creators, are seen one of the more profound inter-company fighting game American rivalries, which was later capitalized on with the SNK vs. Capcom series. Ken's new look in SF6 was noted to coincidentally resemble a very haggard version of Terry's Garou design (and without his hood, Ken does look the part, thanks in part to his hairstyle and how his clothes resemble Terry's bomber jacket + t-shirt + jeans combo). Memes abounded wherein Terry, with wholesome intent, asks Ken if he's OK and if there's anything he can do to help (instead of following up with the usual "BUSTER WOLF!"), even up to lending his classic hat to Ken in the same friendly manner Ken tosses it to him in their in pre-fight into from Capcom vs. SNK and CvS2. Amongst the various discredited Divorced Ken memes, this was the variant that stayed alive after Ken's SF6 story was officially revealed, as it led to another meme (see below). Additionally, Terry is the kind of guy who'd probably help Ken out anyway from this sort of situation.
- Although Divorced Ken was eventually debunked by establishing that he was framed by a criminal organisation and is trying to clean his name as opposed to having a midlife crisis, even more memes began spurting from this revelation:
- When you beat the divorce allegations Explanation Due to this clarification, fans began cheering back for Ken, and even began stating that he himself disproved the supposed rumors about his divorce.
- Ken is now Terry Bogard Explanation Fans noticed the glaring simularities between Ken's new backstory and Terry Bogard's, both being homeless fighters who plan to take down mob leaders for ruining their name. The fact that Ken's new jacket is also brown like Terry's MotW attire definitely drew the comparisons even more.
- The Fugitive. Explanation With Ken now being an outlaw due to him being framed by a criminal organisation, people began compared his situation to The Fugitive.
- Punished Ken Explanation Ken's Darker and Edgier look and backstory with having his reputation ruined by a criminal organisation and his family now being in danger, forcing him to go into hiding in order to seek out the truth, immediately drew comparisons with Venom Snake. This nickname was also used back during the "divorce allegations" phase of the memes surrounding Ken's new look, and it just so happened to still apply after the real story details came out. "Whiff Punished Ken" occasionally sees use because of the wordplay, but has yet to catch on in a wider context.
- A lot of Luke's lines (and some outside memes delivered by his English voice actor) have become memes in their own right:
- "You're quite photogenic." Explanation Luke's line in World Tour Mode once you've finished creating your avatar. Due to the immense amount of depth, people can end up creating rather silly-looking characters, which results in Luke saying this line to all manner of insane creations in the same tone. Aleks Le, Luke's voice actor, later followed up on this with the linked tweet, wherein Luke loses his composure trying to go through with the compliment when faced with a noticeably deformed avatar.
- "BEAST MODE BABY!" Explanation When Luke activates his Level 2 Super Art, Eraser, he does so with this. Very easily quotable thanks in part to the delivery of the line.
- "hADoUkEn"Explanation One of Luke's taunts (Back plus All Buttons) has him perform a Hadoken in a hilariously disrespectful manner. One such trailer even has Luke taunt Ryu three times in quick succession .
- "You took the wrong guy to Memphis!" Explanation Misheard when Luke connects with his Level 3 Super Art, from "You chose the wrong guy to mess with!"
- BOOM! DIVORCED/BOOM! STILL MARRIED Explanation A series of gifs featuring Luke, once again voiced by Aleks Le.
- Luke from Streets Explanation Yet another meme from Luke's voice actor Aleks Le, this time parodying the "Ryu from Streets" video as a final promotion before the launch of Street Fighter 6.
- Dude, you look huge.note Oh, ladies. What's good? *gets Drive Impacted* Explanation A fan-made animation that parodies this meme. Yet another instance of Aleks Le participating in any meme relating to Street Fighter. Unlike the original, for many, what makes this one particularly memorable is Luke getting smacked with a Drive Impact at the end, complete with a perfectly cut scream.
- Juri's SF6 reveal brought with it any and all memes relating to, well... considering what Juri is known for, you can probably figure that out. Hint It rhymes with "soot lettish."
