# "Snake Eater" (Song) "Snake Eater" is the Cynthia Harrell-performed title song from Metal Gear Solid 3 (2004), composed by Norihiko Hibino in a dramatic James Bond style. Fans turned the mismatch between its bombastic vocals and the game's quiet ladder-climb cutscene into a template for ladder jokes across other games. By 2017, YouTubers were dubbing it over climbing scenes in Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls. ## Origin Norihiko Hibino composed "Snake Eater" and Cynthia Harrell performed the vocals for Konami's 2004 stealth game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater[2]. In the game, the song plays during a cutscene in which Naked Snake climbs a ridiculously tall ladder with no dialogue, no action and no credits rolling, just the full theme[1]. Kotaku's Ash Parrish wrote that putting the brassy anthem under a quiet climb was Kojima subverting the convention of saving a title song for a game's ending[1]. - **Platform:** Metal Gear Solid 3 (source) / YouTube (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2004 ## Overview Online, the song shows up two ways. Video editors sync it to any game character scaling a very long ladder, mimicking Hideo Kojima's 2004 cutscene where Naked Snake climbs for roughly a full minute with nothing but Harrell's voice carrying the moment[1]. Image macros overlay the song's lyrics onto unrelated meme templates, from Distracted Boyfriend edits to serial-killer gag posts[2][3]. The tone leans affectionate, not mocking. Writers at Kotaku called the track "dramatic and campy" and compared it directly to a James Bond opening[1]. That reverent-but-silly register sets the baseline for most parodies: the song is treated as too grand for whatever boring thing is happening on screen, which is the joke[5]. ## How to Use Typically, editors overlay the full theme onto footage of a character climbing a ladder or scaling something tall in a different video game, matching the cut to the song's opening swell. A common convention in image macros is to caption an unrelated meme template with a line from Harrell's lyrics, so the drama of the song clashes with the mundane subject. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is "Snake Eater" (Song)? It is the dramatic title theme of 2004's Metal Gear Solid 3, composed by Norihiko Hibino and sung by Cynthia Harrell, that became a running joke online for long video game ladder climbs[1]. ### Where did "Snake Eater" (Song) come from? It was written for Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and plays during an in-game cutscene where Naked Snake climbs a very long ladder with no other audio[1][5]. ### What does "Snake Eater" (Song) mean? In meme form, the song signals that something slow or trivial, usually a ladder climb, is being treated with Bond-level grandeur for comic effect[1]. ### How do you use "Snake Eater" (Song)? Sync the song to footage of a character climbing a ladder in another game, as Popato did with Breath of the Wild in 2017[7], or caption an image macro with its lyrics, as Tumblr user captainkupo did with Distracted Boyfriend[3]. ### Is "Snake Eater" (Song) still popular? It is a classic reference in the Metal Gear fandom and in gaming parody edits, and Kotaku was still praising it in a 2020 feature[1]. ## References 1. [https://kotaku.com/mgs3s-snake-eater-is-good-enough-to-be-a-bond-theme-1845271335]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aHQnDTd1y4]() 3. [https://captainkupo.tumblr.com/post/164573520021]() 4. [https://imgur.com/On8w27j]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/snake-eater-song]() 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHsuYqwUaK4]() 7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEKiWAnoKss]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/snake-eater-song Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library