Memes and Keeping Idiots at Bay

Harambe- the gorilla who was shot down one day shy from his 17th birthday in the Cincinnati zoo was immortalised online in the only way the internet can fathom tribute; Memes. Have a look:

There is an entire range of memes like this. These memes instill disbelief and downright offence, and even amusement, but there is one thing; The internet is perhaps the greatest community to keep occasional bouts of stupidity at check.

Let’s look at the facts. There was a gorilla named Harambe (Swahili for ‘community labour’) in the Cincinnati zoo who has his moment in the limelight when a baby fell into the moat. Though world renowned primatologist Jane Goodall interpreted the gorilla’s subsequent actions as a desire to protect the child, he was eventually shot when zoo authorities realised that in good old Uncle Sam it does not pay to look after your factors of production which happen to be the animals in the zoo (anti-marxist-peta anyone?). The incident was much lamented by major leaders around the world including the present-hopeful and eventually bankrupt (again) Donald Duck. (Correction there: It is Donald Trump)

Then came the internet and the eventual storm of (pardon my french here) “glorious dank memes”. Yes, the zoo authorities find them in poor taste and some of them, downright offensive, including the current tirade of people declaring that they shall ‘Unsheath their phallus for the glory of Harambe’. However, should we be so very emotionally distraught by one gorilla’s controversial death? There are African americans in the united states being shot by the dozen, ISIS seems to still exist and the Britain left the European union in the world’s most pubic divorce before being hijacked by Brad Pitt and Angelina. This absurdity is being mocked and laughed off in the internet’s own wacky way.

Take another going over the board example:

This chart of seemingly satanic symbols making (Dan Brown look like a school boy) are in fact a list of human sexualities. This is perhaps the only time when the pornographic industry has not been able to keep up with the sexes, a triumph if I may say, of gender studies over graphic voyeurism.

By turning the fight to the gender identities of transexuals and transgenders into a joke through this mass proliferation of….. What is harambe’s good name is neutrois?

We live in an age where people can congregate and amplify their voice with great ease and efficiency. However, it is also allowing people to amplify great stupidity and agendas which do not make any sense other than t serve some twisted sense of righteousness. This is where the internet is kept safe from these devious elements through the vigilantism of memes. To sign off on a hopeful note:

Written by: Aditya Kovvali
Edited by: Vedika Agarwal