What Does This Monster Have to Mourn?

About

What Does This Monster Have To Mourn? is a three-panel exploitable image series based on a scene from the 2018 superhero film Avengers: Infinity War. The first two panels feature screen captures from the film, focusing on a character asking of the villain Thanos (played by Josh Brolin), "What does this monster have to mourn?" The third panel acts as a punchline to the question with the meme's author adding a third panel from outside the film for humorous effect.

Origin

On April 27th, 2018, the Marvel superhero film Avengers: Infinity War was released in the United States. In the film, after nearly completing his quest, the film's antagonist Thanos is captured by the superhero team The Guardians of the Galaxy. While in their custody, the character Mantis (played by Pom Klementieff) says of Thanos, "He is in anguish. He mourns." Another character, Drax (played by Dave Bautista), responds, "What does this monster have to mourn?" A third character, Nebula (played Karen Gillan), answers, "Gamora." ^[1]

Several months later on August 2nd, Redditor ^[2] Git_matrix posted a three-panel exploitable of the scene in the /r/dankmemes subreddit. The first panel features Mantis saying, "He is in anguish. He…he mourns." The center panel is of Peter Quill (played by Chris Pratt) face to face with Thanos with the subtitle "What does this monster have to mourn?" The third panel shows Lightning McQueen's crash from the Pixar film Cars 3. The post (shown below) received more than 9,600 points (97% upvoted) and 90 comments within 24 hours.

Spread

That day, Redditor^[3] idea4granted posted the meme in the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit. The post received more than 1,400 points (97% upvoted) and 550 comments in 24 hours.

Following these posts, more Redditors posted examples on /r/dankmemes/. One of the most popular, a variant posted by Redditor^[5] Dragonball_Z137, featured a screen capture from the American television comedy The Office. The post (shown below, left) received more than 1,800 points (98% upvoted) within 24 hours.

Throughout the day, examples continued to appear on Reddit,^[6] including on the Thanos fan subreddit, /r/ThanosDidNothingWrong (example below, center ).Additionally, Redditor^[4] Stale_Cancer21 posted a variation with an image reading "Despacito 2 Cancelled" in the third panel. The post (shown below, right) received more than 1,200 points (97% upvoted) in less than 24 hours.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References