Press F to Pay Respects
You might remember it as F in the chat, Call of Duty press F
“Press F to Pay Respects” on a computer; the console versions say “Hold X” and “Hold Square”
2014·The social era
An on-screen instruction at a funeral in a 2014 video game, which became the single letter people type when something has gone wrong for somebody.
At a glanceThe facts
- Remembered as
- F in the chat
- Spread in
- 2014
- Format
- Phrase
- Taken from
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, released in November 2014
- The scene
- A funeral, at which the player is asked to put a hand on a comrade’s coffin
- What it said
- “Press F to Pay Respects” on a computer; the console versions say “Hold X” and “Hold Square”
- Used to say
- A single F typed in a chat, to express sorrow or sympathy at bad news
- Origin
- Origin not yet established
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
Why it matteredWhat changed
A prompt its own screenwriter did not know was in the game became a way of offering condolences in one keystroke.
TimelineIn order
- Made
An earlier game, Batman: Arkham City, lets the player pay respects at the place Batman’s parents died. There it is optional.1
- Made
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is released. Players and critics mock the funeral scene, and Conan O’Brien does so on television.1
- Mainstream
Viewers fill the chat with the letter during a stream held in tribute to the victims of a shooting at a gaming tournament in Jacksonville.1
What people misrememberSet straight
Commonly remembered asCall of Duty invented the prompt.
ActuallyA Batman game had used one in 2011.1
Commonly remembered asThe scene was written that way.
ActuallyThe screenwriter called the prompt a by-product of late development and said he learned of it from a journalist.1
How it spreadFrom one place to everywhere
- Streamers gave the practice a name: “F in the chat”.1
Why it is here: copied, redrawn and reused until the original stopped mattering · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later
Where it came fromWhat we know
Original source uncertain. This is the earliest copy currently known.
No original upload has been established for this record. The index is showing the earliest copy it currently knows about, and says so rather than guessing.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
More from the social eraMore of the archive
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things