- Even Capcom themselves acknowledged this, with the official Street Fighter Twitter account simply tweeting out a foot emoji in the replies of an image of Juri.
- This continued with the reveal of Manon and Marisa, both also barefoot, leading some to jokingly call the game Feet Fighter 6.
- Thicc Chun-Li Explanation Chun-Li's muscular legs and buttocks have always been a part of her appeal, but appreciation for her design skyrocketed after her trailer showed off her SF6 appearance. Several videos focusing on Chun-Li's figure as depicted by the new graphics engine were made, with comments like "Chun-Li doesn't have a leg day, she has a leg YEAR!" making the rounds.
- Old Lady Chun-Li Explanation The fact that Chun-Li would be 54 by the time of SF6 based on the often ignored birthdates from SFII did not go unnoticed, with fans joking that her old age, combined with her huge rack, would result in serious back problems. This, combined with her being a Low-Tier Letdown in tournaments due to her new moveset, resulted in fans jokingly believing that Chun-Li is beginning to feel her age weighing on her. This is also paired with the "Cammy stretch" meme below (as Cammy is "only" in her late forties and wouldn't hit 50 until the next year in-universe).
- Nude Chun-Li Explanation A European tournament was interrupted when one of the hosts forgot to turn off their nude mod for Chun-Li, resulting in a brief battle between a naked Chun-Li and a fully dressed Kimberly in the middle of the Colosseo before the plug was pulled and the match restarted to turn off the mod.
- Avatar customization memes Explanation The avatar customization in Street Fighter 6 quickly became notable for being extremely thorough. Many memes soon followed, as well as comparisons to the similarly memetic Create-A-Soul feature in the Soul Series (Soulcalibur VI in particular).
- Capcom has given us too much power! Explanation The avatar customization in SF6 has options for the most minute of details, and even has the ability to upload recipes for others to use. The level of detail present also allows players to create characters from other franchises, which players predictably took advantage of.
- "That's a huge bitch!" Explanation Marisa's reveal made everyone impressed with her being one of the most non-standard fighters in the whole genre — a 6'8" female powerhouse with an extremely impactful fighting style who instantly became a fan favorite.
- Box art memes Explanation Much like the placeholder logo for SF6, the unveiling of the game's official box art was met with a wide array of reactions and jokes, such as comparing Luke to Popeye or explaining that his odd expression is the result of him holding in/moments away from letting out a sneeze. Once again, Aleks Le joined in with his own alternative cover art featuring Luke gawking and pointing at none other than "Ryu from Streets" (see the "Others" folder below)... which instantly went viral, prompting Le to follow up with a variant that added in Jamie.
- Cammy stretch Explanation During the February 23, 2023 Street Fighter showcase, Cammy was shown stretching, prominently showing off her new curves and abs. Naturally, fan art of Cammy and other characters mimicking the pose ensued, with many comparing it to the Jack-O' pose. Even Capcom's TikTok posted a clip of her stretch to acknowledge it, and their Twitter acknowledged it verbally.
- Classic Cammy Explanation The reveal that the alternate/classic outfits of the roster would be unlockable and usable in battle was met with wide praise. But special mention especially goes to Cammy and her highly fanservicey classic outfit, which was met with an immense amount of pure lust from the community. For bonus points, the official reveal via Twitter made it a point to show off Cammy's classic outfit by having her doing — you guessed it — the above "Cammy stretch".
- Level 8 CPU Explanation Not that Street Fighter isn't immune to difficult CPU or the occasional SNK Boss, but upon the release of the Street Fighter 6 demo, many players found that the Level 8 CPU was extremely difficult to fight against. Similar to the Level 9 Kazuya in Smash Bros., the CPU was capable of pulling out optimal juggles and full Drive Cancel combos that lead to around half damage or more. Many streamers and even pros like Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong had difficulty defeating the Level 8 CPU.
