Walker once again takes his analytical scalpel to That Thing You've Been Seeing Online But Haven't Given Any Critical Thought Because All Content Has Been Flattened Into The Background Noise Of Online Life.
Ironically I'd usually see the Rockwell meme with a statement that is normal, and every knows it, the joke being that its a normal opinion but increasingly noble to state it as the discourse around a particular subject becomes deranged. On right wing twitter in particular. Say with the "Margot Robbie is mid" bit, you might have an account tweet that image with "I think Margot Robbie is attractive" or something like that, the joke being that its an incredibly normal opinion, and it signals to that account's audience that they are counter-signaling the rest of right wing twitter on that particular subject (and so, are obviously 'contrarian free thinkers')
This is a great insight into the early life of a meme (or more specifically an image macro?). To gain traction, the image must first provide something new and/or useful for the creation of variations — in this case, Sweeney's adoring gaze at a blank space off screen that can be occupied by anything the caption suggests. But once the image gets popular enough, it becomes uncoupled from its formula. Now people might not see it as a specific meme that dictates a certain type of variation (in this case, a caption that describes what Sweeney is looking at), but simply as meme-material. I don't really get the Norman Rockwell meme, and I believe you're right in that there is no clever underlying joke. It's just the combination of three elements from the meme lexicon, put together in a way that follows the broad rules of meme grammar. It's kind of like a boomer saying "it's giving yass queen she ate that slay." No, it doesn't make any sense, but that's not the point. The boomer is only using those terms because they are recognizable as part of a certain vocabulary — stuff Gen Z says (or said) — not because of the specific meanings or uses of each term. In that same way, meme creators are able to combine two or three of the latest popular memes into a collage that says nothing more than, "This is a meme. It makes multiple references and they are topical." Deep down, isn't that all we really want from our memes?
yes! “collage” is a word that i hadn’t thought to use, and it ties a lot of stuff together in my mind. you’re right — what we want from memes is that topicality and the feeling of “i’m here, you’re here, we’re all here” but i feel that can’t be ALL we want — it’s a part of it for sure — but we also need something more, maybe it’s the “something new and/or useful” that gives a meme traction in the first place. or like… a fanum tax of 30-50 feral hogs in all your bases are belong to us?
Walker once again takes his analytical scalpel to That Thing You've Been Seeing Online But Haven't Given Any Critical Thought Because All Content Has Been Flattened Into The Background Noise Of Online Life.
Ironically I'd usually see the Rockwell meme with a statement that is normal, and every knows it, the joke being that its a normal opinion but increasingly noble to state it as the discourse around a particular subject becomes deranged. On right wing twitter in particular. Say with the "Margot Robbie is mid" bit, you might have an account tweet that image with "I think Margot Robbie is attractive" or something like that, the joke being that its an incredibly normal opinion, and it signals to that account's audience that they are counter-signaling the rest of right wing twitter on that particular subject (and so, are obviously 'contrarian free thinkers')
This is a great insight into the early life of a meme (or more specifically an image macro?). To gain traction, the image must first provide something new and/or useful for the creation of variations — in this case, Sweeney's adoring gaze at a blank space off screen that can be occupied by anything the caption suggests. But once the image gets popular enough, it becomes uncoupled from its formula. Now people might not see it as a specific meme that dictates a certain type of variation (in this case, a caption that describes what Sweeney is looking at), but simply as meme-material. I don't really get the Norman Rockwell meme, and I believe you're right in that there is no clever underlying joke. It's just the combination of three elements from the meme lexicon, put together in a way that follows the broad rules of meme grammar. It's kind of like a boomer saying "it's giving yass queen she ate that slay." No, it doesn't make any sense, but that's not the point. The boomer is only using those terms because they are recognizable as part of a certain vocabulary — stuff Gen Z says (or said) — not because of the specific meanings or uses of each term. In that same way, meme creators are able to combine two or three of the latest popular memes into a collage that says nothing more than, "This is a meme. It makes multiple references and they are topical." Deep down, isn't that all we really want from our memes?
yes! “collage” is a word that i hadn’t thought to use, and it ties a lot of stuff together in my mind. you’re right — what we want from memes is that topicality and the feeling of “i’m here, you’re here, we’re all here” but i feel that can’t be ALL we want — it’s a part of it for sure — but we also need something more, maybe it’s the “something new and/or useful” that gives a meme traction in the first place. or like… a fanum tax of 30-50 feral hogs in all your bases are belong to us?