The History Of Spider-Man's Pointing Meme Explained

When it comes to superhero memes — or just memes in general — few are as ubiquitous as the Spider-Point. For over a decade, the image of two Spider-Men (Spider-Mans?) accusingly pointing at one another has become a default template for online jokes calling out the similarities between just about everything and anything. That singular frame has inspired so many social media posts and image macros that it's become ingrained in pop culture over the years.

But where did it come from? And how did it become the internet's shorthand for literally pointing out likenesses? 

The still is from an episode of "Spider-Man," the Marvel hero's first animated series, which ran from 1967-1970. In the "Double Identity" storyline, an actor moonlighting as an art thief uses his skills to impersonate others while committing his crimes. After he eventually impersonates Spider-Man himself, the episode culminates with the two exchanging their now-iconic points, each insisting they're the real wall crawler and creating a joke that would last for years.

While it's unclear as to why the image started making the rounds on Twitter around 2011, more than four decades after the episode first aired. And it's only gained traction and gotten more elaborate since. 

While the original shot features only the two Spideys, over time it has evolved, with more web-slingers and sometimes entirely new characters entering the fray. 

In 2018, the meme finally got the cinematic treatment in a mid-credits scene in "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," though this time the Oscar Isaac-voiced Spider-Man 2099 is one of the accusers. Since then, the meme has even made its way into live-action. A scene in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" makes a sneaky reference with Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield's respective Spideys confusedly pointing at one another, trying to figure out which Peter Parker Ned is addressing — a hilarious moment that had fans cracking up in theaters. The three actors even recreated the actual shot, in costume, in a behind-the-scenes photo.

But undeniably, the most epic use of the template to date comes in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," where we see a literal multiverse of Spider-People and Spider-Creatures pointing the finger. With such an expansive roster of Spideys all getting in on the meme, it'll be hard to top what seems to be, at least for now, the pinnacle of the Spider-Point. 

Though most of the webhead's past adventures are available to stream on Disney+, the 1960s "Spider-Man" cartoon that spawned one of the internet's most pervasive memes has yet to hit the streaming service, though that clearly hasn't stopped its influence on internet culture.