Press F: How a Failed Cutscene Became One of Gaming’s Greatest Memes 

Roses are red Airplanes are loud F is for failure X is for doubt

When a meme of a game Is more memorable than the ACTUAL GAME

This is a meme that'll never die because if it dies we have to press F to pay our respects.

The guy who originally coded "Press F to Pay Respects" into the game must be like, "I raised that boy."

The meme has been used so often that it's not a meme anymore. It's seriously for paying respect.

The guy who wrote the code for "Press F" 7 years ago: Sure this is a good idea 🤡

Title should be: "How a meme got more famous than the actual game"

Anybody remember when Stan Lee died and literally the entire reddit comment thread was just Fs. Sometimes it actually means you're paying respects

Also in regards to Arkham City, it works because you cant move through the damn thing. Batman takes a knee and you feel the weight of this place and this moment. He doesn't run all over his parents outline like a complete momo

In Chile, people have picked up saying "F" IRL. I'm not talking just gamers and the such. It's mainstream

I like how they put Tim in the thumbnail of this particular video 😂

Now waiting for X to Doubt video.

"It peaked when the world went to shit" Me: F

The F is now an actual thing to pay respects/ condolences in a sad situation and not just a meme anymore

press f to pay respect is one of those great so bad it's good moments, it's honestly really cool to see it in a game instead of a movie

Whoever was the hero who put the hit marker at 6:30 you’re a goddamn legend

Twitch streamer: does something One person: F Everyone else within 0.01 seconds: *F*

This wasnt the failed cutscene. It was the perfect meme cutscene.

Sledgehammer’s greatest contribution to gaming Also: PLAT CHAT??? UNCLE EGG???

Wow they actually made a game for this meme! Crazy!

I wouldn't say its just a cultural phenomenon, I would say "press F" is one of the cornerstones of gaming culture today. It is more recognized and accepted than any other "gamer culture" thing I can think of. It is one of only a few gamer things to transcend into the larger culture of the world, even non gamers know "Press F"

Fun fact: Diablo Immortal is still in alpha 3 years later.

Its not a meme anymore , its a response to a stimuli

I really enjoyed the AW campaign, but press f literally ruined that scene. Had he just automatically put his hand on the coffin when you walked up to it I may have actually cried. From what I recall I was tearing up, but I just died laughing when I saw that

You know you're a boomer gamer when you finally learned what people meant by f after watching this video.

You know something is BAD when what you remember about it is the meme

I find it incredibly interesting how "Press F To Pay Respects" is from the PC Version of Advanced Warfare. Which is real odd considering COD is often seen as a console shooter and the console version of this is X or Square? not F.

surprisingly activision havent milking "F" or putting them on their microtransaction

when one celebrity from my country died people all over internet spammed F even mainstream media pick up on that

Press X to doubt.

DAY 12 of asking for a The War Owl Story

F still pays respects - it’s just a way of saying “it be like that”

Press E to pay respects

I'm a Japanese. I first saw surprising like “In a foreighners, the famous behavior of pressing F when someone passed away.” In the internet. My head be like “what…???”

I swear pressing F meme has been around longer than 2018

How did they manage to milk 12 minutes out of a 15 second scene?

But I actually do feel like Im giving my respect when pressing F. It represents failure. But it also represents true respect. Just like how everyone F'd Risitas death. Its like gamers' way of saying 'R.I.P'. And for failures we have OMEGALUL/KEKW. I think people use more of those than F when someone failed or at least from what ive seen.

One thing about that scene is that it's at the beginning of the game, the Press F is probably also serves as a tutorial moment where the game shows you the F key is for interacting with objects.

The meme has ascended from memehood to common annotation its part of the language now

It wasn't a failed cutscene, it was great. It could have used more development to get there, but it still held decent weight. The reason it isn't optional it that it would be incredibly rude to not pay respects to someone who you watched die, and who you sacrificed your arm to try and save. The entire campaign was amazing, it was one of the best CoD campaigns ever. But people hated the multiplayer because it had too much movement, so they hated the whole game.

Well I just discovered that Emily Ratajkowsky made an ad for call of duty lmao

I sear, even the chat of my university lectures is often filled with F's.

This isn't just a twitch meme and the form of 'Fs in the chat: isn't the original form of the meme, it's way older and it really hasn't changed meaning that much. It's just a way to show compassion to someone after something goes wrong.

Uncharted 3 Drakes Deception, Sully's death hit me right in the feels of 10 years ago.... Thank you for reminding me

We press F for condolences, it aint for fail or failure

The actual problem was just the wording of the prompt. If it was just *F - Pay respects* it would be fine. But as is, it feels like "Press this button to feel sad" it tears down any immersive illusion it could have

New Outro ? Fs in the chat for old one ❤️

Now people press F to pay respects, unironically.

just compare the funeral scene in MoH Warfighter and COD... Mother's funeral in MoH is probably the single most heartbreaking and sad moment I've experienced in any shooter game, amplified by the quote from the real life wife of a Navy Seal. It just hammers in the "realness" of it and still to this day I always get goosebumps while watching that scene...

