E3: 10 Most Hilarious Moments From Past Conferences

8. Riiiiidge Racer! (2006)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaBUeINW_3s If you're a fan of awkward silences (and let's be serious, who isn't?), E3 always delivers in spades. Sony's 2006 conference provided plenty of laughs (more to come later on...) and this moment in particular is a real highlight. Kazuo Hirai - a Sony executive - walked onto the stage proudly holding a PlayStation Portable and decided he wanted to play a little game with the audience. He loaded a game up and asked everyone to see if they could recognise it before the title screen gave it away. Nobody responded. His gentle berating of the audience for not playing along would have been awkward enough but Mr. Hirai decided to top it off by excitedly revealing the game to be Ridge Racer. When nobody reacted, his excitement got the better of him as he proclaimed the game to be "Riiiiiidge Racer!" And thus, a meme was born. If you've ever watched a live stream of E3, you'll know how popular this moment has become; any sort of live chat involving Sony's E3 conferences will contain at least one reference to Kazuo's gleeful outburst. Hopefully, we'll one day see the series renamed to Riiiiidge Racer permanently; if anything, it would surely increase the franchise's popularity. Until then, you can just follow Hirai's example and irritate your friends endlessly by adding extra i's to everything.