The Roll Safe meme, in which logically sound but absurd advice is accompanied by someone pointing to their head with a knowing half grin, has slowly been building up steam since late January. But late last week the Internet joke hit critical mass in the gaming world when Nintendo took it to a new plateau of absurdity with its signature dad humour.
The meme arose from actor Kayode Ewumi’s performance in a BBC Three web series called Hood Documentary. Soon after, GIFs and screen caps of the moment where Ewumi points to his temple and gives a sideways glance toward the camera started to surface. By January of this year, the Roll Safe meme exploded on Black Twitter as a way of lampooning sage lifehacks that have fatal flaws. The advice ranged from comically bad to tragically comic.
you can’t hurt my feelings if i have none pic.twitter.com/DMSO5CUy0M
— A (@aliyahmariabee) January 30, 2017
As the meme filtered out into different parts of the Internet, each niche community put its own twist on the humorous expression of people’s will to succeed in the face of cosmic obstacles in the most self-defeating way possible. There were Dragon Ball Z Roll Safe memes.
You don’t have to raise your kids if you’re always dead pic.twitter.com/ewzLlOeO4U
— Alex Forrest ☝?️ (@380kmh) February 6, 2017
You don’t have to fight Gohan if you talk for 3 episodes pic.twitter.com/rBlaUfpcjB
— Uchiha 神™ (@UchihasFinest) February 3, 2017
And also Fire Emblem ones, a few of which were particularly salient in the wake of Fire Emblem Heroes, Nintendo’s latest mobile game that leverages charming anime characters to encourage users to invest in a sultry casino simulator.
You can’t pray if you don’t pick a god. pic.twitter.com/Y2KgU42msd
— Ana Rui ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@AnaRuii) February 5, 2017
You can’t waste orbs on bad RNG luck and 3★ heroes if you don’t summon pic.twitter.com/Y9QRfOfo2R
— TAKUMI IS HOME ? (@ikunias) February 10, 2017
you don’t have to worry about units dying if you don’t play fire emblem pic.twitter.com/KOMA2kZRK0
— PLEASE COME HOME FIR (@FuuinNoTsurugi) January 29, 2017
Games ranging from Final Fantasy XV to Overwatch had different variations on the theme; a testament to the pervasive absurdity underlying not just our own lives but also the all too familiar and inane logic of most video game systems.
@animeshogi you don’t have to help Noctis if you get downed pic.twitter.com/Z2LEaIPnxM
— Noctis_Kohi{BP} (@Noctis_Kohi) February 8, 2017
Don’t have to heal Sora, if you’re unconscious pic.twitter.com/Nj4MpDf4Fg
— Sora (@SirKeyblade) February 1, 2017
You don’t have to worry about team mates playing Hanzo if you play Hanzo. pic.twitter.com/v2kwtwIpyT
— Overwatch memes (@overwatch1080p) February 7, 2017
You don’t have to wrap up your plot threads if you never finish your trilogy pic.twitter.com/73MOXXPf2H
— David Will (@TheTrashbang) February 12, 2017
So naturally, it was only a matter of time before some video game brands weighed in with their own carefully crafted homages to the Roll Safe meme.
— StarCraft (@StarCraft) February 11, 2017
But it was Nintendo who elevated the meme even further away from its everyday roots to new levels of family-friendly, on-brand #normcore-ness.
You can’t get hit by a blue shell if you’re never in first place. pic.twitter.com/OkNEj3ZZL2
— Nintendo NY (@NintendoNYC) February 10, 2017
It didn’t take long for the Internet to respond by holding the meme back up as a mirror to interrogate the company’s own recent history through the lens of Roll Safe.
.@NintendoNYC You can’t be disappointed by the Switch if you don’t buy one.
— Darren McCarthy (@TheDazeel) February 10, 2017
@NintendoNYC NES classic edition cant be sold out if you never get stock pic.twitter.com/2B548tO7yD
— JohnnySwitch (@Johnnyebs06) February 10, 2017
You can’t make a bad Metroid game if you don’t make Metroid games pic.twitter.com/yBEo2Aop7S
— T.B.A. (@TheBattleAngel) February 10, 2017
You don’t have to save Hyrule if you’re too busy doing side quests pic.twitter.com/bSgV9vputy
— Link 勇 (@HyruIeSavior) February 10, 2017
No need to worry about this planet if you use half A presses to travel to parallel universes pic.twitter.com/gL5siARSCi
— Nibel (@Nibellion) February 11, 2017
One of the more explicit shortcomings in Nintendo’s attempt to hop on board the meme gravy train with the rest of the cool kids was the fact that its joke only further obscured the origins of a meme while using it to buoy its own brand image.
The Roll Safe meme originated, like the Arthur meme and others, largely on Black Twitter as way of making fun of the dumb shit people do in the face of the range of seemingly insurmountable struggles they face every day. Nintendo, unsurprisingly, reduced the complexity of that much sought after comic relief to a boorish riff on Mario Kart‘s terrible RNG mechanics.
Don’t really have to do any of your own creative or intellectual labor if you just go on twitter and steal everyone else’s! pic.twitter.com/9zzKdcf68h
— Daniel José Older (@djolder) February 12, 2017
In completely absurd economic and political times, both in Britain where the Roll Safe meme first surfaced, and in America where it found a natural second home, one thing remains infinitely predictable: if there’s a dope meme on the Internet about the ways people make light of the daily crap they have to deal with, corporations somewhere will eventually nick the joke and try to commodify its last bit of comedy gold.
Comments
5 responses to “You Know An Internet Joke Is Kinda Over Once Nintendo’s Had A Turn”
There’s a black twitter?
I don’t get what the fuss is. Wasn’t any less funny than the rest of them.
I don’t get the fuss either. It’s not like Nintendo is the first company to jump on a meme bandwagon before. It’s only a month since the original one hit the scene by the looks of it too. i see memes based on much older ones than this damn near every day, and noone says shit about it!
A mean-spirited article over nothing, really.
Nintendo didn’t even do a bad job it, they got the meme right.
For a moment there I thought that last Tweet was the article author’s in a brilliant bit of self parody.
Chip on the author’s shoulder much? Kids use the meme in three million slightly different and disingenuous ways to complain about FEH’s RNG, but if Nintendo uses the meme, now it’s “dad humour” on a tired meme on its way out, that somehow manages to disrespect the original “spirit” of the meme?