What Do You Meme?
I wouldn’t say that I use memes all that often; unless you count “use” as using memes as reading material. I certainly encounter these forms of expression on the websites that I frequently visit, but I would have to say that I am a reader of memes. I am not a writer of these tiny tidbits that pervade the screens that we look at on a constant basis.
Indeed, one may argue that I am illiterate within the discourse of memes, for I possess the ability to read memes, but I have yet to write my own.
And why should I create my own meme? The persisting phenomenon seems that memes never cease: I am constantly reading memes, and memes are constantly being written for people like me. Since I have yet to create my own meme, I have decided to try — at least this once.
To write a “good” meme, one must know its context and the expectations that are associated with its historical (often historically brief) internet presence. Frequently, memes are written using meme templates on websites that are known as meme generators. One common meme template is used to create “Bad Luck Brian” memes. This meme first became popular in 2012 when a friend of the person whose middle school picture serves as the backdrop of the meme posted this photo with a caption that read “Takes Driving Test [top caption] Gets DUI [Bottom caption].” Since its first posting “Bad Luck Brian” memes have served to make light of extremely uncomfortable and tragic incidences. posting “Bad Luck Brian” memes usually feature a top caption that states a mundane situation and features a bottom caption that describes an extremely uncomfortable or tragic outcome as a punchline.
The meme I decided to create follows the expected usage of a “Bad Luck Brian” meme: it references a deeply tragic outcome that occurs to the protagonist from Sophocles’ three Theban plays.
To understand my meme, one would have to understand what happens to Oedipus in Sophocles’ three plays; the condensed summary is as follows: Oedipus is born to parents who are told by a prophecy that their son will kill his father and marry his mother, they don’t like that so they say goodbye to him, Oedipus gets adopted, Oedipus is told a prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus leaves his (adopted) parents, and, through various events, unknowingly is led to kill his father and marry his mother.
Knowing that my meme requires a knowledge of Oedipus as a character, I would use it in literary academic circles in which many readers would be familiar with this story and would understand what a “Bad Luck Brian” meme is saying. Perhaps, a social media meme page for comparative world literature scholars.
My internet meme shows that it doubly functions as an allusion: to read this meme one must comprehend the context of “Bad Luck Brian” memes and comprehend the context of Oedipus’s dreadful realization at the end of Sophocles’ Theban plays (when he blinds himself).
To write a successful meme, one needs to know how to use allusions effectively: holding an understanding of the audience, what the audience knows, and what the audience finds humorous.
Works Cited
“Bad Luck Brian.” Know Your Meme, 11 Nov. 2017, knowyourmeme.com/memes/bad-luck-brian.
“Livememe.com.” Livememe, www.livememe.com/.
Ragnorak7, director. The Office- Michael Scott No God No. YouTube, 19 Feb. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ.