Furious Japanese people post Barbenheimer memes with bin Laden and 9/11 after studio tweet error

2 August 2023, 14:39

Furious Japanese people have hit out a Warner Brothers' promotion of Oppenheimer - by responding with memes including 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The film shows the father of the atomic bomb J Robert Oppenheimer as he built the deadly nuclear weapons which were dropped on two Japanese cities by American forces in August 1945.

Warner Brothers posted a tweet responding to a mockup of Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, with Margot Robbie's Barbie from the film of the same name.

Read More: Shocking moment brawl breaks out between two women in Barbie screening

The studio was playing into the Barbenheimer trend, which saw thousands see the movie in a double bill after a social media storm around their joint release date.

In response, Japanese people slammed WB for their veneration of the man who made the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which claimed the lives of 110,000 people.

To make their point, some social media users even mocked up mashups between the Barbie movie - and the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks alongside their mastermind, Osama bin Laden.

One user noticed the backlash but mentioned that they missed the mark with American humour.

@NickFromTokyo said: "In an attempt to get Americans to see why Japan finds Barbenheimer offensive, Japanese twitter has taken to making 9/11 jokes - completely misunderstanding that Americans love 9/11 jokes."

The Japanese wing of the studio tweeted: “Because the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer were both released in the US on 21 July, there is currently a movement driven by overseas fans to watch them together (#Barbenheimer), but this is not an official movement.

“We find the reaction to this fan-driven movement from the official US account for the movie Barbie to be extremely regrettable. We take this very seriously and are asking the US head office to take appropriate action. We apologise to those offended by these inconsiderate actions.”

Later, Warner Bros said in a statement it “regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology”.