About

Uncle Ben What Happened? refers to a series of What Happend to Him? memes based on a scene of Uncle Ben's death in the 2002 superhero film Spider-Man. The two-panel recaption format uses fan-written dialogue as a phrasal template that does not originally appear in the film, with Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) asking his uncle about what happened and Uncle Ben describing what had fatally wounded him.

Origin

On May 3rd, 2002, the superhero film Spider-Man premiered.^[1] In one scene of the film, the main character Peter Parker / Spider-Man (portrayed by Tobey Maguire) finds his uncle Ben Parker lying on the sidewalk, fatally shot by a criminal that he let escape several minutes prior. Uncle Ben dies shortly after calling out Peter's name (scene shown below).

- What happened?
- Carjacker; he's been shot. We've just called the paramedic, they are on their way.

On April 16th, 2020, during viral popularity of 5G: It's Fast Doe memes, iFunny^[2] user Ricky_fromtpb posted a two-panel meme based on the scene in which Peter Parker asked Uncle Ben what happened, with Uncle Ben blaming 5G for his fatal wound. The post was featured on the app and gained over 34,800 smiles in two years (shown below).

Spread

On April 16th, 2020, Redditor J5CJ posted a screenshot of the post to the /r/raimimemes^[3] subreddit, where it gained over 13,600 upvotes in six months, with an April 23rd, 2020, repost to the /r/dankmemes^[4] subreddit gaining an additional 18,200 upvotes prior to being removed.

Prior to June 14th, 2020, an unknown iFunny user posted the earliest edit of the image, a They Got Me for My Foams meme (shown below). On that day, Twitter^[5] user @jacobfoamposite made the earliest found repost of the image, with the post gaining 72 retweets and 1,400 likes in two years. A June 19th, 2020, repost by Instagram^[6] user yungstarbeam received over 4,000 likes in the same period.

In the second half of 2020, several versions of the meme were posted by users on Instagram^[7] and Facebook.^[8]

On May 27th, 2021, Twitter^[9] user @mezthegoz posted a recaption referencing an earlier tweet by user @UltimaShadowX, which gained over 1,800 retweets and 9,600 likes and received viral spread online in the following weeks.

The format did not see a significant viral spread until November 13th, 2021, when Twitter user @TBKALX posted an IDK Punchline version of the meme that gained over 4,400 retweets and 48,500 likes in two months (shown below, left). On December 3rd, 2021, Twitter user @yungvirginkike reposted the original SQUID GAMES❗❗ meme (shown below, right), with the post gaining over 2,500 retweets and 24,000 likes in one month and subsequently launching the SQUID GAMES❗❗ meme.

Following the viral spread of the IDK and SQUID GAMES!! versions, the format achieved notable spread online, primarily on Twitter, with several viral examples posted in December 2021 and January 2022.

Related Memes

IDK Punchlines

'IDK' Punchlines refers to a series of recaption memes in which the entire punchline has been replaced with the word "IDK" (short for "I don't know"). Spawned by a viral What Happened to Him? meme posted in May 2021, the format was popularized on Twitter in November 2021.

Squid Games

SQUID GAMES❗❗ is a ironic meme format that parodies the viral popularity of the South Korean survival drama series Squid Game. The format usually involves adding the caption "SQUID GAMES❗❗* to scenes of characters dying or lying down after being defeated, similar to IDK Punchlines meme format.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References