What is Miles Morales Says Hey?

It is an exploitable meme built from a scene in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse where Miles awkwardly puts his hand on Gwen Stacy's shoulder and says 'Hey' before she walks off.

Where did Miles Morales Says Hey come from?

Sony Movies SA uploaded the promotional clip to YouTube on December 13, 2018, and edited panel comics and video remixes started appearing within days.

What does Miles Morales Says Hey mean?

It is used as a joke about failed or cringe flirting, with editors swapping Miles for other characters to mock their own attempts at charm.

How do you use Miles Morales Says Hey?

Most versions are two- or three-panel comics that keep Gwen's rejection shot and swap in a different character for the 'Hey' panel, or short video edits dubbing the 'Hey' line over unrelated footage.

Is Miles Morales Says Hey still popular?

It peaked in late December 2018 during the film's theatrical release and is now a classic 2018-era exploitable rather than an actively trending format.

Miles Morales Says Hey

2018exploitable image macroclassic

Published September 6, 2026

Miles Morales Says Hey refers to an awkward flirting scene from Sony's 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where Miles places his hand on classmate Gwen Stacy's shoulder and greets her with a stiff 'Hey' before she walks off. Sony posted the clip on December 13, 2018, and within days it turned into one of the earliest breakout meme formats from the film, powering both multi-panel exploitable comics and video remixes.

spider man memes exploitable templates multi panel memes cringe memes dialogue edit memes

Overview

The format works two ways. First as a two- or three-panel exploitable comic where the character delivering the 'Hey' is swapped for another cartoon or movie figure while Gwen keeps her flat, unimpressed reaction3. Second as a video remix, with editors dubbing the 'Hey' audio over unrelated footage or splicing Gwen's shot with a different reaction4. The humor hinges on how cringe the pass is: the cracking voice, the hand-on-shoulder move, and the instant rejection.

Early panel edits leaned on cartoon crossovers, with the highest-profile iFunny version swapping Miles for Bee Movie's Barry B. Benson3. Because the source clip is only a few seconds long, both the still frames and the 'Hey' audio became reusable building blocks for editors on Reddit, Instagram, and YouTube5.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

YouTube (source clip) / iFunny + Reddit (viral spread)

Date

2018

Sony Movies SA published a special promotional clip from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on YouTube on December 13, 2018, showing Miles Morales walk up to classmate Gwen Stacy, place his hand on her shoulder, and mutter 'Hey' before she walks off1. The film was six days from its US theatrical release, and the studio used the beat as a standalone teaser. No single person is credited with inventing the meme itself, since edits grew out of viewers clipping Sony's own upload once the scene started making the rounds3.

How It Spread

The first widely-shared edits came four days later. On December 17, 2018, iFunny user whipmynip posted a three-panel version swapping Miles for Bee Movie's Barry B. Benson, which pulled in roughly 73,000 likes over the following month3. The next day, SuperHeroHype forum user Kane52630 shared a two-panel cut of the scene, though it is unclear whether they were the original poster of that specific crop.

Video remixes hit Twitter on December 21, 2018, when @Toasty_Nerd uploaded an edit that earned over 9,000 retweets in a month2. The same day, Memedroid user TheFiveO5050 posted a three-panel version that racked up around 1,400 points. Two days later, Redditor Sqoof cross-posted a variant, credited to Redditor Lem1697, to r/dankmemes where it climbed to roughly 40,100 upvotes in a month.

By the end of December the format was live on Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube at once, with editors swapping the 'Hey' beat into everything from anime clips to unrelated movie scenes4 5.

How to Use This Meme

Typical builds keep Gwen's rejection frame untouched and swap in a new character for the panel where Miles says 'Hey'. Two- and three-panel layouts are the most common, though video edits dub the 'Hey' audio over unrelated clips instead. The joke lands hardest when the swapped character is an even worse fit for smooth flirting than Miles is.