Internet Memes: Jokes You Don’t Get
Tackling the history of Internet memes is a complicated and slightly overwhelming task. It reminds me of Borges’ “On Exactitude in Science” wherein he describes the map of a territory that becomes as large as the territory itself, defeating the purpose of mapping the territory in the first place. Our case somewhat resembles that story because of the diffusive nature of memes and the many hands that have helped to shape and create them. Also, let’s face it, chronicling the history of image macros is kind of ridiculous in the first place. Still, they are still interesting as small representations of popular culture, and so in this blog I’ll attempt to look at some of the more popular ones without giving anyone reading a headache.
Internet memes themselves are so varied in form that they almost evade definition. For our purposes, we’ll consider anything that is shared among Internet users at high rates (i.e. goes viral) as being a meme. Today, memes most commonly refer to image macros wherein an image is generated with a top caption and a bottom caption, typically stylized with Impact font, but can really refer to any sort of content that spreads across the Internet.
Tracing the birth of these things is like finding the person who came up with knock knock jokes. It’s difficult to find the exact source much less verify its validity. That task is much larger than what I’m setting out to do here and certainly beyond the scope of a single blog post. Here, I’ll set out to examine a few of the more famous and noteworthy ones in my opinion.
All Your Base Are Belong To Us
This was probably the first meme I encountered back in my early days of cruising around the Internet. Originally a Flash animation, it depicted the poorly translated video game’s opening sequence followed by a slew of photoshopped images showing the mistranslated phrases in a variety of places, most notably “All Your Base Are Belong To Us.” The Flash animation was shared along many channels, both through digital communications as well as word of mouth, and spread virally.
Do A Barrel Roll
This meme originated from Star Fox 64 wherein one of the characters, in this case anthropomorphic rabbit Peppy Hare, instructs the player to do a barrel roll. The phrase was applied to a variety of situations as instruction, most of which lacked the need to actually perform a barrel roll. Similarly, the phrase was also placed on a number of images, animated GIFs, and Internet videos where objects besides fighter planes appear to be doing a barrel roll, generally ending in tragedy or injury.
Demotivational Posters
Starting as parodies of corporate motivational posters and, as an extension, American corporate culture in general, demotivational posters started spreading in the late 90′s and early 2000′s. Typically, they subverted the concept of a motivational poster by changing a generally optimistic or bland message by satirizing it. Later, demotivational posters embraced a wide variety of topics and no longer required corporate culture as a centerpiece to poke fun at. Today, they are as varied as the people who make them (which is more or less the entire Internet). The above example of a demotivational poster was a nod to the genre by video game Developer and Publisher Valve in their 2004 release Counter-Strike: Source. It was included in the map CS_Office and demonstrates the genre’s notoriety and growth since its inception in the 90′s.
The O RLY OWL
Popularized on the Something Awful forums in its wilder days, image macros started as selected images with predefined text. One of its most famous examples, the O RLY owl, was used as a way of expressing incredulity at a stated fact. The O RLY owl is significant because it is a single image with a defined purpose - the text and the usage rarely changes, if ever. However, image macros would later evolve to have premises and formulas, popularized by 4chan, Reddit, and other sites.
Advice Dog
The progenitor of “Advice Animals,” an entire subcategory of meme culture loosely derived from the O RLY Owl. Advice Dog is a picture of a puppy on a multicolored background with both top and bottom captions giving advice to the viewer, usually terrible or destructive in nature. Originally posted without captions on a videogame forum, the image was then picked up and given its new “advice” format. The contrast between the image of the dog and the corrupting advice is what initially made the image macro so humorous. Advice Dog set a standard for the format of an image macros with multi-colored backgrounds and accompanying text on both the top and bottom of the picture. This standardization has produced a number of spin-off memes which have themselves spun-off into other memes. Notable examples include: Insanity Wolf, Condescending Wonka, Scumbag Steve, Futurama Fry, and Good Guy Greg. The propagation of these spin-offs has largely been a result of 4chan and Reddit. The below example is, as you may have guessed, of the Condescending Wonka variety.
The End
Due to the very nature of these things, exact origins are hard to pinpoint and validate. In examining them, even the ones I’m most familiar with (I remember passing around All Your Base via email way back in the day), I acknowledge room for errors. And, if there’s room for errors, what’s the point in even looking at and cataloguing memes? This blog post falls far short of a complete list of all of the memes that ever were (and certainly of all of the ones that are yet to be). The point of this exercise is to look at a small snippet of Internet culture that seems to elude many people who claim to understand it: what makes something viral? This question can perhaps be even boiled down to a simpler one: what makes something interesting?
As this is an advertising blog, I’m looking at the topic from within that context. Internet memes are a great way to express observations and sentiments. They’re funny or interesting because they connect viewer to creator, even if that connection is anonymous and separated by thousands of miles of cables. They are interesting not because of their history, however that develops, but because of its result. It seems natural that memes could be used for advertisements - they are generally to the point and they call on cultural consciousness for understanding. But, as they develop on their own, they are slightly out of reach of the mainstream. Sometimes, by the time someone understands them, the rest of the Internet has left them for greener pastures.
Writing out this history has felt a little strange to me because the knowledge about what the memes meant, rather than where they came from, has always seemed the more important of the two. It’s tricky territory for advertisers because, just like when any Average Joe tries to create or utilize a meme, whether it’s on 4chan, Reddit, 9GAG, or anywhere else, it will be met with derision and disapproval if A. it doesn’t show an understanding of Internet culture and B. it’s not funny or interesting to the viewer. Using memes for advertising can work if the idea is interesting on its own or has merit in the context of the meme itself. Have a look at what has happened to The Most Interesting Man in the World. Users have picked up his familiar line and replicated him countless times. It’s just important to remember it’s a precarious territory - you have to be careful with what you’re trying to achieve, and you have to understand the people you’re talking to. If done well, you can expect great success. If done poorly, you can expect to be torn apart by Insanity Wolf.
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