The Twilight Saga: New Moon will be out in theaters in just a few weeks. If you’ve been following the news at all, you’ll know that the third installment in the popular vampire series is already causing a bit of a controversy. Several fans are taking issue with the way the movie portrays Jacob (played by Taylor Lautner). They say that he doesn’t match the description of the “werewolf” that Bella (Kristin Stewart) meets at the beginning of the movie. If you’re one of these fans, you might want to check out this funny Twilight parody GIF that was created by a Redditor named ‘hobo_snipe’. It perfectly mimics the mannerisms of the wolf from the movie while giving a funny spin on Taylor Lautner’s acting abilities. Let’s just hope that New Moon isn’t the last chance we have to see Jacob in this form.
The Gif
The video opens with a comedic voiceover by an unseen narrator. From there, we see several shots of Mr. Pattinson in character as Jacob. The video then cuts to brief moments from the movie that have been sped up and awkwardly juxtaposed with clips of Mr. Pattinson’s laugh track. For example, we see Bella meet the young werewolf, then a split second later we see Mr. Pattinson’s face light up with laughter. In another scene, Bella is seen holding a tennis racket, and just a few frames later we see Mr. Pattinson holding a tennis ball. The scene cuts back and forth between the two scenes, further heightening the awkwardness.
This isn’t the first time that Mr. Pattinson has poked fun at Twilight. Back in 2013, he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing a shirt with the words “I’m with Bella” emblazoned on the front. In the interview, he spoke about how absurd it was that his image was used in the title of the article. “I guess it’s just a case of bad luck,” Mr. Pattinson said at the time. He called the attention to the fact that he wasn’t even dating anyone at the time and that he had no plans to do so soon. As it turns out, he had been seeing a model named Florence Pugh for several months at that point, so that may have had something to do with it.
After mocking Twilight in a few hilarious videos, it was only a matter of time before the internet trolls found a way to retaliate. One of the most popular memes to emerge in the wake of hobo_snipe’s creation features an image of Bella holding a sign that reads “Bella loves Jacob.” It’s a play on words, as the “Bella” in the meme is standing for Mr. Pattinson’s character Jacob, and the “Loves” stands for the “love” that Bella feels toward him. It’s a reference to the fact that at the beginning of the movie, Bella asks, “Does anyone miss me?” Mr. Pattinson plays along, answering “No” and gesturing toward Jacob as he says, “He doesn’t miss you.” The joke is that it’s clear from the get-go that Bella has feelings for Jacob, so it’s a little insulting that he would pretend not to notice her. In the second season of Mr. Pattinson’s show, The Exorcist, he plays a demonic character named Father Callaghan. One of the funnier moments in the episode involves the priest attempting to seduce a young woman (played by Kylie Bunbury) by telling her that Bella is dead. “You won’t be seeing much of her anymore,” Father Callaghan says. “She’s under my protection now.” It’s clear that the priest doesn’t believe that he’s talking to a human being, as he adds, “and it would be a shame if something happened to such a pretty girl.” To this day, many people still laugh at that scene when they think of Father Callaghan.
Why Jacob?
If you’ve seen the movie, New Moon, you’ll know that Bella meets and falls in love with the boy next door. Since the character of Jacob is essentially the same in all the Twilight films, it’s a safe assumption to make that the fans taking issue with the portrayal of the werewolf in the movie are upset because they don’t want to see him changed for the sake of the next film. “They don’t deserve a happy ending,” one of the more passionate fans wrote. Another added, “they don’t deserve to be happy ever.” Naturally, you have to wonder why this is such a touchy subject. Does anyone really hate on Twilight that much? It seems like there’s more than a few people who’ve had their heart broken by these stories, and for some, it may be too much to bear. The good news is that New Moon isn’t the last film in the series. There will be a fourth installment, Eclipse, which comes out in theaters on August 30th. After that, the franchise will go on a five-year hiatus.
For now, let’s just enjoy the fact that Mr. Pattinson is having some fun with an iconic movie series. Hopefully, this is just a “tweet” from the standpoint of a fan, and not an indicator of how he really feels. We want to thank hobo_snipe for creating this funny parody video. It’s quite a clever way to bring some levity to a situation that’s certainly not humorous.