- Not sure if you've heard
this, but it's Morbin' time. It's Morbin' time, folks. It's Morbin' Time! Memes, what are they? Why do they exist? Can we stop them from existing? Maybe we could get a boomer to unironically say "Morb to the midterms!" Then finally this meme will die. We have had two comic book
movies about bat men this year, and one of them is excellent while the other stars
cult leader Jared Leto. Morbius got memed so hard on the internet that Sony seemingly mistook
it for genuine fan support and released it in theaters a second time only for it to flop a second
time, but harder this time. The origin of the Morbius
meme train all started on April 2nd with this
tweet from Rata that read. - [Automated Voice Generator]
The best part of "Morbius" was when he said, "It's Morbin' time" and morbed all over those guys. - And you know what? Honestly,
great tweet, no notes. But along with it, I did notice something a
little interesting on Twitter. It seems like at least
some younger internet users genuinely didn't realize
this is a reference to Power Rangers when they
say "It's morphin' time." - Let's do it, guys! - [Power Rangers] Right!
- It's morphin' time! - And then they morph all over the guys. And if you're one of those people well then hey, now you know,
but did it get me thinking, there are tons of
superhero memes out there. Morbin' time might be here
for a fleeting moment, but we also have classics
like Batman slapping Robin, Moon Knight calling Dracula a nerd, Spider-Man pointing at himself. That last one became such huge meme that it's been referenced in
multiple Spider-Man movies. DC doesn't have the balls
to make a Joker movie where he talks about his boner, but Marvel can make Willem Dafoe say. - You know, I'm something
of a scientist myself. You know, I'm something
of a scientist myself. - All they want with their
unlimited mouse money they print from pretending
to support gay people. Happy Pride. And suddenly I was struck with curiosity. I never really looked into the origins of these iconic superhero memes, but now I needed to know why
Lex Luthor stole 40 cakes. Is he sabotaging a showstopper challenge in "Great British Bake Off"? That's one possible answer. Which of these memes are
genuinely, actually real? Which ones are fake? What did they originally say
when they were first printed? I had to know. I couldn't
sleep not knowing. (dramatic music) So I took a melatonin, which
did help me get to sleep, but then the next morning
I was still curious so let's find out. Sponsored by World Anvil. Let's start with a classic. I'm sure we have all seen this panel of Batman slapping Robin. I have it printed out
on my bathroom mirror which has really only distracted me when I'm trying to take my
ADHD meds in the morning. Hey, what's going on? Yeah!
(mimics slaps landing) (laughs) (sighs) Why did I come in here? The first memified version of
this panel hit the internet all the way back in 2008
with an extremely 2008 joke that read, "Hey Batman, what are your parents
getting you for Christ-" "My parents are dead!" Hilarious stuff. This image was everywhere on the internet for like five years even
having its own subreddit which such bangers as, "You're
too old to play Pokemon." "You're too old to be making
fun of people on Facebook!" "Miley Cyr-" "Shut the fuck up!" (coughs) That voice hurts to do. And I'm not good at doing it. The return on investment is bad. (laughs) Also in this subreddit,
there's a weird amount of right-wing talking points about voter fraud and gun control. Not entirely sure why you'd choose Batman to be a stand-in for
someone who's pro-gun, but this subreddit is
pretty much dead anyway. Much like Batman's parents. "My parents are dead!" The actual origin of this panel comes from "World's Finest"
#153 published in 1965 in a story called "The
Clash of Cape and Cowl!" The story's a little complicated because it does take place
in an alternate reality, which you know because
the comic reminds you four different times that it's imaginary, as opposed to all the other Batman comics that are non-fiction. So in this story, when
Bruce Wayne was little, his dad Thomas was researching
an anti-Kryptonite serum that would make Superman
immune to Green Kryptonite, one of his only weaknesses. Superman, who's actually
Superboy at this point in time, comes to get some of that
serum, but it's not ready yet so he's turned away by Thomas
Wayne who notes that Superboy almost looked angry as
he flew off, curious. That tragic night, a
mysterious red-blue blur kills the bat dad and steals the anti-Kryptonite
serum from his lab. Ever the budding
detective, a grieving Bruce realizes that the killer
must have been Superboy because his dad's skull was
crushed in by super-hard object. And don't laugh, all right,
because the 1960s Batman TV show did teach us that free association is the best way to find criminals. (dramatic music) - What weighs six ounces, sits in a tree, and is very dangerous? - A sparrow with a machine gun. - Yes gentlemen, the criminal catalyst in this entire affair, our
