Released on December 17th, Spiderman: No Way Home climbed to number two on the highest grossing opening weekend box office list. Only a few weeks later, the movie sits at number 11 on the all-time grossing list. While the cast and crew are thrilled about the film's success, a dark trend has emerged prompting #BeLikeSpidey to start trending across social media.
"Ever since the movie's release, we've seen a substantial uptick in breaking and entering arrests for children and teens," explained New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell. "From the Weill Medical Center to Columbia University's Science Research Lab, kids are breaking in in search of radioactive spiders in a bizarre attempt to gain super powers." Indeed, B&Es are up 37% year over year and 87% among adolescents. Many teens are live-streaming their encounters with the spiders, using the hashtag #BeLikeSpidey. In response to the growing trend, parents have started using the hashtag #JustComeHome, a reference to the Spiderman movie title.
On Thursday evening, Mary Ellison, a mother of two from Queens, tweeted, "The #BeLikeSpidey fad must stop now! @DannyWebSlinger69 please come home baby. #JustComeHome." Her son, Daniel, was arrested three hours after that tweet at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center. Unfortunately, he had already been bitten. Scott's Edition followed up with Mary Ellison yesterday. "This trend is just plain dangerous!," Mary stated, "Kids think they're going to end up with fancy super powers like Spiderman, but that just isn't true. Since Danny came home, he's stayed on the ceiling in the corner of the room eating house flies and barely moving. It's so sad to see him like this."
"The effects are quite clear," noted Dr. Clive Shiffman, a Professor of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, "Only about 70% of these attempts result in developing cool powers like those shown in the Spiderman movies. Is it worth the 30% chance that you'll develop some lame spider power like the ability to poop silk or have bulging eyes. Hm. Those numbers aren't bad actually. Maybe you should do this."
Disney has faced backlash for not doing more to prevent the #BeLikeSpidey trend. The only effort they've made is to promote another trend instead. #BeLikeHawkeye encourages teens to spend time learning archery in an attempt to curb both the spider bite trend and losing one's virginity.
