Steve Rogers Pulling a Stump Apart

About

Steve Rogers Pulling a Stump Apart refers to a memorable moment in the film Avengers: Age of Ultron when the character Steve Rogers tears a log of wood in two with his hands.

Origin

On May 1st, 2015, the film Avengers: Age of Ultron was released in the United States.^[1] In the film, the characters Steve Rogers and Tony Stark (portrayed by Chris Evans and Robert Downey, Jr., respectively) argue about how best to handle the issue of the villain Ultron. During the argument, Rogers uses his super strength to tear a log in half (clip below).

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Three days after the film arrived in theaters, on May 4th, GIPHY ^[2] published a GIF of the moment (shown below).

On September 15th, Tumblr ^[3] redundanttanks posted a series of GIFs of the scene. The post received more than 75,000 notes in less than four years.

On May 7th, 2017, Twitter user @jro616 posted a GIF in which a Captain America comic book replaces the log. This was in reaction to the Captain America "Hail Hydra" controversy (shown below).

#SayNoToHYDRACap

How about some actual uplifting and inspiring stories?? Villain BS is so shallow & boring. Fucks sake. pic.twitter.com/iRCoBAt6Zg

— Ro – 🏳️‍🌈🌌⚣ (@jro616) May 5, 2017

The following year, on January 7th, 2018, in response to a tweet by Chris Evans, Twitter user @HonestFata tweeted the GIF with the phrase "white supremacists" on the log. The post received more than 180 likes (shown below).

God bless you, Cap pic.twitter.com/WK0pIMd7tZ

— honestF (@HonestFata) January 7, 2018

That year, on May 23rd, Redditor ^[4] Blue-Man-Doo posted an object labeled image of the scene, referencing the band Arctic Monkeys (shown below, left).

The following year, on July 20th, 2019, Redditor^[5] cheesytanker posted a variation in which Rogers is labeled "British social workers" and the log is labeled "homeless people." The post received more than 14,000 points (99% upvoted) and 50 comments in less than two weeks (shown below, center).

The next day, Redditor^[6] awesomemortiz posted a variation in the /r/HistoryMemes subreddit. The post recieved more than 34,000 points (94% upvoted) and 380 comments in less than two weeks (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References