The Evolution Of 'Spider-Man' In Meme Culture

Some properties are meme magnets, and Spider-Man is one of the most powerful. With so much Spider-Man-related content out there, from cartoons to comics to films and everything in between, the franchise is like a neverending mine of meme-able content. Whether it's the '60s cartoon, the Raimi trilogy or the new MCU films you’ve likely experienced more than a few Spidey memes whether you’re a fan or not. In celebration of the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, here’s a quick history of the Spider-Man memes that have most impacted meme culture.

'60s Spider-Man

The '60s Spider-Man cartoon is one of the most popular sources for Spidey memes. 4chan and similar imageboards fostered plenty of memes out of the old cartoon, mostly image macros, attributing out-of-character funny quotes to everyone’s favorite wallcrawler. These started to really become popular around 2009 when Marvel made the cartoon available to stream. The formats still see regular use today in even further ironic circumstances and the cartoon hasn’t stopped giving us formats. Here are some of the most important ones.

That Post Gave Me Cancer (2009)

As the '60s Spider-Man memes started to take over imageboards in 2009, one of the most well-known versions became an image macro of Spider-Man lying in bed captioned “that post gave me cancer.” Predictably, the macro is used to criticize someone’s post as cancer-inducing, or cringe essentially, just in a darker way. The Spider-Man meme opened the path for photoshops and new versions of the meme and inspired another Spider-Man meme in 2018 with the I don’t need a doctor, X will save me format.

This is Now A Spider-Man Thread (2010)

“This is Now A Spider-Man Thread” is probably the best illustration of how popular '60s Spider-Man memes became on 4chan about a decade ago. Whenever an anon wanted to derail a thread for whatever reason, all they had to do was post a Spider-Man meme and say “this is now a Spider-Man thread.” Like the hero himself, this string of text would set off the spider-senses of anons everywhere who would quickly flock to the post and flood it with Spider-Man memes. The trend persists to this day, proving that '60s Spider-Man never gets old.

Spider-Man Pointing At Spider-Man (2011)

This might very well be the biggest meme to ever come out of not only the '60s Spider-Man cartoon, but Spider-Man in general. The image of Spider-Man pointing at himself comes from a 1967 episode where a villain attempts to impersonate the webcrawler. It was first used as a meme in 2011 captioned “No u!” and spread like wildfire over the following years as a way of calling someone out for being hypocritical or the same as someone else. It was famously referenced at the end of Spider-Verse, solidifying it as one of the most iconic Spider-Man memes of all time.

Peter Parker Reading a Book (2012)

Like many of the other entries in this section, this meme started on 4chan sometime in 2012. The three-panel format sees users change the text on the cover of the book then the text inside the book to something shocking or perplexing, followed by Peter’s open-jawed expression. The meme can be both simple and complex when memers start photoshopping it, and an edit replacing Parker with Pepe shows how beloved it is to the most dedicated of shitposters.

Me And The Boys (2019)

The “Me And The Boys” format, based on a photoshop of four 60s Spider-Man villains grinning evilly, blew up big-time in 2019 when subreddits like /r/okbuddyretard got their hands on it. The joke revolves around behaviors and activities that one might do with “the boys,” like looking up “sex” in the dictionary as a young lad or tricking the teacher into telling stories rather than teaching. The image is a perfect representation of “the boys” as a concept and proves that there’s something special about the art style of that cartoon that just makes it memeable.

Sam Raimi Trilogy

The Raimi trilogy of films starring Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man remain the most iconic Spider-Man movies of all time (at least the first two). They’re full of action, romance, comedy, great performances and all the "Spider-Maning" anyone could ever wish for. As expected, the trilogy inspired tons of memes. Here are the most important ones.

Pizza Time (2011)

The “Pizza Time” scene from Spider-Man 2 is one of the most memorable scenes of the whole trilogy. It opens the movie, which sees Peter Parker swinging across New York to deliver a pizza in 30 minutes or less only to be just too late, saying “pizza time!” excitedly as he gets to the door. “Pizza time!” became one of the most meme-able phrases throughout the 2010s in memes about the excitement of hearing those two perfect words and more general jokes referencing the scene.

Raimiposting (2016)

“Raimiposting” is another popular format brought to us by the madmen over at 4chan. The trend largely sprouted off of a line in the first Spider-Man film where Parker implies the man he’s wrestling is gay, saying “did your husband make it?” in reference to his costume. In 2016, the line inspired an anon to misquote it in an overtly offensive way, which sparked a trend of misquoting Spider-Man quotes as offensively as possible. This became known as Raimiposting that year and stands as one of the most popular ironic Spider-Man formats.

I’m Something Of A Scientist Myself (2017)

In 2017, an image macro based on a scene from Spider-Man where Norman Osborne says he’s “something of a scientist myself” became popular on Reddit, used to ironically call someone smart for doing the absolute minimum whether it’s connecting your grandma’s wifi or fixing the overhead projector for the teacher. The meme is super versatile and still sees use today.

Carefully He’s A Hero (2017)

Another image macro, this one is based on a scene in Spider-Man 2 where Spider-Man, suit torn and dying, is crowd-surfed by worried onlookers captioned “carefully he’s a hero.” Like the scientist meme, this one is used to ironically call someone or something a hero for doing something arguably not-very-heroic. It’s simple, but it’s versatile.

