Why is ‘Barbenheimer’ still a punchline? | GUEST COMMENTARY

When “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” premiered on the same weekend, fans coined the term “Barbenheimer,” creating memes that combined Barbie images with images of the atomic bomb. In one, Margot Robbie, who played Barbie, sat on the shoulders of Cillian Murphy, who played Oppenheimer, as she appeared to cheer in front of an explosion. In another, the two characters watched a Barbie-pink mushroom cloud rise over a desert landscape.

The Warner Brothers’ official Barbie account didn’t just “like” the memes; it used them to promote its movie.