- Modern control memes Explanation The new Modern control scheme, which simplifies the traditional 6-button control scheme down to four buttons and allows for special moves to be performed with a simple direction and a button press alongside Supers being performed with simple quarter-circle motions and any of the Light, Medium, or Heavy buttons, became the subject of many memes. One relatively prominent one involves editing the Modern controls symbol (a gigantic letter M) on top of Majin Vegeta's forehead, where the Majin symbol would normally be.
- "FUCK IT, WE PALM!" Explanation A variant of the "Fuck it, we ball" meme. This phrase is a joke among Jamie users who throw out Swagger Step aka "the palm" without any thought, despite the move being easily punished by Drive Impact or if it's poorly spaced on block.
- A.K.I. feeding the Avatar Explanation During her teaser trailer, A.K.I. tries to force feed the Player Avatar some herbal medicine (probably) and we cut to a POV shot of her attempting to do that. Naturally, this has lent itself to an easily exploitable template, where the pill can be replaced with anything else.
- Team "I can fix her" Explanation A byproduct of A.K.I. and Juri's Evil Is Sexy status, many have taken notice to the former's... less than stable personality that somehow makes the latter of all characters look sane by comparison.
Animation
- Sagat: "You like... some cornflakes?" Explanation In "No Way Out", Sagat attempts to make a young boy named Kip his mascot, starting with a healthy breakfast. It Makes Just As Much Sense In Context.
- "Just get in the plane." Explanation In "Demon Island", after Cammy hits on Guile, Dee Jay and Blanka tease him about it. In the case of the latter, Blanka gives Guile a smirk. Tired of the teasing, Guile tells Blanka this.
- "And you... YOU'RE A LOSER!" Explanation Sweet comeback delivered by Ken to Fei Long in "So You Want to Be in Pictures", after Fei Long chews him out for allowing fame to go to his head and leading him to become a sloppy mess.
- "You're supposed to die!" Explanation In "So You Want to Be in Pictures", Ken acts in Fei Long's movie and his character was originally supposed to die. After gaining creative control of the movie, Ken kept re-writing the script so that his character wouldn't die among other things.
- "Oh Guile, that color is YOU!" Explanation Ken's Camp Gay line to Guile after the latter is done with his scene in one of Fei Long's movies in "The Hand That Feeds You".
- "No one has ever defeated Sagat, AND NO ONE EVER WILL!!!" Explanation Sagat is defeated at least twice before the episode in which he says this, which is "Second to None".
- "This is DELICIOUS!" Explanation Bison is happy that his mutants has Guile and his friends on the ropes in "The Medium Is the Message". Doubles as an Ascended Meme as Bison uses the line in SFV's Story Mode.
- "YES! YES!" Explanation Bison exclaims this victoriously just after Guile gets tackled by one of the mutants in the same episode. Goes hand in hand with the above quote. The sudden triumphant swell of the music doesn't help.
- "Yes! I did it!" Explanation A minor meme from the same episode that nontheless emphasizes on Bison's cheesiness.
- Balrog: "Guess you won't be needing those tapes I made for you. You want me to get rid of 'em?"
- Bison: "Don't be hasty. Not until I see those Street Fighters pummeled to dust! Which should be any moment now." Addendum For bonus points, this dialogue serves as the bridge between the above "This is DELICIOUS!" and "YES! YES!" in the episode they are featured.
- Balrog: Time for the tape?
- Bison: Time for the tape.
- "NOOOOOOO!" Explanation In "Cammy and the Bachelor", Guile is unhappy to see Cammy kissing and allying with Bison, due to brainwashing. Any sense of drama is destroyed by Guile shaking his fists like a toddler and a rather upbeat musical cue.
- "Blanka, no, not the head bite!" Explanation In "Face of Fury", due to getting mutated a little more, Blanka has severe anger issues. After Vega tries to kill his Satellite Love Interest, Blanka goes berserk. Cue Guile trying to stop Blanka and cue Blanka turning on Guile and attempts to bite his head.
