What is Ready Player One?

Ready Player One is Ernest Cline's 2011 novel and the 2018 Steven Spielberg film, both of which became meme fodder for their heavy 1980s pop-culture references and the online backlash against them.

Where did Ready Player One come from?

The novel came out August 16, 2011, and the film trailer dropped July 22, 2017; the trailer sparked the first wave of parodies and hostile write-ups.

What does Ready Player One mean?

Online, 'Ready Player One' is shorthand for reference-dump geek nostalgia, driven by the 'this is their Black Panther' quote-tweet format that mocks over-defensive fans.

How do you use Ready Player One?

The dominant format screenshots @Koutchboom's Black Panther tweet and swaps in a wildly mismatched film title, like @HarmlessAvocado's 'La Bamba' variant.

Is Ready Player One still popular?

The meme is a classic 2017 to 2018 reference point tied to the film's release cycle, with the 'Black Panther' quote-tweet still cited as a case study in geek discourse.

Ready Player One

2017catchphrase / viral tweetclassic

Published September 24, 2026

Ready Player One is Ernest Cline's 2011 dystopian novel and its 2018 Steven Spielberg film adaptation, which became a favorite target of internet mockery for their pop-culture reference dumps. Backlash grew after the July 2017 trailer drop and peaked with a viral 'this is their Black Panther' tweet in March 2018 that spawned a format ridiculing geek entitlement.

fandom discourse memes sarcasm memes nostalgia memes snowclone memes 2018 memes

Overview

The Ready Player One meme is really a cluster of jokes at the expense of Ernest Cline's novel and the Steven Spielberg film, both of which lean hard on 1980s pop-culture callouts. Online mockery targets the writing style, the trivia-as-plot structure, and the perceived smugness of fans who treat the property like sacred geek scripture4.

Two formats define the meme. The first is Neil Cicierega's five-second trailer parody, which cuts a barrage of franchise cameos together with a shouted 'Whoa!' to send up the film's reference-vomit pacing4. The second is the 'this is their Black Panther' template, where users quote a sincere fan tweet and swap the movie title for something absurd to mock the comparison4.

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Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter (viral spread) / YouTube (trailer catalyst)

Date

2017

Random House published Cline's novel on August 16, 2011, and Warner Bros. picked up the film rights the same day4. Steven Spielberg signed on to direct in March 2015, and the first trailer for the adaptation dropped on July 22, 2017, giving critics and Twitter their first real look at the film's blender of pop-culture cameos1.

The trailer catalyzed the online backlash. Musician Neil Cicierega uploaded a five-second parody edit built around a single shouted 'Whoa!,' and outlets including AV Club and Fox News wrote up the broader hostile reaction to the film's nostalgia bait4. The meme format proper landed the following March: on March 12, 2018, Twitter user @Koutchboom defended the film by calling it 'their Black Panther' for geeks, and quote-tweets of the post kicked off the parody template4.

How It Spread

The first wave hit in July 2017 around the trailer release, with Neil Cicierega's parody clip and hostile write-ups from AV Club and Fox News shaping the tone of the discourse4. The original trailer itself has stayed the anchor point for jokes about the film's dense cameo lineup1.

The second wave arrived on March 12, 2018, two weeks before the film's theatrical release. Twitter user @Koutchboom told Screen Crush writer Matt Singer that 'Geeks should rejoice in Ready Player One, this is their Black Panther,' framing the film as a landmark for pop-culture fans4. Later that day, @mrfeelswildride quote-tweeted a screenshot with the caption 'this is the single worst sentence I've ever read,' pulling in roughly 9,000 retweets and 28,000 likes within 24 hours2.

Others piled on with the same template. @HarmlessAvocado kicked off a thread swapping in random film titles, tweeting 'Geeks should rejoice in Ready Player One, this is their La Bamba' and running variants down the reply chain3. The Black Panther comparison stuck around as shorthand for over-defensive geek discourse, and Urban Dictionary entries from later years still riff on the film's easter-egg overload and Cline's writing.

Timeline

2011-08-16

Random House publishes Ernest Cline's novel Ready Player One; Warner Bros. buys the film rights the same day.

2015-03

Steven Spielberg signs on to direct the film adaptation.

2017-07-22

First official trailer for the Ready Player One film released on YouTube.

2017-07

Neil Cicierega uploads a five-second 'Whoa!' parody edit; AV Club and Fox News cover the trailer backlash.

2018-03-12

@Koutchboom posts the 'this is their Black Panther' tweet; @mrfeelswildride's quote-tweet racks up 9,000 retweets and 28,000 likes in 24 hours.

2018-03-29

Ready Player One film opens in US theaters.

How to Use This Meme

The 'this is their Black Panther' template typically screenshots @Koutchboom's original tweet and swaps 'Black Panther' for any random or wildly mismatched film title, such as 'La Bamba,' to mock the comparison4. The joke works because the original tweet reads as sincere fan defensiveness, so almost any substitution lands as absurd.