Barbenheimer is an Internet phenomenon that emerged before the simultaneous theatrical release of two blockbuster films, Barbie and Oppenheimer, on July 21, 2023. The word is a blend of the films’ titles and was inspired by their extreme opposites – Barbie being a fantasy comedy and Oppenheimer an epic biographical thriller about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The internet response included memes and merchandise. Celebrities like Tom Cruise joined in, encouraging audiences to watch both films on the same day. Both movies exceeded box-office expectations, and some media commentators pointed out intriguing similarities between them, including exploring existentialism and the Anthropocene concept, having Oscar-nominated directors and screenwriters, and being produced by husband-and-wife production companies. Let’s look at some of the best memes to come out of this unprecedented event.
Wikipedia
Edward Teller, Not So Great
u/RiseDarthVader posted, “TIL that Edward Teller, the physicist who advocated for Oppenheimer to lose his security clearance suggested using nukes to create artifical harbours, fracking oil and preventing hurricanes.” u/StressCanBeHealthy added, “He also named some H-bombs based on their delivery method, such as Airplane or Railroad. He named one “Backyard” because it would be so explosive that it wouldn’t need any other delivery method as it would simply kill the world.”
Reddit
Barbie Marketing Two Movies
“I’ve seen one (1) poster in a bus stop. Barbie? It’s on buses, it’s in shops (the Mattel x [brand] stuff making half the shops in the mall put up a massive BARBIE poster? Genius) it’s on YouTube ads, the word of mouth is huge. Full disclosure, I have a BARBENHEIMER tshirt and plans to spend most of July 21st in a movie theater.”
Corbis
A Poisonous Situation
“TIL Oppenheimer attempted to poison his tutor with cyanide,” posted u/mysterious-progres on r/todayilearned. A commenter responded, “Yeah, he definitely almost got kicked out of the university. His parents had to help him out and he went to see multiple psychoanalysts afterwards. He also told his friend that he had given his teacher a poison apple. Whether it was metaphorical or literal was anyone’s guess.”
Scuolusci
A Real Switch Up
You may not immediately associate Barbie with the popular G.I. Joe action figures, but Reddit user u/StoopitTraitor uncovered a fantastic crossover that happened in the early 1990s. “TIL that in 1993 the Barbie Liberation Organization switched the voice boxes on talking G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls causing the barbies to say phrases like “vengeance is mine” and G.I. Joes to say “The beach is the place for summer.” 300 to 500 dolls were modified.” It’s safe to say this was a pretty hilarious switch up.
Reddit
Explosive Barbenheimer Trailer by AI
u/Curious_Refuge created a phenomenal fake Barbenheimer trailer using a combination of Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence program, and various other AI tools. When asked how long this took, Curious_Refuge responded, “About 4 days!” Some on the thread are calling it “Oppenheimer if it was directed by Wes Anderson”.
National Park Service
Just Put a Stop to it All
There was a lot of regret after the Manhattan Project. User u/dustofoblivion learned, “…right after the Manhattan Project’s Trinity explosion test was completed, Kenneth Bainbridge, who was the director of the test, remarked to Robert Oppenheimer that “now we are all sons of bitches.” Afterwards, he dedicated most of his scientific career to ending the testing of nuclear weapons.”
Reddit
Barbenheimer Nuclear Weapon
Perhaps in poor taste, but meme worthy nonetheless, this picture was posted on r/3Dprinting by u/Made-Up-Username. In the thread, u/Flat_Weird_5398 commented, “I saw Barbie last night and thought it was amazing. Plan to see Oppenheimer next week but I’ve got friends who’ve seen it already and say it’s easily one of Nolan’s best. Definitely not forgettable movies by any means.” You can find the 3D printing download on Printables website.
Santa Fe New Mexican
Theoretical Physicist Turns Pessimist
“TIL Robert Oppenheimer thought highly of physicist Hans Bethe and chose him to head the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos. After the War, Bethe declined to participate in developing thermonuclear weapons as he believed that the world would not be worth preserving after a war with such weapons.”
Reddit
Sid from Toy Story
In the 1995 Disney Pixar film, Toy Story, Sid Phillips serves as the main antagonist, Andy’s troubled next-door neighbor, who reveals his villainous nature by gleefully blowing up an army man doll with a rocket. In this gold meme from r/memes, the poster shows a “grown up Sid” holding a nuclear bomb and a Barbie doll, making fun of the double feature “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie”.
The Effects of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
To Warn, or Not to Warn?
