Former Arrow star Stephen Amell has the perfect response to seeing new Twitter CEO Elon Musk using an Arrowverse meme as commentary on the (possible? Impending?) death of Twitter. The meme in question is the infamous behind-the-scenes photo of The Flash TV series star Grant Gustin, kneeling down and flashing a peace sign next to the grave of Amell’s Oliver Queen/Green Arrow – as seen in the finale of the Arroverse crossover event, “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. Musk thought he was cleverly signaling that the only “death” would be of the old era of Twitter – unfortunately, Stephen Amell was not at all amused…
Amell quoted Elon Musk’s Arrowverse meme tweet and added a simple caption: “Oliver Queen is alive…”
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Oliver Queen is alive… https://t.co/El4pNDjGQU
— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) November 18, 2022
Stephen Amell has long been vocal in his displeasure with this particular Arrowverse meme and its popularity. In October of last year, there was a brief period where major Meta sites (Facebook, Whats App, Instagram) all crashed at the same time, leaving Twitter unopposed. After one user deployed the Grant Gustin Arrowverse grave meme to celebrate Twitter as the lone survivor, Amell made his thoughts known in no uncertain terms: “Could everyone who repurposes this photo kindly f-ck off.”
We can only imagine how Amell must feel now, seeing the CEO of Twitter dropping this Arrowverse meme. We can’t imagine he’s happy.
Grant Gustin’s Arrowverse Grave Meme Explained
The (in)famous Arrowverse Grave Meme featuring Flash’s Grant Gustin first surfaced in 2020, after Arrowverse star Echo Kellum allegedly posted a (now-deleted) behind-the-scenes photo of Oliver Queen’s funeral scene at the end of the “Crisis on Inifnite Earths” event. The Internet got hold of the image, which then when viral on Reddit when one user captioned it with “When the guy who stole your girl dies”. From there, the Arrowverse image took on new life as a meme, which has been repurposed in all kinds of funny and/or demented and/or offensive ways.
What Does Elon Musk’s Twitter Meme Mean?
As of mid-November, Twitter is in a seeming state of freefall (if you don’t know). Telsa and Space X mogul (and world’s wealthiest man) Elon Musk became CEO of Twitter, following a controversial and murky acquisition deal. Musk cornered himself legally into making the deal, after influencing Twitter stock price by teasing (threatening?) the acquisition on Twitter. Musk took control of the company and immediately shook things up, firing mass numbers of employees by email and rolling out bold changes like new rules for Twitter’s coveted verification mark.
Well, Twitter’s verification changes crashed and burned, with “verified” pay-subscribers almost immediately trolling Musk by impersonating public figures or official businesses and tweeting crazy things that were mistaken as authentic messages – thereby defeating Musk’s entire theory of more free speech and equal social status on the platform. As things stand, reports are rolling in that Twitter may only have a short life left, and users are loving and dreading it in equal measure.
