Spider-Verse Whopper / Red 40 Whopper

About

The Spider-Verse Whopper, also known as the Red 40 Whopper or Spider-Man Whopper, is a 2023, limited-edition Burger King meal that promoted the then-upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse movie. The meal included a burger (Whopper) with red-colored buns that many associated with the Red 40 food dye. Going into 2023, Red 40 memes became prevalent online due to the additive's suggested association with poor health in American fast food and food products (similar to seed oil memes). Therefore, the optics of the red Whopper led to memes about the burger's imagined Red 40-based effects. For instance, many on TikTok made satirical videos about being hospitalized after eating it.

Origin

On May 8th, 2023, the Burger King website published a blog^[1] post about an upcoming Spider-Verse Whopper that was "a red bun topped with black sesame seeds." The special meal was going to be released in participating locations from May 15th through June 21st, 2023. The blog post also included a promotional photo of the meal (shown below). Soon after, the meal was reported on by other outlets, such as Kotaku.^[2]

On May 10th, 2023, the Twitter^[3] account @DailyLoud tweeted about the upcoming burger, gaining roughly 48,500 likes in 20 days. The tweet led to some of the first memes about the Spider-Verse Whopper. For instance, on May 10th, Twitter^[4] user @KeVinnmueller compared the burger to "pretty patties" from SpongeBob SquarePants, gaining roughly 4,700 likes in 20 days (shown below, left). Also on May 10th, Twitter^[5] user @FitzyBF used the Hospital 'Don't Do X' format, gaining over 780 likes in the same time period (shown below, right).

Spread

On May 15th, 2023, the Spider-Verse Whopper was released in participating Burger King locations, leading to viral videos about trying the Whopper on YouTube and TikTok.

For instance, one of the earliest viral videos was posted by TikToker^[6] @sixsloth on May 18th, 2023, portraying them trying the Whopper and then getting hospitalized, earning roughly 883,300 plays and 118,700 likes in 12 days (shown below, left). On May 20th, TikToker^[7] @thehauntedattic7 posted a similar video that went viral, gaining roughly 3 million plays and 522,600 likes in 10 days (shown below, right).

Memes about the burger also surfaced on Twitter and elsewhere in the same timeframe. For instance, on May 20th, 2023, Twitter^[8] user @sadcrib tweeted a photo of his burger, writing, "boutta see what this spider man whopper all about, update soon," gaining roughly 59,500 likes in 10 days (shown below, left). Twitter^[9] user @sadcrib quote retweeted himself on the following day with a photo of a bruised and bloody Spider-Man, gaining roughly 8,700 likes in nine days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References