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Disney Hipster Princesses

Most people who consume Internet memes are of a similar age and therefore many memes are catered to this demographic. The Disney princess meme is successful because it uses a relevant interest of its audience; we are the age group that has grown up watching Disney movies. The hipster Disney princesses meme turns the beloved Disney princesses into hipsters, a young person who does not follow trends, distinguished by wearing black rimmed glasses and ironic comments.

Ariel, also known as hipster mermaid is regarded as the first hipster Disney princess meme. According to Know Your Meme, blogger Braden Graeber created the Hipster Mermaid meme, posting it on the F Yeah Hipster Ariel Tumblr in 2011. The meme soon spread to Reddit and Buzzfeed and inspired a collection of hipster princess spinoffs.  Notable examples of the Hipster mermaid meme are “I left the ocean. It was to current” and “Do I go thrifting? Have you seen my cavern?”

  This meme appears to be making fun of ‘hipsterisms’ such as trying to be unique by dressing differently, listening to indie music, and doing things before they are considered cool. Calling someone a ‘hipster’ because of the way they dress (black glasses, beanie, combat boots) is a current trend. But I would argue being a hipster is now considered ‘cool’ and apart of the dominant ideology today of ‘being different’ and standing out. This trend can also be seen in the music industry, where artists must dress over the top and continuously step over the line to remain popular.

  If you look beyond the surface, the Disney Hipster Princess meme is not only poking fun at hipsters but also making an interesting critique about the images of beauty and gender roles depicted in the iconic movies many people grew up watching. For example, hipster Cinderella says, “Ripped dress. $60 at Urban Outfitters” and “I dreamt of prince charming before any of you.”

The classic Disney princesses are all pretty, can sing, and need a prince to come save them in some way or another. These movies are presented as completely new stories, but in reality these princesses are more similar than not, all abiding to stereotypical gender roles. This meme creates a powerful critique of pop culture by putting together the person who does not follow trends (hipster) and a character who represents generic ideals of beauty and love (Disney princess).

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Disaster Girl

Disaster girl is a Photoshop meme that depicts a little girl devilishly smiling at the camera in front of an image of a disaster. The exploitable photo of the little girl (Zoe) is superimposed on to pictures of explosions, accidents, and natural disasters, suggesting that she caused or is somehow involved in the disaster in the background.

According to Know Your Meme, the photograph of the little girl was taken by her father and uploaded to Flickr in 2004. After the image won JPG Magazines’ ‘emotional capture’ contest and was featured in their 2008 issue, the photo gained popularity. The photo was then posted to Buzzfeed and people began to superimpose their own backgrounds. A few of the most popular ‘disaster girl’ memes include Zoe standing in front of the sinking Titanic, a Nazi war scene, and the 2011 tsunami in Japan. There are also variations of the meme that use the original full image with text, commenting on why Zoe decided to burn the house down. A popular version of this type of exploitable meme is the ‘strutting Leo’, which depicts Leonardo DiCaprio walking exceptionally happily towards the camera (probably not anymore since he did not win an Oscar).

Normally, the stories behind photoshopped memes are taken out of context and do not reflect their purpose as a meme. This meme is as close as it gets because in the original picture, Zoe (the little girl) was actually standing in front of a burning house and her dad made the joke she was the ‘fire starter’. An overarching theme of all memes is social commentary- whether that is making a political, religious, or cultural statement about the world. By using satirical humour, disaster girl are able to get away with their ghoulish suggestions because it is so silly its funny. By using the same template to fit current disasters and social crises, disaster girl remains timely- a key component to a successful meme.

Disaster girl is more about attention seeking than purposeful, reasoned discourse about social and political crises. This meme could be used as a potential form of freedom of expression against the traditional constraints of journalism when commenting on social crises. Although I doubt that people would ever look to crisis memes as newsworthy and reputable sources of information.

As the disaster girl meme gained popularity, an overlying theme and stance could be seen. This meme uses the symbolic innocence of a child in juxtaposition to a horrific event- the two don’t go together and that’s why it’s funny. A child- something that is normally simple and easy to manipulate is put against disasters, something that is complex and at times out of human control.

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Celebrities Without Eyebrows

The celebrity is a huge part of pop culture and has become a figure that we love to critique, copy, stalk, and idolize. It is fitting that many Internet memes incorporate celebrities since both are a large part of 21st century culture. One example is the celebrities without eyebrows meme. This meme depicts pictures of celebrities that have been photoshopped to look like they have no eyebrows, but every other facial feature remains the same.

 This was one of the first widespread occurrences of photoshopping famous people on the Internet. The ‘celebrities without eyebrows’ Tumblr blog was created in 2009. As the meme gained popularity it was also posted to Funny or Die and in 2013 Facebook pages were created to share new versions of the meme. According to Know Your Meme, there have been a few spin offs of celebrities without eyebrows, such as actresses without teeth and celebrities with eyebrow moustaches. 

Many successful memes use humour to make social, political, or cultural statements. Although, some people may create a version of this meme for the sheer silliness of it and not to purposefully critique the spectacle that is celebrity culture. Memes tend to work in this capacity when they gain popularity and appear to be making more of a statement about the world. Knobel and Lankshear explain that for memes, “humour is a key component…[but] humour is always open to interpretation on a reader’s or viewer’s part.” (11). This meme relates to Hall’s sender/receiver model because texts are negotiated and as consumers we can modify the meme to their own needs.

