More than a movie?

It's common for Spidey movies to make reference to the comics, from major plot lines pulled from the source material or the tiniest of background details that only the true comic readers will notice. But Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did something quite different: it referenced the previous Spider-Man movies. And not just like paying tribute or using homages or whatever, but directly referring to terrible moments in the franchise's history and using it to make the audience laugh and sort of be reminded they're watching a movie. So if this was your first Spider-Man movie, a lot would go over your head. But that's not really new, Deadpool and Deadpool already did that.

But what was new was that during the post credit scene, the film was making reference to a meme. A meme that is very current, too. A meme that most of the audience over 35 wouldn't even understand. But of course the theatre was filled with many people under 35 who were laughing their butts off. It just made me think about what's in the zeitgeist and how far that stretches in terms of age or being "up to date". 

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