According to Variety, Mark Ruffalo told a "Hands Off Our Vote" rally in New York on Sunday that when the crowd chanted "You tell 'em, Hulk," he was "gonna Hulk out. You won't like me when I'm angry," and added, "They thought I was out for the count, I'm still here, I'm still playing the Hulk."*
The catchphrase is the whole product now. "I'm gonna hulk out" spent twenty years as a Marvel line, which means a merchandise line, which means a rally line. There is no universe where that sentence is not printed on a t-shirt by Thursday.
"I'm still playing the Hulk" is the sentence that does the work. He has not played the role in years, the character never left the contract, and now a Marvel catchphrase is a verb he can deploy at any event with a crowd. The franchise is him, he is the franchise, and the franchise is holding a rally in Manhattan.
Watch the clip cut. The crowd chants the character's name, the actor delivers the comeback, the video ends. The rally is the medium, the catchphrase is the message, and the machine does not need a policy, it needs a punchline that loads before the sound kicks in. The hulk out is a soundbite with a costume budget.
YOUR TURN: What is the last superhero line you heard at a non-comic event, and what was it doing there?
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