Community fads

“

Gentlemen. Click to listen — The Spy

”

Team Fortress 2 is home of several memes created by its community. While some stem from the game itself, other were created by using tools such as Garry's Mod to manipulate TF2 characters.

Spycrab

One of the most famous memes of TF2, the Spycrab is an animation glitch caused by looking up while holding the Disguise Kit and crouch walking, causing the Spy to walk in a amusing fashion that resembles a crab. Players with Your Eternal Reward equipped cannot Spycrab, as the Disguise Kit is disabled.

Spycrabs are often referred as a harmless species of Spy that walk gently through the battlefields. They are also cited as an endangered species, causing players to create "Save the Spycrabs" campaigns. Some players also don't kill Spycrabbing players, but sometimes the Spy player may Spycrab to get to the enemies and then backstab them.

The Spycrab was made an official taunt for the Disguise Kit in the Sniper Vs Spy Update (which he does in place of the cigarette flick taunt at random), and a reference to him was made on Day 04 with the Crab-Walking Kit from the Dapper Rogue catalogue, stating that it allows the user to "change his skeleton in a excruciatingly painful but worth it" way.

Poor and Irish

The term Poor and Irish first appeared in a hidden link of the Classless Update, where the Gentle Manne of Leisure made fun of a hatless man by calling him "POOR and IRISH" and told him to "tarnish notte the majesty of his tower of hats".

Since then, players often use this term to describe players with no hats, or players wearing only event hats like the Ghastly Gibus because of how common they are. Other terms also exist, like "Rich and English" for a player who wears hats, but they aren't as common as the original as they were created by the community.

The Gentle Manne of Leisure also causes many players to spell gentleman as gentlemanne, often in "fancy" conversations.

W + M1

An infamous video showed a player experiencing success with the Pyro by only using the "W" key and "Mouse1" (Moving forward and primary fire). This led to the creation of the term W + M1, used to suggest that playing the Pyro and doing well required no skill. The term mainly criticizes the (real or imaginary) tendency of Pyros to charge at their targets with their primary weapon, disregarding both safety and tactics.

This derogatory term would often be used by a player to demean enemy Pyros, especially after that player was killed by one. "W + M1" would often be used to attack the Pyro's playstyle whether the Pyros in question were guilty of "W + M1" or not.

Saxton Hale

Saxton Hale's amazing achievements have caused the players to refer to him as a deity-like figure, capable of doing anything in a very manly way. He is also famous for his using his reputed "BARE DAMN HANDS" to do everything he needs, with assured success.

Saxton Hale's achievements can be considered a Team Fortress 2 version of Chuck Norris, as both are portrayed as tough, god-like men with power to do whatever they want. Directly satirizing the phenomenon of Chuck Norris facts, a fansite called Saxton Hale Facts was created, where users can submit facts about Saxton Hale and his many incredible feats.

Gentlemen

Original image macro.

Gentlemen.

Another meme featuring the Spy, the Gentlemen meme consists of an image macro of the Spy with many cigarettes in his mouth, while saying "Gentlemen". The "Gentlemen "meme originated from the /b/ imageboard on 4chan, followed by a popular thread (NSFW) consisting of "gentlemen" images. Several other images followed, including other classes, like the Soldier with rockets in his mouth while saying "Maggots", or the Heavy with Fists in his mouth while saying "Babies".

The Gentlemen meme can also include characters from outside Team Fortress 2, giving it an immense amount of original content.

nope.avi

Created with Source Film Maker by YouTube user Jimbomcb, the nope.avi meme consists of a BLU Engineer on Gravel Pit slowly approaching the screen. After getting near, his hardhat starts to float, and then he says "Nope". After that, the Engineer's neck gets larger until his head fits the hardhat, and the Engineer leaves the screen.

nope.avi is frequently used on conversations where a negative response would take place. Instead of saying no, the person posts a link to the video or merely types "nope.avi".

Several responses to the video exist, where other characters say something while his body changes slightly (for example, one where the the hardhat descends, then the Engineer's head shrinks into his chest to accommodate this).

Vagineer

Hurrr...

Created by YouTube user J16FOX, the Vagineer, one of the first and most famous "TF2 monsters", is the Engineer with a heavily distorted facial expression, making his mouth look like a vagina (created by using the Face Poser in Garry's Mod and setting different values to higher/lower levels than the TF2 faces are used to). Vagineer usually appears as a villainous character in Garry's Mod videos.