old arch-enemy Catwoman. - Bruce then vows to
seek revenge on Superboy and grows up to become the crime fighting world's greatest detective, Batman. Except rather than wanting
to rid Gotham of crime, he really just wants to take down Superman and will occasionally also
punch a criminal or two. Other than that, Batman's
history mostly remains unchanged. He even still adopts the
orphaned Dick Grayson to become Robin, but the
dynamic duo dissolves once Batman commits the gravest mistake of monologuing when he
should have soliloquied. Robin overhears Batman's
plan to kill Superman and tries to talk Bats out of it. There's no way Superman
actually killed his papa. "Don't tell me I'm wrong, you brat. Proving Superman's guilt is
my whole mission in life!" (slap cracks)
"Ow! Batman, your grief has obsessed you with this idea of vengeance. I beg you, give it up!" You may have noticed that
the image in the comic is actually flipped from
the typical meme format, and I think that's the right call here. The slap feels more like
an interruption in the meme rather than a starting
action in the original panel. I think it flows better comedically. And if you're wondering what happens in the rest of this comic, it's wild! Batman doesn't want to deal with Robin undermining his anti-Superman agenda, so, as if the slap wasn't enough, he wipes Dick's memory of ever being Robin and sends him back to an orphanage. Batman doesn't want a partner,
he wants an accomplice. And he finds one in Superman's
greatest villain, Lex Luthor. The two trap Superman using
some Kryptonite gadgets, but at the last minute Lex
accidentally lets it slide that it was he who actually
killed Batman's dad all those years ago. Luthor used a robot that
looked like Superboy to steal the anti-Kryptonite serum so the real Superboy
could never become immune. And the robot just sorta bumps into Batman's dad
accidentally and kills him so it wasn't even on purpose. A little salt in the wound. Learning the truth that Lex Luthor is bad, who'd have thunk it? Batman frees Superman but gets
shot by Lex Luthor and dies. He dies, Batman dies. The end. And with the Caped Crusader gone, there's no one left to stop Joker from unleashing all his boners. "So! They laugh at my boner, will they? I'll show them! I'll show them all how many
boners the Joker can make!" So I don't know if this meme
was as popular as the others. I don't even know if it really
even qualifies as a meme, but it's all my friends and I talked about when I was an immature guy in
high school compared to now where I'm a slightly more
mature guy approaching his 30s. But I still laugh at boner so... For example, we got a cat feeder, an automatic cat feeder recently, and it does look like a dick and balls. So before we dive into it,
this is real, all right? This is a real comic
not edited in any way. It comes from "Batman" #66 from 1951, and it is just filled with
incredible lines like this. "How do you like my boner crimes, eh? There are more boner crimes to come! Soon, Batman will make
the boner of the year!" "What does he mean, Bruce? How can he force you into a boner?" "I'm worried about the boner
he's preparing for you!" The word "boner" is repeated throughout this story nearly 40 times. It's spoken, it's written. Everywhere a boner could
be, a boner is there. Which I think is why it
feels fake even though, as I said, it is real. Obviously at the time in the '50s, the word boner meant something
completely different. The biggest clue can be
found in the story's title, "The Joker's Comedy Of Errors," which is also a fun Shakespeare reference. Didn't think we'd get one of those in a video about internet memes. And also, the lead-in
paragraph to the story reads, "You've probably committed
boners in your time. Most everybody has. History is full of the mistakes of man, some of which could be written off, and some of which boomeranged
into deeds of good fortune. But only a sense of humor like the Joker's could think of translating
boners into crimes!" So if you haven't figured it out already through context clues,
during the early 1900s, "boner" was slang for a blunder or mistake which likely came from the
insult bonehead which is sort of like calling someone smooth-brained today. Isn't the evolution of
language interesting and fun? It's fun, right? You're having fun. So basically, in this story, Joker attempts to make a
crime, but he flubs it up. He cuts the power to the
building he's trying to rob and realizes too late
that his escape route through the elevator won't
work if there's no power. Doof, Joker done goofed it up. The next day, everyone in
Gotham mocks Joker for his error or his boner. Some say he even pulled
the boner of the year. Pulled that boner. Really
tugged at it. (clears throat) And this emphasis on
boners gives Joker an idea for a new adventure in crime. "Gotham City will rue the day
it mentioned the word boner!" Joker then becomes
obsessed with recreating some of history's most famous blunders. For example, he sabotages a bell tower to sink into the ground as an homage to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is one of the great
