About

Aslume, sometimes spelled Alsume, is a misspelling of "Asylum" celebrated by the /r/BatmanArkham subreddit. After a user in the subreddit asked if "Alsume" was the worst Arkham game, the community began jokingly referring to Batman: Arkham Asylum as "Aslume" for years and mixed it with the numerous memes popularized by the sub.

Origin

On July 14th, 2022, Redditor minecart-miner posted a poll to /r/BatmanArkham^[1] asking the subreddit's opinion on the worst Batman Arkham game. One of the options they included was "Alsume," presumably meant to be Batman: Arkham Asylum. The post gained over 3,100 points in 18 months (shown below).

Spread

Immediately in the thread, some users began mistyping "Alsume" as "Aslume," leading to the popularization of "Aslume" as a meme.^[2] On July 15th, 2022, the day after the original post, Redditor JimmyTwizzle posted a joke AMA pretending to be "Arkham Aslume,"^[4] gaining over 200 points in 18 months (shown below).

Over the following months, "Aslume" was commonly used to joke about Arkham Asylum on the subreddit. The prevalence of "Aslume" led to some confusion in the subreddit, as several wondered why "Aslume" grew popular over "Alsume."^[3] Some members have explained they felt "Aslume" "rolls off the tongue" better.

The virality of "Aslume" led to its use in other subreddits in subsequent months. On August 20th, 2023, Redditor The-Australian- posted a reference to Aslume in /r/HeroForgeMinis,^[5] gaining over 310 points in five months (shown below, left). On January 14th, 2024, Redditor AffectionateKick705 posted a reference to the meme in /r/lies,^[6] gaining over 800 points in two days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References