Memes are undeniably a huge part of contemporary pop culture, and these days, it’s not difficult
to find memes referencing all sorts of mediums.
Including comics and superheroes.
So today, we’re taking a look at some of the most famous – and infamous – memes
ripped from the panels of comic books or steeped in superhero nostalgia, with our list of the
top 10 superhero memes.
10 Some Days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb!
Originating from the 1966 Batman: The Movie starring Adam West, Some Days You Just Can’t
Get Rid of a Bomb is a famous quote said by the title character during a scene where he
literally can’t get rid of a bomb.
West runs around trying to find a suitable place to leave the bomb so it can detonate
and not hurt anyone, but finds its increasingly – and comically – difficult.
Known for its campy and melodramatic tone, many consider this film and its television
show predecessor for fuelling the corny and absurd storylines within silver age comics
– it ushered in a whole new mainstream audience to superheroes, especially Batman.
9 You Merely Adopted the Darkness Another cinema inspired addition to our list,
this meme originates from Christopher Nolan’s third Batman film – the Dark Knight Rises.
The movie featured Tom Hardy starring as Bane in a new- but very Nolan esque – adaptation
of the character.
One of the character’s more memorable quotes was ‘you merely adopted the darkness, I
was born in it, molded by it.’
This inspired a bunch of custom captions and images online, with one of the first being
a bill cosby meme in which cosby is wearing a bane mask.
8 Lex Luthor Took 40 cakes Back in 1978, a DC comic book themed childrens’
dictionary called The Super Dictionary featured an image of Lex Luthor with the caption ‘when
no one was looking, Lex Luthor took forty cakes.
He took 40 cakes.
That’s as many as four tens.
And that’s terrible.’
While most of the sillier captions and images were clearly intended to be educational and
geared towards children, they eventually became mockable online, with this luthor one spreading
to the likes of collegehumour, ebaums world ad Expand Dong as a meme in the mid 2000s.
Eventually, DC decided to play along too, by incorporating it into Superman 709 in 2011,
in a high school flashback with Clark Kent where he mentions his first encounter with
Lex in detention , stating ‘I later found out that he was there for stealing 40 cakes
from the school’s bake sale.’
7 How Do I Shot Web Now a popular catchphrase/image pair typically
used in online conversations to make fun of noobs, this meme originates from a 1984 issue
of the amazing Spider-Man.
The panel in question appeared in an ad that requested fans to fill out a feedback questionnaire
concerning advertisements in comics.
And the catchphrase itself is reported to have been picked up from a noob player in
Natural Selection, who shouted in frustration how do I shoot web in broken English.
And from there, the internet went wild with in, not only using it to call out noobs, but
reapproriating it to appease to other jokes.
6 Wolverine Crush Back in the early 90s, there was an awesome
animated television show adaptation of the X-Men, simply called X-Men.
In season 1 episode 5, there’s a scene where Wolverine, in full costume, is lying on a
bed gazing jealously at a photograph of Jean Grey and Cyclops.
Fast forward to 2011, someone on Reddit used stills of that scene, but photoshopped some
nude photos of Scarlett Johansson into the picture’s frame.
While that didn’t get a lot of traction, eventually another version of it was posted
on Buzzfeed the next year, and the meme took off.
5 Hawkeye Initiative One of the more controversial conversations
over the years when it comes to comics is the over sexualizing of female characters
in the way that they are drawn.
But one argument that really persisted was concerning the history of female characters
being drawn with ridiculous body proportions that just don’t physically make sense.
Bodies don’t bend or move in that way!
So a group of fans got together and started a tumblr called the Hawkeye Initiative, where
they drew Hawkeye in the same disproportionate and sexualized poses as female characters,
doing a side to side comparison of the two, all to bring attention to how silly it was
that women are drawn that way.
It caught on, and people started submitting their own art of a flamboyant hawkeye.
4 Dancing Spider-Man If you’ve ever hunted for the perfect gif
to use, whether on social media or in a video, it’s likely that you’ve come across this
little guy.
Dancing Spider-man was first uploaded on a London based blog called Pants on Head.
The choreography was modelled after CGI animation of a dance routine used by KPop ground CLEO
– the program used to animate the pop groups dance moves was called D-Player, which also
had a free downloadable Spider-Man model.
So of course, the two went hand and hand, and people started uploading videos of the
gif dancing to different musical tracks.
3 He-Man Sings Warning on our next one – this WILL get
stuck in your head.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe started off as a toyline that had tie in comic books,
and subsequently, an animated show.
While the initial toy and comic designs were a little more – well, manly, I suppose – the
television series, aside from being filled with wonderful nostalgia – also has been
critiqued for containing quite a bit of queer subtext.
I mean, considering these are the threads that Prince Adam wears on his down time, I
wouldn’t be surprised.
Enter the 1992 hit rock single What’s Up by the 4 Non Blondes – someone had the genius
idea of cutting a parody video – and the bait and switch trolling meme was born.
2 I’m the Goddamn Batman Frank Miller has never been the type to hold
back in his writing, even when it comes to iconic characters like Batman.
The Dark Knight Returns is known for it’s gruff nature, so when Miller wrote All Star
Batman and Robin, which is a part of the same Earth 31, it made sense that this earlier
version of Batman would contain that same kind of gruffness.
Except the aged wisdom he wielded was exchanged for blunt rudeness, especially when it came
to his treatment of Robin.
Regardless, Miller’s Batman carries himself with a devil may care attitude, and a righteousness
that others in Earth 31 can’t compare with.
So it makes sense that the character would say something like I’m the goddamn Batman
as an explanation for why he does what he does.
And oh boy did it catch on, even venturing outside of the Batman fandom.
1 My Parents Are Dead While it may be a stark and traumatic reality
for Bruce Wayne, for fans of the hero, a good ol ‘my parents are dead’ joke concerning
the hero has always led to some solid laughs.
Poor Bats.
This meme in particular comes from a 1965 issue of Worlds Finest, number 153, in which
Batman slaps Robin – for context, the story follows Batman in an alternate reality where
he believes that Superboy and Superman are responsible for the death of his father.
Flash forward to 2008, where the first altered version of the image appeared on SFWChan,
in which the text has been changed to Robin asking Bruce what to get his parents for Christmas,
resulting in Bruce slapping him and shouting that his parents are dead.
It spread, with different variations of the meme popping up online, and even caught on
with people offline – in Toronto in 2012, a youtuber ran around in a batman costume
shouting at pedestrians that his parents were dead.
Classic batman behaviour.
Alright there we have it friends!
Which of these memes are your favourites?
Which ones didn’t we include that you think should have made this list?
And should we do a part 2?
Let us know in those comments below!
As always, if you dug this video, please show us some love by hitting those like and subscribe
buttons, and don’t forget to check out more nerdy videos on our channel like the ones
popping up on your screen in our playlist right now!
In the meantime thanks for watching!
Ive been Kelly Paoli and this has been top 10 nerd.
Catch you all in the next one!