Green Goblin Talking to His Mask

Submission 5,151

Part of a series on Spider-man: No Way Home. [View Related Entries]

About

Green Goblin Talking to His Mask is a scene from the 2021 film Spider-Man: No Way Home in which the character Norman Osborn (portrayed by Willem Dafoe) talks to his Green Goblin mask, which is trying to convince him to become a villain again. Spawned by a viral Instagram meme, a video and GIF caption format based on the scene achieved virality online in the summer of 2023.

Origin

On December 17th, 2021, the Marvel superhero film Spider-Man: No Way Home premiered in the United States.^[1] In one scene of the film, the character Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) is talking to a mask representing his Green Goblin persona, which is trying to convince him to become evil again (scene shown below).

On October 4th, 2022, Instagram^[2] user matthew.niverse posted a video caption meme about musician Joji, also known for his former Filthy Frank online persona. The meme (shown below) garnered over 35,000 likes in 10 months.

Spread

The post received viral spread online in the following days. For example, on October 5th, 2022, TikToker^[3] .artemis.png reposted the meme, with the post gaining over 65,000 views and 10,300 likes in 10 months. On December 22nd, the X^[4] meme account @LocalBateman reposted the video, earning over 3,600 reposts and 25,200 likes in eight months.

The video did not see further use as a meme format until March 25th, 2023, when Redditor Mysterious_Pie_4564 posted a meme about MMA fighter Jon Jones that received over 650 upvotes in the /r/mmamemes^[5] subreddit in five months (shown below).

On May 21st, 2023, Instagram^[6] user toomuchpiff posted a meme based on the format that received over 166,000 likes in two months (shown below).

The meme saw viral spread online in the following weeks. For example, on June 6th, 2023, iFunny^[7] user 0_Hisoka_0 reposted it, with the upload gaining over 410 smiles on the app in two months. On June 15th, iFunny^[8] user BorakObumga reposted it, gaining over 2,900 smiles in a similar timeframe.

More memes based on the format were posted on Instagram, Reddit, TikTok and iFunny in the following weeks. For example, on June 17th, TikToker @realcoffa posted a meme that received over 601,400 views and 106,400 likes in one month (shown below).