About

"Nigward" Refers to a series of videos that feature low quality images of Squidward, usually one normal and one edited, with various different sounds from "Call of Duty: Zombies" playing in the background.

Origin

The earliest known use of the format originates from a video uploaded by YouTube user "Aaa" on December 29, 2017. The video features a highly compressed image of the character Squidward from the series Spongebob Squarepants with the "COD: World at War Zombies – Round" sound effect. Afterwards, it cuts to another highly compressed image of Squidward, this time coloured Black, with the "COD: Black Ops 2 Zombies – Round" sound effect over it. It has amassed over 70,000 views.

Spread

A video named "Japward" was uploaded shortly after by the YouTube user "Calm" on January 3, 2018 in the same format as Nigward, however instead featuring a different image of Squidward with notable features comparable to that of a Japanese person, such as smaller, more squinted eyes. As well as being highly compressed, the background audio was replaced with the "COD: Zombies – Fetch me their souls!" Sound effect. This video has amassed over 20,000 views.

Shortly after, a commentary gameplay video was uploaded by YouTube user Kyros, in which him and his friends play competitive matches of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. At around 2:07 in the video, they notice that one of their opponents is named "NIGWARD". They continue to find the joke funny before making a joke about how Nigward's favourite rap artist is "FUTURE". Another user named "scarxkr x" reuploaded the cut part of the video, amassing over 40,000 views.

Many more variations of the format have been uploaded since.

Various Examples