Dream Team Memes

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Lazy College Senior

            In true poetic justice, I have chosen to dedicate my final meme to the beloved Lazy College Senior. The image utilized for this meme, originally a stock photo for Photo.com, features a young man in an outdoor restaurant, looking mildly disgruntled while sipping on a pint of beer (Know Your Meme). The photo's combination of enthusiasm for beer and lack of enthusiasm towards all else lead to the photo being uploaded to Reddit in November 2011 under its current title. (Know Your Meme). The internet fell in love with this apathetically lethargic lad quickly, and not even a week after the meme's original posting it had appeared on Buzzfeed, Memebase, #1 Meme and The Bigster (Know Your Meme).

            Some of my personal favourite renditions of the meme include, "Due Tomorrow....Do Tomorrow" and "Job Hunting Is Too Hard...Grad School It Is." Due to the viral nature of the meme, a derivative called Lazy Elementary School Kid appeared in May of 2012 which followed the same humour narrative. The fact that this meme created a new meme can be attributed to the ability of memes to achieve reproduction through imitation as reported by Limor Shifman  (18).

            While this may not be one of the most pressing social issues of our day, the fact of the matter remains that the Lazy College Senior standing as an "everyman" projects negative stereotypes. For example, the fact that the image shows the young man drinking the beer allows the viewer of the photo to be thinking that drinking is a priority over whatever academic obligation is being subordinated in the meme's text. This plays into the college mentality that socializing (which as we know in college terms means getting belligerent) should take precedence over course work. Therefore, this meme is problematic due to the fact that it detracts from the primary purpose of college enrolment, but also because it encourages the culture of drinking.

            This meme is problematic in that those of us who are college seniors really do not need anymore validation in our belief that senoritis is an actual diagnosable phenomena. Therefore, another danger of this meme is that it plays into the commonly held belief that it is okay to care very little about the effort one exerts when finishing up their scholastic endeavours. The popularity of this meme serves as validation of laziness for seniors on campuses everywhere. That is, if just one person is slacking, they are seen as lazy, but if it becomes normalized through mediums such as this meme, then all seniors are justified in their inability to give a damn about their final year of schooling.

            In conclusion, the Lazy College Senior was successful because of the truth behind its humour. However, playing on this humour risks perpetuating negative mentalities for college seniors, and all those who will one day be college seniors.

    Bibliography

"Lazy College Senior." Know Your Meme News. N.p., 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.

Shifman, Limor. Memes in Digital Culture. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2013. Print

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Rape Sloth

                        In this week's blog I will examine the completely inappropriate and downright disturbing Rape Sloth meme. The image which is utilized for the Rape Sloth meme is a photo of a sloth whispering in a woman's ear, with half of the woman's face being displayed (Know Your Meme). Popular examples include, "Psst...You're Gonna Get Raped" and "You Know What Rhymes With Sloth?...Rape" (Know Your Meme).

            The photo was originally shot for Terry Richardson’s 2010 Pirelli Calendar photo shoot (Know Your Meme). The first time the Rape Sloth meme was regrettably introduced to the Internet was in February of 2012 via a thread on the Body Building Forum (Know Your Meme). Know Your Meme writes that in the following months versions appeared on sites such as 9gag, FunnyJunk and Reddit which received thousands of votes and views. By September 2012, Rape Sloth had its own Twitter account, and by January 2013 the infamous Sloth had made the transition to Facebook as well.

            I think it should not go without discussing the way in which the photo was edited in order to be turned into the Rape Sloth meme. The original photo showed the entirety of the model's face, in addition to the turned side of her body and her arms, which were holding the sloth up. However, the way the photo was cropped for the purpose of this meme cuts the woman's face into half. The argument could be made that the photo was cropped in the manner that it was in order to zoom in and focus on the sloth's face. However, I think that the reason the photo was cropped to include half of the woman's face is in an effort to dehumanize her. The comments which the sloth is making are downright criminal in many cases, and therefore only seeing a portion of a woman's face represents the fact that the woman is only a fraction of a human. In my opinion, this allows the audience to make themselves more comfortable with the heinous inferences which are being projected.

