About

Kingpin Clicking a Pen refers to a clip of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse character Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk clicking a red pen as he thinks about tragically losing his wife and child, eventually pressing too hard and breaking it. Starting in 2023, the clip has been used as a video and GIF caption meme format online, typically used for memes about waiting for a future event.

Origin

On December 14th, 2018, the animated superhero film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse premiered.^[1] In one scene of the film, the character Wilson "Kingpin" Fink is standing on a terrace, looking into the distance as he's clicking a pen with his hand. During the scene, Kingpin is thinking about past events that led to him losing his wife and child. Eventually, the character presses too hard and smashes the pen with his hand (scene shown below).

On November 16th, 2022, TikTok^[2] user @cjojack_number1 posted a caption meme based on the clip, pairing it with Google Search results for "how much longer until december." The post (shown below) received over 7,900 views and 450 likes in two years.

Spread

On February 14th, 2023, TikTok^[3] user @abs0lutelyfl4bbergasted posted a meme about Hogwarts Legacy character Professor Garlick based on the format that received over 815,000 views and 122,000 likes in two years (shown below).

On June 3rd, 2023, X^[4] user @hsjoe03 posted the earliest notable meme based on the format on the platform, a video caption meme about waiting for the release of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. The post (shown below) garnered over 5,700 reposts and 33,000 likes in two years.

Me for the next 300 days until Beyond The Spider-Verse releases pic.twitter.com/yP4ILFtZOD

— Joe (@hzjoe03) June 3, 2023

In 2023 and 2024, the clip saw continued use as a reaction and a caption format on Reddit, TikTok, X and other sites.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References