The Origin Of The Press F To Pay Respects Meme (2024)

For those who know this meme, stand proud. For those that don't, leave an F in the chat, because you're missing out. If you're not familiar with Call of Duty's Press F To Pay Respect meme, this may all sound like nonsense, but that's where we come in.

This meme is a staple of gaming inside joke culture, and it's got the most humble and exceedingly in-bad-taste origin. But once you get the backstory it will all start to make sense, and you'll be in on the gag like the rest of us. So here are the origins of the Press F To Pay Respect meme.

Updated April 10, 2024 By Matthew Mckeown: A legendary meme of a moment in gaming history that’s been lampooned into oblivion over the years that one scene of pressing “F” to pay respects to a fallen soldier will probably live in infamy forever. Which is what it deserves in all honesty.

A tone-deaf gamification of a very serious moment that we thankfully haven’t seen the likes of since, pressing buttons to pay respects will probably never be as outrageous as that ever again. For those new to the gaming scene or just missed the proverbial boat, here’s a refresher on the origins of the press “F” to pay respect meme.

What Game Is Press F To Pay Respect From?

To carbon-date this meme we'd have to look way back at the dark days of 2014. When we got the first Guardians of The Galaxy movie, Better Call Saul started, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was launched. This is where the Press F To Pay Respect meme was born, as it appeared in an entirely tactless QTE moment that is yet to be rivaled.

You play Jack Mitchell, a soldier injured in combat who ends up working for a PMC owned by an eccentric billionaire after they replace his arm with an advanced robotic prosthetic. Things are not as they seem, though, and a dark web of intrigue and betrayal plays out through the game's big-budget story.

It's a classic tale of corporate greed and rogue paramilitary groups that would've come straight out of any Tom Clancy handbook. Espionage, gadgets, explosions, and big battle bots, it was fun action shlock at its finest and it was received pretty well.

Where the infamous meme comes into play is the scene where our character is at a funeral for their comrade Private William Irons. Instead of letting the somber moment play out, Sledgehammer Games decided you need to get a little more involved.

Our character gets up, goes to the coffin and you're asked to "Press F To Pay Respect", or Square or X if you were on consoles. Players hit the button to be sad, and it was a moment that immediately took the internet by storm.

The absurdity of this little out-of-the-blue moment of gameplay got rightly called out and mocked for doing so with some genius and concerningly quickly made memes.

Examples Of Press F To Pay Respect

The comeback to Call of Duty's oddly placed QTE was swift and unrelenting. The memes were many and they spread into other areas of pop culture pretty quickly, here are a few choice examples.

Whether you like, love, or loathe this meme, its impact can't be denied or ignored.

Whether Sledgehammer Games intended it to become viral or not, over the years it's transformed from a dig at corporate into a common ground for humor, and it's even turned into a way of expressing sympathy, solidarity, and camaraderie in community circles of gaming.

Try and find a Twitch Streamer that doesn't ask for an F in chat or a Reddit thread of someone's run of bad luck with a plethora of F's posted below it. It's everywhere, and it's here to stay.