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March 28, 2024, 04:27:54 PM

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What exactly is a meme?

Started by bgmnts, January 29, 2019, 10:06:43 PM

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bgmnts

I don't know if this belongs in comedy subforum but I have come to a mid  mid life crisis where I have literally no idea what an entire concept is.

It's what passes for humour on the internet for young'uns now but I have seen so many different things that have been labelled memes that I feel like i've been absolutely bummed silly with a confusion cock.

Can someone explain to me, in layman's terms, what they are generally? I'll buy you a freddo.


jamiefairlie

It's just an idea that self-replicates and therefore spreads.

Richard Dawkins came up with it in 70s as a parallel concept to genes (hence the similar name)

bgmnts

Quote from: jamiefairlie on January 29, 2019, 10:20:13 PM
It's just an idea that self-replicates and therefore spreads.

Richard Dawkins came up with it in 70s as a parallel concept to genes (hence the similar name)

I knew the scientific definition of a meme but half of this content doesn't even seem to be an image that is passed around, it is just somebody saying things like "isnt it funny when you go down the shop" sub-par observational material.

Is it just instagram and twitter?

colacentral

It's just like when people used to say things like "Alrighty then!!" It's nice when you don't have a creative bone in your body to agree with others like you that just copying and pasting a gif someone else made will pass as humour. Easier that way. Twitter is basically millions of Brents pointing at Flat Eric.

Pauline Walnuts


jamiefairlie

Quote from: bgmnts on January 29, 2019, 10:27:32 PM
I knew the scientific definition of a meme but half of this content doesn't even seem to be an image that is passed around, it is just somebody saying things like "isnt it funny when you go down the shop" sub-par observational material.

Is it just instagram and twitter?

Yeah that's just thick cunts getting the word wrong enough times that they think it's now ok, like 'should of'. It's still wrong and they're still thick cunts, no matter how many times it's done.

BlodwynPig


Twed

"What is point meme?" answers your question on multiple levels.

Sebastian Cobb

it's like a playground fad but on the internet.

chveik


Cold Meat Platter


Chriddof

#11
[edit: nevermind.]

grassbath

I think the 'meme' as it originated on sites like 4chan was a 'humorous' combination of image and text, spreading recurring characters and phrases that would be recognizable to the cliques of that online subculture.

Now in the mainstream with the rise of social media, the potential for combinations of images, text and observations is much greater. So much of it does just appear as hacky observational humour, yes. Mind you I do sometimes see running jokes on CaB referred to as 'memes' - dead soon, an Tsaoi and the like.

thraxx


poodlefaker

when David Baddiel does a tweet and his followers show their approval with gifs of African American people reacting.

Clownbaby

#15
The confusion is probably coming from the fact that people have a habit of overusing and misusing popular terms for things so you get a load of people just referring to any funny picture posted on the internet as a "meme" when memes are actually just the things shared on the internet that have gained traction as a kind of inside joke that gets spread around as opposed to just being an isolated funny image. You get people saying "I made a meme" and they've just put a silly caption they made up over an image but it would only be a meme if the joke caught on and developed through sharing and having variations of it created


Cloud

Yeah like many other online terms it's got a ton of definitions.  Mostly it's an image that is overused in a humorous way (may not be humorous to you, but to the internet hive mind), or sometimes a string of words.  Sort of another word for a cliche I guess

A prominent example at the moment is the Surprised Pikachu meme
- Person wonders whether the inevitable will happen
- The inevitable happens
- Surprised Pikachu face

E.g.:


An old text based meme would be something like
"In Soviet Russia, $thing_that_is_normally_the_subject_of_a_verb verbs YOU"

or
1. Do some stuff
2. Do some more stuff  (end of actual instructions)
3. ?????
4. PROFIT!


MOAR DANK MEEMZ here https://knowyourmeme.com/
(Note KYM just define it as internet phenomena)

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

It's an idea that has mutated, appropriately enough.

Avril Lavigne

Quote from: Clownbaby on January 30, 2019, 10:52:55 AM
The confusion is probably coming from the fact that people have a habit of overusing and misusing popular terms for things so you get a load of people just referring to any funny picture posted on the internet as a "meme" when memes are actually just the things shared on the internet that have gained traction as kind of inside joke that gets spread around as opposed to just being an isolated funny image. You get people saying "I made a meme" and they've just put a silly caption they made up over an image but it would only be a meme if the joke caught on and developed through sharing and having variations of it created

100% this. Not long ago my brother was all "check out these memes I made" and showed me some pictures of one of our mutual friends with some Impact Bold text over the top making fun of the guy's personality traits. I didn't have the heart to tell him it's not 'a meme' if it's an injoke 20 people will get, shown to about 5.

36 he was (seriously).

Clownbaby

Quote from: Avril Lavigne on January 30, 2019, 11:25:47 AM
100% this. Not long ago my brother was all "check out these memes I made" and showed me some pictures of one of our mutual friends with some Impact Bold text over the top making fun of the guy's personality traits. I didn't have the heart to tell him it's not 'a meme' if it's an injoke 20 people will get, shown to about 5.

36 he was (seriously).

Oh christ the white Impact captions died long ago

gilbertharding

Oh shit. I was talking to my [quite a bit older: she's 59] sister the other week. Because I'm not on facebook, I think she assumes I don't know anything about Modern Stuff... but then I heard her pronounce the word 'meme' out loud. It rhymed with 'flem'.

I was like: *jean luc picard facepalm dot jepg*

Clownbaby

Some I know who is 22 still thinks that "meme" is pronounced "memmeh"

22 is the perect age to have experienced the older memes and be aware of the current memes so I don't get how he hasn't stumbled across the correct pronunciation or at least checked for himself after the many times someone has corrected him

Chollis

Quote from: Clownbaby on January 30, 2019, 12:03:51 PM
Some I know who is 22 still thinks that "meme" is pronounced "memmeh"

22 is the perect age to have experienced the older memes and be aware of the current memes so I don't get how he hasn't stumbled across the correct pronunciation or at least checked for himself after the many times someone has corrected him

Because they've never spoken to a person and only ever seen it in text

Kids these days

gilbertharding

I suppose the only reason I know how it's pronounced is because I first saw the word in Dawkin's Blind Watchmaker book about 20 years ago, and knew it was supposed to be analogous to 'gene'.


Golden E. Pump

I'm very surprised that the term 'Meme Hackney' being used for some hack who makes shit memes has yet to enter the vernacular.

Icehaven

 
Quote from: Puce Moment on January 30, 2019, 01:11:28 PM


Every time I share a meme on facebook my Mum thinks I actually made it up myself. She thinks I'm hilarious.


zomgmouse

It's literally any image nowadays