The Call of Duty franchise is one of the most recognizable and culturally significant video game IPs of all time, possessing a consistently popular presence within the AAA gaming industry for almost two decades. With the franchise long having prided itself on its annual releases and addictive multiplayer formula, it is no wonder that there is so much content associated with the FPS giant.
A perhaps predictable byproduct of the longevity of Call of Duty concerns the many in-jokes and memes that have sprouted over the years in relation to the single player and online modes of the franchise's many installments. While many of these CoD related memes may be considered quite niche, there are many that are recognizable to huge swathes of people even outside the franchise's fan base.
Press F To Pay Respects
By far, one of the most culturally significant memes to come out of the Call of Duty franchise came with 2014's Advanced Warfare. Being a title that is now looked back upon quite fondly, so much so that a potential sequel to Advanced Warfare is being rumored, the game is best remembered by a seemingly innocuous scene that exploded in popularity to become a stalwart element of internet culture.
The moment in question refers to an interactive cutscene in which Advanced Warfare's protagonist is attending a military funeral of a close friend, with the player character being instructed to press the F key on PC versions of the game to "pay respects". Initially, the scene gained notoriety for the perceived oddness and comedy of such a personal act of mourning being relegated to the push of a button, with the scene and its accompanying button prompt becoming a meme that would explode in popularity.
Although perhaps being rooted in irony, people quickly began simply posting the letter F in message boards and in comment sections in response to lighthearted yet unfortunate news or happenings, so much so that the simple letter has taken on an entirely new meaning in the internet lexicon. It is clear that "press F to pay respects" is one of the most significant memes to come from Call of Duty, so much so that in many cases it is no longer even associated with its origin, and has taken on its own genuine usage in online spaces.
The Ghost Stare
One of the most recent but most popular memes to come from the CoD franchise stemmed from the campaign of 2022's Modern Warfare 2. A meme that found popularity in its simple versatility, the "Ghost stare" concerns an image or short video clip of popular franchise character Ghost staring down Soap MacTavish as the two ride in a car.
The humor of the meme primarily comes from the lack of discernable expression on Ghost's face, with only his eyes being shown through his iconic skull mask. The Ghost stare was perfect for the common genre of memes known as reaction images, in which many users would use the meme with captions denoting relatable and often deflating situations, with the almost judgmental gaze of Ghost resonating with huge swathes of the game's fan base and beyond.
Ramirez! Do Everything!
The "Ramirez!" Meme is one of the oldest truly viral memes to come out of the CoD franchise, and was intensely popular as a meme template shortly after the release of 2009's Modern Warfare 2. The meme itself satirically plays off of the super-soldier protagonist trope of the CoD franchise and MW2, in which the player character often completes unthinkable feats of combat prowess and bravery to very little thanks or acknowledgment.
This meme refers to James Ramirez, the protagonist of the USA campaign sections of Modern Warfare 2, and how his superior, Sergeant Foley, is constantly shouting his name and ordering him to single-handedly take control of every combat event. Playing off of this, fans began creating satirical memes translating the demands placed on Ramirez to everyday life, with captions like "Ramirez! Tell me a bedtime story!" Typifying the spirit of this particular meme.
Woods Is An Onion
A popular meme also came from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which released in 2020. This particular title, like the revived Modern Warfare series, saw the return of many classic franchise characters such as Mason, Hudson, and Frank Woods.
Many campaign sections of Cold War intimately involved these characters, with one particular mission seeing Mason and Woods undergo a covert operation within a remote research facility. When Mason sarcastically refers to Woods as the expert in stealth, Woods replies "I'm a goddamn onion, Mason," much to the confusion of many fans. For example, the original voice actor for Woods, who did not feature in Cold War, famously reacted to this particular dialogue by laughing and noting how out of character the line is for Woods.
This line of dialogue in particular became quite notorious for these reasons, with fans often debating among each other as to what the meaning of the line actually was. In predictable internet fashion, a consensus among many fans was to simply take the line literally, with photo-shopped images and fan art quickly being produced showing the beloved Woods physically as an onion. The Call of Duty franchise has a fairly unparalleled level of cultural outreach, and so it is no wonder that so many popular and memorable memes have come out of the IP over the years. From Mason being asked about what the Numbers mean to jokes about Call of Duty: Ghosts' fish AI, Call of Duty has a rich history of funny trends.