#mit3652

[thismablog]

The Hunger Games at Western University aka “The Hunter Boot Games”

[lessonsingeography-blog]

i'm writing a paper about [10]guy

when i tell people i am taking a class on memes they always say things like, "that's so weird!"  "so this is what your tuition money goes to?" "what job are you gonna get out of that?"  "are you serious?"  yes i am serious. i don't know why people think that it is so strange. you don't have to be studying hundreds of year old theory and information for it to be education. at one point the long standing theories we study now were contemporary theory. we study old theory and practice to understand how and why people lived, interacted, and produced they way they did when they did. a great way to help to understand a 'culture' or group of people is to look at cultural artifacts- toys, dress, appliances, art, books, literally anything physical that people used/ enjoyed/ made.  although memes are more than just internet memes (but history of memes is not what i am discussing), in my class we are primarily focusing on internet memes. and why? because internet memes are cultural objects and by looking at what types of texts and images are copied, remixed, and circulated, you can learn a lot about people today. what they want. what they are entertained and annoyed by. what sort of themes and ideas are virally appealing to the people of the internet. the internet that is a whole culture of people in it's own right. and the internet is so fluid and intertwined and linked to one another, even if a meme starts in a vampire fetish sub reddit, it's so easy to end up on buzzfeed and then fed down everyone's facebook throats when devouring their plate of newsfeed. so, by an internet meme's ability to reach literally everyone (Western World. ugh sorry), they are a good sample of cultural artifact because so many people have the opportunity to see, change, and share it. everyone is exposed.  it's amazing what you can learn by studying seemingly (sometimes actual) simple idiocy. i'm writing a paper about [10]guy. 

[huntfrig3652]

[huntfrig3652]

Blog Post #5: Girls Just Want To Have Fun

Jeff Preston

Hunter Frigault

MIT 3652

March 11th, 2014

  For my fifth and final meme blog post, I decided to examine the meme known as Idiot Nerd Girl. As a subset of the Advice Animals meme, Idiot Nerd Girl features a photo of teenage girl wearing thick-rimmed glasses and the word “NERD” written on the palm of her left hand set against a colour wheel background. The caption of the meme revolves around the lack of understanding towards a particular subject of “geek” culture. There are no popular examples of this meme.

According to Know Your Meme, the meme first originated in 2010 when a version of the meme was “posted to the single-topic “Idiot Nerd Girl” Tumblr with the caption “Self-proclaimed title of ‘nerd’/ What is World of Warcraft?” (Know Your Meme, par. 2). The meme began to spread and two years later it would have its own Facebook fan page and a gallery on the popular internet blog “Smosh” run by the popular YouTubers of the same name.

This meme ultimately finds its beneficial aspects in how negative it is towards women. As the proliferation of nerd/geek culture continues to grow in the mainstream, women are continuously shut out from what many see as an “all boys club”. A meme like Idiot Nerd Girl “provides a glimpse into the drama of morality of the First World of the twenty-first century” (Shifman, 113) with the drama in this case being the unnecessary defensive nature coming from those who feel a need to protect what they love from those who want to enjoy it but appear as harmful.  The good news however is that there have been attempts made to reclaim the meme by women in the geek/nerd community instead of just letting the meme exist as is.

One of the popular instances of this occurred on August 20th 2012 when “Dark Horse Comics editor Rachel Edidin began posting Idiot Nerd Girl images on Twitter with captions that alternatively portray the character as an authentic geek girl who is often misinterpreted as an impostor” (Know Your Meme, par. 6). After tweeting out these images, Edidin later posted ten of them to her Tumblr and would receive four thousand notes on the photoset in the first week of its posting.

From my own personal journey through nerd/geek culture, I have discovered that some of the best content creators within this culture have been women. There are female video game designers, female comic book artists, and female cosplayers amongst other occupations that have created some of my favourite pieces of nerd/geek culture. Allowing women to share in this culture would bring a new light of creativity and excitement that has not been seen for a very long time.