“TIL that Robert Oppenheimer’s Interim Committee advised the American government not to warn Hiroshima’s civilians of the impending atomic bomb. He was nervous that the bomb may not detonate properly, and also felt that a lack of warning would create a greater panic among Japanese leadership.” A sobering fact that u/IanMazgelis shared with the Reddit community.
Pyments
Was This the First Explosive Barbie Crossover?
You may be thinking that “Barbenheimer” is the first instance of Barbie being implicated with explosives, but that’s not quite the case. In Reddit r/TodayILearned, a user discovered an intesting and little known link between Barbie and bombs. “TIL of Jack Ryan, who worked on designing medium range missiles for the Pentagon before joining Mattel and working on designing the initial Barbie doll and Hot Wheels cars”
Reddit
Barbie AND Oppenheimer Makeup
So many people dressed up for Barbie, but those who were committed to the double feature found themselves debating on how to dress up for both movies. u/Bewildered_forks decided they’d put their makeup skills to amazing use. Bewildered_forks created a phenomenal makeup look using color palettes from both Barbie and Oppenheimer. The result is pure perfection!
War History Online
Oppenheimer Opposed Pushing Forward
This Redditor shared, “J Robert Oppenheimer, inventor of the A-bomb, resigned as leader of Los Alamos. The program had shifted focus to thermonuclear weapons, and Oppenheimer vehemently opposed the hydrogen bomb and similar weapons on the grounds that they were more destructive than mankind could responsibly control.”
NPR
Mattel Has to Apologize for This Blunder
“In November 2014, Mattel received criticism over the book I Can Be a Computer Engineer, which depicted Barbie as being inept at computers and requiring that her two male friends complete all of the necessary tasks to restore two laptops after she downloads a virus onto both of them.” A response in the thread hit the nail on the head. “Yeah, the “I Can Be…” series is meant to be inspiring and show Barbie’s capabilities to do anything. This book doesn’t seem to belong with the others lol.”
DAAD
This University Housed Fleeing Scientists, Including Oppenheimer
“TIL the University of Gottingen in Germany housed scientists and mathematicians such as Gauss, Dirichlet, Dedekind Riemann, Fermi, Heisenberg, Oppenheimer, Dirac, Courant and Hilbert. A lot of them fled to the US, particularly to Princeton, right before World War II,” writes u/Jon-Osterman on the Subreddit “Today I Learned”. Another Redditor responded, “The city is pretty huge on science. We just had another Nobel prize winner a while ago, who’s working at the Max-Planck Institute.”
Reddit
The Existential Crisis
“I watched Mission: Impossible and Oppenheimer back to back and gained an existential sense of dread about how the world is gonna end lol. Felt like a past and future in manmade technologies risking the world,” said u/notabotbutathought. This user wasn’t alone in their feelings of dread over this particular film. Forums are full of people providing praise while simultaneously feeling gutted by the movie’s contents.
YouTube
Teen Talk Barbie Had Some Serious Issues
Reddit poster u/Roughneck16 shared, “…the Teen Talk Barbie’s quip “math class is tough” generated controversy among educators who feared it contributed to negative gender stereotypes. It also inspired The Simpsons episode “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy.” Some saw the math class line as obviously problematic. However, as one commenter noted “My problem is that, while the “math class” quote is problematic, there are quotes on here that are several more times problematic.”
National Park Service
A Bad Bet
J. Robert Oppenheimer bet against his own work. “In 1945 the director of the Los Alamos Lab during the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer, bet ten dollars against a colleague’s entire month’s pay that the bomb would not work at all. The actual result was 21 kilotons, more than 4 times as much as had been predicted by most at Los Alamos.”
Reddit
Two Halves of Two Different Coins
A meme compilation on r/popculturechat had an excited viewer comment, “I haven’t been this excited for a movie release in a long time. Much less two movies. I am so thankful AMC theaters have started doing open caption showings or else I’d have to wait for the streaming release. But now I can see the movies in theaters along with everyone else, and not miss out on all the hype/fun!”
Annenberg Learner
Finding Faith Elsewhere
“Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atom bomb, famously said “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” after witnessing his creations power. That quote is actually from the Hindu Epic Bhagavad-Gita, and Oppenheimer turned to Hinduism after seeing nuclear weapons capabilities years later.”
Reddit
Oppenheimer’s Real Battle
While both Greta Gerwig, the director for “Barbie”, and Christopher Nolan, the director for “Oppenheimer”, were very supportive of one another’s films, the memes showing the two going against each other began filling Reddit pages. u/SkiesFetishist said, “I love this rivalry. Especially because i plan on seeing both in theaters.”
