Morbius Sweep

About

Morbius Sweep or #MorbiusSweep refers to a series of parody memes ironically celebrating the 2022 superhero film Morbius as a massive commercial and critical success despite the movie being largely panned. Originating from the /r/moviecirclejerk subreddit, the trend gained a massive presence on Twitter in early April 2022 following the negative critic and audience reviews of the film, as well as the It's Morbin' Time catchphrase shortly after.

Origin

The first time "MorbiusSweep" was used was before the movie came out, dating back to October 25th, 2021. Inside the Marvel Studios official Discord server, there was a conversation taking place about the new Dune movie that had just come out, inciting user Slayr to say "DUNESWEEP," as many others around that time were hyping the movie up and saying it would sweep the Oscars. This caused the progenitor, Crono#4147, at the time nicknamed ISupportGaysBuyMyMerch, to then create the phrase "morbiussweep" as a response, and causing morbiussweep to be used whenever conversations about the Oscars took place (shown below).

As is typical of a big movie, there were critic and press screenings that took place beforehand to help the company create advertisement material. After a few early critic reviews took place, a barrage of multiple news websites reported on negative early critic reviews for the upcoming film on March 21st, 2022, which stars Jared Leto and is set in Sony's Spider-Man universe.^[1][2]

On March 22nd, 2022, Redditor^[3] Supercalumrex posted an edited image of the Rotten Tomatoes review score, edited to look as if the film exceeded 100 percent, the highest possible score, both with critics and audiences. The post, titled "The cultural reset," received over 4,500 upvotes in two weeks (shown below).

On the same day, Twitter^[4] user @SkeeBallKnees tweeted the image with the hashtag #MorbiusSweep. The post received over 330 retweets and 3,600 likes in two weeks.

Spread

In late March 2022, more posts ironically praising Morbius as an unparalleled masterpiece lauded both by critics and audiences were shared in the /r/moviescirclejerk subreddit. For example, a post made by Redditor^[5] ComaHuggybear on March 23rd received over 660 upvotes in two weeks (shown below, left). A March 30th post by Redditor^[6] sem27nome gained over 580 upvotes (shown below, right).

In late March and early April, the trend spread from the subreddit to Twitter through reposts, many of them with the #MorbiusSweep hashtag. For example, on March 30th, 2022, Twitter^[7] account @LightsCameraPod reposted the meme by sem27nome with the hashtag, gaining over 250 retweets and 1,800 likes in five days.

On April 1st, 2022, the day of the U.S. premiere of the film, the hashtag achieved a viral presence on the platform. For example, on April 1st, Twitter^[8] user @Lynchreborn posted a fake quote from director Martin Scorsese in which he called the film "the truest height of cinema" that he "cannot top." The post received over 1,800 retweets and 13,000 likes in three days (shown below, left). On the same day, Twitter user @StalePangolin posted a Greedy Pipe Man meme that gained over 360 retweets and 3,500 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

The hashtag trend continued on social media in early April, gaining a strong association with the earlier One Trillion Tickets / Cultural Reset meme spawned earlier by Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

Related Memes

One Trillion Tickets / Cultural Reset

One Trillion Tickets, One Trillion Copies and Cultural Reset refer to memes that ironically claim that a certain media, often one expected to flop, will be the first to sell one trillion copies, or one trillion tickets and cause a cultural reset. The meme draws its humor from the fact that the entire population as of 2022 equals only 7.9 billion people, which would mean that every person on Earth would have to buy multiple copies (tickets) in order for such a staggering result to be achieved.

Gotti

Gotti is the 2018 American biographical crime film about the life of New York City mobster John Gotti. The film received very negative critic reviews and generally negative user reviews, which has been the subject of discussions on Reddit, Twitter and other online platforms. Starting in February 2019, the film gained ironic popularity and appeared in memes in the /r/moviescirclejerk subreddit and other online communities.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References