If the simple and revolutionary Vampire Survivors had become one of our favorite games last year, knowing that behind its addictive gameplay there was an even crazier cape which we had not noticed has definitely blown my mind.
From characters and items to levels, all the names that appear in Vampire Survivors are actually a running gag in the form of references to Italian celebrities, parts of the country and, in the most cynical way possible, also to the worst insults you can say in italian.
The Vampires Survivors memes that only Italians understand
In back of Vampire Survivors this Luca Galante, an Italian based in London who started working on the game during the pandemic to disconnect from his regular job, an online slot machine developer. You have to eat something, it seems.
What I was completely unaware of, and I must thank the partner Giordana Moroni for his discovery, is that behind the game there is an almost surreal layer of Italian memes and insults that, of course, it is almost impossible to know if you are not from the region.
Apparently Gallant he worked on the game on weekends as a simple hobby and never expected it to become the phenomenon that it later became, so along with a humor that was as acid as it was difficult to understand if you don’t know the language or popular culture of the country, he was introducing little pullitas in each character or object that he included in the game.
Without going any further, the character Christine Davain is a reference to Cristina D’Avena, the Italian singer who usually gives voice to most of the songs in the intros of the country’s cartoons. From Sailor Moon to Inspector Gadget, going through others like Batman or One Piece, the artist and her reference in the game is the perfect example of how far Gallant he took the joke too far.
The insults in Italian of Vampire Survivors
Yes, I know what you came for, so I’m not going to make you wait any longer. Just let me point out that, aside from the joke, saying these words in Italian would be like becoming the Torrente of the country. It’s a rude and unpleasant humor which, beyond the joke, can cause you to end up with a slap, so be careful.
- Ladonna Holder: read fast in an Italian accent is very reminiscent of “Porca Madonna”, which would be something like “the Virgin is a bitch”. Because of its religious connotation, it is one of the worst insults you can say in Italy.
- Racho Poe: As in the previous case, read in one go could be interpreted as “Poraccio”, an insult related to a poor person in the most derogatory way possible.
- Poppea Pecorina: “poppea” would be the Italian equivalent to our “Busty Ramona“, while “Pecorine” is his way of calling the sexual position of the puppy (on all fours), although in his case they refer to sheep.
- Mortaccio: is a contraction of the expression “deathacci tua”, which comes to say “curse your ancestors”. Our direct equivalent would be the classic “I shit on your dead”.
- Moongolow: yeah, read straight through it’s basically his way of calling someone “mongolian” as has happened for years in Spain despite the fact that, fortunately, it is becoming increasingly disused.
- Linters: I save the best for last because this is the most twisted of all. During an Italian program, the typical one in which grandparents call to answer a question and win a prize, the presenter asks for the answer to something that “it’s white and it foams but it’s not soap”. The answer was “beer”, for beer, but one kid managed to trick his grandmother into saying “delete”, which sounds like “sborra”, the equivalent of our “cum” to refer to semen.
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