In March, Sony Pictures shared the official trailer for its reboot of Ghostbusters, starring actresses Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, and Leslie Jones. The film’s girl-power cast, which sharply contrasts the all-male team that made up the original Ghostbusters lineup, drew criticism from YouTube commenters, who called it, among other things, “propoganda for the feminist movement.” These haters pounded the Ghostbusters trailer with dislikes, to the point that it now has close to one million of them and holds the ignominious title of “most-disliked video in YouTube history.”
Ghostbusters has now arrived in theaters, and the consensus is that it’s not the worst movie of all time, but merely an average one. Even so, the film itself isn’t letting the controversy surrounding its trailer disappear just yet. About 20 minutes in, it make reference to the extreme hate it received on the Internet through a self-aware gag.
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The scene in question, which was added into the film after its trailer received the backlash it did, comes after Wiig, McKinnon, and McCarthy’s characters have filmed their first ghost encounter and uploaded the video to YouTube. The return to the Internet to see what sort of messages they’ve received, and the response is not kind. “Ain’t no bitches gonna hunt no ghosts,” says Wiig’s character, reading the first comment on the group’s video.
On a basic level, the joke is a clever back-atcha at a group of commenters who wanted the Ghostbusters reboot to fail. Look deeper, however, and you can find some deeper meaning in the filmmaking team’s decision to respond to their trolls. As Vulture writes, the joke is the movie version of a stand-up comedian firing back at a heckler. “Ghostbusters ain’t afraid of no bros,” reads a recent article in the culture publication.
The commenters who attacked the Ghostbusters reboot spewed a lot of hate, but the decision to respond with humor was perfect. After all, this is a comedy, and if its Tomatometer score is any indication, it’s a decent one, too.
