Grand Dad

TODO: Get this into a proper wiki format, upload the images

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The Grand Dad meme has a rather complicated origin.

It begins with the bootleg Famicom game “Diànshì Mǎlì“ (or, as the game transliterates it, “Big TV Mali Bar”), a gambling simulator that features a frankly bizarre rendition of Mario:

http://65.media.tumblr.com/6f32c626d390b6c00f14d159fb12ff0c/tumblr_inline_o49p09qiLs1r9wcwu_400.png

He was initially nicknamed “Fortran”, both because of the “F” on his hat (where Mario normally has am “M”) and because the word was discovered in the game’s code. (It more likely refers to the programming language that the game was presumably coded in.)

The meme evolved into its current stage when Vinesauce streamer Joel played several NES bootlegs on an emulator. As seen here, he plays a 7-in-1 cartridge and eventually gets to the final game, simply labelled “MARIO 7″ on the menu. However, upon loading the game, the title screen bears a familiar face… and a surprise:

http://67.media.tumblr.com/abf68de8c7158df964e04caf900b1ff6/tumblr_inline_o49p5g2TIX1r9wcwu_500.png

Joel’s immediate response (a baffled cry of “GRAND DAD?!”) is not helped when the Flintstones theme begins playing shortly afterwards. (As it turns out, the game is a simple sprite edit of the licensed NES game The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy. This is why Fred Flintstone appears over Fortran’s shoulder.) Joel’s further commentary (generally composed of “FLEENTSTONES?!”, further repetition of “GRAND DAD”, and other statements of disbelief) made the entire clip a highlight of the stream.

Alternate history

The SoundCloud user DJ Fruitsnacks (who has since left the site, though reuploads of his material are available) claims that he was the one who spread the meme into the SoundClown community (and, thus, inspiring the creation of GiIvaSunner). In a rant he posted to his account (which was subsequently deleted, though reuploads are available on both SoundCloud and YouTube, he claims:

Now, I made one Grand Dad funny, and originally that was all it was going to ever be. [...] And then, this asshole, the Man Man, made a whole fuckin' album and most of them was like shitty volume all the way turned up bullshit, there were a couple good mashups but, and that basically inspiralled [sic] me into turning it into a downward hill. And basically, for a long long time it was basically just me and him and a couple of other people that thought it was funny. And mos-- and mostly, mostly it was just me and him. And then, um, if some famous people did it they did it as a joke, it was "this is shitty, why would you bother", and those are the same people that are running SilviaGunner [sic] [...] Anyway, so, those same people would totally mercifully wreck the shit out of how unfunny it was.

Whether or not it is true is up for debate

With GiIvaSunner, the meme took on another form; many videos have the Flintstones theme edited in somewhere, and some attention has been given to Flintstones games that would otherwise be ignored. Fortran (generally rechristened “grand Dad”, after the game which made him famous) also appears sometimes, most notably in the channel’s header image.