About

Dr. Octopus Without Tentacles refers to a series of exploitable memes based on a viral photoshop in which Spider-Man character Dr. Octopus' mechanical arms were edited out, giving the impression that he simply levitates in the air. The trend originated on Twitter in early 2022 shortly after the release of the film Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Origin

On December 30th, 2021, Twitter^[6] user @kidpiratez posted an image of Spider-Man: No Way Home character Dr. Octopus (played by Alfred Molina) with his signature mechanical tentacles edited out (shown below, left). The post gained 33 retweets and 112 likes in two weeks.

On January 10th, 2022, Twitter^[1] user @RawbertBeef reposted the image captioning it, "He’s actually more menacing without the arms." The post received over 13,900 retweets and 164,300 likes in two days (tweet shown below, center). Ten minutes later, @RawbertBeef again posted^[2] the image, now captioning it, "Minecraft creative mode." The post gained over 21,400 retweets and 194,500 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Spread

Starting on the same day as the original post, users on Twitter began posting humorous edits of the image, referencing various video games and other media. For example, on January 10th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user @Lostkid85 posted the earliest found edit of the image, captioning with a Minecraft reference. The post (shown below, left) gained over 130 retweets and 2,200 likes in two days. Later on the same day, Twitter user @XenokoYT posted an edit that referenced the Final Fantasy character Sephiroth, with the tweet accumulating over 16,600 retweets and 94,500 likes in one day (shown below, right).

More viral edits of the image were posted on Twitter in the following days. For example, a Mii edit of the image made by Twitter^[4] user @purplepaperboy gained over 1,700 retweets and 8,800 likes in one day, with a repost of the image by Twitter^[5] user @ShieldNyx gaining over 30,300 retweets and 219,000 likes in the same period.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References