Community fads
| “ | Gentlemen.
Click to listen
— The Spy
|
” |
Team Fortress 2 and its community are responsible for the birth of a variety of community fads. A fad, by definition, is "any form of behavior that develops among a large population and is collectively followed with enthusiasm for some period..." The medium used in which to create the fads can range from not only Team Fortress 2 itself, but also Template:W and Template:W. These are some of the most frequent used mediums to create Team Fortress 2 fads.
Some of the more well-known fads have gone on to become memes, defined as "ideas or concepts that attain online popularity."
Contents
Fads Found In Game
Crazy Legs
The Crazy Legs phenomenon has existed for as long as TF2 has been public. Crazy Legs exists as a bug in TF2 that affects the Scout's legs, turning them into something that has been described as "two raw bacon strips held up in a wind tunnel." As a result, Crazy Legs is also called Bacon Legs. Officially, the bug is fixed, and has been since the January 13, 2010 Patch. Unfortunately, or fortunately for fans of the bug, Crazy Legs lives on in the game. Although still present, the effects are drastically less blatant than before the fix.
The bug occurs when a Scout crouches and double jumps. The effect is also visible in third person.
Crazy Legs actually gained enough notoriety to get a back story and recognition on the TF2 Blog.
What Crazy Legs looks like now.
Demopan
The Demopan fad originates from a Steam User's Forums thread about "The New Face of TF2". It quickly became a fad as the photograph spread across the Team Fortress fandom. The Demopan, with the name "STOUT SHAKO FOR 2 REFINED", appears as a BLU Demoman equipped with a Frying Pan, Chargin' Targe, Bounty Hat, and Dangeresque, Too?. Later, a user created a picture featuring the Demopan with an explosion. This swiftly became another icon for the Demopan by using a cutout of the Demopan in the deathcam. Several other images were made with the cutout of the Demopan to continue the fad. A user on YouTube with the account name SpawnThemAll also created a video that spoofs Meet the Demoman; the video features crudely cut out images of the Demopan's face and items over the top of the Demoman, whilst using audio mash up content to change certain lines of dialogue.
Meet the Demopan footage.
- Demopan is a recognized meme.
Gentlemen
The "Gentlemen." fad stems from one of the Spy's most ubiquitous catchphrases. His calm, suave, calculating persona is encapsulated in his utterance of the simple address, followed by the careful placement of a cigarette.
The fad itself is a widely recognized image macro, originally spawned by a Garry's mod screen-shot of the Spy with his mouth jammed with cigarettes followed by the caption "GENTLEMEN." in white capital letters. It was soon remade into a cartoon caricature of the same picture. The concept quickly exploded and expanded to feature a version for every Team Fortress character. The basic formula for the macro is straightforward; it is a caricatured drawing of a character with their mouth jammed full of objects that usually pertains to aspects of that character. For example, a "Gentlemen" fad of the Heavy may involve a caricature of the Heavy with custom bullets crammed into his mouth, with the text "BULLETS." underneath.
- Gentlemen is a recognized meme.
Poor and Irish
The term Poor and Irish first appeared in a hidden link of the Classless Update, as a retort by the Gentle Manne of Leisure to a hatless man. It should be noted that this hidden page introduced the phenomenon and belief that hats show a form of higher social status and class. Since then, players often use this term to describe players with no hats or wearers of common hats such as the Ghastly Gibus. Players that believe they fall under the characteristics of the Gentle Manne of Leisure often refer to themselves as fellow Gentle Menne. It is a common behavior that these people converse in an overly formal, perhaps Gothic, language.
Saxton Hale
Saxton Hale is a non-player character that is viewed by most community members of Team Fortress 2 as deity-like figure, often performing almost superhuman feats. His achievements in life include being the current owner of Mann Co, (after it descends down from Barnabas Hale's family) a popular company responsible for many of the weapons found in Team Fortress 2, being the 5th richest man of the world, and having his own line of comic books.
Saxton Hale is frequently considered a Team Fortress 2 version of the popular Template:W internet meme. 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.
Spycrab
One of the most well-known fads of TF2 is the Spycrab, an animation glitch caused by looking straight up while holding the Disguise Kit and crouch walking. This causes the Spy to walk in an amusing fashion that resembles a crab. The Dapper Rogue Catalogue for the Gentleman Scoundrel includes a "Crab-Walking Kit" with the description "It will change your skeleton! Excruciatingly painful but worth it."
Due to its popularity, the Spycrab was included as an alternative taunt for the Disguise Kit in the Sniper vs. Spy Update.
Footage of a player doing the Spycrab.
- Spycrab is a recognized meme.
