The More You Know (Your Meme) Ep 1: Spider-Man Pointing At Spider-Man
The life cycle, spread, and virality of memes have become an invaluable form of internet discourse that brands constantly try to tap into but often miss the mark with. This is somewhat expected as brands and their social media managers are pressed for time and information when trying to find the right foothold in joining a viral trend. Know Your Meme Insights offers real-time analysis and actionability into the malleable world of meme culture. The more you Know Your Meme, the better positioned your brand is to reach and resonate with your priority demographics.
We’re kicking off this series with an update on one of the most used memes of all time: Spider-Man Pointing at Spider-Man.
Origin
Spider-Man Pointing at Spider-Man refers to an image from the 60’s Spider-Man cartoon episode in which two people in Spider-Man costumes are pointing at each other. The image comes from episode 19b of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, “Double Identity.” In the episode, a villain attempts to impersonate the titular hero.
The earliest known use of the two characters dressed as Spider-Man pointing at each other was an image macro posted February 5th, 2011, as part of a compilation of 60’s Spider-Man images.
Spread & Remixables
In the coming years, the image would be used with various text captions on image macros, but the meme didn’t become viral until the mid-2010s when people would make jokes that described situations in which two people who are very similar meet. The meme began growing into a popular format on Twitter in early 2017 and became a wider reference for when two people or groups share similar behaviors, styles, phrases, or tendencies. The examples pictured below show the early evolution of the meme and serve as a good reference for how quickly these types of images become exploitable templates.
Current Usage
Last Wednesday, February 23rd, the official Twitter account of Spider-Man No Way Home posted a photo of Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland re-enacting the classic Spider-Man Pointing and officially “did the thing.” Twitter users responded to the photo with enthusiasm, many writing in all caps (and in exclamation points) “THEY DID THE THING!” — subsequently sparking a trend on Twitter that major brands like Rolling Stone, IGN, and IMDb were quick to join in on. This proved to be a smart move as this type of viral engagement is priceless, but fleeting. IGN’s tweet of the live Spider-Man meme was their most liked and commented on post of 2022 thus far, racking up 150k likes, 21k reshares, and 439 comments in the last five days. Rolling Stone and IMDb’s posts circulated similar numbers and mass engagement.
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Know Your Meme Insights is a team of dedicated experts backed by the world’s largest internet culture database dedicated to researching and documenting online history and viral phenomena. Our influencer reports fuse current trends and historical data with actionable insights with curation where you need it: audience makeup, brand safety and more.
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