            In general, this meme is problematic for the role it plays in the perpetuation and normalization of rape culture. When Shifman discusses what makes a popular meme, she states, "good memes survive and bad memes die, so memes are heavily dependent on humour" (18). The fact that the "humour" which this meme utilizes was and is considered comical is problematic in that in plays into the wider discourse of rape culture. When a culture accepts an internet meme that makes light of sexual assault, it further keeps the door open to the propagation of this brand of unacceptable humour. For example, Robin Thicke's song "Blurred Lines" which was heavily criticized as accepting rape culture was released in 2013, which coincides with the Rape Sloth going viral.

            In conclusion, I think that the sexual innuendos which are utilized by the Rape Sloth have real and serious implications to the perpetuation of pro-rape culture discourse.

  "Rape Sloth." Know Your Meme News. N.p., 2012. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

Shifman, Limor. Memes in Digital Culture. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2013. Print.

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                                          This week's blog will feature a discussion centered around the inherently racist "Successful Black Man" meme. The meme, which originated in 2010 as an adaptation of a stock photo from ShutterStock , features a suit clad African American man staring straight ahead (Know Your Meme). Early versions of the Successful Black Man meme were shared on Meme Generator and 4chan, however the title which the meme is now referred to by was not adopted until posted as a thread title on 4chan in October of 2011. It was under this thread that the Successful Black Man meme began receiving a lot of attention, and was thereafter archived (Know Your Meme).

            Know Your Meme describes the dialogue format of the Successful Black Man meme as "bait-and-switch" in that the top line of the meme plays into a negative racial ideology, while the bottom line continues the thought in a manner that neutralizes the above line as a threat. Popular renditions of the Succesful Black Man meme include "Brought Home Some Hoes and Weed...Remover to Keep My Lawn In Tip Top Shape" and "I'm Going To Get Fried Chicken and Grape Soda...Off the Lunch Menu and Replace it With Healthier Alternatives" (Know Your Meme).

            What it is particularly problematic about the Successful Black Man meme is that it has garnered the kind of attention which it has. Shifman writes, "contemporary society is based on an "attention economy"...most valuable resource in the information era is not information but the attention people pay to it" (32). If Shifman's premise is accepted that attention is the most valuable resource, what does it say about the overarching ideologies of the Internet that something so racist could receive such a warm welcome.

            In my opinion, the major problem behind the Successful Black Man meme is that it hides behind its neutralizing second line in an attempt to prove that it is not guilty of repeated racial slurs. However, the fact of the matter is that by turning racist content into a joke, the Successful Black Man meme is seemingly not held accountable for the negative stereotypes which it is blatantly trying to conjure. The very title of the meme "Successful Black Man" is heavily problematic in and of itself. The fact that "successful" is user to qualify "black man" means that whoever chose the title clearly did not feel that the two terms were not or could not already be inherently synonymous. 

            In conclusion, the Successful Black Man meme is guilty of perpetuating racial stereotypes, and not even being bold enough to do so outright so that it can have the whistle blown. The Successful Black Man meme utilizes humour in an attempt to prove that racist jokes are okay, as long as they are apologized for.

  Bibliography

"Successful BlackMan." Know Your Meme News. N.p., 2012. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

Shifman, Limor. Memes in Digital Culture. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2013. Print.

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The Overly Attached Girlfriend

            The Overly Attached Girlfriend meme has been haunting the internet and commitment-phobic individuals since 2012 (Know Your Meme). The image used for the Overly Attached Girlfriend Meme features a close-up of a young woman eagerly smiling at the camera. The text of the meme follows no specific format, however all the memes follow the theme of, as the name would suggest, an overly attached girlfriend. Popular renditions of the internet's darling clinger include "I was looking through your texts earlier, who's mom?" and "You ate at Wendy's? Who the f*%k is Wendy?" (Know Your Meme).

            Know Your Meme cites that the original image of the excessively enthused female came from a parody video which was uploaded to YouTube. The stalker-like lyrics YouTube user wzr0713 combined with Justin Bieber's song "Boyfriend" went viral on YouTube, receiving 1.35 million views (Know Your Meme). The still from the video which has been the basis for the meme, is the result of a screen-shot which occurred following the parody video being uploaded to Reddit (Know Your Meme).

