Padoru — Chibi Nero Claus in Santa outfit sitting on shiny floor in Carnival Phantasm scene

Padoru

2011viral videoclassic

Published September 20, 2026

Padoru is the internet's favorite Christmas earworm from the 2010 PSP game Fate/Extra, where Nero Claudius belts out a Japanese parody of Jingle Bells that ends in the shouted refrain 'padoru padoru!' Fans looped, remixed and animated the clip every December from 2016 onward, turning a throwaway RPG cutscene into the Fate fandom's unofficial holiday jingle.

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Overview

The meme runs on the same short loop, Nero Claudius yelling 'padoru padoru' at the tail of a parody Jingle Bells over a chiptune sleigh bell arrangement1. Fans built a whole December ritual around it, uploading extended edits, one hour versions, S Stands For style remixes, and image macros of Nero in a Santa outfit hauling a sleigh across chat threads6. The joke is that a throwaway musical cue from a 2010 PSP RPG became the Fate fandom's unofficial Christmas anthem, spammed across Twitter and YouTube every year once December arrives.

Origin & Background

Platform
Fate/Extra (PSP game) / YouTube (viral spread)
Date
2011

Padoru comes from Fate/Extra, the 2010 PSP role playing game by Type-Moon and Marvelous, in a brief sequence where Nero Claudius sings a Japanese parody of 'Jingle Bells' that ends with her shouting the lyrics 'padoru padoru'6. On December 11th, 2011, YouTuber ugroundz uploaded a clip of the sequence, which drew more than 473,000 views over the following years and became the reference cut fans linked back to1. The word itself is roughly a Japanese onomatopoeia for paddling, slotted into the parody lyric 'Hashire sori yo, kaze no you ni, tsukimihara wo, padoru padoru' (translated from Japanese)5.

How It Spread

The clip sat quietly for years before YouTuber Yung Bubby posted a one hour loop of the scene on August 31st, 2016, pulling over 121,000 views within four months and giving fans a ready made Christmas playlist2. Momentum picked up in 2017 as Fate/Grand Order pushed the franchise into wider fandom traffic. On September 19th, 2017, YouTuber Monnekey posted a remix of the Nero clip that treated 'padoru padoru' as a full musical hook rather than a game gag, while Twitter user @_Nerodere dropped an edited That Girl Is So Cute comic with Nero singing the song. On October 26th, 2017, YouTuber Jmay put out an S Stands For style remix, splicing Nero into the SpongeBob YouTube Poop format4. By December 3rd, 2017, a Fate/Grand Order thread on 4chan's /vg/ board was openly quoting the song in the middle of unrelated posts, and padoru became the fandom's default December greeting from that point forward3.

Timeline

2010

Fate/Extra releases on PSP in Japan, containing the Nero Claudius Christmas cutscene that will later be sampled endlessly.

2011-12-11

YouTuber ugroundz uploads a clean cut of the Fate/Extra 'padoru padoru' scene, the reference upload later remixers pull from.

2016-08-31

YouTuber Yung Bubby posts a one hour loop of the scene, one of the first signs fans want the song on repeat.

2017-09-19

YouTuber Monnekey posts a remix and Twitter user @_Nerodere edits the 'That Girl Is So Cute' comic to feature Nero singing padoru.

2017-10-26

YouTuber Jmay uploads an S Stands For style remix of the Fate/Extra scene.

2017-12-03

A Fate/Grand Order thread on 4chan's /vg/ board fills up with 'padoru' references, marking the meme's arrival as a holiday inside joke for the fandom.

2018-12-13

Redditor Emiya_desu posts a widely upvoted explainer of the meme, signaling it has spread past hardcore Fate fans.

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