About

Michael Burry Reaction, also known as Christian Bale Staring at a Computer Screen, refers to a reaction image of American investor Michael Burry, portrayed by actor Christian Bale in the 2015 film The Big Short, looking at a monitor with an expression of concerned disbelief. In the original scene, Burry realizes that the United States housing market is in a bubble. In 2025, the image gained popularity as a reaction meme, typically used to react to outlandish business and stock market news, such as DoorDash installment payments.

Origin

On December 11th, 2015, a biographical comedy-drama film
The Big Short, which follows the events leading up to the 2008 financial crisis from the perspectives of several financial executives, investors and hedge fund managers, premiered.^[1]

In one scene of the film, taking place in 2005, hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale) analyzes the United States housing market, based on high-risk subprime loans, and comes to the conclusion that it is extremely unstable. In the scene (shown below), Burry stares at his computer with an expression of concern and disbelief.

On March 20th, 2025, the X^[2] news account @unusual_whales reported on a deal between food delivery app DoorDash and fintech company Klarna that allowed DoorDash customers to pay for deliveries in installments. On that day, X^[3] user @watchingspirals used a still image of Burry staring at a computer screen in disbelief to react to the news, with the post (shown below) garnering over 2,900 reposts and 43,000 likes in one month.

Spread

In the following month, this and another image of Burry from the film achieved viral popularity as reaction memes, usually used to react to business and stock market news and opinions.

For example, on March 28th, 2025, X^[4] user @burrytracker posted a caption meme that received over 1,600 reposts and 22,000 likes in one month (shown below).

On April 14th, 2025, X^[5] user @dick_lean used the image to react to the news of Coachella attendees using Buy-Now-Pay-Later to purchase tickets. The post (shown below) garnered over 7,000 reposts and 149,000 likes in 10 days.

Related Memes

You Didn't Think There Was a Bubble

You Didn't Think There Was a Bubble refers to a catchphrase and caption meme format based on an image of the character Mark Baum, portrayed by actor Steve Carell, from the 2015 film The Big Short. The reaction image has been used together with captions about various seemingly overinflated and overly popular things, building a humorous analogy with overinflated financial markets. Additionally, a subformat known as It's the Bottom. Buy Everything, based on another image of the same character, also saw spread.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References