1215, Runnymede: political corruption is forever stamped out as no high-ranking official ever again skirts the law. 2008, Washington: racism is ended in America and racial discrimination is incontrovertibly disproven. 2012, Uganda: young white Facebook users finally solve helpless Africans’ problems. 1976, Oxford: noted biologist and baby-eater Richard Dawkins coins the term “meme” to describe the phenomenon in which dogs found in technicolour environments are capable of giving advice of questionable merit. Yes, history is marked with revolutionary ideas and movements which change the face of the Earth forever. But without a doubt, the meme outshines all others. Memes are the paramount of modern avant-garde comedy and here we will attempt to deconstruct ALL THE THINGS (like the girl in the comic says; remember?!) brilliant in our list of the top reasons memes are great.
Codification: Jokes are hard to get. Being flabbergasted at the end, with an unexpected twist is a cold and unpleasant shock, like getting punched. This is why it is known as the punchline. Forcing people to have to go through the assault of figuring out the source of humour in a joke only to be surprised by an unexpected twist is just plain rude! Memes do the civilized thing of letting you know the punchline first and then telling a joke to which it applies. You shouldn’t have to waste precious brain power and “figure out” if a joke is funny because of sarcasm, absurdism, or anti-humour. With memes a funny fox, wolf, or chicken can give you a friendly wink and a nod in the right direction. The Internet has gone one step further and colour coded everything for you, so even with peripheral vision you’re protected from having to personally decipher if the penguin did something socially awkward or awesome.
Democracy: Democracy is the pride of the free world. It empowers the masses to all have a voice. During the Arab Spring, word spread thanks to the Internet, which helped spread democracy to areas of oppression (where they were forced to have one horrible leader rather than allow them the freedom of picking between two horrible leaders) but let us not forget that it first spread democracy to hilarity. There was a time when only the petit bourgeois could output comedie and then their jokes were theirs. Now all can benefit and produce through the use of memes. Why should Dos Equis be the only ones that get to be funny by using their signature commercial spokesman? Hyperbole and a Half’s signature charm should be used by every man, woman and child with an Internet connection. Yes, democracy allows people to all take original, clever, content and jokes turn them into single images and write the same basic setup and delivery and call it a new joke. It’s almost like a knock-knock joke, except more predictable. It’s like if different categories of punchlines would start with different styles of knocking (ding-dong, rap-rap, sritch-scratch, etc). This eliminates the inherent fear associated with opening doors to strangers.
Inside-Jokes without an Outside: While we’re on the topic of leaving the door wide open, it also happens to be one of the staples of the movement. Inside jokes are great because they foster a sense of community and continuity. For those of you who were around during Frosh Week 2010, “Do a 360” was funny not so much because of the poor communication skills of FOC, but rather because it was our joke. But when there’s an inside, there’s an outside. So how do memes solve this problem? By making the “inside” barriers the Internet itself, it is possibly the greatest testament to free information. Anyone on the Internet gets “Rick Rolling” or “lolcats” and can still act like it’s an inside-club and outsiders just wouldn’t get it because “its an Internet thing”. Take that, Grandma Mildred, n00b!
Sitcom 2.0: The sitcom revolutionized comedy. Its predictable conventions, done and redone plot-lines, and helpful reminders for when to laugh with a simple track in case you forget. But the crown-jewel of the situational comedy has to be the catch-phrase. Yes, viewers could sit for minutes in anticipation of their favourite character to once again say that thing that they say. Then sometimes a different character will say the thing that is said. Or the main character will say a slight variant of the thing that they say. It is the American dream, what immigrants huddling together on ships bound for Ellis Island would dream of: “One day, in the New World, we will be able to hear Sheldon say ‘Bazinga’ and it will be funny because ‘Bazinga’ is the word that Sheldon says in a funny voice”. Memes have condensed this entire formula into macro-images. That essence of familiarity, of formula, of predictability, and the time-honoured life-cycle of the catch-phrase has been distilled into its most perfect form. “One does not simply”, “I don’t always but when I do” and “I heard you like” are the essential oils whose fragrances intoxicate the soul.
Jazzification: Memes are like Old El Paso Tacos. They take the mundane and make it a fiesta (also, the girl in that one Old El Paso Taco ad is now a meme). When boring, old you says something like a whiny complaint about being socially awkward, a borderline prejudiced comment about a group of minorities or laments about how much of a jerk your roommate is, nobody wants to hear it. But if you have a Socially Awkward Penguin, a “satirical” minority meme, or Scumbag Steve make the exact same tired sentiments, its a bona fide successful meme! Memes finally give use to all those e-mail forwards your mom sent you. You can classify them into their proper meme categories and summarize the joke into two links of bold white text. And don’t stop there! Feel free to plagiarize jokes from Mitch Hedberg or SNL. Heck, the sky’s the limit! Scumbag Abbott: Asked Who’s on First, Says Who’s on First.
So, now you understand a little more about the magic that is the meme. But be warned! Make sure that you use memes correctly or else you might be like one of those fools on the University Memes pages that uses the guy from the History Channel without saying “Aliens” as the punchline, or who tell a story about trolling without using the appropriate coolface, or makes a condescending comment without the Condescending Fox; in short, fools and Cretans of the basest order. Fight on, solider of the Internet. Wear your Guy Fawkes masks (copyright by Warner Bros) with pride as you carry on the man’s legacy and fight for theocratic autocracy under the Vatican. Dare to dream, dare to meme.
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