One genre of memes is the kind where the first line looks like it’s going to be a racial stereotype, but the second line shows that the statement is innocent.Memes don't always hit right away, and if the summer 2017 tells us anything, it's that sometimes it takes a few months for things to really get cooking. Many people are aware of these attitudes, and memes that subvert them as part of a joke are also common. They can also be reactionary in nature, showing the resistance that often comes from marginalized groups gaining more rights and respect in society. The memes often express outright hostility towards the people. Bigoted people can view these memes and feel validated that others think the same way they do. They include offensive caricatures and stereotypes about the group in question. These memes reveal folk attitudes towards racial minorities and other marginalized groups. Just as there are memes about movies and video games, there are memes about people’s bigoted attitudes towards others. Like most folklore, memes can be used to reinforce traditional prejudices. And when they’re done with one meme, a new one is always there to take its place. People use the meme so many times that they quickly become tired of seeing it. One reason for this is most likely overexposure. They become part of the folk cycle and phase out of it more rapidly thanks to the internet. “All These People Have Never Been to Prague in Their Lives.” New York Magazine, New York Magazine, 11 Jan. “’He’s Especially Good at Priciiipitating’: Tropical Storm Gaston Inspires a Host of Witty Musical Memes from Giddy Beauty & the Beast Fans.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 24 Aug. “The Circle Game.” Know Your Meme, /memes/the-circle-game. “The Dab.” Know Your Meme,, /memes/the-dab.Įfrain. One does not make a meme to keep to themselves.īrad. They could even be seen as a folk performance, because they are posted online with the intention of entertaining others and/or gaining popularity. They also remain on the internet where anyone can see them. In this way memes could be likened to folk drawings. They may not be physical items if they are simply viewed on a screen, but they do require some amount of craft to make them with photo or video-editing software. These are a new type of folk art, since they serve no practical purpose. They fit into the material category for the simple fact that most memes involve pictures or videos of some kind. The object of the game is to trick a person into looking at someone’s hand when they make this gesture: People who are unfamiliar with the game will follow the instructions on the pictures and fall for it. One example of this is the “Increasingly Verbose Meme”: The theme is changed in such a way that it is still recognizable as the particular meme. Single memes often have many variations which all revolve around a single theme or idea. However, memes do fit the criteria of folklore in several other ways.
After all, the internet is a more recent invention, and there hasn’t been much time to pass down memes to the next generation. Still, some might question if internet memes have been around long enough to become part of the folk cycle. However, something does not necessarily have to have an anonymous origin in order to be folklore. They are also not anonymous, as the internet makes it possible to track when the meme first occurred and who made it. Someone posting a meme on Twitter isn’t much different from someone telling a joke to others face-to-face. The internet is merely another method of facilitating communication between members of a folk group.
But they are made by individuals and distributed informally, so they may be likened to folk artifacts instead. Of course, one could argue that they don’t because they’re on the internet, and therefore they are written down. The question remains: Do internet memes qualify as folklore? The answer is yes.
“Why Were Medieval Knights Always Fighting Snails?”, Smithsonian Institution, 14 Oct. “Meme.” Oxford Living Dictionaries, Oxford Dictionaries. . “Corporations’ Sad Attempts at Using Memes: Death Is Too Good for Us.” Gawker, 23 Jan. People often see it for what it is: a transparent attempt to relate to the younger generation for their own gain.īiddle, Sam.
They are ridiculed because they are trying to gain access to a folk group they are not a part of. Politicians use them too, in an attempt to score votes. The youth, for their part, generally think of these efforts as cringe-worthy.