What Is The 'Nintendo, Hire This Man' Meme? The Sarcastic Gaming Catchphrase Explained

Whenever a fan-made game demo adds hyper-realistic lighting, glossy textures and Unreal Engine effects to a Nintendo character, one response is almost guaranteed to appear: "Nintendo, hire this man."

What sounds like praise is usually the exact opposite, mocking the idea that making a video game look more realistic automatically makes it better than Nintendo's own work and unique art styles.

Known as the "Nintendo, Hire This Man" meme, the memetic catchphrase is used sarcastically to ridicule fan projects, mods and renders that replace stylized game art with overly realistic graphics, as well as people who sincerely claim those projects surpass the original art direction of the developers.

The joke began on 4chan in 2018 before spreading across gaming communities and eventually evolving into variations like "SEGA, hire this man" and "Valve, hire this man."