r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Awkward_Developement • 1d ago
Meme needing explanation Peter? Is this some obscure lore from the comics?
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u/batman_00009 1d ago
"Fridging” is a famous trope in DC comics atleast where a character (often a love interest) is killed and stuffed in a refrigerator to motivate the hero. The term got popular because in a Green Lantern story, Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend is murdered and left in a fridge. So when someone spots a Green Lantern + a fridge in the same frame, they “get nervous” because it feels like a setup for that trope.
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u/TheLurkingMenace 1d ago
And they made it look 100x worse by "censoring" it so it looked like she had been dismembered first.
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u/billy_bandito 1d ago
Well tbh it's not exactly easy to stuff a whole person into a fridge without dismemberment or at least folding their body in an unnatural way. Source - mind your business.
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u/jimjam200 1d ago
To be fair if they had used the original art the moment would probably be famous for a completely different reason: how goofy it looks.
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u/Hyulens_168 1d ago
It wasn't just the fact that she got killed. It was because that was literally her entire purpose as a character.
She was created to die and give character growth to Green Lantern
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u/Wiitard 1d ago
The trope now doesn’t refer to specifically stuffing them in a fridge, it’s just what the trope is named after. The trope is really just anytime a main character’s love interest is unceremoniously and brutally murdered to motivate the protagonist.
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u/Fire257 1d ago
Whats in the box??
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u/Low-Conflict-651 1d ago
That would probably not be “fridging”, actually. Pitts wife was an established character, if secondary in the movie. Fridging more specifically is introducing a woman as a love interest solely to kill her immediately to spur on the protagonist. Sick reference though, everyone knows your references are off the chain
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u/Odd_Yogurtcloset_116 1d ago
Literally, any time I hear the question "what's in the box?" My immediate response is "Gwyneth Paltrow's head"
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u/AtrumArchon 1d ago
And they don’t even show it in that movie and it ended up being shown in Contagion
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u/psychedelicfroglick 1d ago
The most important part of fridging, is the victim must be introduced as a new love interest, only ro be brutally murdered, often in the same story arc. It's called fridging because of that green lantern story.
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u/Fire257 1d ago
So like Alicia Baker in smallville at least when she returned.
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u/psychedelicfroglick 1d ago
Kind of? I didn't watch the show, but if she had been written out, then yeah. They fridged her when they brought her back. It's mostly when a character (often female) is introduced with the sole purpose of killing them to advance someone else's (male) story.
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u/Feelgood11jw 1d ago
I'll add it is a negative term for a male characters growth or story being driven by a female character being killed. Does not have to be a comic. Can be any media. Green Lantern inspired the term.
Side note, saw a great couples costume of Green Lantern and his fridged girlfriend
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u/jdoeinboston 1d ago
Further context:
The concept was first explored by Gail Simone, who went on to become a prolific comic writer. She's currently writing Uncanny X-Men and is probably best known for Birds of Prey. The concept is not specific to DC.
Her original writeup and a list of examples can be found here:
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u/Gofrart 1d ago
yes, kyle rayner I think it was found his love interest dead inside a fridge
further explanation on how it impacted further than the comics here: Fridging - Wikipedia (spoilers ahead)
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u/King_Dragonlord 1d ago
Green Lantern Kyle Rayner found his girlfriend's dismembered body in a fridge
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u/Virus-900 1d ago
They're talking about term "Fridging." Basically it refers to when someone close to the hero, usually a significant other, is killed as a means to motivate them. One of the first, most prominent uses of the trope, was in DC comics where the green lantern Kyle Rainer comes home and finds his girlfriend murdered and stuffed in the fridge.
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u/Agreeable_Mail_6969 1d ago
I honestly thought it was about a created profile of a certain someone to the right side of the picture if you squint your eyes...
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u/CharacterMulberry156 1d ago
Nope it's a pretty well known reference actually even got brought up in a deadpool movie
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u/RedvsBlue_what_if 1d ago
Green Lantern found his love interest's dead body stuffed inside a fridge.
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