Devious Reptilian Backshots

The meme crossed to Twitter on March 9th, 2023, when @Codycar3877293 reposted the clip with the TikTok caption, picking up over 95,800 likes in a month and kicking off a wave of quote-tweet reactions3. Later that day, @saniSt2D compared the animation to 'the porn ad in the bottom right corner of kisscartoon,' a tweet that cleared 40,000 likes2. The joke was that the tween animation style and the pose looked exactly like a bootleg streaming site ad.

Edits followed within a week. On March 15th, @FortniteFactsfr posted the clip surrounded by 'try not to cum challenge' text4, and on March 21st, @1inkygirl replied to a tweet celebrating 'Spider-Man Backshots' with a speech-bubbled Lizard image, which racked up more than 60,000 likes9. By late April, the animation was already being used as a reference point, with @swagamicchi tweeting that 'that spiderman reptilian backshots gif and the bowser fart gif has done irreparable damage to the reception of these lil animations'10.

On April 5th, 2023, the original artist @1998Wens posted that a company was selling his artwork on a shirt without permission, then followed up saying he was at peace with the meme life his art had taken on5. The incident briefly shifted attention from the joke back to the question of how the drawing had been reframed.