The Spiderman pointing meme will be timeless for me. I’ve come across so many different jokes made with the same contextual image that it has become a staple. The first instance of Spiderman pointing at a look alike of himself, was in 1967, which can be seen by the cartoon style of most of this specific kind of meme. With the hype and production of the Spiderman: No Way Home movie that was released this past December, this meme recirculated back into the meme stratosphere of the internet. This resurgence of meme creation has crafted more Spiderman pointing memes that members of all generations continue to share among one another to this day, such as a circle of the day names pointing to one another or variants of COVID pointing at one another. During the first few weeks since the release of Spiderman: No Way Home, audience members have also dressed up as Spiderman themselves. This was a big trend when the premiere occurred, and brought various members of each generation together by the bond over the movie itself and the appreciation of the story. This element of digital culture will always have a presence on the internet with how societies have valued and interacted with the Spiderman story, and the infinitive lifeline of the internet allow future generations to look back at the old jokes made with this specific comedical backbone of content to produce new content created in the future.
Prof L
Sonya—Excellent work here!
You write of “how societies have valued and interacted with the Spiderman story,” and I smile, reading, imagining that Spiderman goes back thousands of years. But this also makes me wonder: is the Marvel universe (a universe I spend very little time in, so I don’t know the answer to this question)—is the Marvel universe taking on the status of mythology here 20 yrs into the 21st century? Or does the Spiderman meme actually live outside that universe—does it “work” for those who don’t care about this particular dominant form of culture? (I feel like it must, because I respond to those examples of yours!)
Julia Faust
Yes, and though this meme is old, it is timeless! It is one thing that connects us to other generations which is unique for something that has spread digitally to connect us to a generation that did not have as much access to media.
Zach Jaworsky
This was a good post and described the joke pretty well. I never thought about how Spiderman brings together different groups, but now that I think about it this meme and movie series does just that.
Lucy
I agree that the Spiderman pointing meme is timeless. As someone who has never watched and probably will never watch a Spiderman movie, I still know and love this meme. Even though this meme was popularized around the time a new movie came out, it wasn’t limited to people who have watched the movie. It takes a popular character and movie franchise and makes it universal which allows more people to interact with the Spiderman story as you mentioned. To respond to Prof L, this meme definitely does work for people who don’t necessarily know or care about this specific form of culture.
Tiberius
I do like this article, however I do wish you had talked about Uno cards in relation to spiderman memes, like mentioned in your title. While the uno card is not entirely the same, however the format of “oh actually” is very similar and is starting to show up in a lot of memes.
Lauren Williams
I think this is a beautiful meme. It’s so simple but works every time to get a point across quickly about what the meme is trying to compare. I think timeless memes such as this one are always the best as you can always come back to them and make more.
Prof L
Wow! All these comments are evidence of the meme’s power—my question kinda got in the way a little bit, but thanks for answering it. I notice words like “timeless” and “beautiful”—the vocabulary of artistic appreciation! (& then I also notice “NYPD” in the top corner of the week meme, which makes me think also about timeliness….)