IMDb
Harry Truman Didn’t Offer Any Words of Comfort
Harry Truman, president of the United States during World War II, could only respond callously to Oppenheimer when Oppenheimer expressed sincere regret of their horrific actions. “after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when the head of the Manhattan project, J. Robert Oppenheimer told Harry Truman he felt they had blood on their hands, Truman responded by saying, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll come off in the wash.’”
TikTok
Oppenheimer for the TikTok Generation
TikToker icyboi.mp4 created a hilarious TikTok version of Oppenheimer. They used multiple images copied and pasted throughout different frames to create an absurd summary of the events of the movie. Many may not have the attention span for Nolan’s three hour long movie, but maybe they’ll be able to sit through a minute long meme retelling.
Reddit
AI Generated Dystopia
The generative artificial intelligence, Midjourney, is capable of creating some amazing images. Barbenheimer has been a perfect prompt for many Midjourney users. u/AureliusReddit posted their image to the Midjourney subreddit. When asked what prompt they provided to the AI, AureliusReddit responded, “Barbie and Oppenheimer in a desert witnessing a nuclear explosion | pink mushroom clouds on the horizon | cinematic | in the style of Wes Anderson.”
YouTube
A High Tech Barbie
“…in 2015 “Hello Barbie” was released. She used speech recognition and connected to wifi. When you pressed her belt buckle, Barbie saved what you said to the cloud so she could learn your likes and dislikes and incorporate them into future conversations. Some parents found it “too creepy”.” Many commenters noted how similar it sounded to a Black Mirror episode. Someone else commented, “It also was a “bit” of a security nightmare because it was a microphone, in kids rooms, sending what they say to the internet, protected by weak passwords, and bad security practices.”
Reddit
A Forked Road
Amazing comments came from this post on r/memes. u/Efficient_Warning_44 posted, “I am become Barbie, destroyer of worlds”. In a response, u/Donut_Police parodied the popular 1997 song, “Barbie Girl” by Aqua. “I am a deadly girl, in a destroyed world. It’s fantastic, bomb is caustic.”
Reddit
A Hard Watch for Weeks to Come
J. Robert Oppenheimer’s story isn’t for the faint of heart. Both his biography and his legacy leave audiences devastated. It’s safe to say that Oppenheimer’s influence on the world has created more existential crises and panic than almost anyone else in history. It makes sense that those who view Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” are left with a newfound feeling of despair and introspection.
Reddit
We Have Oppenheimer at Home
The BBC produced Oppenheimer, a seven-part biographical miniseries about J. Robert Oppenheimer. It originally aired in the United Kingdom from 29 October to 10 December 1980 and in the United States from 11 May 1982 as part of PBS’ American Playhouse. Sam Waterston stars as Oppenheimer in the series. This series recieved fantastic reviews, but it’s safe to say Christopher Nolan’s epic Oppenheimer take is in a league of its own.
Reddit
The Proper Attire
Many people planned complicated outfits for the Barbenheimer weekend. Leave it to Reddit to find the most appropriate outfit for the “Oppenheimer” premier. u/Votaire24 said, “Me and my homies wearing our tactical radiation suits pulling up to see the goat summer movie.” You might feel even more disturbed while watching Oppenheimer if you’re seated next to a whole group of movie goers in radiation garb.
Investor’s Business Daily
The Creator of Barbie was a Breast Cancer Survivor
“TIL the creator of the Barbie doll was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970. After her mastectomy she was unhappy with the way prosthetic breast were designed so she commissioned a more superior prosthetic and founded her own prosthetic breast company called Nearly Me.” Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel, Inc., was also the visionary behind Ruth Handler’s prosthetic breast company, which she established in the 1970s. The company aimed to provide comfortable and realistic breast prostheses for women who had undergone mastectomies. Ruth’s dedication to empowering women and promoting body positivity made her an influential figure in the medical and cosmetic industry.
Reddit
A Movie Poster to End All Movie Posters
Barbenheimer mashup movie posters started popping up everywhere in the days leading up to both films’ release. In this Reddit post, one of the most outstanding movie poster designs was posted by u/alex40969. Between the color schemes and seamless blending between two starkly different genres, this is certainly one of the best. The only “criticism” came from u/theddR. “Concerned about the billing order on this thing. Downey before Blunt? Oldman and Dua Lipa getting top row billing for cameos? Issa Rae, Michael Angarano, and Kingsley Ben-Adir not making into the billing block at all?”
