It’s one of the oldest and most reliable horror movie tropes: Some adventurers exploring the pyramids of Egypt stumble upon an old mummy’s tomb. They open it. Bad stuff happens, usually involving angry mummies. So when news broke that an Egyptian coffin had been opened by archeologists for the first time in 2500 years — during October, the month where everyone watches horror movies — it was perhaps inevitable that social media freaked out. In many cases, made the same mummy joke.
https://twitter.com/VisuallySt/status/1313078675777216512
Video of the archeological event — which did not, incidentally, result in any supernatural mumbo jumbo — was spread thanks to an account labeled “Psychedelic Art,” which posts just that, from ancient relics to trippy computer graphics. The story itself was reported by CNET, which revealed that on Saturday Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities hosted a mixed gathering to celebrate the finding of 59 preserved wooden coffins in a tomb in Saqarra, a necropolis near the city of Memphis.
It’s an incredible find! But the internet can never resist a dumb joke, especially when the news is so wild, as it was on Monday (and on Sunday, and on Saturday, etc.). But video of the group watching a coffin being opened, for the first time in 2 ½ millennia, was too much to resist. In fact, many made the same joke, summoning Brendan Fraser, star of the Mummy films from the late ‘90s-to-aughts. (Some even remembered to include his main costar, Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz.)
Brendan Fraser ain’t go through all that for y’all to do him like this 🤦🏽♂️ https://t.co/JvRorDR52v
— General Lee Dope (@EliSeeney) October 5, 2020
Brendan Fraser didn’t fight Imhotep and the Scorpion King for y’all to do this again smh https://t.co/50PHfElLHI
— Mike B! 🎤🇵🇭 (@mikebiana) October 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/AbelMafia/status/1313180928785682439
This movie ends with either Brendan Fraser or Tom Cruise doing a lot of running. I'll pass https://t.co/KKeH38A3GW
— Dr. Jason Johnson (@DrJasonJohnson) October 5, 2020
brendan fraser when they open a 2500 year old mummy’s tomb pic.twitter.com/OxDLUeu1Xs
— maxpop (@onmaxpop) October 5, 2020
So, an actual mummy tomb was cracked open, and Twitter saw this and got Brendan Fraser trending. I love it.
The Mummy was so good. But just in case something jumps off, remember, get a cat. Cats are guardians of the underworld. pic.twitter.com/qzifQMqC2n
— Mike Timko-Lantern 🎃 (@Oh_TheHorror) October 5, 2020
Even accounts for movie theater tickets got in on the action.
Calling Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz….https://t.co/zHWlMMP7Dl
— Fandango (@Fandango) October 5, 2020
Eventually there were meta tweets about Brendan Fraser trending.
I like how the first thing people think of when news breaks of a mummy tomb being opened is The Mummy with Brendan Fraser. Just goes to show you how fantastic the 1999 movie was.
— J a m i n 🗿 (@GhostShady_) October 5, 2020
And some talk of Oded Fehr erasure.
Y'all have Brendan Fraser trending but not Oded Fehr.
We are not the same. pic.twitter.com/zc53rHwLXE
— Christina Garnett (@ThatChristinaG) October 5, 2020
Of course, this is also erasure of the other Mummy movies, from the 1932 classic starring Boris Karloff to the even more lurid Hammer version starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. And of course, it appears everyone forgot about the 2017 reboot starring Tom Cruise that tried, and utterly failed, to launch a Universal Monsters “Dark Universe” à la the MCU. But even Tom Cruise was able to rebound from that, so maybe its existence is best left unmentioned.
(Via CNET)