Barbenheimer was almost certainly a pre-constructed meme, or at least one that was given a boost by the marketing team once they identified it from some early c

Barbenheimer was almost certainly a pre-constructed meme, or at least one that was given a boost by the marketing team once they identified it from some early candidates of organic memes. But its subsequent popularity is (at least partially) organic, even if it was originally astroturfed. However, if Kotaku is writing about <dramatic event> regarding "the Internet's reaction" to <recent well-funded theatrical release>, it's not unreasonable to assume they were paid by a marketing agency to write the article.