If you don’t know what a “meme” is, you’re not alone. I didn’t know the word until about a month ago myself, and I thought it rhymed with “tame.” (It actually rhymes with “team.”) According to dictionary.com, it is “a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.” But in “Internetland,” it’s usually a picture that makes some sort of funny social commentary and is then repeated, adapted, and spread virally over the internet. Not all are hilarious, but many are spot-on for up-to-the-second cultural relevance. In a nutshell, they are, when done right, scathingly funny. Here are some of my favorites:
- Lolcats. The lolcats have been around for quite a while now–years, in fact. Everyone has seen them. The meme consists of pairing pictures of cats with superimposed captions, often misspelled and with babyish grammar. I don’t know why the broken English makes it funnier, but it does. If you don’t like cats, no doubt the lolcats annoy the pants off of you.
- Grumpy Cat. Speaking of cats, the Grumpy Cat’s popularity has soared in recent months. She is a most unique-looking cat with an adorably omnipresent scowl. People have taken to applying scathingly gruff sayings over a picture of Grumpy Cat, sayings such as “I HATE YOU PEOPLE.” My brother has taken to periodically replacing his Facebook profile photo with one of Grumpy Cat. Unlike grumpy people faces, Grumpy Cat’s face, and corresponding hate speech, can only make you smile.
- Condescending Willy Wonka. The name sort of says it all. This meme features a screen-capture of Gene Wilder in his famous Willy Wonka role, possessing an all-knowing smirk. The accompanying text usually includes a semi-rhetorical question (“Oh, you’re ready for the weekend?”) with a really condescending answer (“You simply must tell everyone on Facebook.”). The great thing about this meme is that you can live vicariously through Willy Wonka’s patronizing zingers.
- Demotivational Poster. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away people actually put up non-ironic posters at their places of business that depicted some uplifting word and photo combo (such as a hang glider with the word “SUCCESS” and a motivational quote beneath him). But nowadays, you’ll only find mocking, sarcastic versions of these original pieces of art, and thank goodness. They’re far more entertaining! The demotivational poster meme really took off with despair.com, but now you can find versions in every nook and cranny of the internet.
- Ecards. These cards, which often feature text aside drawings of people in old-fashioned attire, have exploded online. And they take snarky to a new level. Many examples of this meme can be found at someecards.com, but the theme has been hijacked anywhere and everywhere on the internet. One of my favorites features a dutiful housewife flanked by the sentence, “Cleaning with kids in the house is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos.” Ecards can be clean or dirty, so peruse at your own risk!
Is the internet completely oversaturated with memes? Oh yeah. Are they still funny? I suppose that depends on the audience. I for one love a silly, sarcastic meme as much as the next gal. They’re funny because they’re true. Best of all, they express what we wish we had the guts to say ourselves.
