About

"They Called Me a Mad Man" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Thanos in the 2018 Marvel superhero film Avengers: Infinity War. Online, a screenshot of Thanos saying the line has been used in a series of reaction image macros to express feelings of persistence in the face of criticism.

Origin

On April 27th, 2018, the film Avengers: Infinity War was released in the United States. In the film, Thanos (portrayed by Josh Brolin) explains his history to the character Dr. Strange (portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch). Thanos explains that when his home planet faced extinction, he suggested the planet undergo a random genocide as a solution (clip below).^[1]

Thanos: Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution.

Dr. Stephen Strange: Genocide.

Thanos: At random. Dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike. They called me a mad man. And what I predicted came to pass.

Spread

Months later, on October 6th, 2018, Redditor ^[2] posted a frame of the film with the subtitle "They called me a mad man." They captioned the post, "When they called you a mad man" (shown below, left).

The following year, on January 3rd, 2019, Redditor^[3] iron-waffle- posted a 9 out of 10 Dentists meme with the caption. The post received more than 10,000 points (96% upvoted) and 50 comments in less than two years (shown below, center).

On March 20th, 2020, Redditor^[4] CopperScout shared a variation of the meme with a joke about the coronavirus. The post received more than 47,000 points (96% upvoted) and 225 comments in less than two months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References