More to Memes than Meets the Eye—Krishna Priya

Memes started grabbing the limelight from the mid-2000s onwards, after proving to be effective tools of satire in social and political discourse. The evolution of memes has happened in tandem with people’s surging demand for media that could inform, educate and entertain them in the shortest possible period of time. Besides making us laugh and think they have played an enormous role in educating the masses on political issues and perspectives which are found in the mainstream media. They can be read by people in different ways and they mirror the popular mindset, becoming a lingua franca among the masses. Internet memes reflect a new genre of online communication and knowing how they are created, disseminated, and interpreted improves one’s ability to navigate digital culture. However, the influence of these memes is sometimes understated and tends to be trivialized, with people shutting their eyes to their efficacy.

Through an analysis of this issue with the help of some examples this paper argues that internet memes constitute a modern mode of meaning-making and can form a common language by driving people to behave in ways they wouldn’t otherwise, pushing online behaviours into the real world.

“As current meme research suggests, memes can be a discursive form of political participation that occurs alongside or concurrently with offline political movements or events” (Limor Shifman, 2014) [1]

The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins [2] coined the word ‘meme’ to refer to ‘units of cultural transmission’ which serve as a medium for cultural ideas, symbols, and practices that can be passed down from one mind to the next. Dawkins depicted images as instruments of cultural transmission – paths for individuals to transmit social recollections and thoughts to each other. In 2008, Susan Blackmore, a British scientist and author of the book The Meme Machine [3], opined that internet memes could never be categorized as the ‘meme’ Dawkins is referring to. She termed them ‘temes’ or technological memes since they are created and spread with the help of technology. The compression of time and space, due to the convergence of new media and globalization, has shrunk the world into a much smaller interactive field. One way to unite people and bring them under one umbrella is by the general, relatable online dialogues which this paper tries to explore. ‘Memes’ can serve as spaces to create and gather public opinion through a network of interactions. They can deal with a variety of subjects, such as identity, language, history, relationships and emotions. For instance, it has been inferred that people suffering from depression find comfort in memes related to depression. Sharing these memes assures them that the kind of battle they fight is not theirs alone but that of millions across the globe. Memes can come in different forms, from pictures and videos to catchphrases and hashtags, are shared across social media and spontaneously gain public attention. They are re-appropriated and repurposed, and their gravity and popularity changes, owing to shifts in the political discourse.

Michel de Certeau had introduced the concept of ‘productive consumption’ in the year 1984 [4]. It can be applied to the current media, which provide a room for individuals to engage in creative and interpretive activities in a participatory culture. With the Internet anyone can effortlessly become an author or a reader, as a result of which the role of the public shifts from spectator to participant. Because content can be uploaded unfiltered, people are exposed to an enormous amount of information in which the serious and the trivial are juxtaposed. The number of images on the internet is growing as more people share content every day, and with too much rivalry each meme’s lifespan has been shortened. The most popular Internet memes today are accepted due to their adaptability, as they can be customized to suit the needs of their users. Memes are thus used by many kinds of organizations and parties for campaigning and advertisement. We can even trace the history of these memes during World War II where satirical texts, graffiti (e.g., Kilroy was here), images and artistic expressions served a similar purpose.

In 1972, John Berger started a BBC documentary called Ways of seeing [5] in which he describes the impact of the evolving visual media. He says that the “meaning of the images that we see is not inherent inside the object but lies in our collective memory as a society. Convention and habit demarcate our interpretation of visuals. We digest meaning by seeing the connection between that image and ourselves”. He further argues that people try to communicate through a visual grammar, with memes falling under the category of visual kinaesthetic.

Political Discourse

The Indian Express wrote on 4 November, “Anxious supporters have taken to social media platforms to discuss which way the 2020 presidential race will swing, with many even sharing memes and jokes to cope with the stress.” During the presidential race, memes about the major candidates became very popular, attracting a wide range of people who would not normally participate in mainstream political debates. These memes were used as propaganda and to reinforce ideologies, identities and stereotypes. Following Barack Obama’s landslide election victory in 2012, politicians began to regard social media as ‘a driving force of campaign success. Besides traditional mobilization efforts, campaigners began to widely use social media platforms, inviting public feedback on campaign content and encouraging people to spread propaganda in order to increase voter turnout. The most politically oriented user-generated content was created online during the 2016 US elections, when the political debate was intense.

Following Xi Jinping’s announcement of the removal of the two-term limit on the presidency in China, his picture was posted alongside that of Winnie the Pooh because of the resemblance in their physical attributes, and it was removed expeditiously by China’s censorship authorities. In an age of widespread online involvement, the removal of these internet memes was a major move towards unparalleled regulation of expression on the internet. Indeed, China’s internet censorship has resulted in the partial or full blocking of a number of major websites, including Google, YouTube, Gmail, Wikipedia and Twitter. Given the interactive nature of such platforms, the decision to ban them seems to be motivated by a desire to prevent popular mobilization in China.

