Suave spy James Bond is one of cinema’s most iconic characters. For more than fifty years the British spy has been delighting audiences, whether it be with the serious films in the series like Skyfall, or the sillier adventures like The Man With the Golden Gun or Moonraker.
When something is such a pop-culture staple, it’s all but guaranteed to be a prime candidate for memes. In honor of Daniel Craig’s final run as the character in No Time to Die, many Redditors have stepped up to the plate and cast some shade Bond’s way. Some are fair, others not so much.
License To Overkill
Everybody has thought about extinguishing unwanted house guests in such a fashion at least once in their life. However, few would go about actually doing it. 007 is one of them, as seen in James Bond’s most brutal kills. It’s just unfortunate he does it to house spiders since they are typically a welcome presence.
The Roger Moore 007 years were about excess and overkill (i.e. the plotline of Moonraker). Having already gotten used to space guns and other complex gadgets, there are few people who can handle a homemade flamethrower like Roger Moore’s Bond.
Release It
No Time to Die saw its release date postponed so many times fans were starting to wonder if it would ever see the light of day.
Spectre was released in late 2015, so fans have had a long wait for some more time with 007. Even still, now that the film has been released, Bond fans (of all ages) are celebrating.
Sean Bean
Sean Bean’s status as a popular meme ensures that even though his characters often die, they will live on in the pop culture’s collective consciousness.
This parody of another popular meme is especially poignant coming from a character Bond thought died right in front of his eyes, yet came back years later as a villain. Those who have seen GoldenEye know: like most other Sean Bean characters, Trevelyan bites it by the end of the film.
Questionable Ethics
Depending on the situation, James Bond’s hitting on women falls anywhere between unbelievably suave and undeniably creepy. It’s a trope the series has employed endlessly.
Fortunately, it’s also a trope the series is trying to do away with. Bond may have made a move on a woman shortly after her husband’s funeral in Spectre, but his behavior has improved in the most recent installment. No Time to Die’s badass female characters like Lashana Lynch’s 00 agent, Nomi, do not receive unwanted advances.
Look Into The Eyes Of Lyutsifer Safin
Rami Malek may not have been given much to do as Lyutsifer Safin in No Time to Die, but the actor can do a lot with restrained physicality.
Few performers can hold the audience captive with their gaze alone, but Malek is one of them. His performance as Safin is possibly the best example of this and this meme is a hilarious reminder.
It’s An Everyman’s Name
To be fair, Ian Fleming’s original idea for Bond’s image was a dull-looking fellow whose innocuous nature allowed him to blend in. The name was also meant to be extremely ordinary.
It was only after the series’ popularity skyrocketed and the divinely handsome Sean Connery took on the role did the character and name become more distinguished. In Connery’s day, they didn’t have the internet, so it would have been a little harder keeping track of some dude with the same name going around and foiling every villain’s grandiose plans.
A Long Wait
When Blofeld delivers this line in Spectre it is not only directed at the agent with whom he has a childhood connection, but also at fans who were delighted to finally see the notorious villain on screen again.
Minor issues with the film and plot aside, Christoph Waltz’s portrayal of Bond’s greatest nemesis was spot on. All he was missing was a white cat on his lap, but even that got a small shout-out during the torture scene. Waltz reprised the role (briefly) in No Time to Die, giving fans another farewell appearance of the character.
That About Sounds Right
Who has time for serious relationships when you’re so busy avoiding deeply seated problems with alcohol that are typically brushed off with a quip? Bond can quit whenever he wants, he just really really likes it and hates dry establishments.
Not all of his decisions are bad, though; some of them are just stupid. Fortunately, it’s the stupid ones, like jumping out of planes or skiing off the side of a cliff, that end up working out best for him. Bond may be able to save the world, but the time for reckless decision-making has come to an end in society at large. This extends to the treatment of Bond girls in Daniel Craig’s movies.
Jaws
It’s true, even those endowed with metallic teeth have to worry about their dental hygiene. No one wants to see plaque-infested, rusting chompers. It’s unsightly and hardly intimidating.
Jaws wants his fangs bright and shiny when they bring doom upon an unfortunate soul. There’s no dental regiment scene in The Spy Who Loved Me or Moonraker, but it stands to reason that Jaws doesn’t utilize a cable.
YOLT
You only live once (or the abbreviated YOLO) was an unbearably popular phrase about ten years ago. The usage has since died down, but ghosts of its popularity still haunt classrooms and sitcom reruns from that era. Bond was ahead of the curb by more than forty years and bolder in his stance.
Who needs one life when you can have two? At this point, 007 has more like nine lives. Additionally, no song about YOLO comes anywhere near Nancy Sinatra’s You Only Live Twice, not even the Lonely Island’s comedic interpretation of the fad.
Lord……Time Lord
Don’t let certain fans see this one; enough people already throw around ludicrous theories about the name James Bond being a code name passed on to different agents. The last thing the series needs is a fantasy theory coming into the mix.
Bond is simply a character who does missions and sometimes goes through one story arch spanning several films. They don’t all need to be connected through some flimsy half-baked theory that the movies themselves contradict. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, for example, references the events of the prior films.
Who Had It Worse
This mashup of moments from There’s Something About Mary and Casino Royale can make anybody flinch. It’s hard to say who had a worse time in their respective situations, but it’s probably still Bond.
For one, somebody else is inflicting pain, while Ben Stiller’s predicament in There’s Something About Mary was an accident he did to himself. Bond also gets extra points for managing to crack a few of his silver-tongued quips throughout the unbearably painful torture session. Regardless of whose day was rougher, nobody would trade places with either of them.
No Time To Parody
There are several parodies of No Time to Die’s poster, but this is the best. Among the many unanswered questions about No Time to Die is: What if Bond was bearded?
Here, though, is Daniel Craig in his natural element. Bond is clean-shaven in No Time to Die, but Craig is frequently seen rocking facial hair. He probably has time to shave but knows which looks works for him. Even still, audiences have seen Bond with facial hair, so this poster isn’t difficult to imagine as reality.
