Dad of Boy

About

Dad of Boy refers to jokes made about the relationship between Kratos and his son, Atreus in the 2018 installment of the God of War franchise. After the game's release, users joked about the frequency with which Kratos refers to Atreus as "boy" during the game and parodied Kratos' humorless demeanor.

Origin

At the PlayStation E3 press conference 2016, the presentation began with a demo of the upcoming God of War game. The video begins with Atreus playing before being called by Kratos repeatedly saying "boy!"

After God of War's release on April 20th, 2018, users noticed the frequency with which Kratos referred to Atreus as "boy" and posted jokes and video compilations of Kratos saying "boy." For example, on April 23rd, 2018, YouTuber TuYasRecords posted a compilation of Kratos saying "Boy," gaining over 620,000 views (shown below).

Spread

"Boy" edits remained popular in the days following the release of the game. Users inserted the God of War characters into preexisting meme templates such as boi and King Harkinian's Mah Boi. Of the former, Twitter user @buxbiarts^[1] posted a parody that gained over 7,100 retweets and 19,000 likes (shown below, left). Of the latter, KnowYourMeme user demojediknight^[2] posted a parody that gained 180 likes.

Other parodies of the game focused on the relationship between Kratos and Atreus by portraying Kratos as humorless and stern. For example, Twitter user @seanyboydraws posted a comic featuring Kratos not understanding the Updog joke, gaining 3,200 retweets and 9,000 likes (shown below).

Dad of Boy Naming

On April 21st, YouTuber imabeastlyone published a video entitled "Dad of War." The video (shown below, left) features scenes of Kratos saying "boy" edited together with scenes from The Legends of Zelda animated series.

On April 22rd, Twitter ^[3] user @Jack_Septic_Eye posted a parody image of the God of War logo that reads "Dad of Boy." The post (shown below, left) received more than 3,800 retweets and 34,000 likes in one month.

On April 29th, Redditor ^[4] DukeDangerous posted an image of a man and child cosplaying as Kratos and his son. They titled the post "Dad of War and BOY!" The post (shown below) received more than 10,000 points (83% upvoted) and 210 comments in 24 days.

Within weeks of the game's release, the name "Dad of Boy" became synonymous with God of War as fans and YouTube reviewers began referencing the name in posts, comments and videos.

On May 5th, YouTuber RageGamingVideo published a video entitled "Dad of Boy in a Nutshell! (God of War 4 – No Spoilers 'Totally Serious Review')." The post (shown below, left) received more than 16,000 views in less than one month.

The following day, YouTuber Neebs Gaming published a playthrough video, "God of War – Dad of Boy." Within one months, the post (shown below, right) received more than 150,000 views.

On May 24th, The Daily Dot ^[5] published an article entitled "How Kratos and Atreus from ‘God of War’ inspired the ‘Dad of Boy’ meme."

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References