As internet fiends continue to infest and influence modern day culture it is very important to recognise what they stand for; memes. This internet phenomenon has helped shaped the generation of today. With a bountiful and beautiful array of humorous images, audio clips, catch phrases and videos bringing together a specific audience fulfilling an overwhelming purpose. With this being said, what makes a meme a meme? What makes it viral? What elements create that relatability and what about them is so compelling? Deconstructing the fundamental elements and thought processes of meme creators, whether they be accidental or intentional, this article establishes the fact that the memes of this century are much more than just memes, they’re messages, whether they be a cry for help or emblems of empathy during hard times. They connect our generation and have created a secret language in amongst millennials. In order to continue this investigation what a meme is has to be established. The definition of the word “meme” was first coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins back in 1976 in his book ‘The Selfish Gene’. The biologist in his publication defined a meme as “a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition and replication in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.” [1] Since then an updated definition of the word was established as internet culture became a more prevalent part of today’s society. Hence the modernised definition for a meme becoming “a cultural item in the form of an image, video, phrase, etc., that is spread via the Internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way.” [2] In knowing this we are able to identify memes throughout the generations of the internet. From 1996’s Dancing baby; the first documented meme, it is what it is a “video of a 3D-rendered baby dancing to the intro of “Hooked on a Feeling” by the Swedish rock band Blue Swede”[3]. This eccentric comedy branched out into all forms of social media, pathing the way for many new memes to come. In starting a craze this craze of being able to share humorous content through the internet, people began to find ways to relate to each other and much like the spread of the news or current affairs many people were able to form connections through the spreading of this video.[4] Not only do we need to applaud the creators of these social media phenomenon but the websites that foster these memes such as 4chan, Reddit, 9gag, Tumblr and more recently Vine. But how do we know when this visual or audio internet content has reached meme status? A survey collecting the responses from over 300 High School staff and students shows that almost 70% of participants found that a “meme has established meme status” when it “has branched out to bigger social media networks such as Facebook or Twitter.” An interesting study conducted by Michele Coscia, a Harvard researcher who analysed 178,801 variants of 499 memes found that approximately 35% of them were truly successful. Coscia then went on to describe an interesting pattern that she had found, the researcher went on saying: "Those that hit an above-average peak of popularity at some point in their life were less likely, overall, to ultimately break the "success" threshold. Memes that were shared more consistently over time, rather than a great deal all at once, were more likely to ultimately rack up enough points."[5] In saying this the undoubtedly successful memes have an eternal quality to them. However Coscia’s research being 3 years old and might not account for the technology reliant generations of today. With their attention spans being comparable to that of a gold fish’s[6] millennials these days are not easily entertained. With the highest percentage of a meme’s lifespan being under a month in the eyes of High School students and staff, the life expectancy of memes just might be decreasing alongside our attention spans. With this being said there are many more factors influencing the spread and craze and fading of these online posts which will be explored in paragraphs to come. First and foremost humour. Again the survey responses collected from students and staff indicates that 85.1% of respondents thought that the biggest key characteristic of a successful meme was humour. To further validate this response Memes in Digital Culture, a book written by Limor Shifman a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute also “found that humour served as a major component of successful memes.”[7] Fellow researchers of Professor Shifman, Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear after studying video memes from years 2006-2008 found that there were three attributes of comedy within these memetic videos; playful, incongruity and superiority. Playful humour is humour intended to be funny. Whereas in incongruity on the other hand relies on whimsicality for example “a man in woman’s clothing or a dancing banana.”[8] A perfect example of this is the infamous Chocolate Rain video by Tay Zonday, with his childish appearance juxtaposed with his low-pitched voice. And last but not least in vain is superiority. People enjoy watching those less fortunate, this is why David after the dentist was so popular. “People do not only like watching videos of others whom they perceive to be inferior, but also take pleasure in scornfully imitating them, thus publically demonstrating their own superiority.”[8] Of course we need to remember that comedy is subjective therefore resulting in the cooperation of many other elements fundamental in creating a meme. In order to guarantee that a meme is suitable for the viral web of memes simplicity plays a part in helping a meme grow wings and fly off into the interwebs and live an evergreen life. In constructing a meme upon simple and uncomplicated idea or jargon e.g. peanut butter jelly time you’re allowing for other interested web users to pick it up and put their own spin on it. An example of this would be the 2012 Harlem Shake. [9] In saying this a simple character or visual people are able to warp and create a new image for the meme and sometimes it can take a wrong turn, prime example; our dearest Pepe. This innocent frog that started off as a started off as a perky frog from Matt Furie’s comic series Boy’s Club was picked up and popularised by 4chan as a weed smoking emblem with his iconic “feels good man” logo. Knowing the depressed millennials of today, the internet turned that smile into a frown and thus the ‘Sad Frog Meme’ was born. Growing in popularity, pepe developed many alter egos from Angry frog to Smug frog to Nu Pepe and so on and so forth.[10] Pepe was thriving, an diamond meme in amongst so many other trashy month old memes, Pepe seemed eternal, but not all good things last as Trump (alongside leading the downfall of America) lead the revolt against Pepe. With the slip of a tweet and a photoshopped image of Pepe’s face next to his photoshopped face alongside many other photoshopped conservatives on The Expendables movie poster. Later on that month NBC news articles branded pepe as a Trump and Nazi supporter and ultimately a “Hate symbol”. [11] Certain memes are targeted at certain audiences. Some memes these days have been categorised to suit a particular demographic. Examples of this can be found on the current face book pages: ‘Spicy Designer Memes’, ‘Noot Memes’, ‘Classical Art Memes’, ‘Crippling Memes’, ‘Memes for depressed teens’, ‘Eric’s Creamy Memes’. According to business and marketing coach Dustin Staiger “We often unconsciously make decisions on how we relate to these memes. We can easily consume and be a conduit for these ideas, behaviours and styles without even realizing it. We can also be disinterested in or disconnected from memes with little thought.”[12] Linking things back to relatability and humour, in particular the superiority complex behind comedy people find dodgy or funny sounding videos more entertaining than those meaning to entertain. “The ostensibly unfinished, unpolished, amateur-looking, and even weird [content] invites people to fill in the gaps, address the puzzles, or mock its creator.”[13] With this being said there is no real meme theory, only research as to why we react, share or think a certain way. The answer as to why a meme is successful is reliant on the audience at the time. Because society is constantly changing and forever progressing there will never be a single meme theory, a single recipe to create the most viral and humorous meme. Sure this research can be applied in order to predict the future spread of memes but there will always be exceptions, therefore changing the theory evermore. But it’s not to be taken too seriously as they are after all, just memes. [1] (Dictionary.com 2016) [2] (Dictionary.com 2016) [3] (Don 2009) [4] (Colbert 2013) [5] (BAER 2013) [6] (TSURUTA 2015) [7] (Shifman 2014) [8] (Shifman 2014) [9] (Shifman 2014) [10] (Brad 2014) [12] (Platus 2016) [13] (Roy 2016) [14] (Staiger 2011) [15] (Shifman 2014)
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AuthorNalin Jeenmuang is a well established internet plebeian who has dedicated most of hr teen years and in turn the rest of her life to the sharing and researching of zesty internet memes.
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