Pick Up That Can

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HALF-LIFE 2 KEEP CITY 17 CLEAN DO YOUR PART: PICK UP THAT CAN ADA VALVE

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About

Pick Up That Can is a memorable scene form the 2004 video game Half-Life 2 in which a Combine officer drops an aluminum can onto the floor and forces the protagonist Gordon Freeman to pick it up and throw it into the trash before he lets him go through. Gaining almost immediate recognition in the gaming community, the scene has remained a subject of memes and references since the game's release.

Origin

On November 16th, 2004, first person shooter video game Half-Life 2 was released^[1][ by Valve. In the early part of the game, protagonist Gordon Freeman arrives at a train station in City 17, where a Combine cop (also referred to as Civil Protection officer) blocks his way into the building. The officer drops an aluminum can onto the floor and forces the player to pick it up and throw it into a trash can before he lets them pass (scene shown below).

Pick up that can… and put into trash can… Alright, you can go, haha.

On June 28th, 2006, YTMND user Katana posted the earliest found meme based on the scene, "Pick Up That Can Rave."^[2] The page got over 7,900 visits and maintained a 3.9 rating on the site as of November 2023 (still image shown below).

Spread

On October 25th, 2006, YouTube^[3] user Division by Zero made the earliest existing upload of the scene to YouTube, where it accumulated over 690,000 views in 17 years (shown below, left). On June 24th, 2006, YouTube^[4] user Meme Emperor posted a video in which they put the Combine cop into the trash can using Super Gravity Gun. The video (shown below, right) received over 63,000 views in seventeen years.

Through 2010s the scene remained a popular subject of edits, memes, cosplay, plus references on YouTube and other platforms. For example, on July 28th, 2016, YouTube^[5] user GuardianR105 posted a video of a cosplayer re-enacting the scene at Anime Expo 2016 (shown below, left). The video received over 138,000 views in seven years. On October 17th, 2016, YouTube user CatsWithMachineGuns posted a "Breaking the Law" edit that received over 611,000 views in the same period (shown below, right).