Paimon Emergency Food

About

Paimon Emergency Food refers to a series of fan art depictions and memes revolved around the character Paimon from the video game Genshin Impact. The reference comes from a joke your character tells at the beginning of the game when Paimon is introduced, referring to her as “Emergency Food.” This joke has been used in memes and various fan art since its release.

Origin

The clip that the meme is pulled from is seen during the start of Genshin Impact, which released on September 28th, 2020, but also in the beta from July 2020. The specific scene where the dialogue occurs happens around the beginning of the game when the character Paimon is introduced to the player (seen below). During this interaction, one of the dialogue options poses the question if Paimon is “emergency food,” which she replies to by getting upset.

After the beta debuted in July 2020, the earliest references to this scene began appearing online in various fan art depictions or memes. One such example was posted to the /r/Genshin_Impact^[1] subreddit on July 5th by Redditor Kuhl_Notes (shown below). The post received over 280 upvotes and 11 comments in roughly three months.

Spread

After the game’s official release worldwide in September 2020, additional references to this scene began spreading to most social media platforms and websites. On October 1st, Twitter^[2] user Green_Tea_Neko tweeted another fan art piece featuring Paimon, receiving over 1,100 likes and 106 retweets in roughly two weeks (seen below, left). On October 3rd, Redditor Ofallx posted An Idiot Sandwich meme referencing emergency food to the /r/Genshin_Impact^[3] sub, receiving over 4,900 upvotes, 29 comments and several Reddit awards in 11 days (seen below, right).

On October 5th, Pixiv^[4] user 奔跑的弱鸡 uploaded another fan art example featuring Paimon as a bottle opener, accumulating over 26,100 views, 4,000 bookmarks and 2,800 likes (shown below).

On October 6th, YouTuber^[5] Elixir 404 uploaded a video titled “PET THE EMERGENCY FOOD,” which references the Pet the X meme, receiving over 32,100 views, 2,300 likes and 96 comments in eight days (seen below, left). On October 9th, YouTuber^[6] BakaJam uploaded a “Paimon Emergency Food Compilation” to their channel, receiving over 111,800 views, 3,000 likes and 190 comments in five days (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References