The Furtive Pygmy, So Easily Forgotten

About

The Furtive Pygmy, So Easily Forgotten is a copypasta taken from the opening cinematic of the 2011 RPG Dark Souls, describing one of the Four Lords of the game. In the years since the game's release, "the furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten" has become a punchline in various meme formats among the Dark Souls fandom, as well as a standalone catchphrase.

Origin

In the opening cinematic of Dark Souls, released September 22nd, 2011, a voiceover introduces four characters who find the Lord Souls, ending with "the furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten." The full voiceover reads:^[1]

In the Age of Ancients the world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of gray crags, Archtrees and Everlasting Dragons. But then there was Fire and with fire came disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course, light and dark. Then from the dark, They came, and found the Souls of Lords within the flame. Nito, the First of the Dead, The Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights. And the Furtive Pygmy, so easily forgotten.

Spread

The line did not start becoming a meme until years later. On December 24th, 2017, Redditor Tang_Un posted what may have been the first "Furtive Pygmy" meme in /r/subnautica,^[2] gaining over 130 points in roughly four years (shown below, left). On June 27th, 2018, Redditor paladin_wilhelm posted a What About The Droid Attack On The Wookiees edit featuring the line, gaining over 380 points in /r/shittydarksouls in roughly three years (shown below, right).^[3]

Over the following years, the "Furtive Pygmy" line would become a common punchline in /r/shittydarksouls memes. On September 12th, 2019, Redditor VerdFunky posted an I Think I Forgot Something meme^[4] using the furtive pygmy, gaining 60 points in roughly two years (shown below, left). On March 6th, 2021, Twitter user @matrixreloaded_^[5] posted an image of Barack Obama with the meme, gaining over 8,600 retweets and 40,000 likes in 10 months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References