Who is Bully Maguire and how did he become a meme?
Bully Maguire is a series of video remixes centered around Tobey Maguire’s dark Peter Parker from Sam Raimi’s 2007 film Spider-Man 3 in which he’s taken over by an evil symbiote Venom. Fans have dubbed this version Emo Peter Parker for years, but Bully Maguire serves as an alternate name in the context of this meme series.
In the videos, “Bully Maguire” is edited into new scenarios where he’s depicted bullying other characters, often from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Who is Bully Maguire?
Bully Maguire (also in the form of Bully Maguire dance or Bully Maguire GIF) is actor Tobey Maguire portraying the symbiote-driven Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3. This version of Peter was, of course, many things that the real Peter Parker is not: arrogant, confrontational, and most of all: a bully.
He accidentally strikes poor Mary Jane Watson at one point, is an antisocial delinquent who plays by his own rules, and is just bad news all around. If you see Bully Maguire dancing your way down the street, change sidewalks immediately!
Bully Maguire also applies to the portion of this same phase where Peter performs his duties as Spider-Man a little more aggressively.
Spider-Man 3 was the final time Maguire portrayed the Peter Parker/Spider-Man character until 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Where did the name 'Bully Maguire' come from?
Billy Maguire was born on February 18th, 2018, when YouTuber Aldo Jones uploaded a remix parody of the trailer to Avengers: Infinity War titled "AVENGERS INFINITY WAR Weird Trailer."
At 1:48 in the video, Tobey Maguire’s Emo Peter Parker appears to run toward Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, tossing him. An on-screen text follows, reading “BULLY MAGUIRE.” Yes, the name "Bully Maguire" came from this video.
The viral video gained 10.2 million views in its first two years. The original has since been removed, though you can watch a reupload above. The video became a lynchpin in the Weird Trailers series on Aldo Jones’ YouTube channel, where he continues to feature Billy Maguire in videos due to popular demand.
The rise of the meme
The meme's spread began about a month later, on March 8th, 2018, when YouTube’s luriottaspt7353 isolated the scene from Jones’ Infinity War video and reuploaded it on their channel with the title “Bully Maguire.”
Another isolation of the clip was uploaded to Wowsche’s YouTube account on March 27th, putting more eyes on the key moment.
At this point, “Emo Peter Parker” was quickly being overtaken by the title Bully Maguire. On September 1st, 2018, a YouTuber named after the meme itself uploaded a video titled “Bully Maguire Pumped Up Kicks” centered around the Spider-Man 3 scene of Peter dancing awkwardly. As you might imagine, the video was set to Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks.” The clip has over 13k views to date.
The next year, Aldo Jones returned to the story, when on February 19th, 2019, he uploaded a video titled “3 YEARS OF BULLY MAGUIRE COMPILATION.” The clip featured the character's appearances in the Weird Trailer video series and currently sits at 1.4 million views.
In the following months, the compilation spread, inspiring others to make more remix videos. For instance, on August 13th, 2019, YouTube’s Matan Animation Studio posted a video called, “Pizza Time for Thanos,” which featured the character delivering pizza to Thanos. The video currently has over 450k views.
Matan Animation Studio continued its series of remixes, becoming a leading source for such clips. Notable videos of theirs include "Bully Maguire Bullies Peter Parker," which currently has 16 million views.
Another popular clip of Matan’s is "Bully Maguire Lifts Thor's Hammer," which has 12 million views. They even put the character into the crossover Spider-Man: No Way Home, as nature intended.
From there, the meme spread to further platforms. A post by 1BLEES to /r/memes on Reddit on August 22nd, 2020 featuring the meme gained over 71 thousand upvotes and over 100 awards. Twitter users began sharing these remixes by September 2020, causing a huge spike in popularity around that time.
Tobey Maguire's reactions to the Bully Maguire memes and videos
How does Tobey Maguire himself feel about the moniker? The actor participated in a Reddit AMA in 2022 to support Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. During the session, he was asked how he felt about various Peter Parker memes.
"Fairly neutral. I did see the Bully Maguire videos, which was a funny discovery,” he wrote, confirming his awareness of the meme in question. Users in the chat recommended Maguire check out the subreddit r/raimimemes, which he agreed to.
Bully Maguire meme examples
More Spider-Man memes:
- The Spider-Man meme, a versatile classic
- Meme History: Spider-Man Pointing, a meme fifty years in the making
- How a low-budget Spider-Man cartoon became the internet’s favorite meme
- How ‘I’m something of a scientist myself’ became the most iconic line from ‘Spider-Man’
- Peter Parker’s glasses make everything clear in new meme
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