The Brief: Animal Crossing: New Horizons memes have been trending online since Nintendo's March 2020 release of the fifth installment of the Animal Crossing series.

DEEP DIVE
Animal Crossing memes explore the breadth of content and comedy from the latest edition of the Nintendo video game. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) is an animal-themed role-playing life simulation video game with a cult following. In the game, animal characters build communities and explore islands owned by Tom Nook: a cartoon raccoon real estate tycoon.
On March 20, 2020, Nintendo released the series’ fifth installment: Animal Crossing New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch. As millions of people around the globe are under voluntary or mandated quarantines and self-isolation to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, it makes for the perfect at-home activity.
#ACNH memes showcase the myriad of activities and interactions that Animal Crossing characters engage in. They also share spoofs, commentary, and jokes about the game.
nintendo: so you hate doing chores, right
me: totally
nintendo: and you hate working a job
me: so much
nintendo: what if you did all that while hopelessly in debt to a capitalist raccoon?
me: will it be cute
nintendo: so cute
me: then i will do it for 20,000 hours
— soul nate (@MNateShyamalan) March 20, 2020
you're joking pic.twitter.com/Q8jpVZGiTq
— James (@NitroRad) March 21, 2020
Animal crossing on the switch 😍 pic.twitter.com/rmri5CzUxv
— ᴍᴀʀʟ (@FormuIaUno) March 23, 2020
Highlights from my first weekend on the island #AnimalCrossing #ACNH #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/azgHvSFpF1
— Ash Guillaume (@_aguillaume) March 23, 2020
wonderful insight pic.twitter.com/IEuJmVRmYW
— Deuvir (@Bruyvern) March 22, 2020
Important discovery while playing animal crossing pic.twitter.com/GplN2w87zx
— Addison✨ (@shinyjpg) March 20, 2020
Surprised Pikachu on ACNH:
"You can’t just spend the whole time playing Animal Crossing by re-creating memes…" from AnimalCrossing
Tom Nook & Anti-Capitalist Memes
These memes comment on the character Tom Nook’s role as a powerful capitalist within the game, expressing the role he might play in an anti-capitalist revolution.
If Tom Nook doesn’t freeze my mortgage during this pandemic pic.twitter.com/EsM5CB6ICH
— Gay Judas (@turkeyforlife) March 22, 2020
tom nook is a nice landlord, he is forgiving and understanding and kinds and provides to his tenants. however, he is still a landlord so when the revolution comes we will have to guillotine him. he can go last but he still has to go
— kelly (@kelllicopter) March 22, 2020
landlord: you owe me €800
me: die in hell old man
tom nook: you owe me 100 trillion bells
me: yes daddy thank you daddy
— seán 🦌 (@tiemoose) March 21, 2020
“I pledge allegiance to the bag”
For Those Who Don’t Actually Play Animal Crossing:
Even if you don’t have a Switch or Animal Crossing, you may have been noticing an influx in memes or started feeling FOMO.
meep ma moo ma meep mop
Posted by Danks For the Memeories 2.0 on Friday, March 20, 2020
how it feels reading my tl pic.twitter.com/8ULBvc45wE
— 𝓁𝒾𝓃𝒶 (@grilledxcheese) March 22, 2020
#ACNH On TiKTok
Animal Crossing memes have spread across a variety of platforms including TikTok, where audio and video clips from the game are going viral. At the time of writing, videos associated with the hashtag #ACNH have been viewed over 64 million times on the app.
@meowchelloHow me and my friends spend time on ac ##animalcrossing ##foryou ##fyp ##jojopose ##acnh♬ JoJo Pose To this audio full version on SoundCloud – apollofresh
@maybe.itsmkLMFAOOO HEAR ME OUT THIS LOWKEY SLAPSSS ##fyp ##xyzbca♬ original sound – maybe.itsmk