  Works Cited

  “Idiot Nerd Girl”. Know Your Meme. Cheezburger, n.p. Web. 11 Mar 2014.

  Shifman, Limor. Memes in Digital Culture. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2014. Print.

[aedgar6]

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).

[alexandranelsonmit3652-blog]

"That's Racist!": An Ethnographic Study

Aired on MTV2 from 2005 to 2006, a sketch comedy TV series called Wonder Showzen featured a single episode animated sketch titled “Plastic Surgeons Without Borders.” Here is a link to the original episode: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/7bbebcb277/plastic-surgeons-without-borders-from-wondershowzenfan.

At the end of the animated portion a video clip is shown of a black child yelling the words “That’s Racist!” at the camera and concluding the sketch. A GIF of the “That’s Racist!” clip was then featured on a YTMND page on June 4th, 2005 (KnowYourMeme). By 2007, the “That’s Racist!” meme hit the 4chan newsfeed, posted on the /b/ (random) board by an anonymous user. In 2008, on Body Building Forum, a request was submitted by member AnHerofor the GIF to resurface and along with the original, came a series of remixes and variations (KnowYourMeme). One of the remixes of the meme focuses on racism directed at Asian communities, with the caption of the meme “That’s Waisis,” being said by an Asian boy in a style similar to the original. In my opinion, this Asian variation implies a second layer of racist commentary by using a demeaning phonetic spelling as if said with a stereotypical and derogatory “Asian accent”. Here are the links to the said memes, respectively:

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/349/990/304.gif

http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/157122-thats-racist

This meme is used primarily as a form of communication on social media sites. It is often presented in a humorous manner to make obvious “the politically incorrect or racially insensitive nature of a post or comment online” (KnowYourMeme).

By 2009, the original meme was the foundation of an entire Tumblr blog devoted to racist humour. The blog, titled “That is Racist” quickly gained momentum and after months within the memesphere, the meme was a staple for users uploading intentionally racist memes. For example, this meme was uploaded to reddit.com and it received 5 800 upvotes and 65 comments in only a month:

http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/349938-thats-racist

Sure, the direct, non-conniving nature of the meme soothes the initial shock of the racist joke that the meme delivers, but why is it that it seems to simultaneously justify the racism at hand? Just because someone owns the fact that they have perpetuated racist thought processes and reinforced racial stereotypes does not eliminate the idea that the joke was still delivered and laughed at.

Aisha Harris, a culture blogger for Brow Beat, writes in her analysis of racist memes, “It’s difficult to […] not sense that [the] popularity [of these memes] has something to do with a persistent, if unconscious, desire to see black people perform” (Harris). By this, Harris is pointing out the notion that despite the fact that racist memes may or may not be intentionally racist is not the argument at hand. Racist memes have a place in our culture just as much as non-racist memes do, whether that is a necessary presence or not. She furthers this argument when she pin points a moment in one of her discussed videos in which the subject actually candidly comments on the issue of racial stereotyping within Western culture (Harris). She notes that this part of the video was actually one of the most overlooked of them all. She then recommends viewers of the videos look through a lens different than that of racist stereotypes and actually listen to the words of the subject.

Harris offers the idea that looking at memetics in this nature will work toward the betterment of cultural understanding of racial stereotyping and make people realize the overwhelming power that humorous memes hold in terms of perpetuating racism.

Works Cited

Harris, Aisha. “The Troubling Viral Trend of the “Hilarious” Black Neighbor.”

Brow Beat. Slate, 2013. 10 Mar. 2014.

<http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/05/07/charles_ramsey_amanda_berry_rescuer_becomes_internet_meme_video.html>

  Know Your Meme. “That’s Racist!” Cheezburger. Know Your

Meme, 2012. 10 Mar. 2014. <http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thats-racist >

[mitlb-blog]

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

[aedgar6]

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.