This week Nintendo announced "Alarmo," a $100 alarm clock that will watch you sleep and wake you up with various noises and scenes from Nintendo video games.

Putting aside that that sentence alone sounds vaguely dystopian, the alarm clock does feature a lot of cool tech that will surely appeal to diehard Nintendo fans. Still, "Alarmo" was widely memed upon, both for what it is and for the timing of its announcement.

Here's what's going on with Alarmo memes and why so many around the internet reacted negatively to it this week.

What Is 'Alarmo'?

Alarmo is a high-tech "smart" alarm clock created by Nintendo to hit the market early next year. With smart technology, it records its owner's sleeping pattern and can be customized to wake them up with a variety of scenes and sounds from Nintendo video games, such as Mario and Zelda.

The capabilities of Alarmo opened itself up to a lot of memes, for while the actual clock will probably incorporate soothing and gentle Nintendo sounds in an attempt to make waking up a pleasant experience, memers quickly imagined what it would be like if Alarmo played some of the other, less pleasant sounds from Nintendo titles.

Recommended by @mememaster9000_! I would love to hear Wario in my ear every morning! #Wario #Alarmo #Dub #Impression https://t.co/ETqZvky3nh pic.twitter.com/qNBj08rPHV

— Shawnster (@ShawnsterYT) October 9, 2024

Also of note, Alarmo won't work if you're sleeping with someone else, and while it is comforting to know Nintendo's near-sentient clock won't watch you "get it on," it does mean Nintendo explicitly made an alarm clock for single people.

Why Is The Timing Of The Alarmo Announcement Funny?

It's important to note that we are currently in a fever pitch of Switch 2 anticipation, as Nintendo fans have been in for basically two years now.

Nintendo has taken to following up every announcement of an upcoming presentation with a disclaimer that that presentation will not reveal the Switch 2. Thus, Nintendo finally revealing some new hardware in 2024 only for said hardware to be a fancy alarm clock struck many as darkly funny or annoying.

It seems par for the course for the ever-mercurial Nintendo, and fans still await the day they wake up to Switch 2 news. At least Alarmo can help them with that.

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For the full history of Alarmo, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.