Punisher's Courtroom Speech

Submission 12,664

Part of a series on The Punisher (TV Series). [View Related Entries]

About

Punisher's Courtroom Speech, also known as I Did It Because I Liked It, is a scene from the Netflix and Marvel superhero television series Daredevil in which the character Frank Castle / The Punisher loses his temper during a courtroom testimony, admitting to liking killing criminals. Starting in late 2021, the exploitable clip has been used as source material for video caption memes.

Origin

On March 18th, 2016, episode eight, titled "Guilty as Sin," of the Marvel TV series Daredevil premiered.^[1] In the episode, the character Frank Castle (Punisher), portrayed by Jon Bernthal, gives a courtroom testimony, purposefully undermining his defense by admitting to liking killing criminals.

On March 21st, 2016, YouTube^[2] user Aurelius uploaded the scene, where it received over 9.2 million views in six years (shown below).

I did it because I liked it! Hell, I loved it! I'm sitting here, I'm just itching, I'm itching to do it again.

On November 17th, 2021, TikToker^[3] bassfacewill2 posted a video caption meme using the clip, pairing it with a news snippet about a news article about potential jail time for online trolling in the U.K. The meme received over 561,000 views and 115,000 likes in 10 months (shown below).

Spread

In the following month, the meme was circulated online through reposts.^[4] On December 13th, 2021, @bassfacewill2^[5] posted another video caption meme that received over 76,000 views and 10,800 likes on TikTok in nine months.

In late January 2022, the soundbite from the video gained virality in lip sync comedy videos on TikTok. For example, on January 26th, TikToker^[6] @thecubancrusher posted a meme that gained over 126,000 likes in eight months (shown below, left). On January 28th, TikTok^[7] user @42duggerr posted a meme that received over 400,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

On February 11th, 2022, iFunny^[8] user WitcherLukas posted a Minions Served Hitler in 1933-1945 video caption meme that gained over 5,900 smiles in seven months (authorship unconfirmed; shown below).

The meme received viral spread online. For example, on February 25th, 2022, Twitter^[9] account @WtfImgVid reposted it, with the post gaining over 400,000 views, 3,900 retweets and 40,100 likes.

In the following months, the clip maintained moderate prevalence as the source material for video captions.