Marvel big bad Thanos has been the subject of many memes but “Thanos Did Nothing Wrong” is one of the funniest, and here’s the meme explained. The final scenes of Avengers: Infinity War delivered an almighty blow to the Marvel fandom when Mad Titan Thanos activated the Infinity Gauntlet and snapped his fingers, causing half of the universe to be wiped out in an instance – Peter Parker, Wanda Maximoff and Doctor Strange included.
The infamous Snap established Thanos as one of Marvel’s most iconic bad guys. It spawned a ton of Thanos memes immortalizing his villainy too, like the “I Don’t Feel So Good” meme which was borne of the words Spider-Man uttered to mentor Tony Stark before turning to dust. Not everybody thinks Thanos’ actions at the end of Infinity War make him a villain, as the rise of the “Thanos Did Nothing Wrong” meme shows.
This meme has origins in a subreddit created by Redditor u/whitebandit in 2018 before Infinity War was even released. Meme archive site Know Your Meme states that “Thanos Did Nothing Wrong” is a play on an earlier meme known as “Hitler Did Nothing Wrong” that originated on 4chan around a decade ago as an off-color trolling effort against neo-Nazi supporters of Hitler. While there’s no denying Hitler was one of the worst people of the 20th century, “Thanos Did Nothing Wrong” offers some arguments as to why his actions were justified.
Like the Mad Titan himself, advocates of the “Thanos Did Nothing Wrong” meme and its namesake subreddit believe that – in an overpopulated world with diminishing resources – wiping out half of humanity and restoring some semblance of balance is kind of justified. The meme supports the idea Thanos did in fact not commit genocide because the victims of his Snap were random. So, it could be said Thanos is not a genocidal warlord but an eco-warrior instead.
The “Thanos Did Nothing Wrong” meme took on a life of its own when the subreddit moderators decided to randomly ban half of its subscribers in an event dubbed “The Snappening” that was designed to mimic the Mad Titan’s actions. It’s also produced crossovers with other popular meme formats such as the “Change My Mind” meme, and even inspired a song aptly titled “Thanos Did Nothing Wrong” by YouTube musician Darth Nater. However, whether the Mad Titan Thanos was indeed justified in wiping out half the universe remains a matter of debate.