Jacob Batalon’s “CEO” Moment Leaves Tom Holland Asking the Internet for Answers During ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Press Tour

There is something wonderfully chaotic about watching one of the biggest movie stars on the planet genuinely stumped by his own co-star’s meme. As the promotional machine for ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ cranks into full gear ahead of the film’s July 31 release, the cast has been hitting red carpets, fan events, and press junkets with the kind of easy, decade-long chemistry that only comes from building something massive together.

Peter Parker and Ned Leeds are back, which means Tom Holland and Jacob Batalon are back, and the internet is absolutely losing its mind.

For the uninitiated, Jacob Batalon has spent the better part of the last few years carrying an unofficial title that has nothing to do with Ned Leeds or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The ‘CEO of Sex’ meme originated back in 2019 when an image of Batalon dressed in a grey suit at the ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ premiere began circulating in ironic corners of Reddit and Instagram.

The photograph, paired with humorous captions, gained popularity in ironic meme communities and spread across Reddit, iFunny, and Instagram, with one August 2019 post alone accumulating over 44,200 likes in just two weeks. What began as absurdist internet humor has since become one of the more enduring celebrity memes of the past several years, cementing Batalon as an unlikely patron saint of online culture.

And now, Tom Holland has finally encountered the meme in real time. A video shared by the DiscussingFilm account on June 25 shows fans chanting the title at Batalon during what appears to be a promotional event for ‘Brand New Day.’ Holland’s reaction, caught on camera, was pure bewilderment. “What is this CEO thing?” he asked aloud before landing on the only logical follow-up question: “CEO of sex??”

What makes this moment land so hard is that Batalon himself has fully leaned into the nickname. During a promotional junket for his film ‘Novocaine’, Batalon addressed the meme in an interview, saying it was “an honor” and that people come to him for sex advice “all the time,” adding that the whole thing seemed “ironic” at first but that he was not about to turn it down.

His fiancée, he noted, was also very much intrigued by the designation. That level of good-natured self-awareness is a big part of why the meme has lasted as long as it has. Batalon never tried to distance himself from the joke, and so the joke never stopped being funny.

Part of what fuels the meme’s longevity is the sense that Batalon represents something real and relatable, a kind of everyman energy rarely centered in superhero cinema. His Ned Leeds character in the MCU has always served as the emotional anchor of the Holland trilogy, the friend who reminds audiences that even the most extraordinary circumstances are best navigated with someone loyal in your corner. The meme took that energy and spun it into something absurd and joyful, and the internet has never quite let it go.

‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, picks up four years after the events of ‘No Way Home’, with Peter living alone in a New York that no longer knows his name, having voluntarily erased himself from the lives and memories of those around him. Batalon’s Ned is confirmed to return alongside Zendaya’s MJ, though the specifics of how the film reintroduces characters who no longer remember Peter Parker remain tightly under wraps.

The film’s first trailer became the most-viewed trailer ever, amassing 718.6 million views in just 24 hours, surpassing the previous record held by ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’, and crossing 1.1 billion views within four days to become the first film trailer to reach that milestone. The anticipation is monumental, and moments like Holland’s confused CEO reaction only add to the warm, meme-ready energy the cast brings to every appearance.

There is something fitting about the whole thing. A franchise that has always thrived on the friendship between Peter and Ned now has its stars generating viral content simply by existing near each other in public. Holland’s genuine confusion is a gift. Batalon’s calm, regal acceptance of his title is even better. Let us know in the comments what you think about Tom Holland’s priceless reaction to the ‘CEO of Sex’ meme.

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