"Why I Gave The Pope Undertale" — Pope Francis with giant cartoon eyes and open mouth on a bright green background

"Why I Gave The Pope Undertale"

2016viral videoclassic

Published October 5, 2026

In July 2016, YouTuber MatPat of The Game Theorists uploaded a 16-minute video explaining why he gifted Pope Francis a Steam code for the indie RPG Undertale during a Vatican summit. The earnest pitch, built around the game's theme of mercy and the Pope's 2016 Year of Mercy, became a running gaming-internet punchline about fandom overreach.

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Overview

"Why I Gave The Pope Undertale" is a 16-minute YouTube video from The Game Theorists in which host Matthew "MatPat" Patrick walks through his reasoning for handing Pope Francis a Steam redeem code for Toby Fox's 2015 role-playing game Undertale1. The gag that stuck with viewers was the length and sincerity of the pitch, with MatPat framing the gift as a cultural ambassador move for gamers rather than a joke2.

MatPat's central argument tied the game's recurring mercy mechanic to Pope Francis declaring 2016 the Catholic Church's Year of Mercy, a period focused on forgiveness over harm2. He also used the runtime to push back on media narratives calling video games "murder simulators" and dismissing gamers as a monolithic group3. The video quickly became shorthand online for the kind of earnest, overblown advocacy that Undertale's fanbase was already known for1.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube
Creator
Matthew Patrick
Date
2016

In May 2016, MatPat was one of eleven YouTube creators invited to the Vatican for the VI Scholas World Congress, a summit on how internet creators bring people together across cultures4. During the meeting with Pope Francis, each creator was expected to present a gift representative of their culture, and MatPat chose a Steam code for Undertale2. Since Undertale had no physical release, the pontiff received a redeemable code rather than a disc or box1.

MatPat published "Why I Gave The Pope Undertale" on The Game Theorists channel on July 5, 2016, laying out his reasoning across sixteen minutes3. In the video he argued that Undertale, with its pacifist route and emphasis on sparing enemies, was the single best representative of where the gaming community stood that year2.

How It Spread

The video drew immediate coverage from gaming outlets who treated the whole episode with amused disbelief. Kotaku's July 2016 writeup opened with "Um. So this is a thing that actually happened" and framed the gift as an inevitable outcome of Undertale fandom's reputation for evangelizing the game to anyone within earshot2. Polygon ran its own piece the day after upload, calling MatPat's 16-minute explanation "desultory" while summarizing the mercy argument for readers who wanted the short version1.

Beyond the news cycle, the story became a long-running gag on Tumblr and gaming Twitter, where users riffed on the premise by suggesting other games MatPat should have handed over or imagining Pope Francis streaming a Let's Play channel3. The underlying YouTube video sat on The Game Theorists channel as a frequently referenced curiosity, cited whenever conversations about Undertale fandom intensity or celebrity gift-giving came back around3.

Timeline

2016-05

MatPat and ten other YouTube creators meet Pope Francis at the VI Scholas World Congress in Vatican City; MatPat gifts a Steam code for Undertale[4].

2016-07-05

The Game Theorists uploads "Why I Gave The Pope Undertale" to YouTube, a 16-minute explainer centered on the game's mercy theme[3].

2016-07-06

Polygon covers the gift and video, noting Undertale had no physical launch so Francis received a Steam code[1].

2016-07

Kotaku and other gaming press pick up the story, framing it as peak Undertale fandom behavior[2].

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