About

Smirking Batman is a viral reaction image of Batman, portrayed by Michael Keaton, smirking in a promotional image for the 2023 film The Flash. The image achieved virality in February 2023, and again in June 2023 following the premiere of the movie.

Origin

On February 12th, 2023, several promotional images of Michael Keaton as Batman in the upcoming DC Comics superhero film The Flash were released.^[1] In one of the images, Batman looks directly at the camera with a smirk (shown below, left). On February 13th, 2023, a promotional poster for the film based on another image of Keaton as Batman with a similar expression was released (shown below, right).^[2]

On February 12th, 2023, Twitter^[3] user @MrAtom04 posted the earliest found meme based on the image, a Clearly You Don't Own an Air Fryer meme that garnered over 90 retweets and 3,700 likes in four months (shown below).

Spread

On February 12th, 2023, Twitter^[4] account @DiscussingFilm tweeted the image, captioning it, "preheating my oven." The tweet (shown below) received over 3,500 retweets and 46,100 likes in four months.

The post prompted viral spread of the image on Twitter^[5] in the following days. For example, on February 13th, 2023, Twitter user @D4hz4hn posted the image, writing, "he's just a silly old man who's still beating people up and loves doing it." The tweet (shown below, left) received over 570 retweets and 12,900 likes in four months.

On June 13th, 2023, Twitter^[6] user @fellawhomstdve tweeted the February poster for the film, commenting, "this might be the funniest poster of all time" (shown below, right). The post received over 1,100 retweets and 30,000 likes in two days.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References