It originated as an inside joke between members of the Mortal Kombat development team, and made its way into the game via an image of sound designer Dan Forden appearing in the lower-right corner of the screen, and saying "Toasty!" in a falsetto voice, when the player performed a particularly vicious uppercut. On the Portal stage, if players pressed down and start while Dan's face was still on the screen, then they could qualify to face Smoke. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, if the player failed a minigame, one of the taunts could be "Toasty!"