About

#HeavenIsForRealMovie is a hashtag used to promote the 2014 religious drama film Heaven is for Real. After a Twitter account allegedly created by Colton Burpo, the boy whose experiences form the basis of the movie, sent out some dark tweets, Twitter users began using the hashtag to tweet bizarre and humorous photos.

Origin

Heaven is For Real

Heaven is For Real^[1] was released on April 16th, 2014. The film was based on the 2010 book of the same name that recounts the assertion of a four-year-old boy named Colton Burpo that he had visited heaven while he underwent surgery.

Hashtag

On April 19th, a Twitter account^[3] was created using the name Colton Burpo, though it has not been confirmed the account is run by Burpo himself. The account frequently uses the hashtag #HeavenIsForRealMovie. On April 22nd, the account tweeted out an assertion Burpo knows how the world ends:

Comedian Andy Richter^[4] tweeted, "That seems healthy,"^[5] in response. The next day he tweeted that he would be using the hashtag #HeavenIsForRealMovie in all his tweets, and proceeded to tweet out two unrelated images with the hashtag.

Spread

In less than 24 hours Richter's first photo with the hashtag #HeavenIsForRealMovie received over 100 favorites. The same day he retweeted a photo of a high dog's face photoshopped onto the head of a baby sent out by Twitter user @KarenKilgariff.^[6] In less than 24 hours it gained over 200 favorites.

In less than 24 hours the hashtag^[2] was tweeted out over 5,000 times. The same day the hashtag was covered in a Jezebel^[5] article titled "Andy Richter and Others Take Over Macabre #HeavenIsForRealMovie."

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References