Elden Ring, despite being an extremely difficult RPG with one of the deepest and most compelling dark fantasy stories in all of video games, lends itself surprisingly well to the world of internet memes. This is likely due to the juxtaposition of humor against the entirely serious presentation of Elden Ring’s world. This is paired with the many idiosyncratic characters and situations found in all FromSoftware games which add unexpected humor to the otherwise brutal game worlds.
One of the most enduring memes found across the internet is Shrek. This DreamWorks' series of films originally exploded in popularity during the 2000s. Through its many quotable lines and memorable characters, the series has become one of the most “memeable” pop culture artifacts. This especially applies to the titular character of Shrek himself.
The Shrek films are so meme-worthy that the joke stretches far outside moments seen in the films themselves. Now anything even remotely related to Shrek can be pulled in, including the vast amounts of curious merchandise wearing the Shrek branding. A clip with one such item, the Shrek CRT TV, is now being shared around the internet after an anonymous creator shared a funny clip of them getting Elden Ring working on the ogre themed TV. This, surprisingly, isn't the first time Shrek and Elden Ring have collided.
The Shrek TV itself has become a meme before when it was joked that watching anything on it should be considered to “true” way to experience it. Mostly this would involve people editing screenshots from artful films onto the Shrek TV screen, but this player actually appears to own an actual Shrek TV and has hooked it up to an Xbox Series X in order to play Elden Ring. It isn't shown how many adapters were needed to use an Xbox Series X with a CRT TV screen, but the player’s humorous commentary over the clip clearly shows they were surprised that it has actually worked.
Only the Elden Ring title screen is seen in the short clip, meaning it is unknown how the TV handled the actual gameplay of Elden Ring. But the squashed four by three ratio and low screen resolution would have spoiled the game’s visuals somewhat. Not to mention the latency issues that would likely occur from running a game through the necessary adapters. This also isn't the first time Elden Ring has been made to run on a screen vastly unsuited for it.
A lot of Shrek themed Elden Ring character builds have been made since the game’s release in February 2022. This is due to Shrek being such a popular internet meme, but it is also likely down to the fact that Elden Ring and Shrek are both technically part of the same genre of media, although they definitely represent opposite sides of the fantasy genre spectrum.
Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.