Vagineer's sounds are reversed Engineer voice lines, and it is usually seeing grunting at other characters. Vagineer has a large arsenal of attacks, including launching his arms to grab distant enemies or objects, propelling its legs like rockets and becoming invincible. Vagineer is also capable of regenerating body parts and turning other people into "Vagi" versions of their characters.

Vagineer is viewed as a demigod-like monster, rarely being defeated by anyone, and when that happens, Vagineer usually regenerates and strikes again. Because of his popularity, many other creatures were created and are usually portrayed as Vagineer's enemies, but none of them are as famous as him.

Vagineer is portayed as doing horrible things when he is fed.

Although it is difficult to determine from fan media, BLU Vagineer appears to be moderately docile, whereas RED Vagineer is far more violent.

Painis Cupcake

First appearing as a response to the "AN UNTITLED X REFERENCE VIDEO" fad, Painis Cupcake (originally called Penis Cupcake) is another monster-ish Garry's Mod creature created by YouTube user RubberFruit. It's portraited as a Soldier that moves with clicking sounds and eats people.

Painis Cupcake is an evil, cannibal creature who is usually found on dark places, waiting for his next victim. When encountering someone, he will slowly approach while emitting clicking noises, look at the person's face and say "I am Painis Cupcake", and seconds later "I will eat you", while smiling menacingly. If the victim tries to fight back, Painis Cupcake will become instantly ÜberCharged and will attack.

Like Vagineer, Painis Cupcake is also viewed as an invincible, undefeatable monster. Painis Cupcake is much "newer" than Vagineer, but it has become very popular much faster than the latter.

The music used in Painis Cupcake videos are two tracks from Donkey Kong 64: Puzzle in the Caves is used when he is seen, and Demon Resident Mine Cart is used when he is attacking.

The word Painis comes from the Soldier's jeer, "Pain is weakness leaving the body." Listening to the "Pain is" make it sound similar to the word penis, often leading new contributors to the meme to mistakenly call him "Penis Cupcake".

The sudden burst of Painis Cupcake's popularity is believed to have caused a dramatic increase in the creation of other "TF2 monsters", including Dic Soupcan, Weaselcake, and the Christian Brutal Sniper.

Scout is Delicious

Scout is delicious!

ARMaster's initial two second video depicting a Heavy eating a Scout (whose head was replaced with a Sandvich) became incredibly popular, with thousands of responses matching the style of the original.

Following the trend of many other popular Youtube TF2 reworks, the Heavy had two separate lines of dialogue crossed to form the phrase "Scout is delicious." This kind of audio editing can be considered a more generalized meme, though, despite it's popularity, the origins of such alterations are not inherent to TF2.

This is What I See with My Eyes Closed

It's no wonder I'm crazy

Created by Minifett, this video depicts the Heavy's head smiling, wearing a Stainless Pot, and blasting off into space. (The character is named "Intelliegent Heavy" by the user, and has appeared in various of his other videos) Responses to this meme usually depict other classes blasting through space, but some, such as the very first response, depict characters from other games.

The music used is up to the video maker's choice. The mostly used kind, however, is music from old video games.

Bonk Songs

This meme consists of remixes of various songs in which the Scout's "Bonk!" and "Boink!" voice clips are played in synchronization to the song. The most popular of these songs is Mortal Kombonk, which has over 1,087,177 views.

Spammed Voice Commands

A common practice among some TF2 players is Spamming Voice Commands, which has birth a triplet of memes. The first one is "Gottam" birthed by the now-gone TheTentor on Youtube. A spin-off of "Gottam" is the Heavy's version, "Pootis", especially this one. The final one was "Need a Dispenser here!" uttered by the Scout in a somewhat-demented tone.

One of the "NEED A DISPENSER HERE" songs.

-gineer/-neer

Various -neers

Created by OluapPlayer, this meme includes the Engineer, but with the head of another class or an item for a head. The character made by this has a name usually ending in "gineer" or "neer," depending on syllables (Such as Spygineer, Wrenchineer, Demoneer, or even Gineergineer; pretty much two headless Engineers fused at the neck). The meme originated from this video.

One of the most common ones used by the community is Paintraingineer, shown above, yet some people have combined the -neer fad with other classes, making characters such as Intellispy, and even combining memes, resulting in things such as Pain Trainis Cupcake.