Defying the Laws of Gravity

Two characters and two boxes of noodles

The drawing shows two figures. On the left sits a yellow lizard in large round glasses and a light-colored sweater: her eyes are squeezed shut with joy, her cheeks are pink, and her mouth is open in laughter. On the right, nestled against her, is a blue character with a red mane, a yellow crown-shaped hair clip, a black eyepatch, and a sharp-toothed grin. Both are holding cardboard noodle boxes, and the blue character has chopsticks in hand. The background is light, with colorful highlights, like a warm photograph.

Going by their appearance, these are Alphys and Undyne from Undertale. Who drew the picture can't be determined from the image itself: there's no signature, and it looks like fan art rather than a screenshot from the game. So it's reasonable to describe only what's shown: a peaceful, almost domestic scene of two characters eating.

The game, the pairing, and the song

Undertale is an indie role-playing game by Toby Fox, released in 2015. Alphys and Undyne are characters from it, and this pairing has become one of fans' favorite subjects for art and songs.

The song tied to the meme is called "Fishy Love." According to a breakdown by a Russian-language gaming blog, this is a Russian-language version of the English song "Fishy Love" by the Griffinilla project, performed by the group Empire of Geese in 2016. The title plays on the word "fishy," which means both "suspicious" and "fish-related," and the fish character fits right in. The exact release dates haven't been independently confirmed and should be treated as approximate.

Nine seconds in short-form video

In 2021, a short clip spread across TikTok: a line about how, against the laws of attraction, the two of them will be together, followed by an addition that they'll also bring Papyrus along. Papyrus is another character from the game, a skeleton known for being overly friendly and oblivious to the fact that he's unwanted.

That addition turned into a ready-made template for videos. Two people (or two plus a camera) act out an idyllic scene, and at just the right moment, someone nobody invited walks into frame: a pet, a younger sibling, a parent, a friend with a question. The whole joke fits into a single cut.

How the mechanics work

The line in the song sounds almost like a confession, and the listener expects it to end on "the two of us." The word "three of us" is never actually said, but its meaning arrives through the unexpected add-on. It's a classic twist on expectation: grandeur at the start, a mundane interruption at the end.

The joke's second pillar is familiarity with the game. For those who know Papyrus, the line is doubly funny: he really wouldn't pass up someone else's date. But even people who don't know the game get the rhythm: a romantic build-up, then an abrupt "and we'll bring a third" — and they laugh at the situation itself, not at the reference.

Captions that work

Here are a few invented examples. "Me and my girlfriend having a quiet dinner. And the cat, who decided to sit on the table." The cat here is Papyrus: its presence is just as inevitable as the chorus.

"We're off to get noodles together. The second box is for the friend who texted 'where are you guys headed?'" The joke works through a precise everyday detail: everyone remembers bringing along one person too many themselves.

"We planned a quiet evening together. Mom: 'I'll just pop in for a minute.'" The words "quiet evening" and "just a minute" promise something small, and then another person turns up in the frame anyway.

"First date, second chair for my anxiety." A version with no third person: an abstraction takes Papyrus's place, and the joke gets a slightly more grown-up edge.

How to use the drawing

The drawing is handy because it already shows a paired scene and a peaceful mood, and the empty space to the left or right is easy to picture filled by a third character. The caption works best in two beats: first the quiet idyll, then the gatecrasher.

There's no need to attribute real relationships to real people just because they fit the caption: this is a joke about fictional characters and a situation, not about anyone's actual life.