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What Is 'Christ-For-Arms' And Is This Humorous-Looking Movie Actually Real?
Over the past few days, a film has been sweeping the nation* (*Twitter). We talk, of course, about Christ-For-Arms, which looks like the most absurd bargain bin Middle America Walmart DVD that's ever existed.
The plot, judging from the cover, seems to concern a young boy whose arms turn into golden crosses, symbolizing his devotion to Jesus Christ. This leads to much mockery from his peers, to the point where they throw beans on him. It also has three new EDM songs by Daldo!
Is Christ-For-Arms the next lost media gem destined to be covered by low-budget, public-access TV roasters? Not exactly. If you took a look at Christ-For-Arms and thought "There's no way this is real," you were right. Christ-For-Arms is a gag that blossomed into a full-blown meme over the past week. Let's break down how we got here.
What Is 'Christ-For-Arms?'
Christ-For-Arms is the brainchild of social media comedian Alan Wagner, who posted the image of the fake movie cover to his social media accounts on October 20th, 2021. There are several details that make Christ-For-Arms difficult to take seriously, but Christian media has been known to be particularly bizarre, especially if you're outside of the community. Just to be sure, the detectives at Lost Media Wiki were able to quickly confirm that it was just a gag by finding the job listing Wagner put up for a freelancer to make him a goofy Christian movie cover.
After an initial surge in popularity in the week after it was first posted, the Christ-For-Arms cover occasionally saw reposts on social media. A "Daldo" even showed up on YouTube posting EDM tunes, though it's unclear if this guy is part of the gag or just a fan adding to the meme.
Why Is It A Meme Now?
After months of occasional reposts, Christ-For-Arms exploded in popularity on February 19th, when Twitter user @mandyizhere posted the cover and called it "Christian Chainsaw Man."
The post went viral, gaining 20,000 retweets in just a day. Mandy's comparison is pretty apt—though the meme predates the Chainsaw Man anime, the protagonist of Christ-For-Arms sports crosses where his hands once were, just as Denji sports chainsaws in place of his arms.
Why Did They Throw Beans On Him?
The comparison led to a deluge of Christ-For-Arms_/_Chainsaw Man jokes and fan art, but as a result of the spread of Christ-For-Arms through the anime fandom, many viewers came across Christ-For-Arms for the first time, and glommed onto one of the image's best jokes: "They threw beans on him."
"They threw beans on him" follows in the internet's rich tradition of turning the word "Beans" into absurd memes, and soon "They threw beans on him" trended on Twitter, much to the confusion of anyone who didn't know what that sentence meant.
With a bunch of Twitter users repeating "They threw beans on him," more people discovered the meme, leading to the Christ-For-Arms mania we're experiencing this week.
For more information, check out the Know Your Meme entry for Christ-For-Arms.
