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Childhood Is When You Idolize Batman refers to a series of memes based on an image macro of comic book characters Batman and Joker captioned with the quote "Childhood is when you idolize Batman, adulthood is when you realize that the Joker makes more sense." Spawned by a viral meme about cheese being expensive in early 2020, the meme maintained its presence through the early 2020s, both as a phrasal template and a recaption format.

Origin

On May 17th, 2015, the Facebook[1] page Whiseper posted a Whisper image macro created by an unknown user captioned, "Childhood is when you idolize Batman, adulthood is when you realize that the Joker makes more sense." The post (shown below) received over 88,000 reactions and 129,000 shares in eight years.

Childhood is when you idolize Batman Adulthood is when you realize that the Joker makes more sense. whisper

Spread

In the following years, the Whisper image macro and multiple other macros captioned with the phrase were widely circulated online, primarily on Facebook. For example, on October 10th, 2019, the Facebook[2] page Thinking Minds made a post that received over 22,000 reactions and 3,200 shares in four years.

On July 11th, 2018, Tumblr[3] users writhenwud, w3rewolf-th3rewolf and nuttyrabid had a viral exchange about the quote that received over 62,800 reblogs and 66,000 likes in five years (shown below). Multiple reposts of the exchange went viral online in the following years.

writhenwud-deactivated20160930 'childhood is when you idolize Batman adulthood is when you realize that the Joker makes more sense' - this is the most Reddit thing I've read all day. w w3rewolf-th3rewolf Follow #I thought adulthood was feeling bad for all the stupid b------- commissioner gordon had to put up with (geologicadept) nuttyrabbit Follow Childhood is idolizing Batman, adolescence is thinking the Joker is right, adulthood is realizing that Gordon absolutely doesn't get paid enough for this s--- 126,391 notes

On February 11th, 2020, Redditor Retr0_takeover posted a two-panel meme in which they recaptioned the second part of the quote to "adulthood is when you realize cheese is really expensive." The post (shown below) garnered over 96,700 upvotes in the /r/dankmemes[4] subreddit in three years. An April 21st, 2020, repost by iFunny[5] user LordBalter_2016 gained over 52,400 smiles in three years.

CHILDHOOD IS WHEN YOU IDOLIZE BATMAN ADULTHOOD IS WHEN YOU REALIZE CHEESE IS REALLY EXPENSIVE imgflip.com

The recaptioned format achieved significant virality in late 2020, most notably in the /r/okbuddyretard subreddit. For example, on October 20th, 2020, Redidtor trump-is-god posted a meme that received over 6,100 upvotes in the subreddit[6] in three years (shown below, left).

CHILDHOOD IS WHEN YOU IDOLIZE BATMAN ADULTHOOD IS IS NOT KNOWING THE DIFFERNECE BETWEEN SCOTLAND AND IRLAND
Childhood when you idolize Gre9 Adulthood is when you realize Fregley made more sense

Various Examples

Memeulous @Memeulous childhood is when you relate to orange from the annoying orange. adulthood is when you relate to pear from the annoying orange. 2:08 PM Feb 24, 2021
CHILDHOOD IS WHEN YOU IDOLIZE BATMAN ADULTHOOD IS WHEN YOU Get forklift Certified
CHILDHOOD IS WHEN YOU THINK SQUIDWARD IS THE BAD GUY X ADULTHOOD IS WHEN YOU KISS MEN

CHILDHOOD IS WHEN YOU IDOLIZE BARRY BENSON ADULTHOOD IS WHEN YOU REALIZE KEN MAKES MORE SENSE
Childhood is when you get one of every animal in minecraft Scrapu. Gom Adulthood is when you only farm cows because they are the most useful Scrapu. Com MemeCenter.com
Bol @Bolverk15 Childhood is idolizing Johnny Silverhand Adulthood is realizing Ozob makes more sense 2:19 PM . Aug 26, 2023 3.4M Views :

Search Interest

External References

[1] Facebook – Whisper

[2] Facebook – Thinking Minds

[3] Tumblr – nuttyrabbit

[4] Reddit – This says a lot about society

[5] iFunny – LordBaiter_2016

[6] Reddit – Do you know 😳



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