This Oblivion Remastered Easter egg is forcing me to confront a difficult truth about early 2010s meme culture: It was never funny, actually

Oblivion Remastered contains some delightful Easter eggs, but I regret to inform you that this one just doesn’t hit the mark.

I hold no resentment towards my colleagues over at PC Gamer for highlighting this Oblivion Remastered Easter egg, alongside a rather unfortunate meme from 2011. I completely attribute this to the absurdist humor of early 2010s Millennials, a time I vaguely recall laughing at numerous times during my college years. Do you remember the Harlem Shake? Or that infamous screaming sheep? I categorize the 2011 video Potion Seller in the same camp.

I apologize, my Gen-Z readers, but for the sake of this narrative, let’s return to 2011 and experience this clip:

I’ll openly confess that I hadn’t seen this video until just now; if I had previously, it certainly didn’t stick. Perhaps that’s why it fails to resonate with me; I’m not viewing it through tinted nostalgic lenses from hazy parties fueled by Rolling Rock, where I couldn’t hear a thing due to someone flipping a table after losing beer pong. Oh, goodness.

To be fair, the Potion Seller meme showcases a uniquely creative aspect of that era’s particular humor style, but it remains distinctly of its time. While I don’t necessarily believe today’s memes are superior, I still prefer not to revisit that period.

Anyway, the primary reason I mention this is that Oblivion Remastered seems to reference Potion Seller. The Twitch streamer TerraGuildTV discovered a new console command called “Altar.Player.PotionSellerGiveMeYourStrongestPotions,” which is rather explicit, but its description elaborates:

“Empowers the player to combat the Romans advancing to conquer the last free village of Gaul. ‘Have you heard of my potions? …My potions are too potent for you, traveler.'”

Yes, that is definitely a Potion Seller Easter egg, and I must admit, it’s a fitting reference considering the character in the meme undoubtedly parodies Elder Scrolls NPCs.

Once again, well done Todd.

Speaking of which, 19 years later, Todd Howard remains a hidden NPC in Oblivion Remastered, and he’ll call you a bastard if you cross him.

After earning a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for publications like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Currently, as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer, I manage the site’s western regional operations, also known as my apartment, and write about whatever horror game I’m too intimidated to complete.