A joke from Dark Souls is not only making a comeback in Elden Ring, but it's seemingly part of the game's plot itself. The joke originates from the message system in Dark Souls. Players who interact with a message left by another, be it through liking or disliking, would heal the player who wrote the message. As a result, the raunchier the message, the more likely another player would like it; thus, the "Try finger, but hole" joke was born with some crafty maneuvering through Dark Souls' otherwise sanitized messaging system (along with many other repeated gags of varying maturity levels).
[Warning: Spoilers for Elden Ring follow.]
Cut to Elden Ring, where many of the features from Dark Souls carry over, from the difficulty in finding Elden Ring's armor sets to the messaging system that heals upvoted players. However, unlike Dark Souls, the finger imagery throughout the game is overwhelming. From the various multiplayer finger items and the assortment of finger-themed key items, to the two-fingers religion and the illustrious Finger Maidens, there's a lot of this imagery to go around. While players can ignore the reoccurring motif by immersing themselves in the game, it's hard not to notice it after the thousandth time it comes up in a random message.
What started as a clever way to take advantage of the messaging system in Dark Souls to benefit players has become an overused shadow of itself in Elden Ring. Like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's "Press F to pay respects," or Resident Evil's Jill sandwich line, jokes that come from games feel natural and organic. However, like the best April Fool jokes from game developers, it feels forced and repetitive in the case of Elden Ring.
Finger References In Elden Ring Are An Unfortunate Coincidence (Mostly)
The "Try finger, but hole" Dark Souls joke is an example of a meme that just so happened to coincide with Elden Ring's themes. Given that Elden Ring directly refers to a ring of power that sounds, at least initially, like something from The Lord of the Rings, it's not difficult to surmise that finger references are just around the corner. However, given how many references there are in Elden Ring to not just fingers, but hands, limbs, and heads, it's difficult not to connect the references to the Dark Souls joke and how far Elden Ring unintentionally takes it. That's not to mention how the lore and plot give the joke more merit by re-contextualizing it through weird sentient finger-creatures, boss battles such as Elden Ring's limb-hoarding Godrick, or literal giant (magical, horrifying) hand monsters. Elden Ring goes over the top with its bodily imagery.
Whether the case, given how serious the context is in Elden Ring, there's no doubt the imagery is just a funny coincidence with the classic Dark Souls meme. At this point, the joke that launched a thousand messages is just part of the pop culture of FromSoftware games. Elden Ring breathes new life into storytelling and open-world games; however, while it may not be on purpose, it takes a particular finger-themed Dark Souls joke a bit further than some players might be expecting.