Sony Santa Monica Celebrates God of War Director’s Birthday With Epic GIF

In case you missed it, Cory Barlog, the director of the massive PlayStation 4 hit God of War, had his birthday yesterday. Don’t worry, you can still pass along birthday greetings over on Twitter, but chances are you won’t top what his team at Sony Santa Monica did for him.

It posted a GIF over on its Twitter page that shows Kratos dancing around with a little party hat on, alongside the caption, “History says on this day, @corybarlog was born” along with a birthday cake emoji. You can see the GIF below.

Look familiar? That’s because it’s a comedic take on Ron Swanson doing the same thing in Parks and Recreation. You can see that video below, as it’s pretty similar — but just as priceless. (You can skip to the 1:04 point to see the dance.)

Barlog has since responded, insisting that the name is “Balrog”, leading to the dialogue below.

There were some other fun tweets as well, which you can see below.

Indeed, Barlog (Balrog?) and his team did a splendid job putting the game together, so we’re hoping that he’s enjoying this whole week for himself. We do know he just got back from PAX Prime, where he made an epic suggestion for a Superman game, so he’s obviously been busy.

Crack open one for us, Cory. And maybe get into a happy dance like Kratos did…?

God of War is available now for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro. We highly recommend it, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t already!