About

Bonfire Lit refers to a recurring phrase used in Dark Souls that occurs when a player lights a bonfire, which is the game's equivalent of a checkpoint. The phrase and the accompanying graphic which appears when players light a bonfire has been used in photoshops in which people are near a fire or source of heat.

Origin

In Dark Souls, released September 22nd, 2011, when a player discovers a bonfire and lights it, a graphic with the phrase "Bonfire Lit" appears on screen (shown below).

Spread

The phrase began seeing use in memes about five years later. One of the earliest uses of its use in memes appeared on Imgur on April 14th, 2016, with the graphic appearing over a picture of a man with a lit candle in his buttcheeks (shown below, left). The surge of jokes may have coincided with the prevalence of Lit as a popular slang term, meaning lively and possibly intoxicated. An example posted to subreddit /r/NLSSCircleJerk on April 12th of that year played to this interpretation, adding emoji typically associated with "Lit" (shown below, right).

In the ensuing years, the meme began seeing common use with animals warming themselves near a heat source. Two such examples include an image of a cat posted to vk by user eternal classic that gained over 1,200 likes (shown below, left) and a /r/me_irl post by user lolkdices that gained over 13,000 points (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References