- "Oh, man. I've been slimed by Arnold the PIG!" Alright, that's it. I'm out of here!" Explanation In the first episode, "The Adventure Begins", a hog covered in some slime slams into Ryu, covering him in the muck, pissing him off enough to consider giving up on his and Ken's search for treasure.
- "BIIIIISONNNNNN!!!!" (random fire sprouts up) Explanation Guile shouts Bison's name when he learns Blanka's been exposed to a deadly virus. When he does so, flames randomly sprout behind him for no reason. Also from "The Adventure Begins".
- Sonic Boom is this both in the games and the cartoon. In the games, it was misheard by Brazilians as "ALEX FULL!" (as noted above). In the cartoon, he uses it to solve everything. Everything.
- Courtesy of Cody, "YOU... HURT... MY... JESSICA!!!!" and its mishearing "YOU... HURT... MAH... TESTICALS!!!!!". Explanation When Cody attacks Belger after the Mad Gear Gang leader assaults Jessica, Cody's girlfriend. Cody's inexplicable "country bumpkin" voice and the way he drags out the syllables in Jessica's name led to viewers mishearing it as something else. From the episode "Final Fight", obviously.
- "Everything is lies! Everything is lies!" Explanation Cammy says this upon learning that Bison not only brainwashed her to serve him, but he also killed her parents. From the final episode, "Cammy Tell Me True".
- "Yes, yes, I killed your father. What is it with you women anyway? I killed my father too and you don't hear me whining about it!" Explanation More of Bison's hamminess, also from "Cammy Tell Me True". This one is his epic retort to Chun-Li.
- "I'm the world's greatest pillow fighter!" Explanation The ending of "Second to None" has Ryu and Ken getting into a pillow fight while the former says this (which is itself a Call-Back to "The World's Greatest Warrior", when Ken symbolically won the eponymous title after defeating Akuma).
- Discipline. Justice. Commitment. Explanation The Street Fighters' code of honor. Gets repeated ad nauseam in "Getting to Guile" to undo Guile's brainwashing.
- "Wooga wooga wooga!" Explanation The cute sound Ken makes as he noogies Ryu.
- "You're so sensitive!" Explanation The few-seconds-later quip by Ken to Ryu after the latter throws the former off of him due to the aforementioned noogie.
- "Bison's ass is MINE!" Explanation Guile's response to Chun-Li after she introduces herself to the former and tells him that she was sent by Interpol to help work on the Bison case.
- "Japanese fighters stick together... 'CAUSE WE'RE BROTHERS!! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Explanation E. Honda offering Ryu half the prize money he earned from beating Dhalsim in a fight, mainly because the latter sensed Ryu's presence, which allowed Honda to get the winning blow in. That and Dhalsim forfeited as well.
- "I'm the welcome wagon!" Explanation Balrog near the end of the film, right before he faces off with Honda. Notable due to the line's delivery and Balrog's facial features being ridiculously Off-Model to the point that he appears to be lacking in terms of mental capacities.
Street Fighter: The Movie
- For you, the day [Bison graced your village] was the most important day of your life. But for Me, It Was Tuesday. Explanation Bison's crowning moment of awesome, when Chun-Li called him out for killing her father. Notable because it codified and named an awesome trope.
- OF COURSE! Explanation Bison dramatically turns and delivers this line when Sagat shows surprise at the reveal that Guile faked his death. Popularized as a meme by The Nostalgia Critic in reference to any villain whose plan is to, you guessed it, Take Over the World.
- I guess you didn't SEE that, did you!? Explanation Bison mocks Sagat while covering an eye for not knowing that Ryu and Ken, whom he was responsible for, were spies who helped Guile. He changes his delivery halfway through to a childish tone to sell it even more.
- Quick! Change the channel! Explanation Zangief's dumbassed comment as a video broadcast displays an explosive-laden truck heading directly for Bison's base. It's basically used for channel-changing shenanigans, from either how to avoid Sadako Yamamura from The Ring to the viral hashtag #ChangeTheChannel that flared up when Channel Awesome got into a very serious controversy that broke a majority of trust onto them.
