American Psycho Sex Scene / Arm Flex
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About
American Psycho Sex Scene refers to several meme formats based on the sex scene from the 2000 film American Psycho, including a reaction image of the main protagonist Patrick Bateman pointing and winking, and multi-panel exploitable in which Bateman looks at a TV screen and reacts by flexing his bicep.
Origin
On April 14th, 2000, psychological thriller American Psycho premiered in the United States.[1] In one scene of the film, main protagonist Patrick Bateman is having sex with two prostitutes, recording the threesome on camera (scene shown below). During the scene, Bateman frequently looks at the camera, flexing his arm, pointing at it, and winking.
The still image of Patrick Bateman pointing at the camera (shown below) has been used as a reaction image on forums such as Neogaf[2] and imageboards such as 4chan at least since 2008.
Spread
Starting in late 2018, two versions of a three-panel format which combined the image of a woman's legs resting on Bateman's shoulders, a blank panel, and either of the still frames of Bateman pointing at the screen or flexing his bicep, started spreading in Spanish-speaking meme communities on Facebook. On February 19th, 2019, Facebook[3] page El Abuelo Rick posted one of the earliest found memes following the format (shown below).
Starting approximately in February 2019, the formats saw its first surge of popularity, with users replacing the blank panel with images of TV screens with something edited onto them as if Bateman watched TV during sex and reacted to what he saw. For example, on February 23rd, 2019, Redditor[4] VanhPotato posted a Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege meme that received over 2,600 upvotes in /r/shittyrainbow6 (shown below, left).
The format maintained a moderate presence through 2019. For example, on September 13th, 2019, Facebook[5] user Reese Wilkerson posted a meme that received over 1,600 reactions and 260 shares (shown below, right).
Both subformats remained a popular source material for memes in 2020, particularly on Facebook.
Various Examples
Templates
Search Interest
External References
[1] Wikipedia – American Psycho
[2] NeoGAF – I have a girl problem
[3] Facebook – El Abuelo Rick
[4] Reddit – Flex em muscle
[5] Facebook – Reese Wilkerson
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