7 Grand Dad

1992Catchphrase / reaction / video game bootleg memesemi-active

Published July 28, 2026

Also known as: Grand Dad · Primitive Mario VII · Grand Dad 3M

7 Grand Dad is a 1992 bootleg NES game that hacked The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy, slapping a crude Mario head onto Fred Flintstone's sprite. The game sat in obscurity for over two decades until Twitch streamer Vinesauce Joel discovered it during a September 2014 stream, and his baffled reaction turned "GRAND DAD" and "FLEENTSTONES" into lasting inside jokes across the Vinesauce community and the SiIvaGunner YouTube channel.

Overview

7 Grand Dad, an unlicensed NES cartridge published by JY Company, a Taiwanese bootleg manufacturer, in 19921. The game is a simple ROM hack of Konami's The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy. The only real modification to gameplay is that Fred Flintstone's in-game head sprite was swapped to look like Mario, while the rest of his body stayed the same1. The title screen features a bizarre Mario-like character lifted from another bootleg game called Dian Shi Ma Li, standing next to the "7 GRAND DAD" logo while an 8-bit rendition of The Flintstones theme plays3.

The cartridge label adds to the absurdity. It features art similar to another bootleg hack called Mario IV, and the English text on the label helpfully instructs players to "Push Up + Start button. Get addition game. And nourish the blood"1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Vinesauce Joel's Twitch stream (viral meme), JY Company bootleg cartridge (source game)
Key People
JY Company, Vinesauce Joel
Date
1992 (game), 2014 (meme)

The game itself was manufactured by JY Company and released in Taiwan around 19921. Like many NES bootlegs of that era, it made its way online as a ROM file around 1996, circulating through bootleg game collector communities3. For years it was a minor curiosity in those circles, known for its lazy sprite edits and weird title screen, but not much else. Interest faded and the game drifted back into obscurity3.

That changed on September 4, 2014, when Twitch streamer Vargskelethor, better known as Joel from the Vinesauce streaming collective, stumbled across 7 Grand Dad while playing through a bootleg Mario 7-in-1 multicart on stream3. Joel's genuine bewilderment at the title screen produced an instant classic reaction: he shouted "GRAND DAD" repeatedly, then attempted to read "Flintstones" in a way that sounded like "FLEENTSTONES," which became its own meme within the community3.

How It Spread

After Joel's stream clip spread through the Vinesauce community, 7 Grand Dad became a recurring in-joke. Fans started remixing Joel's audio clips, splicing together his exclamations of "Grand Dad" and "Flintstones" into new edits3.

The meme got a second life through the YouTube channel SiIvaGunner (originally styled "GiIvaSunner"), which built its identity around posting fake video game music rips that secretly contained other songs3. The Flintstones theme became one of SiIvaGunner's most frequently used bait-and-switch tracks, sneaked into uploads supposedly containing music from completely unrelated games3. This gave 7 Grand Dad exposure far beyond the Vinesauce fanbase, as unsuspecting viewers clicking on what they thought was a normal game soundtrack would instead hear the familiar Flintstones melody.

The game's title screen character, with his half-Mario, half-Fred-Flintstone appearance, also became a popular reaction image and avatar in gaming communities. Urban Dictionary entries define the game through Joel's reaction, with users quoting his stream verbatim2.

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