Hip-Hop Avengers Halftime Show

About

This is a meme portraying the hip-hop artists Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Mary J Blige, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar during their performance at the halftime of Super Bowl LVI. While the meme image comes from the NFL broadcast footage, the first to post the meme was user @mikeschaffer on Twitter The meme gained most of its traction soon after the Super Bowl halftime show ended and continued on throughout the night of the game and into the following week. This specific halftime show meme in addition to others created from it, primarily circulated through Twitter and Instagram. The meme is noteworthy because it shows how influential hip-hop music and artists can be on culture across generations and shows admiration for the artists by comparing them to super heroes. The halftime show internet meme is used by and targeted towards millennials and some of the Gen Z population. Fans and memers have used the original meme to produce more content by adjusting it to reflect other generational and cultural elements from the time period of the hip hop artists.

Original Artists Avengers Meme ^[1]

I’m telling my kids this is the Avengers. #PepsiHalftime #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/4cdFqHdGpj

— Mike Schaffer 🏠 (@mikeschaffer) February 14, 2022

Origin

This meme originates from the Super Bowl LVI halftime show that premiered on February 13, 2022. The image in the meme comes from the NFL broadcast of the halftime show, but the twitter post from user @mikeschaffer first introduced the full meme, adding to the image a caption that compared the performers to the Avengers. Because this meme is centered around an event, the meme saw its viral breakout the night of the Super Bowl halftime show and stayed popular through the following week.

Super Bowl LVI NFL Halftime Footage ^[2], NFL Tweets Meme Image ^[3]

THAT. WAS. INCREDIBLE.

Dre. Snoop. Mary. Eminem. Kendrick. 50 Cent. What a show. #PepsiHalftime pic.twitter.com/FKz8YKhhAt

— NFL (@NFL) February 14, 2022

Spread

The meme first appeared and began spreading on Twitter the day of the Super Bowl LVI halftime show on February 13, 2022. After user @mikeschaffer posted the tweet with the image of the performers standing together at the end of the show and captioned “I’m telling my kids this is the Avengers”, the meme garnered attention. Audience interaction with the meme through retweets and twitter comments helped spread the meme. It is notable that this specific meme reached a large number of viewers, but none of the meme contributors had large followings on social media to begin with.

Similar to the original post and using the same image, Twitter user @hotcarlenema posted a different example of the original meme on February 13,2022 shortly after the first posting. This user linked the Avengers reference to west coast culture, targeting a different audience set.

NFL really got all these artists assembled like they the mf West Coast Avengers #SuperBowl #PepsiHalftime #HalfTimeShow pic.twitter.com/XHkBMCxNcI

— Hot Carl Roar Enema (@hotcarlenema) February 14, 2022

As it spread other users on Twitter added on to the original image and concept. Only minutes after the original post on February 13, 2022, @producepat contributed to the series by adding an image of the Avengers next to the halftime performers to illustrate the comparison.

It’s the same picture. #SuperBowl #HalfTimeShow ringernfl RingerVerse pic.twitter.com/DaHgA0AUQo

— Pat (@producepat) February 14, 2022

The following week after the original post, variations of the meme appeared on Instagram and Facebook. Some used the original image but addressed different content with the meme captions.

Various Examples

Continuing the Avengers Theme

Avengers aren’t complete without a Vision pic.twitter.com/JIuRPrLrvX

— themaunzone (@themaunzone) February 14, 2022

Play on a Super Hero Movie Poster

pic.twitter.com/oZUg1IaAl6

— WIMITLA. (@wimitla) February 14, 2022

Same Image New Meme

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gals in NFTs (@galsinnfts)

Search Interest

External References