About

Spider-Man Stopping Bus or Spider-Man Holding Back Bus is an exploitable image macro depicting Marvel comics superhero Spider-Man stopping a bus from hitting an unassuming pedestrian as the child walks by wearing headphones while texting on his phone. The meme originates from fan art originally drawn by Korean artist Francis Tsai and is typically used in object-labeling memes in which Spider-Man represents someone protecting something from harm. The harm signified by the bus is generally exaggerated, and the meme is often used to ironically depict someone as a hero.

Origin

On September 27th, 2010, Korean artist Francis Tsai^[1] posted a series of artworks online. The collection included a piece depicting Spider-Man stopping a bus full of people from hitting an unaware pedestrian (seen below).

One of the earliest known memes to use the template was posted to /r/MemeEconomy on August 2nd, 2018, by Redditor^[2] /u/BriquetteDeLait (seen below).

Spread

On August 3rd, 2018, Imgur^[3] user @thatsnothowanyofthisworks posted a version of the meme that gathered over 130,000 views in five years (seen below, left). On August 5th, 2018, the Facebook^[4] page Computer Science Memes for Travelling Salesman Teens posted a version of the meme that gathered over 2,000 likes in five years (seen below, right).

On August 9th, 9GAG^[5] user my321ison posted a bone hurting juice meme about the image itself, gathering over 4,000 upvotes in five years (seen below, left). On March 31st, 2021, Redditor^[6] /u/Obi_Benobi_Kenobi posted a version of the meme to /r/wholesomememes, gathering over 24,000 likes in two years (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References