It was all a fun game of promoting Barbenheimer, but there are some memes and comments that surely crossed the limits. As expected, Japan becomes the epicenter of these events.
Through making and sharing memes, the campaign gained good momentum, and Japan wasn’t an exception. From box-office success to appreciation, it has been the song of success for Barbie and Oppenheimer.
Now, while making memes, there have been plenty of times when the memes have not only been extremely offensive but also insensitive. Some of them even glorified the horrifying event in global history when more than 200,000 people were killed, and millions suffered its effects.
As the 78th Anniversary of the devastating bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki approached, memes flooded the internet. A meme shared on the American Warner Bros social media featured Margot Robbie’s Barbie with a hairstyle resembling a mushroom cloud, alluding to Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb.
Though the American counterpart of the studio found it sarcastic, the Japanese side of the studios showed their disappointment. They expressed that it was extremely inconsiderate and appealed for proper action.
How did the Japanese people react to this action? They have been quick to respond with 9/11 memes. As per the Japanese, that event has a similar magnitude to the 9/11 event. Even captioning the memes with “What you are doing is the same thing as this,” it is very prominent that they are really upset.
On the contrary, America has been producing the most 9/11 memes, which symbolize American sarcasm. So, on paper, this may not hurt them, but only time will tell how this goes.
https://twitter.com/endlessALPHAKS8/status/1687100810185080837?t=mmgDGlXq7adYW7Itoe5kxA&s=19
I mean, it's not wrong. I have a shit ton of 9/11 memes. One for example pic.twitter.com/hdrUITfdq3
— Papa Peon hates the government (@SleeplessPeon) August 3, 2023
Y’all are so full of shit
Americans get offended about everything. Besides like South Park or Family Guy or some shit, y’all probably can’t even name a popular movie that’s ever made fun of 9/11, and it happened 22 years ago.
Some memes on the Internet is not “America”.
— Carpe DMs (@murujUP) August 3, 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
https://twitter.com/gyro_nyoho/status/1687026862047084545?t=wkJZ1uQduwZMknxb272Cxg&s=19
