Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn
Meaning
Some men just want to watch the world burn is a phrase usually used on image macros or reaction GIFs.
Its aim generally is to comment on acts and people that pursue anarchy, madness or illogical behavior.
Origin
In July 2008, Batman movie titled The Dark Knight was premiered.
One scene of the movie features Batman’s butler, played by Michael Caine. Caine tells a story from his youth, with the moral sentence being: “Some men just want to watch the world burn”
In the film the sentence refers to Batman’s arch-enemy, The Joker.
The iconic scene inspired many creators. In 2009 the first image macro edit had surfaced on Cheezeburger.
Spread and Usage
Right after the movie was released, Caine’s performance had been recognized by many as a classic.
After 2009 the format was introduced on several humor sharing sites like MemeDepot and BestMemes.
In 2011 a Facebook page named Some men just want to watch the world burn was created and collected 4,700 likes.
A 2012 Reddit thread was also dedicated to this hype on r/funny, containing several images of disorganized everyday objects, titled with the very telling caption.
External References
- Know Your Meme – Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn
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