Are You Not Entertained is a reaction image and catchphrase pulled from the 2000 Ridley Scott film Gladiator, where Russell Crowe's Maximus shouts the line at a silent Colosseum crowd. Online, it gets deployed as a snarky retort when a post, joke, or piece of content gets a lukewarm response.
Origin
The line comes from a Colosseum scene in Gladiator (2000), in which Maximus Decimus Meridius, played by Russell Crowe, cuts down several gladiators and turns to a hushed crowd yelling "Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?"[1]. It got an early bump in wider pop culture when Jay-Z sampled the audio in the intro to "What More Can I Say" on his 2003 album The Black Album[3].
As an internet image macro, the format is thought to trace back to 4chan in late 2007, with the earliest documented use of the Gladiator screenshot as a captioned image appearing on the blog Home Designing on September 26th, 2009, where it was used to solicit reader feedback[4][2].
- Platform: Gladiator (2000 film) / 4chan and blogs (viral spread)
- Creator: Ridley Scott / Russell Crowe (line delivery); anonymous 4chan users popularized the image macro
- Date: 2009
Overview
Are You Not Entertained is a reaction image and catchphrase built around a screenshot from Ridley Scott's 2000 film Gladiator, showing Russell Crowe as Maximus with his arms flung wide after slaughtering opponents in the arena[1]. Online, it gets used as a sarcastic retort when a poster feels their contribution deserved a bigger reaction than the comments section actually gave it[2].
The format usually pairs the Gladiator still (or a similar wide-armed pose) with a caption echoing the line, slotting it into the same family of confrontational reaction macros as Come at Me Bro[2]. Beyond the still itself, the wording alone works as a standalone catchphrase in tweets, comments and captions.
How It Spread
On April 25th, 2010, DeviantArt user Astaldo Fea posted an illustration of Maximus titled "Are You Not Entertained?"[5]. Roughly a year and a half later, on November 8th, 2011, FunnyJunk user mrgreeny built a rage comic around the Gladiator screenshot with the same caption, and it pulled in more than 26,000 views and 1,200 upvotes over the next two years[6].
The phrase kept branching out through 2011 and 2012. TV Tropes added it to its Gladiator entry on May 10th as an example of "Chewing the Scenery"[7]. On June 16th, 2011, a macro pairing the quote with a photo of a Vancouver Stanley Cup rioter posing with a hockey stick in front of a wrecked storefront hit r/pics and picked up around 1,300 upvotes and 80 comments before being archived[8]. On August 20th, 2012, Redditor TomSellecksStash posted a GIF of the scene to r/reactiongifs captioned about a toddler refusing to stop crying, clearing 2,000 upvotes[9].
By 2013 the meme had its own dedicated Facebook page, launched on April 22nd, and on May 15th r/funny user herplderpster posted an image macro of a man in a Batman costume with arms outstretched under the same caption, which racked up more than 15,800 upvotes and 280 comments in its first four months[10][2].
How to Use
The typical setup is to post something (a meme, a screenshot, an in-joke) and, when the reaction is muted, reply with the Gladiator still or just the words "Are you not entertained?" as a mock-outraged callback. It also gets attached to any image of a person with arms flung wide, from athletes to characters in costume, as a caption riffing on the pose.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Are You Not Entertained?
It's a reaction image and catchphrase drawn from a scene in the 2000 film Gladiator, typically used online to mock a lukewarm audience response to a post[1][2].
Where did Are You Not Entertained come from?
The line is spoken by Russell Crowe's Maximus in Gladiator (2000)[1], and the image macro version is believed to have started on 4chan in late 2007, with an early documented use on Home Designing in September 2009[4].
What does Are You Not Entertained mean?
It's a sarcastic retort implying the speaker just put on a show and the audience is failing to react appropriately, echoing Maximus yelling at the silent Colosseum crowd[1][2].
How do you use Are You Not Entertained?
People commonly drop the Gladiator screenshot or the phrase itself as a comeback when a post gets weak engagement, or pair it with images of someone posing with outstretched arms[2][10].
Is Are You Not Entertained still popular?
It's a classic reaction format from the early 2010s that saw heavy use on 4chan, Reddit and FunnyJunk between 2009 and 2013[6][10], and the phrase itself is still recognized as part of internet meme shorthand.
