It happened in a split second. A single line of dialogue in a video game review sparked a firestorm that refused to die out for years. When GameSpot published its video review of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales in late 2020, reviewer Jordan Ramée likely didn't think he was about to author a piece of digital history. He uttered a phrase that would eventually be seared into the collective consciousness of the gaming community: "The way he leaps off of rooftops and flips to face the camera before falling into a headfirst dive is just full of the exaggerated swagger of a black teen."
People lost it.
The internet, in its usual chaotic fashion, didn't just notice the phrase; it dissected it, mocked it, remixed it, and eventually turned it into a case study on how gaming journalism interacts with race and representation. But why did it stick? Why, years later, does the mention of "exaggerated swagger" still evoke a mix of cringes and laughs? It’s because the line felt like a desperate attempt by a critic to describe a vibe he didn't quite have the vocabulary for, resulting in something that sounded less like a review and more like a parody of a sociology textbook.
The Clip That Launched a Thousand Memes
Context is everything. In the original review, the footage shows Miles Morales—the Afro-Latino protagonist of the hit Insomniac game—performing a series of acrobatic maneuvers. Miles is distinct from Peter Parker. He’s younger. He’s more unrefined in his movements. He flails a bit. He has a specific rhythm to his swinging that feels contemporary and "Brooklyn."
The reviewer was trying to praise this. He was trying to say that Insomniac succeeded in making Miles feel like a unique individual rather than a reskinned Peter Parker. But the phrasing was just... weird. It felt clinical. It felt like an outsider looking through a glass pane, trying to quantify "coolness" in a way that felt inherently reductive.
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Social media erupted. Within hours, Twitter (now X) was flooded with parodies. People started applying the audio to completely different characters. You had clips of Kermit the Frog jumping off a building with the audio layered over it. You had videos of Grand Theft Auto glitches or elderly characters in Skyrim performing physics-defying leaps, all labeled as having that specific "exaggerated swagger." It became a shorthand for any time someone tries—and fails—to describe Black culture with an air of professional authority.
Why the Phrase Felt So "Off" to Players
Honestly, the backlash wasn't just about the words themselves. It was the delivery. It sounded like something a middle-aged dad would say while trying to explain hip-hop to his coworkers. The word "swagger" already carries a lot of baggage in the gaming world—mostly because it was overused in the mid-2010s—but adding "exaggerated" and then specifically tying it to the character's race made it feel like the reviewer was checking a box.
There is a long history of gaming outlets struggling to talk about Black protagonists. For a long time, there weren't many. When Miles Morales dropped, it was a massive moment for representation in AAA gaming. Players wanted to talk about the music, the neighborhood, and the family dynamics. Then comes a major review focusing on the "exaggerated swagger of a black teen" as a mechanical feature. It felt like the nuance of Miles’s character was being boiled down to a caricature.
Critics like Gene Park of The Washington Post have often pointed out how gaming culture struggles with these intersections. When a reviewer uses a phrase that feels like a "micro-observation" of race, it highlights a disconnect between the people making and reviewing the games and the actual lived experiences of the characters in them.
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The Viral Lifecycle: From Critique to Absurdism
The meme evolved. It didn't just stay a critique of the reviewer; it became a staple of "shitposting" culture. This is how the internet processes awkwardness. We take a phrase that makes us uncomfortable and we repeat it until it loses all meaning.
How the meme transformed:
- The Literal Phase: People pointed out that the animations were actually just based on parkour and comic book art, not some racialized "swagger."
- The Absurdist Phase: Creators put the audio over non-human entities. A cat falling off a counter? Exaggerated swagger. A glitchy NPC in Cyberpunk 2077? Exaggerated swagger.
- The Self-Referential Phase: Gamers started using the phrase to mock other reviewers who tried too hard to be "edgy" or "in touch."
Interestingly, Jordan Ramée himself eventually addressed the fallout. He took the criticism in stride, acknowledging that the phrasing was clumsy. That’s a rarity in the defensive world of online commentary. He leaned into the fact that while his intent was to celebrate the character's unique identity, the execution was a "swing and a miss."
The Lasting Impact on Gaming Discourse
Believe it or not, this meme actually changed things. It forced a lot of writers to look at their own "coded" language. Words like "urban," "gritty," or "swagger" are often used as lazy descriptors for Black characters.
The exaggerated swagger of a black teen debacle became a benchmark for what not to do. It’s now a "teaching moment" in many editorial circles. If you’re going to talk about race and culture in a game, you have to do it with a level of authenticity and specific knowledge. You can't just toss out a phrase that sounds like it was generated by a marketing firm trying to reach "the youths."
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It also highlighted the brilliance of Insomniac's animation team. They really did put in the work. If you watch Miles swing, he really does have a "dive" that involves him looking back at the camera—a direct nod to the Into the Spider-Verse film. He is a teenager. He is stylish. He is figuring it out. The game captured that perfectly. The review just happened to capture it... poorly.
What We Can Actually Learn From This
If you're a creator, writer, or just someone who spends too much time on Discord, there’s a takeaway here. Language matters. But more importantly, the audience knows when you’re being authentic and when you’re "performing" an observation.
The meme persists because it represents a specific kind of corporate-adjacent awkwardness. It’s the "How do you do, fellow kids?" of the gaming world.
To avoid these kinds of pitfalls in your own writing or content creation, focus on the "why" instead of the "what." Instead of using broad, racialized descriptors, talk about the specific influences. Talk about the "Into the Spider-Verse" aesthetic. Talk about the low-gravity feel of the animations. Talk about the jazz and hip-hop influences in the soundtrack.
Actionable Steps for Better Media Consumption:
- Look for Nuance: When reading a review, ask if the writer is describing the game or their own biases.
- Support Diverse Voices: Read critics who actually share the background of the characters they are reviewing. They’ll have a vocabulary that goes beyond "swagger."
- Analyze the Animation: Next time you play Miles Morales, watch the transition between a swing and a wall-run. Notice how he flails his arms. That’s not "exaggerated swagger"—it’s a teenager who hasn't fully mastered his powers yet. That’s the real story.
- Embrace the Meme, Understand the Root: It’s okay to laugh at the meme. It’s funny. But knowing why it’s funny—the disconnect between a clinical review and a vibrant culture—makes you a more informed fan.
The "exaggerated swagger of a black teen" will likely live on in the halls of gaming meme fame alongside "arrow in the knee" and "giant enemy crab." It’s a reminder that in the world of the internet, one clumsy sentence can outweigh a ten-thousand-word essay.