- You got... PAID? (Unfortunately, Balrog wasn't there to fully cash in on that scene.) Explanation Zangief makes a Heel–Face Turn after discovering that not only was Bison the villain, but his compatriots, most notably Dee Jay, only worked for Bison for the money. The Balrog addendum is a reference to him saying "I GOT PAID!" during one of his winposes in the Capcom vs. SNK games.
- From Dee Jay: "Oh man, I should have stayed at Microsoft." Explanation During the siege on Bison's base as Dee Jay attempts to escape.
- GAAME OVER!! Explanation Bison's triumphant exclamation as he destroys Guile's stealth boat and believes he's finished him off. For added hilarity, the controls for the river's automated defenses were co-opted from a Street Fighter II arcade cabinet, and the line itself was used in the tie-in video game after the player beats the game or, naturally, gets a Game Over.
- You still refuse to accept my GODHOOD!? Keep your own God! In fact, this might be a good time to pray to him. For I beheld Satan, AS HE FELL FROM HEAVEN! LIKE LIGHTNIIIIIIIIIING!! Explanation Bison's excessively hammy proclamation to Guile in their final fight moments before he's beaten.
- Bitcoins are the new Bison Dollars. Explanation Bison dollars are a currency M. Bison invents that might be worth something in the future if his world domination scheme takes hold. People use Bison Dollars as a jokey way of discussing the rise of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, seen as confusing or similarly worthless compared to other forms of money.
Others
Tournaments
- The Beast... is UNLEASHED! Explanation "Evo 2004 Moment #37", a climactic, showstopping finish to the EVO 2004 match in Street Fighter III 3rd Strike between Daigo "The Beast" Umehara and Justin Wong. In the final round, Umehara's Ken is whittled down to his last tick of health: any damage, even chip damage, would have ended the match in Wong's favor. When Wong activates Chun-Li's Hoyoku Sen Super Art, Umehara proceeds to parry every single hit of the super and counters with his own combo, turning the tables against Wong and winning the match. More background detail on the tournament match, and what was involved in anticipating and executing the parry, can be found in articles from Penny Arcade and Edge. There's even an entire book on this moment in FGC history (EVO Moment 37: One of the Most Famous Moments in Competitive Gaming History by Glenn Cravens), which reveals, among other bits of trivia, that the crowd reaction video that went viral might not have even happened: Future Promoted Fanboy Seth "S-Kill" Killian was capturing the match with a camcorder that was incredibly low on power, hoping it'd last long enough to record everything when he had a feeling something big was about to happen.
- Let's go, Justin! Explanation Also from the above match, and the last thing that is audibly heard before the Daigo parry is pulled off. Any match with an American player in Nico Video is bound to have this line in the scrolling comments. This later crossed over into a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 match of Wong's, where (much like Umehara), Wong managed to reverse his fortune. (See the respective page for more details.) The phrase is also commonly said when someone tries to finish a player with low health by using Chun-Li's kick Super in the same manner as Wong tried to do in Umehara.
- "Rare footage of X actually [insert adjective/verb here]." Explanation A derivative of Seth Killian's commentary from the match, which, upon seeing Umehara backed into a corner and on the verge of a loss, notes that this is "Rare footage of Daigo actually angry."
- SERIOUSLY??? SERIOUSLY??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???!!! OHHHH MAI GAWD!!! Explanation From another Umehara vs. Wong match, this time in Super Street Fighter IV: Guile vs. Rufus. The round ends with a double K.O. (See this page for the full explanation.)
- Competitive player Rom gets "drink as fuck" at a 2009 tournament and admonishes the audience to "play Third Strike. It's a good game."
