Fans of the 2002 “Spider-Man” movie couldn’t help but notice a change in the dialogue. During an airing on Britain’s ITV, one line deemed “homophobic” by critics was altered completely for today’s audience, The New York Post reported.
This film version featured Tobey Maguire playing Peter Parker. During the controversial scene in question, Maguire insults another character (Bone Saw, played by wrestling legend Randy “Macho Man” Savage) during a wrestling match by saying, “That’s a cute outfit. Did your husband give it to you?”
In the edited version, however, Maguire’s line is cut to, “That’s a cute outfit.”
One perceptive fan documented the change on Twitter, causing an avalanche of both positive and negative reactions.
“THEY REMOVED PETER PARKER’S HOMOPHOBIA,” the user shared in the clip, which as of Monday had close to 650,000 views.
Many commenters argued that the line no longer made sense since it didn’t even attempt to be funny. They suggested that editors should have changed it to “Did your mom give it to you?”
Others were confused why the line had to be changed at all. “So many things happen in this world, countless deaths, robberies, and many other things. And what makes people mad is a JOKE in a SPIDER-MAN MOVIE. Learn to take a joke. seriously. And the intent behind it wasn’t even bad, y’all just want something to be mad about,” one person said in reply.
“I feel like the ‘that’s a cute outfit’ line doesn’t work without the punchline, and that they’d have been better off just cutting the entire joke, but for the life of me I can’t come up with a justification. It’s not like Bone Saw wouldn’t take offence to just being called ‘cute,’” another person wrote.
“When the punchline is gay marriage it’s not really a good punchline,” someone else argued.
The “Spider-Man” trilogy has succeeded while so many other superhero films fail thanks in part to their refusal to inject a woke agenda. The latest installment, “No Way Home,” raked in $253 million domestically on opening weekend even as the pandemic limited theater attendance.
A Breitbart review summed up why they believe the movie was so successful.
“Newsflash: If you make a decent movie that seeks to entertain and move — instead of lecture and shame — we will show up,” journalist John Nolte wrote. “‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ does precisely that. You will not only have a great time at the movies again, but there’s no gay, transsexual, or racial nonsense. This movie is about only one thing: Delivering the goods.”
One of the most popular scenes in the newest film showed the reunion of previous actors to play Spider-Man including Maguire and Andrew Garfield in a classic pointing scene along with “No Way Home” lead Tom Holland.