YouTube Fads
Christian Brutal Sniper
A fad, created by KelThuzadMadness, starring a RED Sniper called the Christian Brutal Sniper that likes to slaughter and use parts of said victim's body for various things. In one previous incident, he thought a removed organ was beautiful and proceeded to use the spine of the poor victim as a weapon. Occasionally, he would love to taste the blood of his victims on both RED and BLU. He is accompanied by a RED Spy who always happens to get blood on his suit. Christian Brutal Sniper is capable of beheading Painis Cupcake, and causing the Vagineer to explode after swallowing the Christian Brutal Sniper. No one knows why he kills people nor why he is Christian. He makes an appearance in the fan made VS Saxton Hale Mod, where there is a chance that he will spawn instead of Hale during Christmas and New Year.
Here is the video in which he made his first appearance
nope.avi
Created with Template:W by YouTube user Jimbomcb, the nope.avi fad consists of a BLU Engineer on Gravel Pit slowly approaching the screen. As he stops his hard hat floats up, he utters the phrase "nope" and his neck elongates before he promptly leaves.
nope.avi is frequently used in conversations as a humorous negative response. Instead of replying no, instead the person may post a link to the video or type "nope.avi".
Several parodies of the fad exist, consisting of other characters uttering a phrase before a drastic physical transformation takes place.
The Odd Scout
Created by dudeguy707 in Template:W, the Odd Scout first appears in this video as a severely deformed Scout with elongated limbs and an apparently broken neck. The Odd Scout says nothing and instead patrols 2Fort, while the "Item Room Ambiance" theme from Nintendo's Super Metroid plays.
The Odd Scout is often regarded as a surreal or even horror fad.
Painis Cupcake
Created by RubberFruit, this fad involves a crazed Soldier named Painis Cupcake (a play on Penis Cupcake). Often seen crawling on the ground, writhing and making clicking sounds (while accompanied by the "Puzzle in the Caves" theme from Nintendo's Donkey Kong 64), a demented-looking Painis Cupcake introduces himself with the phrase "I am Painis Cupcake. I will eat you," followed by a devilish grin. After his introduction, he promptly devours his victims violently. He exhibits various superpowers, including instantly ÜberCharging himself and flying. His first appearance can be found here.
Scout is Delicious
A fad initially spawned with the creation of ARMaster's short two second YouTube video depicting a Heavy eating a Scout whose head is replaced with a Sandvich. Its popularity resulted in thousands of responses parodying the original. Following the trend of many other popular Youtube Team Fortress 2 Template:W, the Heavy had two separate lines of dialogue crossed to form the phrase "Scout is delicious."
- Scout is Delicious is a recognized meme.
Seeman
Created by KernCore, the Seeman (play on the word "semen") is a RED Demoman who has an annoying tendency to ask people to look at the thing he is pointing at by saying "See?" His speech mostly, if not always, consists of either the word "see" or spontaneous laughter. When threatened, the Seeman usually strikes his opponents with a large fist, but he often has a tendency to use his most powerful attack, the Seeman Dance. Although it is nothing more than flailing hands and legs around while Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2's Grinder theme plays, it always causes a huge explosion which kills opponents instantly as seen in this video.
Often, Seeman is seen hanging out with his BLU Soldier equivalent, Seeldier (mostly because their only differences are their looks and voice). Seeman has an attack that KernCore refers to as the "Seebeam", in which the Seeman repeats the word "See?" until his target explodes. This attack has an unlockable varient, the rainbow beam. In this, Seeman (and several duplicates) shout "TASTE THE RAINBOW, MOTHAFUCKA!" (a sound clip taken from the Nostalgia Critic's review of Care Bears), and blast the target with rainbows. This turns the target to stone.
Vagineer
A fad initially spawned with the creation of J16FOX's YouTube video, the Vagineer is a deformed Engineer with heavily distorted facial expressions, giving his face the appearance of a vagina.
Vagineer's speech consists of reversed and distorted Engineer voice lines, and is usually seen grunting at other characters. He has a large arsenal of attacks, including telekinesis and self deformation, and even launching his limbs (sometimes attached by a rope so he can extend back to its original state) like rockets. He 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. In the case of his death he usually regenerates and retaliates, often violently.
As a slight nod, the VS Saxton Hale Mod has a chance that the player chosen to become Saxton Hale will instead become a BLU Vagineer, with matching voice clips.
Voice Clip Mashups
This fad consists of remixes of various songs or lines of dialogue in which the classes voice commands (for instance, Scout's "Bonk!") are used to create new character dialogue. Some popular examples that have caught on in the Team Fortress 2 community include "Mortal Kombonk" and "WAR!".
