It wasn’t that long ago–7 years, in fact–that the Lonely Island gave us a very important musical lesson in how to be cool in the face of danger.

We did not heed the message. Or at least, crowds in superhero movies didn’t. Because great power means nothing without great responsibility great throngs of average people staring at the action with their mouths open. Via Sploid, we now have a supercut, entitled “Superhero Bystanders,” to prove it, edited by Vimeo user LJ Frezza. Frezza’s point isn’t just that throngs of extras all make the same kinda-dorky face, but that all those people who are standing in awe could actually do something if they mobilized together–a point made strongly by Sam Raimi in his first two Spider-Man movies. There may be a larger message in that, but we’ll leave the potential political implications to someone else.

Superhero Bystanders from Fandor Keyframe on Vimeo.

So back to our headline: if you were wondering why it referred to these crowds as “cool”–it didn’t. The cool crowds are the ones who help the hero, and don’t just look. The rest just look like they’ve never seen a superhero before, which is an increasingly unlikely proposition in our world–and cinematic reality–full of them.

What would you do if you saw a spider-powered man in action? Would you help? Take a selfie? Or just stand there with your mouth hanging open? Let us know in comments, where no particular facial expression is mandatory for participation.

Image: Marvel/Disney