I think that Shadows of the Colossus scene will always be the moment in gaming that I will remember the most. SotC was an amazing game, one of my favorites of all time if not my #1, largely due to how simple and minimalist the game was. You have a sword, a bow, and a horse. By the end of the game you have taken this horse for granted, you don't even think you're attached to it until it is taken away from you. The thought of Agro dying would never even pop into your head, he is as much a part of the game as your sword, or the huge landscape you traverse for hours. When he dies you're suddenly sad over something that you never knew you loved, and before you can even begin to think about what you're feeling you are looking at the final boss, fueled now not only by your commitment to beat the game but also by the anger of the game taking from you the last living thing in the world that wasn't hostile to you. And as you try to close the gap between you and the final colossus, you are suddenly playing a much different game. It's personal now, and as a player you now feel the driving force that the main character has been feeling the entire game, the emotion that started his pilgrimage and the reason you now need to kill these ancient gods. And all without a line of dialogue. Absolute gaming perfection.

The one good thing that came from Advanced Warfare

To be honest, for JRPG gamer like me.... The Press F kind of forced scenario trigger.... is just common.... much like how some games have sequence that forces your to talk to npc1-->npc2 etc just to progress the cutscenes. It adds a meaning to it. I certainly didn't think that "F" was a distraction of sort. For me I am glad that it was an interact-able cut scenes, not some stupid mp4 playing in the background.

The fact that you called it a failed cutscene lmao

Imagion Big Boss standing over The Boss's grave Eva finishes her dialogue. " She sacrificed her life and honor for her native land. She was a real hero. She was a true patriot." ( Press F to salute).

Logically, the F could stand for farewell depending on the context.

Can we appreciate it though how important it’s becoming to us? Like fuck if I passed away I would genuinely love it my boys came to my funeral and said “F” in general yk

What I honestly find so damn funny on the whole thing of "Press F to pay respect" is that the game was a console game for the longest time! Its the shitty PC port that led to the meme even happening!

People in the past: we will have flying cars! People now: *memeing letters*

Ngl i thought this was gonna be life of Tim

Which adds to the joy of the key-shape enclosing the F in Mike Lindell (mypillow) "Frank" website logo...

8:18 Note: F is not for when someone messes something up/ fails, Its for one someone dies in a game (from a fail) or something unfortunate happens. You are literally paying pressing F to pay respects.

I know AW is where it originated from but it was also in B04 Blackout released 10/2018. Thats probably where it really gained its popularity.

100% convinced Kevin Spacey is responsible for this

i was so immersed that i pressed F and went fullscreen

Great job for not spoiling the legendary rdr ending !!!

I remember the feels when the horse(hargo) died in shadow of colossal! I whistled for an entire 2mins to pay tribute for being my travel buddy 😭. Best horse 🐎💨

0:55 please give a warning before making me cry. again.

*"Press F To Respect"*

1:04 don't show me this I'm about to cry for a week once again.

I desperately want to make a first person shooter with a dedicated button for breathing and another for blinking. Don't breathe and pass out. Don't blink and go blind. It's called innovation

02:01 missa apareció en un video gringo WTF

I never understood why "Press F" became such a meme, but I still appreciate the meme itself

Everytime i see Josh macinne i always think his head is on backwards

*presses g* “Friendly fire is not tolerated”

Yo

This video just makes me understand that Red Dead Redemption 2 will probably be the greatest game I ever get to experience...

Gotta respect being this early

F’s in the chat were really big in TOS and Imposter. That helps explain the 2018 boost.

you probably wanted to add spoiler warnings for the 3 games you show at the beginning

Memes aside advanced warfare is severely underrated and a great cod game. Only actual bad thing is the supply drops and its variants of guns 😂.

F

Love the fact that John MacInnes celebrates his own F of the author

Finally i understand the "Press F to play sick solo" thing from Cyberpunk 2077!

The guy who put that in is probably a genius tho, he made it more popular than even the game itself

I always thought it was just F for a big FAIL...and a W for a win. You learn something new every day 😀

when i die, i want my headstone to say "Press F"

Press F to insert dramatic spoilers into this video without any user warning.

I honestly can't remember when I started typing F to pay respects

Fun fact, Arkham City had press f to pay respect but since cod aw sold more, many think its origins are from it

12 minute video for the history that could have been adequately summed up in 60 seconds.

Doc's greatest game. DrDisrespect was one of its developer/game level design.

Lmao the excuse of "the project is so big things get missed" IN ONE OF THE OPENING CUTSCENE OF THE MOST EMOTIONAL MOMENT OF THE ENTIRE CAMPAGIN shows how out of touch they are.

Just saying F has become so natural for me that I said it to my teacher without thinking and confusing her so much

Yall outta pocket for that shadow of the colossus

ooohhhh is that where that came from !! hahahahahaha legit best scene ever

Guest.mp4 is perfect

8:17 it's not really disconnected from the original meaning. it's not pressing F for technical issues. it's pressing F to pay respects, because the stream died.

"F" to pay respect....

I am actually using it as a real pay respect thing. Like when someone dies, I just say "F" and for me it actually means, that I am showing respect

"Imagine it said press X to beat the shit out of Ares, that would look soooo stupid." Zeus in 7:22 "Am I joke to you?"