Martyrdom (Drop a Live Grenade When Killed)

Submission 36,480

Part of a series on Call of Duty Perk Parodies. [View Related Entries]

About

Martyrdom (Drop a Live Grenade When Killed) refers to a Call of Duty Perk Parody reaction image. Online, the perk icon and description have been circulated online as a reaction, often used to comment on self-directed roasts done with the purpose of roasting another person.

Origin

On April 12th, 2007, first person shooter Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released.^[1] In the multiplayer mode of the shooter, a player had an option to unlock and equip "Martyrdom" perk.^[2] When equipped, the perk causes the player to drop a live fragmentation grenade upon death, potentially killing or damaging the attacker. The perk also appeared in the later installations of the series.

Spread

The exact first instance of use of the Martyrdom perk icon and description as a reaction is currently unknown. On March 20th, 2018, Imgur user circlejerkofhate posted the earliest known meme based on the image as a part of a collection, with the image receiving over 24,600 views in two years (shown below).^[3]^[4]

In the following year, the format saw limited use as a reaction on Reddit and Twitter.^[5]^[6] On January 11th, 2019, Redditor wobatix posted a meme based on the image to /r/dankmemes subreddit, where it gained over 75,000 upvotes in six months (shown below).^[7] In the following days, the image was reposted on Reddit and other online platforms multiple times.^[8]

On January 21st, 2019, Redditor oracle9297 posted another meme utilizing the image which gained over 9,800 upvotes in six months.^[9] In the following weeks, the format saw further spread on Reddit, with notable memes posted in /r/memes, /r/dankmemes and other communities.