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Borderlands
Borderlands 4 writers say the previous game “sometimes felt like parody,” and while there’s at least one meme in the new loot shooter “it does not involve a Skibidi Toilet”

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Borderlands 4 mercifully ditches most of Borderlands 3 potty humor, but Gearbox gives itself a treat and references Dark Souls meme from Twitter in hidden sidequest

Ashley Bardhan

29 September 2025

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(Image credit: Gearbox)

Whether or not the Borderlands games are funny comes down to your tolerance level for concepts such as “toilet prison” and Rickrolling, but as fans of the 2009 franchise grow older and more world-weary, its le epic memes become less impressive. This is why Borderlands 4 players seem to be glad the latest installment of the looter shooter ditches the series’ crudest humor.

But “crude humor,” Gearbox devs argue, doesn’t exclude a Dark Souls joke from 2022 making an appearance as a self-referential, secret sidequest. So they made a Dark Souls joke from 2022 into a self-referential, secret sidequest – first noticed by our friends at PC Gamer.
The unmarked Forgive Me quest refers to a self-described FromSoftware “meme” Gearbox narrative director Sam Winkler infamously shared to Twitter three years ago, writing, “Dark Souls revolutionized games, in the sense that instead of a story now you can just have some guy with a big sword named Myrmidon of Loss who gasps ‘Zanzibart… forgive me’ when he dies and then twenty YouTubers will make an hour long video about how deep your lore is.”

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Borderlands 4 writers say the previous game “sometimes felt like parody,” and while there’s at least one meme in the new loot shooter “it does not involve a Skibidi Toilet”

Borderlands 4 seemingly throws shade at former owner Embracer with an AI toilet and rundown town ruled by a king in a hot tub

The new Borderlands 4 trailer feels like an extreme parody of the 2025 games industry: a (literal) bloodbath caused by board members killing cool ideas to save money

Its corresponding Borderlands 4 quest sees players attacked by an enemy who drops a Desecrated Bolt that ekes out the line about Zanzibart. Once you hear it, you’re instructed to find Zanzibart’s grave, where you’ll encounter a spirt named Cursed Myrmidon of the Cruel Dawn.

Winkler teased all of this before Borderlands 4 released, telling IGN that, while he wanted to reign in the game’s goofiness, he also felt like adding “a specific meme in this game, and I feel justified putting it in because I accidentally created it.”
“It does not involve a Skibidi Toilet,” Winkler added at the time.
Gearbox Software unveils the first Borderlands 4 DLC Vault Hunter, coming in early 2026 alongside some story expansions for the FPS.

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Ashley Bardhan

Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She’s been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she’s written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she’s not covering gaming news, she’s usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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Borderlands 4 writers say the previous game “sometimes felt like parody,” and while there’s at least one meme in the new loot shooter “it does not involve a Skibidi Toilet”

Borderlands 4 seemingly throws shade at former owner Embracer with an AI toilet and rundown town ruled by a king in a hot tub

The new Borderlands 4 trailer feels like an extreme parody of the 2025 games industry: a (literal) bloodbath caused by board members killing cool ideas to save money

“It is a turning point in our universe”: Gearbox explains Borderlands 4’s deliberately less-stupid story, and it feels weird to actually be interested in a Borderlands plot

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford admits Borderlands has gone “too far” in the past, but promises Borderlands 4 has hit the sweet spot

Borderlands 4’s jetpack and grappling hook were prophesied 6 years ago through a Borderlands 3 joke poking fun at the era’s FPS tropes by shooting them into space

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Gearbox Software unveils the first Borderlands 4 DLC Vault Hunter, coming in early 2026 alongside some story expansions for the FPS

Gearbox knows some Borderlands 4 players “are experiencing reduced stability” after the new update, but says “stuttering issues should resolve over time” and just tough it out for 15 minutes and see if it goes away

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