architectural boners in history. I know they didn't know
how this would translate in the modern day, but just
the imagery and the phrasing and everything here
it's just, it's so good. But okay, this bit is
probably getting really stale quite quickly so I'm
gonna go ahead and agree with Batman's last lines
of the story when he says, "Let's hope we've the last
of things like boners." I think there's a typo in that sentence. Anyway, the boner jokes, they're over now. I know Spider-Man wants in
on it but we're moving on! In fact, I feel like I could
genuinely make an entire video about the absolutely bonkers and incredible memeable
1967 Spider-Man cartoon, and I probably will do that so subscribe. In the meantime though, Captain
Midnight made a great video about it a couple years
back that you can watch. Link in the description. Also, I'm standing now! Let's not make a big
deal about it, all right. I know, I'm a hero. No, my doctor just told me
I should stand more often 'cause I sit a lot at my job. That's actually a lie. I
haven't seen a doctor in years. The thing about the
Spider-Man cartoon, though, is that it really could have
just disappeared into obscurity without anyone noticing,
but thank God in 2009 Marvel started streaming the full episodes from their website which
brought a lot more attention to the show's wacky scripts
and low-budget art style that was perfect ground for weird, out-of-context screenshots. That was one of my longest
run-on sentences to date. But undoubtedly the most
famous meme from this cartoon it's gotta be this one, right? And it comes from episode 19b, appropriately titled "Double Identity." And this is probably the funniest episode in the entire series,
which is saying a lot because the whole show is just amazing. - Get the paintings in the van. I'll take care of Spider-Man! - Bars! So in the episode, a
villain named Charles Cameo disguised as Peter Parker steals an antique Shakespearian text. Which is a second Shakespeare reference as we're talking about the
origins of internet memes. What are the odds of that
happening. That's so strange. I mean, do you think there's
some kind of connection between these images and the
way that they all connect back- (Scott clears throat) Nevermind, yeah, so J. Jonah
Jameson defends Peter Parker not because he likes the kid but because he doesn't
want the Daily Bugle to get caught up in a scandal. - [J. Jonah] I'll bet the one behind these robberies is Spider-Man! - Oh, Mr. Jameson, it's wonderful of you to stand up for Peter like that. - No credit to Parker, Miss Brant. I just can't have the
Daily Bugle involved! - Oh yeah, I forgot
they call him James-son in this show, not Jam-e-son. - J. Jonah Jameson. - I can't be bothered
to change how I say it. So after another art crime goes down, Spider-Man is now accused
of being the thief by Jonah who takes matters into his own hands. (siren blaring)
(gunshots resound) (dramatic music) And that's it. That's
the end of the series. No, I'm kidding. Only Batman's allowed to just
die at the end of his story. "Dead!" What actually happened is
Jameson who's doing the shooting wasn't actually Jameson. It was was Charles Cameo again disguised as Jameson
doing more art thieving. So later, at an antique show,
"Jame-son" in heavy air quotes is there about to nab
some kind of shiny goblet when Spider-Man webs him up and starts to unmask him mustache-first. But this time, wouldn't you know it, Spider-Man just got confused because this is the real Jameson, not Cameo disguised as Jameson. - Yeow! - [Spider-Man] It is
you! But my Spider Sense- - You'll pay for this, you, you bug! - And it's just really funny
and I like it. It's a good bit. Furious and maybe a little embarrassed, Jameson calls the cops and
tells them to set a trap to catch Spider-Man in the
act of another art theft. Cameo shows up to the
scene dressed up as Spidey, ordering his henchman
around, and that is enough to convince Jameson that the webslinger is behind the robberies. - There he is! Get him! - But to confuse matters, just then the real Spider-Man shows up. - [Cameo] That man's an imposter! - [Spider-Man] That man is the imposter! - So you might be wondering,
what's Jameson's plan now? - See, I told you! Now capture him! (dramatic music) - Which one? - I don't care which one! Get 'em both! - That makes sense. That tracks for him. The screenshot of the two
Spider-Men pointing at each other was uploaded to the
internet in February of 2011 but it wouldn't really become popular until around 2016 to 2017 when
a Reddit user used the image to compare it to rapper
Desiigner meeting Future because it was sort of a
meme itself at the time that they sound the same. The image macro since exploded
and as I said earlier, it's been referenced in
both "Into the Spider-Verse" as well as some behind-the-scenes photos from "Spider-Man: No Way Home." I guess you could also
say it was referenced in the movie itself if
you count this scene. - Peter. - [Peters] Yeah? Oh sorry, do you mean that? - Or?
