You Can't Do This to Me

About

"Oh, You Can't Do This to Me" refers to a memorable quote said by the 2002 film Spider-Man character Norman Osborn upon being told that he is fired. Starting in 2019, an image of Osborn paired with the quote gained popularity as an image macro and in GIF captions.

Origin

On May 3rd, 2002, superhero film Spider-Man, directed by Sam Raimi, premiered.^[1] In one scene of the film, the main antagonist Norman Osborn / Green Goblin, portrayed by Willem Dafoe, is notified that he is being let go from the CEO position at Oscorp, a company which he founded. Osborn proceeds to lash out at the board of directors, saying, "oh, you can't do this to me." The quote is followed by Osborn saying, "You Know How Much I Sacrificed," and is sometimes used together with the line.

Oh, you can't do this to me. I started this company. You know how much I sacrificed!

The earliest found use of an image macro based on the scene is a September 8th, 2018, meme by Redditor^[2] hyphe- (shown below, left). However, the format did not see viral spread until on January 12th, an unknown Redditor^[3] posted a To Kill A Mocking Bird N-word Passage meme which received over 16,800 upvotes in /r/raimimemes in six months (shown below, right).

Spread

Through 2019, the clip saw limited use in memes online, appearing in memes on Instagram and being used as an image macro on Reddit and in GIF captions on iFunny. For example, on January 31st, 2019, Instagram^[4] user comic_guy2099 posted a meme which received over 85,500 views and 6,700 likes in one year (shown below, left). On August 20th, 2019, Instagram^[5] user justanother.geekaccount posted a Spider-Man Leaves the MCU meme which gained over 20,000 views and 2,500 likes in one year (shown below, right). On August 30th, iFunny user ThinBlueTrumpisher posted a GIF caption that gained over 2,300 smiles in the same period.

In late May 2020, the meme saw a surge in popularity after on May 24th, 2020, Twitter^[6] user @TheChiefSosa posted a GIF caption that gained over 2,000 retweets and 6,900 likes in two weeks.

Related Memes

You Know How Much I Sacrificed

"You Know How Much I Sacrificed" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Norman Osborn in the 2002 superhero film Spider-Man. Online, a screen-capture from the scene has been used in image macros featuring the quote as a punchline to various jokes about one's hardships.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References