What do you meme?
We all love a good meme. The funnier, the better. Sometimes, it’s the crude and offensive memes that really go viral. It seems that there is really no stopping the snowball effect that occurs when a meme reaches popularity. It’s becoming increasingly clear that we (Internet users and meme aficionados of the world) don’t like to be told what to do. In fact, telling meme enthusiasts to stop only encourages them to create and share even more memes. We tell ourselves it’s all a bit of harmless fun, that it’s not hurting anyone. But this is not always true. Memes can and do get taken too far. Don’t believe me? Here are some cases:
1. Cincinnati Zoo
The latest victim of the viral meme culture plaguing the Internet is non other than Cincinnati Zoo’s slain gorilla Harambe. As you’re probably well aware, zookeepers shot Harambe after a 3-year-old boy fell into the gorilla enclosure earlier this year. The initial worldwide shock and outrage towards the zoo and their handling of the situation, slowly turned into ridicule. Countless Harambe inspired Facebook pages have since appeared (including this absolute charmer). Whilst it seems thousands of people are finding the memes shared on these pages absolutely hilarious, the Cincinnati Zoo is definitely not. In fact, the memes got so bad that they have disabled all of their social media accounts. But deleting themselves from social media hasn’t stopped the memes or the constant stream of jokes pouring in on Twitter.
2. Star Wars Kid
Some people say Star Wars Kid was the original Internet meme. 10 years ago, a video of a 15-year-old using a golf ball retriever as a makeshift lightsaber was posted to Myspace (R.I.P.) without his consent. The video soon went viral and people began adding to and remixing the clip. Now, the video has had over 32 million views on Youtube. Star Wars Kid, whose real name is Ghyslain Raza, faced some of the earliest documented cyberbullying, which left him publicly humiliated.
“No matter how hard I tried to ignore people telling me to commit suicide, I couldn’t help but feel worthless, like my life wasn’t worth living,” — Ghyslain Raza
Fortunately for Ghyslain, psychiatric help and a strong support system helped him through the darkness and depression associated with cyberbullying. He beat the bullies, despite their pushing for him to commit suicide. Others are not so fortunate. They suffer terrible depression at the hands of cyber bullies. Just last week, an Italian woman committed suicide after her leaked sex tape became an Internet meme. She was mocked, tormented and humiliated to the point where she quit her job and moved to the other side of the country.
But it’s not all bad; plenty of people have embraced meme-life and the fleeting fame that comes with it. To be honest with you right now, I initially set out to write about the harm that memes can cause to the stars. In reality, there are actually many cases where the Internet fame that comes from memes has resulted in very positive endings for the stars. So here are some of the most successful meme celebrities:
1. Overly Attached Girlfriend (2012)
What started as a YouTube video of Laina singing along to a Justin Bieber song, soon became the ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ meme. Laina embraced the instant celebrity that came along with her meme success. She has over 1.2 million subscribers to her Youtube channel, where she regularly posts videos (including some starring Overly Attached Girlfriend). It’s rumoured she’s made thousands of dollars and has even raised $22K for charity.
2. Bad Luck Brian
Kyle Craven did not go looking for internet fame. Like Star Wars Kid, one of Kyle’s school friends posted his yearbook photo to Reddit, and thus, Bad Luck Brian was born. By the time this happened, Kyle had finished school, and was not bullied like Star Wars Kid was. He accepted what happened, embraced the fame and even started his own Bad Luck Brian YouTube channel. In fact, Bad Luck Brian even went on a date with Overly Attached Girlfriend!
3. Grumpy Cat
I highly doubt everyone’s favourite feline, Grumpy Cat (a.k.a Tardar Sauce) fully understands the extent of her fame. But one thing’s for sure, her owner certainly does. The Grumpy Cat sensation was born in 2012 (again, when a photo was posted to Reddit). She now has her own manager, an online merchandise store and a Christmas movie. It’s estimated that Grumpy Cat’s net worth is around $1 million!
So, how is a meme celebrity created?
Basically, it comes down to spreadability. A photo or video is so easy to share these days. Content no longer follows traditional top down distribution, where a content producer pushes “read only” content to users (e.g. newspapers). Instead, social media gives content producers the flexibility to push and pull bottom up content from users. Not quite following? Check out the models below:
This new model of distribution means that anyone can create and share content. People who create, share or actively interact with content have been appropriately labelled “produsers” (both producers and users of content). So, once a produser has created and uploaded a meme to social media (whether it be to Reddit, YouTube or Facebook), it’s really up to other produsers to create and share their own versions of the original content until it inevitably becomes a viral chain of reproduced images or videos. Of course, the content must be at least entertaining otherwise it will never truly reach viral status.
The spreadability of content on the Internet means that it’s fairly simple for memes to circulate. As the circulation continues the star of the meme gains more and more attention. As this happens, we see memes venture outside of the virtual world and into everyday life. Grumpy Cat was interviewed by Karl Stefanovic on the Today Show, despite not being able to answer and of Karl’s hard-hitting questions. It was probably a very slow news day, but I think this highlights just how popular memes can get.
Why do we like memes?
Well, I’m sure you’ve heard about just how lazy technology and the Internet is making society these days. We just don’t like reading. Why would we when a picture can tell 1000 words? So seeing a funny photo or video with minimal text gives us the instant gratification we so desperately desire. Of course, to be classified a ‘true meme’ (one that follows the produser model) it must have some comedic or ironic element.
So there’s really no denying memes are around to stay. Their sheer volume and popularity mean they will continue to fill your social network feeds. While we all enjoy a good meme every now and then, we often don’t consider the regular people featured in these memes. For some, meme fame is embraced and encouraged. But for others, memes can go too far and can be more harmful than initially intended. So all I can really say is think before you meme.
Originally published at The Isthmus.