Bully Maguire (2018)

Bully Maguire is one of the greatest things to come of Raimi’s third Spider-Man film. The format plays off of the way Peter Parker acts after being influenced by the symbiote in Spider-Man 3 which can only be described as emo-y and bully-like, including flippy black hair and lots of really strange glares. Bully Maguire edits see users take clips from these scenes, such as Parker saying “gonna cry?” and “I’m gonna throw dirt in your eye” and edit them into hilarious new contexts. This meme is always rising and falling in popularity and does a has lead to some of the most creative Spider-Man memes of all time.

Mary Jane Defending Peter Parker (2021)

Nearly 20 years later, Raimi’s first Spider-Man film is still inspiring great memes, and “Mary Jane Defending Peter Parker” might be one of the best. The format uses an image of Mary Jane yelling at her boss. Memers turned this into Jane defending poor, nerdy Parker, painting her as something of an alpha and Parker a beta. There’s no end to the funny things Mary Jane could be defending Parker from, resulting in a surprisingly flexible and great Twitter format.

Post-Raimi

The Raimi films ended with Spider-Man 3, but Spider-Man is forever. Thanks to a constant flow of Spider-Man films, games, comics and more, the memes have never ended, leaving us with way more Spider-Man memes than we know what to do with. Here are some of the best Spider-Man memes that came about after the Raimi trilogy.

Learning To Be Spider-Man (2019)

Taken from Into the Spiderverse, this object labeling meme sees Peter Parker’s Spider-Man and Miles Morales’ Spider-Man thinking together, Morales looking up at Parker like a student looking at a master. The meme blew up on Reddit in 2019 shortly after the film’s release and became one of the primary formats from the film, offering a classic meme with lots of variations.

Peter B. Parker Sucking Fingers

Another Spider-Verse meme, this one is based on a screenshot of Peter Parker sucking his fingers with delight while eating a juicy burger and fries. Lots of the memes predictably change the context of the image to be sexual and disgusting, while others make more light jokes about things like teachers licking their fingers before they turn a page. The image is just too good not to be a meme really.

Web Of Shadows Sad Walk (2019)

From the 2008 video game Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, this meme sees Spider-Man walking with his head down as chaos erupts in the background, as if defeated. In 2019 the scene came out of nowhere and blew up in ironic memes replacing the background audio with sad music and ironically sad captions to surprisingly successful effect. The feels coming off this clip are palpable and although it's simple, the meme is always good for a laugh when it comes up on the timeline.

Hello, Peter and You’re Not Peter Parker (2021)

The latest Tom Holland Spider-Man film, No Way Home, is arguably the most hyped Spider-Man film of all time, so it’s not surprising that its trailers alone inspired memes. The two standout memes in the hype period before the film’s release were probably “Hello, Peter” and “You’re Not Peter Parker,” both based on contrasting quotes from Alfred Molina’s returning villain Doc Ock. The return of the character in the trailers did a great job of building hype for the film and the memes only helped increase the hype as people created fun edits about the dynamic between the two characters.

Are These Your Drawings? (2021)

When the sequel to Spider-Verse was surprise-announced people kind of lost their minds with excitement and immediately started memeing. The scene of choice sees Gwen flips through Miles’ sketchbook only to find a drawing of herself, embarrassing Miles thoroughly. It turns out it could have been much worse for Miles, because if any of the drawings that memers have edited into the book were actually in the film, Gwen would be swinging out of there for good in a flash. Fans still have a good while to wait until the film is released, meaning there will likely be more memes to come when another trailer is inevitably released.

Honorable Mentions

It’s almost impossible for us to cover every Spider-Man format in this list, so here are a few honorable mentions that didn’t quite fit into the above categories. These memes are all fantastic in their own right and have had a lasting impact on Spider-Man memes. Let us know what we forgot in the comments!

Aww Yeah Guy and Tobey Maguire Face (2007, 2010)

These two aren't used in relation to Spider-Man too often, but they're undeniably iconic and have their origins in Spider-Man. Aww Yeah Guy comes from Raimi's first Spider-Man movie, and the Tobey face from Spider-Man 3. Each became popular in rage comics and as reaction images used to describe specific feels.

Dancing Spider-Man (2002)

As one of the earliest Spider-Man memes on the web, this one deserves a shoutout. A GIF of Spider-Man dancing like Korean pop group C.L.E.O was uploaded to the blog Pants On Head in 2002 and significantly boosted its traffic as people became obsessed with it. It became popular on YTMND pages in the following years, as well as in edits on YouTube where Spider-Man dances to various songs. It’s simple, it’s funny and it’s everything that makes a good meme.

Spoderman (2012)

Spoderman is a poorly-drawn version of Spider-Man with a misspelled name that became popular on FunnyJunk in 2012. The character went much the same way as similar memes like Dolan paired with absurd and childish misspelled captions for ultimate ironic meme gold. This one is a product of its time but deserves to be remembered.

Spider-Man Ass Slap (2013)

It’s a viral video taken from a gay adult video where Spider-Man spanks another Spider-Man on a bed. It went viral on Vine and was edited to the beat of numerous songs over the years, many of which are now age-restricted. It’s a good one.

The Exaggerated Swagger Of A Black Teen (2020)

This meme came about when a GameSpot reviewer described Miles Morales jumping off a building in 2020's Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales video games as having “the exaggerated swagger of a black teen,” understandably sparking some controversy. Memers went wild with this out-of-pocket phrase and applied the dialogue to ironic memes everywhere.

Spider-Man’s Presentation (2019)

This one is a pretty basic presentation format, but it’s definitely one of the most popular. Basically, memers replace the text on the screen behind the dumpy-looking Spider-Man to make an ironic, funny or even genuine statement.

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