This ‘Infinity War’ meme is the most ambitious crossover of all time

After two consecutive critical successes with Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther, Marvel Studios is on a roll heading into its next comic book blockbuster, Avengers: Infinity War. But after seeing the trailer, fans are, shall we say, guarded in their optimism. Everyone wants to see their favorite characters from the other movies, but that means bogging down the film with a cast of more than 30 Marvel heroes and villains. One good thing has come of it, though: a new meme that makes fun of the movie’s “epic crossover” format.

It seems to have started with this extremely good tweet featuring the reigning Hollywood starlets of the 2000s:

From there, the jokes became more explicit in their mockery of the “crossover” nature of the film. You think Infinity War is a wild crossover? Looks like you forgot about this Disney Channel mashup DVD:

Or the time the Friends crossed over with Windows 95.

https://twitter.com/manuclearbomb/status/975834989655977986

Or the episode with Magnum, P.I. and Murder She Wrote: 

Or the Power Rangers meeting the Ninja Turtles:

https://twitter.com/MustyKonyByke/status/975712293760700416

Or Futurama meets The Simpsons:

The jokes have the same tenor as the old “name a more iconic duo” meme, sparked by a photo of Kylie and Kendall Jenner. Finding funny crossovers isn’t as easy as finding funny pairs of people, but it’s still not that hard. Reaching for a really obscure (but still recognizable) one seems to be the way to earn likes.

Or you can just subvert the meme entirely with a basketball crossover:

https://twitter.com/Nolan_Aurelia/status/976127422318997505

Or an admission that, if we’re being honest, 30 major characters is a lot of major characters. Infinity War may crash and burn as a result of its overstuffed ambition, but to say it’s not ambitious would be disingenuous.