US Weaponises Popular Culture: Call of Duty, SpongeBob and Films Used in Iran Strike Videos
The United States appears highly inclined to appropriate popular culture such as video games and films for use in video clips depicting military strikes against Iran in recent weeks.
Videos of military attacks packaged with edited scenes from games and films have been showcased via the official X account of the White House, @WhiteHouse.
One of the videos that garnered considerable public attention was footage of attacks on Iran accompanied by clips from the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which was uploaded to the @WhiteHouse X account on 4 March with a duration of approximately one minute.
The video opened with the “Killstreak” animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, continuing to display US strikes against several targets in Iran. Following this content’s release, further videos of US attacks with clips from games and films emerged.
The White House’s X account on 6 March contained at least three uploads of military attack videos packaged with clips from other games and films. For example, one video depicted US military strikes with footage from the cartoon film SpongeBob SquarePants.
In that video, the main character SpongeBob repeats the phrase “Wanna see me do it again?” several times. After the character speaks, footage of US strikes on Iran is shown. The military attack video using SpongeBob was captioned “Will not stop until the objectives are met. Unrelenting. Unapologetic.”
Game footage was also reused. Still on 6 March, the White House X account uploaded a video of US military strikes on Iran that opened with the iconic animation of Carl Johnson, also known as CJ, from the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
The roughly 40-second video featured CJ beginning an initial mission with the legendary line “Ah shit, here we go again”, after which US missile strikes hitting targets in Iran were interspersed. The video was captioned “OPERATION EPIC FURY” with objectives listed as destroying Iran’s missile arsenal, destroying its navy, and ensuring the nation never obtains nuclear weapons.
Beyond the video incorporating GTA: San Andreas animation, the White House X account also uploaded a video of US military strikes on Iran interspersed with scenes from various films.
The video, also uploaded on 6 March to @WhiteHouse, opened with a scene of Tony Stark from the film Iron Man. It was followed by clips from Gladiator, Braveheart, Top Gun, Superman, Transformers, Deadpool and concluded with footage from Yu-Gi-Oh. The video carried the caption “Justice the American way”. The content format mirrored other US Iran strike videos uploaded to the White House X account, wherein after film clips are shown, footage of US attacks on Iran is displayed.
The use of popular culture such as films and video games in content depicting US strikes on Iran uploaded by the White House to X has drawn widespread criticism from social media users, who view the approach as highly inappropriate.