About

The Game Is Called X Because of the Name of the Characters is an exploitable meme format falsely claiming that a video game's title is an acronym based on the first letter of each of its characters' names and displaying the incorrect acronym over the Chris Crying meme from the 2017 horror film Get Out. The memes feature the phrasal template, "You realizing the game is called X because of the name of the characters," with "X" being the specified video game. The meme first appeared on Reddit in late July 2025 and garnered viral spread that month, inspiring edits, including versions of the meme that use a different template image than Chris Crying.

Origin

On July 19th, 2025, X^[1] user @gvcringepost posted a Portuguese meme reading what translates to, "When after 30 years you realize that SONIC is called that because of the protagonists," garnering over 55,000 likes in five days. Along the bottom is the word "SONIC" with a character from the game whose name does not start with the associated letter behind each letter and Crash Bandicoot under the "C."

On July 22nd, Redditor u/Girlxgirllover2k4 posted a translation of the meme to the /r/SonictheHedgehog^[2] subreddit titled "Bro think he part of the team," garnering over 2,200 upvotes in two days. The translation reads, "You realizing the game is called SONIC because of the name of the characters."

Spread

On July 23rd, 2025, the meme was reposted by Instagram^[3] user johnnyjmontilla, garnering over 15,000 likes in a day. On the same day, X^[4] user @spring_altair posted an edit of the meme referencing the game Limbus Company, garnering over 5,800 likes in a day.

Later that day, X^[5] user @eStarland posted a version of the meme referencing The Legend of Zelda series, garnering over 35,000 likes in a day.

That same day, a version referencing Deltarune was posted by Instagram^[6] user noelle.irony, garnering over 9,000 likes in under 24 hours.

Also on July 23rd, 2025, Redditor u/Forward-Honey-5786 posted a version of the meme to the /r/lies^[7] subreddit about the Super Mario series, garnering over 4,600 upvotes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References