Robogames' Famous $5 Hot Dog
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| Introduced: 2017 |
| Retired: N/A |
| Shortcut: GBhotdog |
| Source: Robogames 2017 |
Robogames' Famous $5 Hot Dog refers to a fictional item from the concession stand of the annual California robot combat event Robogames. During a commentated restream of the 2017 event Draco found himself filling the idle time between fights with jokes and observations about the event and venue. When the stream chat asked him why the audience stands weren't full he replied that it was because all of the people were waiting in line at the concession stand to buy Robogames' "famous" hot dog, which allegedly cost five dollars. Not realizing that this was an off the cuff joke, many people assumed that there really was apparently a good hot dog for sale at the event.
The 2017 restream of the Robogames event attracted a number of unique visitors to the stream. Many of these viewers were fans of robot combat and came to the stream for the jokes and commentary. They took the "$5 hot dog" gag with them when they returned to their communities after the event and to this day the "Robogames Famous $5 Hot Dog" remains an inside joke. The meme reached such a popularity that Robogames officials eventually clarified that there was not a concession stand at the event and that they do not sell hot dogs. When asked about the hot dog during the 2018 event, officials jokingly stated that selling hot dogs was "too lux" for their tastes.
The fictional hot dog is commonly associated with its salesperson, Sam Freddy (portrayed by Draco). Sam is known for his nasally high pitched voice and apparent social anxiety. His defining character trait is he wholly believes in the quality of the products he has for sale, but lacks the personal confidence to be a good salesman and constantly stutters, misspeaks, or starts sentences over out of nervousness. His excitement normally causes him to offer special deals that aren't really deals at all (e.g. "buy one hot dog get a second at regular menu price"). When Sam speaks he often does so too close to the microphone resulting in audio clipping and very pronounced syllable popping.
Although the hot dog doesn't exist, it was still immortalized in emote form. The emote features a small hot dog topped with mustard with a green "$5" in the upper corner. It's commonly used any time Draco or someone else praises or talks about a product, game, movie, etc on stream.