What Is The 'Morbin' Time' Meme, And Is It Really All The Time?

Everyone loves "It's Morbin' Time," the hot catchphrase from lovable rascal Dr. Morbius in this summer's mega-blockbuster smash hit Morbius.

Granted, not a single thing presented in the above sentence is true, but you wouldn't know it from looking at social media. For over a month now, "fans" of Morbius have been going gaga over "It's Morbin' Time" and Morbius Sweep, crafting memes and stories about how audiences everywhere are erupting in orgasmic joy whenever Morbius totally "morbs" all over someone. If you are one of the billions of people who haven't seen Morbius, this can be pretty confusing, but luckily, we're here to clarify a few things about the Morbin' Time craze sweeping the nation.

Does Morbius actually say "It's Morbin' Time" in Morbius?

No.

So what the heck is going on here?

To understand "It's Morbin' Time," one must first understand the (Marvel Cinematic) universe. Sony Pictures is attempting to build a cinematic universe akin to Marvel Studios' using characters from the Spider-Man franchise.

So far, this has gone, shall we say, not well, as The Amazing Spider-Man series intended to kick things off has generally been considered the weakest of the three Spider-Man film series, while the first "extended universe" ventures (the Venom films) have been met with far less enthusiasm than the films of Sony's Marvel competitors. This is all in the service of building up a group of Spider-Man villains known as the "Sinister Six," who will presumably come together to fight Spider-Man in an eventual Avengers-like epic.

Morbius, named for the vampiric doctor played by actor Jared Leto (who will eventually be part of that Sinister Six), is another entry in the Sony Spider-Man Universe. After going through a developmental hell that kept seeing its release date pushed back, it was finally released in April to little fanfare. It's since been brutally panned by critics and jokes about its supposed crappiness were coming out even before it was released.

One particular early brand of jokes involved fans basically relating made up elements of the plot of Morbius in their reviews. These were all easily disproven (like "Batman showed up and he and Morbius made out with President Biden," etc.), and on April 2nd, 2022, Twitter user @Rank10ygo came up with a scene where Morbius "says" his now-iconic line, "It's Morbin Time."

Why is "It's Morbin' Time" so popular?

Morbin' Time became wrapped in a trend of various memes about Morbius, such as Morbius Sweep, which centers around a fictional universe where Morbius is the most popular film in the world despite being generally considered a failure, not dissimilar to the memes surrounding a certain former Presidential candidate.

The success of "Morbin' Time" as the key fake plot point from the film probably lies in its simplicity and catchiness. It's reminiscent of similar catchphrases, such as "It's morphin' time!" from Power Rangers and "It's clobberin' time!" said by Fantastic 4's The Thing. This made it amenable to various memes about the film, as seen on Reddit's /r/whenthe subreddit, where users would title myriad memes about the movie under the name "Morbin' Time."

The phrase is also easy shorthand for the general joke around Morbius, which is that no one's seen it. Talking about Morbius saying "It's Morbin' Time" is a way to point out "yeah, this sounds ridiculous, but it could very well be true. One thing's for sure, though: you're never going to know for sure."

For the full history of "It's Morbin Time," be sure to check out our entry on the phrase here for even more information.