- And you know what? I think that rendition
really takes the cake, but in a good way unlike Lex
Luthor who took 40 cakes. 'Cause that was a bad one, you know, because we were explicitly
told that it's terrible. Do you like my long-winded
segues between memes? I worked really hard on them. But if we're gonna talk
about sweet treats, I'm gonna need some tea. Please send me tea to my PO
box. Link in the description. I'll give you a shoutout
in a video. Thank you. I'm drinking green tea
with lemon today. (sips) - Kiki look, it's me! (laughs)
- Look, it's me! - To be completely honest you,
Lex Luther's 40 cakes meme was one that was pretty new to me, but I know it has a fairly
big following on the internet mostly because the concept
and the phrasing is just odd. - [Automated Voice Generator]
"When no one was looking, Lex Luthor took 40 cakes. He took 40 cakes. That's
as many as four tens. And that's terrible." - You probably noticed
that it doesn't look like this image is from a
comic book, and it's not. It's from the 1978 "Super Dictionary," a book designed to help children improve their reading comprehension
via comic book characters. And honestly, I think that's a cool idea, and I'm sure it helped a lot of kids out, but a lot of entries are
just awkwardly phrased and very funny, unintentionally so. - [Automated Voice Generator]
"There is something wrong with this basketball. Something is wrong with the
ball we use in this game. Look at the other
basketballs for a better one. Then we will play good basketball. Then we will play a good game." - Stuff like that. I do like that the entry for algae is Superman struggling to fight algae. - [Automated Voice Generator]
"I'll fight the algae and win I'll fight all these little water plants. They can't get the best of me." - I like this one, too. - [Automated Voice Generator]
"Clark Kent became Superman. Look up become." - It's like they didn't even
want to try for that one. You're on your own, kids! But I think Lex Luthor
stealing 40 cakes stands out because there's some
unintentional ambiguity in the last sentence of the entry. - [Automated Voice
Generator] "He took 40 cakes. That's as many as four
tens. And that's terrible." - Like, is it terrible that
he stole anything in general? Or is it that he specifically
stole exactly 40 cakes? Is that the thing that's terrible? I mean, this is the dictionary
entry for the word 40. Is the number 40 itself
inherently terrible? And beyond that, I was confused where Lex Luthor would even get 40 cakes, but then I remembered, "Jimmy
Olsen is going to bake a cake. He's going to cook the cake in the oven. He baked cookies last week." Though, to be fair to Lex, I think he was just stealing the cakes
to celebrate his birthday. "Everyone has a birthday. Everyone has a day on which
they first started life. Even Lex Luthor has birthdays. He has a party every year to remember the day he started life." So I don't think I can
really blame him for it. This meme, by the way,
even became made canon in the DC Universe thanks to
"Superman" #709 from 2011. During a flashback sequence, Clark Kent is sent to
detention for skipping class. And it's there he encounters
a young Lex Luthor, who is also in detention. His crime? Stealing 40 cakes
from the school's bake sale. And as we all know now, that's as many as four
tens, and that's terrible. All right, but enough reading
through the dictionary like a bunch of nerds. What are we, Dracula? Another flawless segue! So before the "Moon Knight" show came out, I feel like the only
actual comic book panels that existed online
featuring the character were memes that are
almost all entirely fake, including the most famous
one where Moon Knight goes looking for Dracula 'cause that big nerd owes him money. - [Man] "I now you're here,
Dracula, you big fucking nerd. Where's my goddamn money?" Is that a Moon Knight accent?
