2023-07-18 14:25:33
Two movies, one meme. Why we need this explosively cheesy mixture right now.
People wear it on shirts, have cell phone cases made, name the month of July following it, there are countless memes of it. Undoubtedly, Barbenheimer rules the net. Barbenheimer – a mix of the words Barbie and Oppenheimer.
It all started when the two blockbusters premiered in cinemas on the same day, July 20th. A classic trick of the Hollywood marketing machine. First. Because the whole thing quickly took on its own dynamic on the Internet. The irony was immediately noticed within the internet community. The films and their genres mightn’t be more different and have nothing – absolutely nothing – to do with each other. While “Barbie” embodies the perfect woman in an initially seemingly perfect world, “Oppenheimer” is all regarding the construction of the first atomic bomb – and its destructive and fatal use.
Pink and Black: Irony is the meme essence
That’s why this simultaneous premiere is so interesting – and offers a lot of meme potential. In times when war is raging in Europe and the use of nuclear weapons is a real fear for many, the creative images on the Internet can also be an outlet for emotions. The idea of Barbie getting into her pink car to drive into the sunset with Ken in the passenger seat while 108 kilograms of uranium detonate on the screen in the room next door is both frightening and evilly humorous.
And if you want to have the full Barbenheimer experience, i.e. want to see both films on the same day? Do you go to “Oppenheimer” first and then let yourself be carried away by “Barbie” and her happy nature? Or do you watch “Barbie” to save the suspense and drama of “Oppenheimer” for last? There is also philosophizing regarding this on social media.
Not just any phenomenon: what is special regarding Barbenheimer
The films haven’t even started yet and Barbenheimer has long had a cult following. It joins a long chronology of meme trends that go around the world and die down following a while. With Barbenheimer, the climax should probably be reached when the cinema opens. Nevertheless, this mixture brings something special: On the one hand, the cinema business, which has been in crisis since the corona pandemic at the latest, should be revived. Perhaps Barbenheimer will even ensure a small upswing in the industry.
And our society is also in crisis. Barbenheimer is the amusing symbiosis of opposites, a pink atomic cloud that is spreading on social media. An internet phenomenon that provides entertainment while making room for sarcasm and dark humor. There’s something liberating regarding that. And it reflects a real ambivalence: although many are doing better than ever, the others are living in a catastrophe.
Barbenheimer will not save the world. But we can learn something from the internet phenomenon and the online world that created it. She knows how to sprinkle a bit of humor and pink glitter on everything that goes wrong in society and scares people.
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