Wasted

About

“Wasted” is a slang term indicating that a person has been killed which is displayed on screen in the open world video game series Grand Theft Auto if a player runs out of health.

Origin

The “Wasted” death screen first appeared in the original Grand Theft Auto game released in 1997. As the player character faces death, the message will appear, followed by a groan noise while the camera zooms in on the deceased player.

Upon death in Grand Theft Auto 2, the death screen features the “Wasted” text along with an announcer cheerfully saying the expression (shown below, left). Starting in Grand Theft Auto III and continuing with the sequals Vice City and San Andreas, the “Wasted” message is displayed by panning away from the character aerially (shown below, right).

Starting with Grand Theft Auto IV, the death screen showed the player dying in slow motion against a black-and-white filter, followed by the message “Wasted” displayed in red text. The same death screen is used in Grand Theft Auto V.

Spread

On January 8th, 2014, the /r/wastedgifs^[1] subreddit was launched, highlighting animated GIFs edited with the Grand Theft Auto death screen display (shown below).

On April 25th, CollegeHumor^[2] published a compilation of notable “Wasted” GIFs. On May 9th, YouTuber Szczery Jerry uploaded a video titled “Wasted in real life,” featuring a montage of FAIL videos with the Grand Theft Auto death screen (shown below, left). In the first four months, the video gained over 200,000 views and 280 comments. On May 11th, YouTuber mari cano uploaded a similar montage of “real life wasted” FAIL videos (shown below, right).

On May 14th, Smosh^[3] highlighted several notable “Wasted” animated GIFs. On May 24th, YouTuber GIFs With Sound 2 uploaded a montage of “Wasted” GIFs (shown below).

Search Interest

External References