‘The Northman’ sacrilegiously compared to ‘Morbius’

In the latest embellishment of a running joke whose quality just barely surpasses the movie it’s based on, Twitter has started a debate on whether Morbius will be the flop of the year, or… The Northman?

The joke, of course, being that Morbius, a Sony Marvel film that was universally panned by critics, has been the subject of widespread ironic acclaim to the point that it’s hard to tell who’s in on the joke, and who isn’t.

The comparison to the critically-acclaimed The Northman is, admittedly, something of a clever inversion on the joke, in that rather than putting Morbius up with The Northman, it’s The Northman that’s being brought down to Morbius. Nevertheless, it’s yet another garnish on the Morbius meme hell with neither the nuance nor production value of the Black Mirror episode that this phenomenon will inevitably inspire.

Morbius stans and skeptics alike took to the platform to respond to the faceoff, and it’s about what you’d expect. Which is to say, there were more than a few who dispassionately defended Morbius, and it seems the joke has gotten to a point where irony and non-irony require a bit of squinting to differentiate, to say nothing of the poor souls who aren’t aware of the joke surrounding the Jared Leto-led flop.

Needless to say, Morbius and The Northman likely won’t be competing for anything anytime soon, but you almost have to respect how much clout the former has gotten off of the sheer willpower of a meme-hungry internet. Almost.