One Man Trolled Multiple News Sites Into Saying ‘Captain Marvel’ Features Episodes Of ‘Friends’
"There are TWO end credits scenes on #CaptainMarvel and you'll want to stick around for both. Without saying too much, it's the pilot and final episode of the television series 'Friends'."
Captain Marvel comes out in two weeks, and with the embargo on reviews remaining tighter than Thanos’ grip on the infinity gauntlet, fans are having to settle for a trickle of info as critics tweet out their thoughts.
While all Marvel films are subject to hype, Captain Marvel is the MCU’s first film that centres a female superhero (it’s their 21st film overall) and introduces a pivotal character before her appearance in the impending Infinity War: Part 2. Those facts combined have created a lot of buzz, both positive and negative, with manbabies trolling the film‘s Rotten Tomatoes page to call it “SJW garbage”.
People who have actually seen the film seemed to really enjoy it, praising its ’90s soundtrack, solid origin story and Brie Larson’s on-screen “buddy cop” chemistry with Samuel L. Jackson.
With so many people thirsting for any piece of info they can, a heap of websites are collating these first impressions. It seems that a lot of these writers skim the 240 characters to get these articles as quickly as possible and generate maximum clicks, as writer Ben Mekler’s obviously fake Captain Marvel review Tweets have appeared in articles by CNet, Mashable and Entertainment Weekly, among others.
In a series of tweets, Mekler says that episodes from Friends screen in full throughout the film, spliced in with no explanation.
Marvel is taking some HUGE swings with #CaptainMarvel & it may alienate the fans. But personally, I was down with the cheesy, fun, throwback tone and solid two hour block of vintage Friends episodes, mostly 480p DVD rips. Go in with expectations in check and enjoy the ride! ⭐
— Ben Mekler (@benmekler) February 20, 2019
Clearly, sites are only reading the first part of the sentence, and Mekler is sharing screenshots of articles including his Tweet.
— Ben Mekler (@benmekler) February 20, 2019
— Ben Mekler (@benmekler) February 20, 2019
It’s far from the first time Mekler’s done this, either. Most famously, last April he tweeted a ‘first impression’ of Avengers: Infinity War that said “Iron Man and Captain America fuck within the first fifteen minutes”, which appeared on Variety and The Hollywood Reporter as fact.
— Ben Mekler (@benmekler) April 24, 2018
In the past year, he’s done the same gag for Mission Impossible: Fallout, Ant Man And The Wasp, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Aquaman, collating them into a helpful Twitter moment called “Film Journalism Is Alive”. Yikes.
Captain Marvel is out in Australia Thursday March 7.