Is that what he sounds like? It'll have to be. - Now, it would be fun if this
image was real, but it's not. The original comes from
1987's "Solo Avengers" #3. In this story called "Tower of
Shadows," Moon Knight slinks into an ominous-looking
locale known as Shroud Castle. The original panel's text reads, "After all, I'm as much a creature of the night as Russell is. Still, there was
something about this place that set my nerves on edge." Now, you might be wondering who Russel is and why he came up in this story. So the plot of the comic
is pretty fun, honestly. It opens with a classic Moon
Knight internal monologue where he immediately quotes Shakespeare? Why do so many of these
memes reference Shakespeare? (Scott slapping sign) I know, I know. I don't know, it's just
interesting how the word meme shares the same etymological
roots as the word mimic, which was coined by The Bard
in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," a play of lovers being
led by mimetic desires. Adoration that was not
originally their own, but was bestowed by a
few accidental misgivings of magic potion forcing
Lysander and Demetrius to forgo their love for Hermia and instead mimic a love for Helena. And if memes, as they
were originally defined before the internet hijacked the term to largely mean image macros
bejeweled with impact font, are units of cultural transmission, ideas spread from person
to person within a culture. Could love itself be a meme? Is it something innate within us, or a concept that is learned
and molded and passed on? The play itself asks this very question. For after the mischievous fairy Puck has dispensed the love potion
onto the wrong subject, the sanctimonious Oberon
lashes out in indignation, "What hast thou done? Thou hast mistaken quite and laid the love-juice
on some true-love's sight. Of thy misprision must perforce
ensue some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true." But just sit with that for a moment. The presumed discrepancy
between a true love and its seemingly inferior
mimetic counterfeit of a false turned true is
an arbitrary distinction that the story itself aims
to undermine as Demetrius, still under the influence of Puck's magic, retires his pursuit of his
original love, exclaiming, "Lysander, keep thy Hermia. I will none. If e'er I loved her,
all that love is gone. My heart to her but as
guest-wise sojourned And now to Helena is it home
returned, there to remain." (pensive music) And I guess we just gotta
take his word for it. More like a Midsummer
Night's Meme, am I right? Uh, anyway, Russel'ssa werewolf. - Oh my God, dude, come on! - Yeah, sorry, I sorta got swept up in my own little world there for a moment. - Well, I guess there's
nothing too wrong with that. - No, honestly, it was
pretty fun. I'd recommend it. Especially with the help of
today's sponsor, World Anvil. - Hi, I'm a sweaty,
hard-working blacksmith. Oh no, I died! - Hi, I'm that blacksmith's son. And when my Papa died just now, he left me all of his anvils. It's been, it's honestly been annoying. They just take up space in my
home and I stub my toe on them every night when I get
up to go to the bathroom. The same toe every time. I'm not a blacksmith. I'm a wordsmith. I like playing table-top
role playing games and writing the next great novel. And if you're like me and you do anything that involves mapping out a
fictional world of characters, locations, timelines and more, having the right tools for the job can make plotting your
ideas so much easier. You don't need a big, heavy,
hand-me-down dad anvil. You need World Anvil. World Anvil is a set
of world-building tools that helps you create, organize and store your world setting. With wiki-like articles, interactive maps, historical timelines,
an RPG Campaign Manager and a full novel-writing software, World Anvil has all of
the tools you'll need to run your RPG Campaign
or write your next novel. And or, you can do both. They say writing a novel is
just playing D&D with yourself. And World Anvil has just released an exciting new feature
called Whiteboards, which are designed to make
organizing your thoughts and your world a whole lot easier. It offers a canvas that
you can apply elements to, draw diagrams on, and connect things any way that you see fit. This gives you the ability
to create expansive mindmaps between thoughts and ideas. Use it to create a mood board
to help capture the genre, themes, and style of your world. Heck, you can even use the Whiteboard to create a tavern board of all sorts of fun little quests that your characters could
play in your campaign. Like a quest to help me get rid of all these
anvils my dad left me. It's not that I don't
appreciate them, it's just... If you could take them anywhere else. Is it weird that I'm posting this video so close to Father's Day? And as cool as that Whiteboard feature is, that is just one of many, many tools that World Anvil offers you to help craft and manage your world. They got all kinds of stuff. I'm currently using World
Anvil to help plot out an idea for a comic book that I have. It's been so helpful. And just for you wonderful
nerds, you can get 40% off all 12-month subscriptions
when you go to the link in the description and use
the code NerdSync at checkout. Once again, that is 40% off
of your 12-month subscription to World Anvil when you use
the code NerdSync at checkout. So go build your world today! And name a character after me, please. Thank you so much for watching this video. I know that there are
other comic book memes that I didn't even talk
about like Wolverine touching the photo in
"X-Men: The Animated Series" so maybe we can have a part two. Let me know what other memes
I should cover in the future on Twitter @ScottNiswander or
in the comments down below. And if you're new to one of my videos, this is sort of the thing
that I do around here. I talk for a really long time about something incredibly
niche, but along the way I hope that we learn a
little bit about something. So if that sounds good to you, then subscribe and hit
that notification bell to become a Wonderful Nerd. That's what I call my
audience. I think it's cute. If you're feeling extra generous, please support me on Patreon. I would love to hit 1,000 patrons
this year with names like, A Filthy Casual, Amanda Trisdale, BKBW, C. McCartney Smith, Christopher Lang. I'm recording this after midnight which is why I'm whispering. DeCassowary, Edwin Latorre, Erik Ketchum, Eric Tortora Pato, Everett
Parrot, Jacob Rundell, Johnathan and Megan
Pierson, Johnathan Lonowski Maher Saadaldeen, Miresa
Wilson, Pete Temple! SilvahDonut, William Tillotson, and the rest of the wonderful nerds over at Patreon.com/NerdSync,
link in the description. My name is Scott reminding you
to explore your favorite art through curiosity and
vulnerability, see ya.
