When you're the most successful media franchise in the world, you're more than likely to be a mainstay in meme culture. That's certainly the case for Pokemon, as they've been in the cultural zeitgeist since their beginning in the late 1990s, up till now where memes have taken over the internet.
Naturally, when you're memed for that long, certain memes will stand the test of time better than others. This will be a look at the greatest Pokemon memes of all time: those that took the world by storm when they first came out and have still been recognized today either by hardcore fans or the general public.
Updated on August 30, 2021 by Kyle Laurel: Pokemon is promoting a new flock of games, and with the rollout of all of Sword & Shield's features firmly behind, Pokemon fans can look back at how they intercepted Pokemon meme culture.
15 Scottish Pokemon Trainer
The rollout of Sword & Shield got a lot of attention on social media, and while there was some negative attention thanks to the National Dex controversy, most Pokemon fans were kept at ease with the reveal of Gloria, the female player character.
With Galar being based on the United Kingdom, fans pondered on the possibility of Gloria being Scottish, especially with her outfit. Thus began the memes, with tweets depicting Gloria talking with a stereotypical Scottish syntax, comic strips showing her brash personality toward other characters, and voice-over artists reading through them with an over-the-top Scottish accent.
14 Advice Oak
The Pokemon world doesn't have perfect logic when compared to the real world. Why can't you run without Running Shoes? How do Pokemon Centers survive providing completely free healthcare? Are Pokemon battles just gambling?
That's where the Advice Oak meme comes in to point out all the Pokemon world's weird idiosyncrasies. Bonus points are given out when this template is used to describe logical flaws with Professor Oak himself, such as his inability to remember his grandson's name, smoldering hatred for biking indoors, and relying on a ten-year-old noob to continue his entire life's research. It's kind of a relic, but this meme format always applies so long as the Pokemon world remains logically imperfect.
13 MissingNo.
The Generation I games are far from perfect, to say the least. While most Pokemon games have their fair share of glitches, Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow were basically beta versions masquerading as finished games when compared to others in the franchise.
Other glitches might be just as game-breaking, but no glitch is more popular than Missingno. The routine for obtaining this Bird/Normal-type glitch Pokemon is pretty well-known, and catching it will cause your game's graphics to jumble and scramble all over the place. At the very least, it's kept its place in video game lore, and a second life as a meme soon followed.
12 Fat Pikachu
Older fans of the franchise are aware that the mascot, Pikachu, was much rounder than its current body shape. Game Freak probably made the right decision to slim him down over time to reflect its speed relative to its peers, but fans like to look back on the chunkier Pikachu in contrast to its current-day iteration.
Game Freak heard the fans (or saw their Reddit posts), and decided to give Pikachu a Gigantamax form that was pretty much just Fat Pikachu with a lit-up tail. To go along with the whole Scottish Pokemon Trainer bonanza, Fat Pikachu memes flooded social media feeds as soon as one of the Sword & Shield trailers revealed G-Max Pikachu.
11 Diglett Underground
Art by: everydaylouie
There has been no definite answer to this question since the beginning of the Pokemon franchise. What is Diglett comprised of underground? Is it just a regular gopher? Is it something weirder, like a gigantic humanoid creating Diglett with their fingers? Is it a literal human body with Diglett as the head sticking out?
The only absolute is that it has feet, according to a quote from the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. Aside from that, not even other sources like the anime or manga have given fans concrete answers. Game Freak must be trolling at this point. As a result, fans are given the liberty to come up with theories, or just screw around as they wish.
10 Genwunners
The most difficult thing about being a fan of a long-running franchise is appreciating the old while staying open-minded to the new. Good luck telling Generation 1 apologists that. Otherwise known as "Genwunners," these certain Pokemon fans have been adamant in saying that Game Freak has been running out of ideas for Pokemon designs since at least Generation 5, and Generation 1 Pokemon are the only ones that count.
Regardless of whether or not they are right, their dogmatic tendencies have been memed to oblivion. Most Genwunner memes, one way or another, point out how Generation 1 had a lot of the same problems Generation 5 had in terms of Pokemon concepts, particularly when it came to inanimate object Pokemon.
9 Slowpoke
Like Advice Oak, this is one of the oldest memes in the book, but it has stood the test of time with how applicable it is to many situations. This meme format takes Slowpoke's concept and uses it in a creative way, referencing events that happened long before the meme was created. This could mean events in any space, such as the release of the first Avengers movie, the Obama vs Romney elections, or especially, the release of new Pokemon games for the DS.
This meme has seen somewhat of a revival recently, with Pokemon Sword and Shield introducing Galarian Slowpoke and updating the references just a little bit.