            This meme plays a particular role in perpetuating myth. From a societal standpoint, there has long been the belief that when it comes to relationships men have a more cavalier attitude, whereas women become attached and "clingy." Roland Barthes says that in order for myth to be perpetuated, the myth must appear to be true and make logical sense. When considering why Overly Attached Girlfriend appeared to be true, I think it is important to examine how the media landscape has done its role in supporting the ideology that women are clingy. Drawing on my embarrassingly expansive mental repertoire of Romantic Comedies, I think two movies which prove this point are How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and He's Just Not That Into You. Both movies feature a heroine who, for different reasons,  provides a portrayal of all the stereotypical faux-pas overly attached women make it relationships. Therefore, The Overly Attached Girlfriend meme is playing into a myth that is feeding a negative stereotype, which the media has helped popularize. Limor Shifman argues that a major component of a meme is distilling a substantial amount of information into a small package. That is what the Overly Attached Girlfriend Meme does, it sums up a stereotype into a series of reproductions. 

            The fact that the humour behind this meme comes from hyperbolizing the stereotype means that many likely acknowledge the visual as the comedy it is intended to be. However, it is likely that it has perpetuated itself for this long as a result of the degrees of truth many find in it. Therefore, this meme is problematic because it exacerbates an already negative stereotype under the guise of humour.

      Barthes, Roland. "Myth today." Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader3 (1998): 293-302.

"Overly Attached Girlriend." Know Your Meme News. N.p., 2012. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.

Shifman, Limor. Memes in Digital Culture. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2013. Print.

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            The meme which I will be discussing this week is the ever hilarious Futurama Fry meme. What is unique about this meme is that, as the meme's name suggests, it is an image taken off of the cartoon comedy Futurama (Know Your Meme). Know Your Meme reports that the photo, a still of the character Fry's face, is taken from Season 2, Episode 6 of the show entitled, “The Lesser of Two Evils.” The first time this image was utilized as a meme was in a split screen of the face which is now traditionally depicted, as well as a still of Fry's face in similar position but with open eyes. Below the split screen image read the text, "OH! I see what you did there" (Know Your Meme). Know Your Meme credits the text "Not Sure if Trolling, Or Just Stupid" as being the first of the Futurama Fry memes as they exist now. Futurama Fry has been so viral since 2011 that in June 2012 the show itself utilized the meme's popularity to help promote for its 7th season (Know Your Meme).

            From a cultural standpoint, the viral spread of the Futurama Fry makes sense. As is indicated by the aforementioned fact that the show was onto its 7th season, Futurama was already an existing and popular show. That means that at the time the meme went viral, there was an audience base which previously existed that was able to acknowledge the meme contextually and thus was able to fully appreciate the humour. The existing audience fulfills Knobel and Lankshear's theory that in order for a meme to become widespread e there needs to be the criteria of susceptibility for those viewing the meme.

            Know Your Meme provides six notable derivatives of the Futurama Fry meme which all follow the "Not sure if X" format. However, looking at the top memes I would argue that for the most part the role the Futurama Fry meme has played on the internet is one of self-deprecating humour. For example, one of the versions which had been marked as notable states "Not sure if high beams, Or just bright headlights" (Know Your Meme). The Furturama Fry meme in this instance, and the others that fall into the self-deprecating category, provides an outlet for individuals to laugh at everyday mild confusions which seem to be prolific throughout the online and offline community.

            However, as with much of internet humour there is the possibility that the Futuruama Fry can be a platform for humour which can be offensive. In the attached image of Futurama Fry which reads "Not sure if homeless, or MIT" we see an example of this. While the joke may be topical to those of us studying Media at Western University and understand the jab being made at hipster culture, it may not be considered socially sensitive to those who are truly without a home.  

Works Cited:

"Futurama Fry / Not Sure If." Know Your Meme News. N.p., 2012. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.

Knobel, Michele, and Colin Lankshear. “Online Memes, Affinites, and Cultural Production.” A New Literacies Sampler. New York: P. Lang, 2007. 199–227. Print