Meme Speedruns

About

Meme Speedruns refer to joking speedrunning categories which either involve completing various unusual feats as fast as possible or creating humorous video edits that poke fun at speedrunning. Originating from Banned From Club Penguin speedruns in February 2017, the meme speedruns further grew in popularity with American Dad Speedruns in late 2019 and reached a significant presence online in early 2020.

Origin

On February 19th, 2017, YouTuber^[1] ButtonWalls posted a video titled "Banned From Club Penguin Speed Run 1m 54s." The video contained a recording of a joking speedrunning attempt at getting banned from Club Penguin as a soon as possible, with ButtonWalls completing the feat with a time of 1:54 by typing "fuck" in the game chat twice. The video accumulated over 600,000 views in one day^[2] and over 4.8 million views in three years.

Spread

On February 19th, 2017, ButtonWalls posted the video to /r/bannedfromclubpenguin^[3] and /r/videos^[4] subreddits, where it gained over 6,100 upvotes and 24,100 upvotes, respectively. In the following days, the video inspired other people to attempt the humorous speedrun. On February 19th, YouTuber^[5] Andi posted a 1:35 run which received over 51,200 views in three years (shown below, left). On February 20th, 2017, YouTuber^[6] Camelogical posted a 1:08 run which received over 182,600 views in the same period.

Starting on February 20th, 2017, Digg,^[7] PC Gamer,^[8] Polygon^[9] and other outlets reported on the trend.

In the following month, multiple speedrun attempts were posted on YouTube, with the final WR record (0:33) set by Camerlogical^[10] on the day of Club Penguin servers being shut down.

Peter Griffin Mii Speedruns

Peter Griffin Mii Speedruns refers to a speedrunning category done in Mii Maker which requires the player to create a Mill looking like Family Guy character Peter Griffin as fast as possible. On March 28th, 2018, YouTube^[11] user turnipp posted a video titled "Mii Maker (Switch) – Peter griffin Speedrun in 24.80" in which he performed a speedrun of creating Peter Griffin in Mii Maker on Nintendo Switch gaming console (shown below). The user posted more speedruns of the category in the following days.

In early May 2019, a video of turnipp^[12] performing his 19.49 speedrun (shown below, left) gained a significant spread online due to being recommended through the YouTube Recommendation Algorithm. It saw another surge of popularity in September 2019 after a viral post by Instagram^[13] user sneezyz (shown below, right).

American Dad Speedruns

American Dad Speedruns refers to a subset of American Dad theme song meme videos which parody the video game speedrunning community. The videos feature "players" who act as though they are exploiting glitches in the American Dad theme song sequence to shorten its length as though it were a video game, though the trick is achieved with video-editing software.

On July 7th, 2019, YouTuber^[14] Lyve posted an edited American Dad theme song video parodying speedrunning, saying they had exploited a "floor glitch." The video gained over 50,000 views (shown below).

The format gained a larger presence online in November 2019, with multiple YouTubers making memes based on the concept.

YandereDev's Discord Ban Speedruns

YandereDev's Discord Ban Speedruns refers to a parody speedrun category which involves the runner getting themselves banned from the Discord server owned by the developer of the Yandere Simulator Alexander Mahan, known as YandereDev, as quickly as possible.

On June 19th, 2018, YouTuber^[15] Mayonaka posted a video titled "WR speedrun banned from Yandere Dev server Only Kiwifarms no youtube Only Keyblade Critical Lvl1 run" in which he got himself banned from the Offical Yandere Simulator Discord^[16] server by posting a meme based on an old photograph of YandereDev. On the same day, YouTube^[17] user ToadDan posted a similar video titled "YandereSim Server Ban (No BLJ) Former WR (0:06)." The videos received over 12,800 and 255,700 views in one and a half years, respectively (shown below, left and right).

The format did not see major online recognition until on January 17th, 2020, Twitter^[18] user @aresene_04 reported that they used a meme created by @careful_wario to get banned in the YandereDev's Discord. On January 18th, 2020, Twitter^[19] user @JonVaginal tweeted that he got banned from the server in nine seconds, with the tweet receiving over 5,200 retweets and 19,600 likes in two weeks. On January 19th, 2020, YouTuber^[20] Bonkinson posted a video parodying Summoning Salt's World Record Progression format about YandereDev's Discord Ban Speedruns which received over 792,500 views (shown below).

The format saw a significant spread online on Twitter and other online platforms in late January 2020 and early February 2020 until on February 3rd, 2020, YandereDev made his Discord server available exclusively to his Twitch subscribers.

Pokimane Discord Ban Speedruns

Pokimane Discord Ban Speedruns refers to a meme speedrun format which involves the participant challenging himself to getting banned from streamer Pokimane's Discord server as quickly as possible. The feat is often achieved through typing the word "simp" or referencing YouTuber LeafyIsHere in the server. The challenge is similar to Yanderedev Discord Ban Speedruns that gained popularity in January 2020.

Black Emoji Speedruns

Black Emoji Speedruns refers to a parody speedrunning category which involves typing a black skin tone version of every emoji it is available for. The trend originates from a shitpost by Instagram^[21] user @unholy_chungles, who posted his meme speedrun on December 27th, 2019 (shown below). The video received over 82,600 views and 7,400 likes in one month, with a December 30th, 2020 repost by Redditor^[22] tyleeeer receiving over 35,100 upvotes in the same period.

The format gained a larger presence in /r/okbuddyretard subreddit in late January 2020 following a Npesta Kenos Verification Reaction edit by Redditor^[23] _pixelpudding_ ( YouTube reupload shown below).

NSFW Speedruns

NSFW Speedruns or Google Search Speedruns refers to a genre of Meme Speedruns in which users attempt to find a NSFW fan art of a character in Google image search results for that character as quickly as possible.

Search Interest

External References