By Hisham Hilal
In the past decade memes became much more than just jokes and funny pictures/videos being circulated around the internet, they became something much larger. Memes created communities around the internet and became their own culture. The results of social patterns and artistic creation merging with the ever-growing technology of the internet. Memes outgrew themselves and are constantly reinventing themselves, older memes are always coming back in newer formats, the cyclic nature of the internet. But where does all of this come from, and how can the simple manipulation of images through words and filters create such a culture? To answer that I will be leaning on the work of profound YouTuber Lessons In Meme Culture (LIMC).
LIMC is a channel that is, to put it in his words, “dedicated to providing you with educational videos exploring the fascinating trends in meme culture.” Constantly making videos about every new meme that rises in popularity, this channel is a constant source of explanation in any trend that rises in popularity and creates a meme phenomenon. One meme that recently exploded in popularity this year is the “Evil be like” meme that essentially takes the picture of a famous personality adds some noise visual filters and describes as the complete opposite of what they are. LIMC describes this meme format as a result of cultural patterns and creation as well as denoting people’s interpretation of good and evil when it comes to certain figures. As well demonstrate their knowledge in a certain field and attempt with others by making jokes about it. The reason why this meme became so popular in niche shitposting sites in particular is because of its versatility and ability to be adapted to almost any topic. The structure of this meme, the intense visual noise effects along with the impact font, made it a vehicle to bring back old meme styles, particularly with the impact font. As that style of memes was immensely popular in the 2010s then blew up ironically, then un-ironically in the late 2010’s till now. This shows that old memes (or meme styles) never really die and always find a way to come back to the forefront of the internet.
Another recent meme that blew up this year is the “Fred Flintstone dying meme” that came as a result of a clip from a recent Adult Swim trailer for a new edition of Learning with Pibby. The network is vastly popular, especially with people who believe that animation is not just a real for kids, so naturally a lot of memes are generated from Adult Swim content. However, this meme in particular has a different effect in the sense that it is so dark. Fred Flintstone dying as he attempts to join Pibby is “pleasantly traumatizing” and speaks to people on a whole new level. This would naturally produce a response, and creators have taken to making a huge variety of memes based on the clip. The fact that Adult Swim themselves embraced the memes and used them as part of their promotion, shows the sheer marketing power of memes and the influence they can have on big networks and corporations. LIMC further argues that Flintstone dying represents that when we grow older the joy of cartoons dies inside of us, naturally, but it remains there. That is also seen in the fact that throughout the show the character of Pibby becomes sadder and battle torn, however, at heart she remains the same.
Memes have evolved greatly in the past decade. They became reflections of culture, social patterns and a certain audience’s reception of modern media productions. However, they have grown so much that they almost became their own genre of media. This given rise to content creators such as LIMC as an educational platform to breakdown the social and cultural meanings behind this fascinating and weird form of communication.
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