Reddit
“It works”, Confirmed
u/amazingbears, the original poster of this comic on r/comics, summarized the phenomena perfectly. “It’s a meme doing the rounds more so on Twitter than Reddit, the two movies come out on the same day (today) and it’s funny how opposite they are. Oppenheimer is a serious movie about the atomic bomb and Barbie is a pink fun popcorn movie. Over 40,000 people have bought tickets to see them both in the same day for the tonal whiplash.”
EY
The Copper Needed Was Staggering
“TIL that in 1942, Manhattan Project needed 5000 tons of copper, which was in short supply; to avoid delays, it borrowed 430 million troy ounces of silver from US Treasury to be used in magnets. The silver was fully returned by 1970 as the equipment was decommissioned,” writes u/SamsonFox_returned. “It’s a crazy amount of silver. They used 14,700 tons and only lost 8 lbs of it in the 28 years they had it. Over $1 billion of silver and only lost $1,000 in 1942 prices. Bearing in mind, this silver was machined multiple times so it could be used in the equipment they were making.”
Stanford Engineering- Stanford University
The Soviet Union was Just as Afraid of Nuclear Weapons
“TIL that the Soviet scientists who developed the H-bomb were just as afraid of letting their military control the technology as the scientists under Oppenheimer”. A commenter posted, “To be fair, the common man back in those days didn’t understand the long-term effects of the A-bomb and the H-bomb. Even the scientists only had theories on the effects. Before Project Trinity, they thought that the atom bomb would wipe out Earth’s atmosphere. To most people back then, it was just a tool of war, not the key to humanity’s destruction. Today, no one in their right mind would let the atom bombs fly. Only the true crazies really want to use them.”
Wikipedia
Project Y, a Secret Laboratory
“The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Robert Oppenheimer was its first director.” During World War II, the Manhattan Project established the Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, which was operated by the University of California. Led by its first director, Robert Oppenheimer, from 1943 to December 1945, the laboratory’s primary objective was to design and construct the world’s first atomic bombs. To ensure both security and the free exchange of ideas, the secret facility was strategically situated in a remote region of New Mexico, utilizing the former buildings of the Los Alamos Ranch School.
Discover Ruidoso
The Truth About Trinity
The Trinity test area in southern New Mexico was not an uninhabited expanse; it housed over 13,000 New Mexicans within a 50-mile radius, with many, including children, women, and men, remaining unaware of the test. Eyewitnesses believed it to be the end of the world, finding no solace in the Bhagavad Gita as Oppenheimer did, instead dropping to their knees and reciting the Hail Mary in Spanish. Subsequently, ash contaminated with 10 pounds of plutonium fell from the sky for days.
TikTok
No CGI Needed for Nolan
Christopher Nolan stated, “…when I came to Oppenheimer and I thought, okay, how do we portray the Trinity test? That first atomic device being detonated. That’s not going to work because computer graphics, they’re extremely versatile, and the detail that can be achieved and the variety of imagery that can be achieved is obviously unparalleled. But the results tend to feel a little anodyne, a little safe. It’s very difficult to have computer graphics convey threat, which is why they have to be used very carefully in horror movies, for example. It’s difficult to make CG threatening.”
Where Do We Find This Stuff? Here Are Our Sources:
all aboard the barbenheimer hypetrain
byu/TheDustOfMen intumblr
I created a Barbenheimer trailer using Midjourney. Hope you guys dig it!
byu/Curious_Refuge inmidjourney
https://www.printables.com/model/522760-barbie-oppenheimer-atomic-bomb-barbenheimer-little
Happy Barbenheimer Day!
byu/bewildered_forks inMakeupAddiction
What Barbenheimer does to a Person.
byu/KingFahad360 inNonPoliticalTwitter
A collection of some of the Barbenheimer memes/tweets I've saved to my phone
byu/iliketoomanysingers inpopculturechat
"Now I am become Barbie Girl, Destroyer of Barbie Worlds" "BARBENHEIMER" by Sean Longmore 🛼✨💖💣
byu/alex40969 inblankies
Nothing against Sam Waterston.
byu/darmodyjimguy inNolanMemes
TIL that Edward Teller, the physicist who advocated for Oppenheimer to lose his security clearance suggested using nukes to create artifical harbours, fracking oil and preventing hurricanes
byu/RiseDarthVader intodayilearned
TIL Oppenheimer attempted to poison his tutor with cyanide
by intodayilearned
TIL right after the Manhattan Project's Trinity explosion test was completed, Kenneth Bainbridge, who was the director of the test, remarked to Robert Oppenheimer that "now we are all sons of bitches." Afterwards, he dedicated most of his scientific career to ending the testing of nuclear weapons.