- Thuggery Explanation In the middle of their 2016 Capcom Pro Tour season of tournaments, Capcom suddenly added a ruling which stated that players were not allowed to be sponsored by adult-oriented enterprises (business term for pornographic filmmakers or distributors), not allowed to collude in splitting the pot, and not allowed to do anything that would be considered Harmful to Minors, such as smoking, drinking, and even betting. In addition, they stated that violence, harassment, and other forms of "thuggery" would be treated with zero tolerance. Backlash ensued and Capcom eventually revised the rulings, but the internet also ensured that they will Never Live It Down by using the term to describe anything done on stream that would be considered uncivilized or unsportsmanlike. Became more prevalent after EVO 2011 Marvel vs. Capcom 3 finalist Noel Brown was exposed on camera for a form of thuggery and not only got banned from CPT for a year, but also lost his sponsorship with Ultra Arcade over the incident.
- "DOWNLOAD COMPLETE!" Explanation The first thing Korean Street Fighter V player RZR|Infiltration said after winning EVO 2016.
- "Fighting game is something so great." Explanation The last thing Japanese Street Fighter V player Echo Fox|Tokido said after winning EVO 2017.
- "I'll never lose a set to a Smash player" Explanation An infamous quote said by controversial YouTuber and competitive Street Fighter player Dalauan "LowTierGod" Sparrow. LTG would later proceed to be defeated by Immortals-signed Smash 4 player Jason "ANTi" Bates, having been perfected by the latter at the end of the set.
Others
- Would anybody like some poundcake? I'D LIKE SOME POUNDCAKE! Explanation Another mishearing for the abovementioned Tatsumaki Senpukyaku. Comes from one of Egoraptor's sketches from the Street Fighter Collab.
- "Good Morning, Mister Masters" Explanation A very popular original song made by Amethian/EmpyrianAria in 2009, essentially serving as the Flowchart Ken meme from Street Fighter IV in musical form. Between the incredibly catchy lyrics and beats, it has an enduring popularity among the fanbase, usually seeing a resurgence every time a new entry of the series is announced or nearing release, as most assume someone will end up spamming Ken's Shoryuken to victory at some point in each game's lifespan.
- Mash that DPM+HP / It'll win footsies with priority / And every situation you can DPM+HP / For a 3-hit combo OTG~ Explanation The first and most well-known part of the song's chorus, which perfectly encapsulates how Ken's Shoryuken figures into the Flowchart Ken meme.
- SO S-RANK, SO S-RANK! =O / DAMN YOUR KEN'S SO S-RANK! :D / SO S-RANK, SO S-RANK! =O / HOW'D YOU GET TO BE SO S-RANK? / DAMMMNNNNN! Explanation Late in the song, the Ken player is approached by awestruck "female units" who are complimenting his apparently godlike setplay, leading to this exchange. The emoticons come from the song's official lyrics as provided by EmpyrianAria.
- The memes Pastor Ryu and Pastor Pilão (Piledriver Pastor) are memes that became famous in Brazil, as remixes of footage of Pentecostal preachers and Street Fighter music.
- Even before IV, Brazilian fans often joked that they'd elect Blanka for President if they could.
- "Hey there everybody, this is Ryu from Streets." Explanation A parody video that riffs on Ryu's Boring, but Practical nature by having him express interest in a number of uninteresting things, such as "water with no ice" and Seasonal Rot episodes of The Simpsons. The comedically dull script, the janky animation, and the fact that the voice actor didn't even try to sound like Ryu resulted in the video becoming a popular subject for quotation and parody, with many fans additionally using "Ryu from Streets" as a tongue-in-cheek Fan Nickname for him. The video ultimately became an Ascended Meme when Aleks Le, Luke's voice actor, recorded a parody of the parody in-character as Luke to promote Street Fighter 6.
- Casually Messatsu child Explanation A spin-off of the "US Army Back Pat" guide. The "casually approach child" step had the adult's walk cycle drawn with afterimages in such a way that made him look like he was gliding Akuma style at the kid. So SF fans took the meme and replaced the adult with Akuma himself about to Shun Goku Satsu the poor kid.
You must defeat these memes to stand a chance.