The important aspect of the celebrities without eyebrows meme is the fact that only pictures of famous people are photoshopped, never regular people (which would still be funny). Celebrities are culturally recognizable figures and are regarded as the idols of beauty, style, and good looks. This meme perpetuates our cultures obsession with not only physical appearance, but also celebrities. Both the media and us (consumers) constantly critique and gawk over the appearance of celebrities, from what they are wearing to how thin they are. Even though this meme seems to mock celebrities, it is still is focused on their physical appearances. The extent we obsess over celebrity gossip and glamourize these people feeds the spectacle of celebrity culture.

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Overly Attached Girlfriend

The ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ is a hilarious, but at times an oddly relatable meme to people who are currently in or have been in a relationship. This meme features a wide-eyed, teenage girl sporting a rather creepy look on her face. The ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ meme also called OAG uses a webcam image of a possessed looking girl to poke fun at the tendencies of clingy and overprotective girlfriends. Versions of this meme include, “I know you received my email / Because I checked your inbox”, “I recorded your breathing at night / And made it my ringtone”, and “You ate at Wendy’s / Who the fuck is Wendy?”

According to Know Your Meme, the ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ originated from a Justin Bieber fan video uploaded to YouTube in 2012, where a girl sings a parody version of the song ‘Boyfriend.’ The video went viral and an image from the video became the face of the ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ shared on multiple platforms such as Reddit, Tumblr, and Buzzfeed.  The captions of this meme are similar to an older meme called the ‘Crazy Girlfriend Praying Mantis.’ The popularity of the meme caused the creation of a Twitter account using the handle, @attachedGF to curate all the noteworthy captions.

The most notable spin off of the ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ is none other than her counter part the ‘ Overly Attached Boyfriend’, which depicts a boy around the same age with an uncanny resemblance to the ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’; bug eyes, creepy smile and all (what a perfect couple). Other spinoffs of the meme include, the ‘Misunderstood Girlfriend’ and the ‘Underly Attached Girlfriend.’

The ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ meme is beneficial because it is a light-hearted way to advise viewers that you do not need to be ‘attached’ to your partner at all times. The girl in the image cannot be older than 16 years old, which is a cultural marker of a time in young peoples lives when they first start to date. This meme originated from a YouTube Justin Bieber fan video, which is no coincidence because teenage girls often have the reputation of being obsessive (‘fan girls’) over bands and pop stars like Justin Bieber. Although most of these captions seem ridiculous when read aloud, they are used to create a clear message of what is over the line and what is not socially acceptable relationship conduct.

This meme can be problematic as it perpetuates the stereotype that females are emotionally irrational and too clingy towards to their significant other, while males are depicted as not being as emotionally driven in their relationships. The ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ perpetuates the obsessive fan girl depiction and naturalizes these overprotective qualities as strictly female. This meme also has the cultural implication that these clingy tendencies are now heightened because of the Internet and social networking site such as Facebook and Twitter. 

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Blog Post #1: The College Freshman

‘The College Freshman’ is a very recognizable meme and is especially popular with University students. This meme always pops up during the exam season and o-week, displaying a male student in a University hoodie with headphones and using his cell phone.  The picture is very reminiscent of the cheesy, staged images in University guidebooks used to entice high school students into “the best university experience.” The college freshman meme also dubbed as ‘Uber Frosh’, pokes fun at common experiences of university student’s and cliché habits of first year students. Popular versions of the meme include: “Asks where a building is. Is already in it”, “Takes Psych 101. Analyzes everyone he knows”, and “Buys all recommended textbooks.”

 According to Know Your Meme, ‘The College Freshman,’ was originally used as a stock image for different advertisements. The first known version of the meme was “First day at college. I fucking love ultimate Frisbee.” It was shared on Reddit on July 24th, 2011 and soon spread across to other sites such as Buzzfeed and Tumblr.

 There have been multiple spin offs of this meme, including ‘The Senior Freshman’, a senior citizen who has gone back to school. Other remixes include the ‘Sheltered College Freshman’ and the ‘Soul Searching Sophomore’.  

 The ‘College Freshman’ meme is beneficial because it creates a sub-culture for University students to share similar experiences and habits. When a ‘College Freshman’ meme pops up on the screen, the reaction is often – “ha, so true.” They identify common problems and the ignorant practices of first year students. These memes could be a good reference for current first year students so they do not commit these frosh faux pas- creating a type of university survival guide. More importantly, the ‘College Freshman’ connects students from different schools and countries and proves we are all more similar than you think.

 This meme can be problematic because it presents a stereotypical representation of University students. The ‘College Freshman’ depicts a white, young “boy next door” male, who owns a smartphone and goes to an American school. This representation excludes females and students of other ethnicities as “typical” university students. In addition, variations of this meme often reflect problematic societal views on education. For example, “First semester: pre-med. Second semester: communications” and “I can’t wait until I graduate with my art history major and put my degree to good use” suggest the humanities are lesser degrees compared to science and engineering. 

"What do you study in MIT again?"