8 Sinnoh Confirmed
Remakes of the Sinnoh games, Pokemon Diamond & Pearl, were long awaited. People also waited patiently for the Hoenn remakes, Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, but Game Freak had never been under so much scrutiny for a potential release. This resulted in Pokemon fans exclaiming "Sinnoh Confirmed!" or something of that nature at any possible hints that they may be coming soon, even if they are complete stretches.
That all led to an explosive reaction to Pokemon Direct 2021, when two games based in Sinnoh were announced: the actual remakes, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and their open-world project, Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
7 Too Much Water
Speaking of Alpha Sapphire, it was a pretty good Pokemon game. It wasn't perfect, though, according to a certain IGN review, and one of its main flaws was that there was "too much water." That single line, along with the game's given review score, 7.8/10, was called out relentlessly by hardcore Pokemon fans.
There are certainly two sides to this argument. One could agree and say the overabundance of water forced players to constantly use the Surf HM. Others would disagree and say the Hoenn region's geography inherently has a lot of water and even points to the games' themes of balancing water and land. Regardless, this meme has become a talking point whenever Hoenn is brought up.
6 Lord Helix
An automated Twitch streamer, Twitch Plays Pokemon, let viewers play Pokemon Red through chat. Potentially thousands of viewers input commands at a time, and naturally, chaos would reign.
When it came time to select between the Dome and Helix Fossils, the input eventually chose the Helix, and this would get randomly selected several times during the playthrough. Eventually, the chat united with the common goal of reviving the fossil. They managed to, and "Lord Helix" was resurrected. These days, the mere sight of an Omanyte or Omastar elicits hymns of praise from Pokemon fans, showing how rapidly it has grown since that fateful encounter.
5 Furret Walk
This meme came around so randomly, and yet it's hard to imagine how it didn't come around earlier. The origin of this meme was a simply constructed video: a 3D walking animation of Furret and a remix of the Accumula Town theme. It blew up on YouTube, and has since gradually inspired different renditions such as 10-hour versions, or Furret walking through different locations.
There is something about this meme that's naturally charming. Furret's cute face and bouncy walking animation fit perfectly with the jolly nature of the Accumula Town theme. That helps in making the Furret Walk accessible and incredibly wholesome.
4 Youngster Joey
This character is about as old as the internet itself, and is naturally one of the first contributions of meme culture. As many should know, Youngster Joey was an NPC in Pokemon Gold and Silver, and his schtick was always calling you and talking about his "top-percentage Rattata," despite it being a very low level when you battle him the first time.
There are a lot of NPCs in every Pokemon game with the Youngster Trainer Class, but Joey, whether or not it's actually because of his Rattata, stands atop all of them. If anything, this shows that even insignificant characters in any piece of media can have their shine through memes.
3 Jelly-Filled Donuts
Before The Pokemon Company handled the dub of the Pokemon anime, a certain company named 4Kids was in charge of it. Their handling of the dub was controversial sometimes, especially when it came to extreme localization of food.
While there are other offenders, that particular shot of series regular Brock holding onigiri (a.k.a. Japanese rice balls) and calling them jelly-filled donuts, almost sounding like he's trying to gaslight Ash into thinking they are, is the most egregious one. Regardless of fans' positions on that matter, voice actor Eric Stuart provided this as well as other choice quotes for his English dub of the popular Rock-type specialist, with an honorable mention going to his lovably goofy "drying pan" line.
2 So I Herd U Liek Mudkipz
One of the very first memes in general, this one has never reached the explosive popularity of newer memes, but hardcore Pokemon fans and meme enthusiasts alike will recognize it as a classic. "So I Herd U Liek Mudkipz" finds its origins in DeviantArt, going as far back as 2004, where its purpose was to invite users to the group, MudKipClub. It has since gained popularity on sites like 4Chan.
While it is certainly an acquired taste for those not fully immersed in Pokemon or meme culture, it is one of the pillars of the latter, helping in creating a community with memes as its niche. It also helps that it turned arguably the least popular Hoenn starter at the time into an internet icon.
1 Surprised Pikachu
This is the meme that has probably breached its way onto the general public the most, and for good reason. Much like the Slowpoke meme, the Surprised Pikachu's potential use in different situations is endless.
It isn't much in terms of format, though; it's simply a screenshot of the Pokemon anime's 10th ever episode. It helps that it is literally a picture of the franchise's mascot, who'd been used in other meme formats before and since. Sometimes, simpler is better. Its most common use, of course, is pairing it with a caption containing a set-up leading to an expected outcome, using the photo as a show of sarcastic surprise. In terms of popularity, it shows no signs of slowing down, with newer memes containing more up-to-date references.