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Earlier this week, we brought you the story of Warner Bros’ Japanese division calling out their parent company for promoting the “Barbenheimer” trend on social media.
“We consider it extremely regrettable that the official account of the American headquarters for the movie ‘Barbie’ reacted to the social media postings of ‘Barbenheimer’ fans,” Warner Bros. Japan said in a statement that was published on Twitter.
Now, in response to the Barbenheimer phenomenon, Japanese people have begun to make 9/11 jokes in an effort to make an example to Americans about how offensive it is.
The problem, however, as many Americans pointed out, is that — for better or for worse — we’ve collectively processed the tragedy of 9/11 by making jokes about it.
In an attempt to get Americans to see why Japan finds Barbenheimer offensive, Japanese twitter has taken to making 9/11 jokes – completely misunderstanding that Americans love 9/11 jokes. pic.twitter.com/6F5FOf5aTR
— Nick | ニック (@NickFromTokyo) August 1, 2023
apparently, japanese twitter is trying to do a “how do YOU like it?” re: Oppenheimer memes.. but i don’t think they understand american humor very well because lmaoo pic.twitter.com/hTh8HlwxtA
— shoe (@shoe0nhead) August 1, 2023
Japan is making a fresh wave of 9/11 memes in response to #Barbenheimer? Buddy, nobody makes more 9/11 memes than 'merica.
That's just more fodder for the group chat. We treat our trauma with shitposts and you're just helping us heal.— Cass Anderson (@casspa) August 2, 2023
Barbenheimer, of course, is a social media phenomenon that broke through the cultural zeitgeist to such an extent that local news stations began reporting on it, therefore transporting the information to an older generation.
The gist of the bit is that Barbie and Oppenheimer, which both hit movie theaters on July 21, are so perfectly and diametrically opposed in terms of tone, style, and substance (although, weirdly, both films are actually about existential dread) that they make for the perfect bizarro double-feature.
This trend led to both films performing massively at the box office, as Barbie is expected to end its box office run with over $1 billion, while Oppenheimer is expected to settle in t around $750 million — both of which are astounding figures.
In addition to their massive box office hauls, both Barbie and Oppenheimer have been widespread critical successes, as well. Not only are both films receiving largely rave reviews, but they’re both expected to be major contenders in categories such as Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and so on, at next year’s Academy Awards.
Both Barbie and Oppenheimer (~$750 million) are now playing in theaters across the world. You can check out the official trailers for both movies below.