byu/dustofoblivion123 intodayilearned
TIL Robert Oppenheimer thought highly of physicist Hans Bethe and chose him to head the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos. After the War, Bethe declined to participate in developing thermonuclear weapons as he believed that the world would not be worth preserving after a war with such weapons
byu/einstein_bern intodayilearned
TIL that Robert Oppenheimer's Interim Committee advised the American government not to warn Hiroshima's civilians of the impending atomic bomb. He was nervous that the bomb may not detonate properly, and also felt that a lack of warning would create a greater panic among Japanese leadership.
byu/IanMazgelis intodayilearned
TIL J Robert Oppenheimer, inventor of the A-bomb, resigned as leader of Los Alamos. The program had shifted focus to thermonuclear weapons, and Oppenheimer vehemently opposed the hydrogen bomb and similar weapons on the grounds that they were more destructive than mankind could responsibly control.
byu/SingLikeTinaTurner intodayilearned
TIL In 1945 the director of the Los Alamos Lab during the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer, bet ten dollars against a colleague's entire month's pay that the bomb would not work at all. The actual result was 21 kilotons, more than 4 times as much as had been predicted by most at Los Alamos.
byu/LateBoomerKY intodayilearned
TIL: Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atom bomb, famously said "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." after witnessing his creations power. That quote is actually from the Hindu Epic Bhagavad-Gita, and Oppenheimer turned to Hinduism after seeing nuclear weapons capabilities years later.
byu/nickbmd intodayilearned
TIL after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when the head of the Manhattan project, J. Robert Oppenheimer told Harry Truman he felt they had blood on their hands, Truman responded by saying, "Don't worry, it'll come off in the wash."
byu/overstretched_slinky intodayilearned
TIL that in 1993 the Barbie Liberation Organization switched the voice boxes on talking G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls causing the barbies to say phrases like "vengeance is mine" and G.I. Joes to say "The beach is the place for summer." 300 to 500 dolls were modified.
byu/StoopitTrader intodayilearned
TIL of Jack Ryan, who worked on designing medium range missiles for the Pentagon before joining Mattel and working on designing the initial Barbie doll and Hot Wheels cars
byu/meme_stealing_bandit intodayilearned
TIL in 2015 "Hello Barbie" was released. She used speech recognition and connected to wifi. When you pressed her belt buckle, Barbie saved what you said to the cloud so she could learn your likes and dislikes and incorporate them into future conversations. Some parents found it "too creepy".
byu/Doodlebug510 intodayilearned
TIL In November 2014, Mattel received criticism over the book I Can Be a Computer Engineer, which depicted Barbie as being inept at computers and requiring that her two male friends complete all of the necessary tasks to restore two laptops after she downloads a virus onto both of them.
byu/haddock420 intodayilearned
TIL the Teen Talk Barbie's quip "math class is tough" generated controversy among educators who feared it contributed to negative gender stereotypes. It also inspired The Simpsons episode "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy."
byu/Roughneck16 intodayilearned
TIL the creator of the Barbie doll was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970. After her mastectomy she was unhappy with the way prosthetic breast were designed so she commissioned a more superior prosthetic and founded her own prosthetic breast company called Nearly Me.
byu/shaka_sulu intodayilearned
TIL that the Soviet scientists who developed the H-bomb were just as afraid of letting their military control the technology as the scientists under Oppenheimer
by intodayilearned
TIL The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Robert Oppenheimer was its first director
byu/IlConteiacula intodayilearned
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/30/opinion/international-world/oppenheimer-nuclear-bomb-cancer.html?fbclid=IwAR2p-x1WHIu_AIAYI0UFNWVbRO7Fp-8ulAc8OmnsFAbQoLwRWHIabUww23w
https://www.ign.com/articles/oppenheimer-how-christopher-nolan-built-an-atomic-bomb
@icyboi.mp4 Amazing film #oppenheimer #oppenheimerfilm
TIL the University of Gottingen in Germany housed scientists and mathematicians such as Gauss, Dirichlet, Dedekind Riemann, Fermi, Heisenberg, Oppenheimer, Dirac, Courant and Hilbert. A lot of them fled to the US, particularly to Princeton, right before World War II.
byu/Jon-Osterman intodayilearned