Meanwhile, Obama’s ‘Joker meme’ did not face the same fate. The original image from Time magazine was edited using the face of the villain of the Batman series, Joker. A 20-year-old Palestinian, Firas Alkhateeb, wanted to ridicule Obama’s image to offer criticism of the president. It has also been said that the meme was used not just because of some people’s distrust of Obama as a politician, but also as a slur against his African-American identity. The Joker meme allowed them to say things about him which other media would not have allowed or which would have been more difficult to express than simply posting a remixed picture of the 44th President of the United States.

Makmende Meme

While tracing the influence of memes as an example of participatory culture infused with playfulness, Shifman writes in her book Memes in Digital Culture that “memes were not born with the Internet; they were always part of human society. However, […] the digital era did change some fundamental aspects of memes” (Limor Shifman 2014) [1]. An apt example of this phenomenon is the Makmende meme. On March 16, 2010 a video on YouTube caught people’s attention across the internet. Just a Band from Kenya uploaded a video titled ‘Ha-He’, which employed sophisticated camera-work and graphics with a storyline presenting a ‘tough-guy’ called Makmende as the protagonist. Showing him wearing aviator sunglasses, sharing the screen with a female counterpart who is the typical ‘damsel in distress’, the video incorporates cultural references that resonated strongly with the Kenyan audience.  Imitating Chuck Norris Facts (a series of satirical factoids on toughness and masculinity on the internet), Makmende spread across Twitter and Facebook, with hashtags and fan accounts lauding the hero who performs the impossible. Soon after its popularity surged, Makmende even made his appearance in leading magazines such as GQ, Esquire, and Time, billing as ‘Man of the Year’, and outdoing global pop icons. In Nairobi in the 1990s, Makmende emerged as a nickname for those who fancied themselves heroes. It came to represent someone who thought they could accomplish something that others thought they could not, underpinning the creative potential of Kenya’s citizens.

Makmende paved the way for re-examining the sense of inferiority and despair which was ingrained in the popular mindset. It brought to light the drawbacks of the Kenyan government, which had failed to meet its people’s expectations. They recognised that Kenya was at a decisive moment in its political history and used Makmende to reiterate the country’s political and social ambitions, as well as to celebrate their national identity. Makmende encouraged young urban Kenyans to re-imagine their country by initiating a conversation about the future and by imbuing his place in popular culture with an overt political message and agenda.

Pepe the Frog

When Matt Furie gave life to ‘Pepe Frog’ in the comic-book series Boy’s Club, he never would have imagined the global upshot it would create. The meme-making website 4chan led the way for Pepe to reach a mass audience. As a result, the phrase ‘feels good man’ became the pickup line for variants of frog images recreated and distributed throughout the internet. The ‘angry pepe’, ‘crying pepe’ and ‘smug pepe’ were adopted in mainstream culture. As Pepe’s fame spread further, people started using the meme to give offence. Swastikas and other Nazi symbols were inserted into it by Neo-Nazi groups to offend people. After racist edits on Pepe went viral and the character’s presence was spotted in the emblem of the Alt-Right (a controversial group expressing opposition to gender and racial equality), the issue flared up. Soon after it appeared in a rally against the Black Lives Matter movement, things got worse. In addition to all the ongoing debates on it, Donald Trump’s tweet, in which he shared a picture of himself as Pepe, added fuel to the fire. Trump supporters’ use of various images during the 2016 election campaign of Pepe as Trump, giving speeches and participating in rallies, partially helped Trump to win the election. Pepe’s portrayal as naive and harmless helped conceal the dog-whistling and blatant prejudice prevalent in far-right politics. Furthermore, anti-Semites frequently used a Nazi-inflected Pepe meme to attack Jewish journalists online and the most commonly used word in their group tweets was ‘Trump’. Furie saw the use of his cartoon character go from bad to worse and the repercussions that followed.

In Hong Kong, the same Pepe became a symbol of protest against police brutality and the Extradition Bill in 2019. Oblivious to the fact that it had been used as a symbol of hate, they represented Pepe in the light of hope and harmony. Furie finally decided to symbolically kill the character, hoping to end the ongoing disputes, but his effort was futile. “The use of racist and bigoted versions of Pepe memes seem[ed] to be increasing, not decreasing” (Anti-Defamation League 2017), but the ‘anthropomorphized frog’ was finally eclipsed from the public eye.

In popular culture, user-driven imitation and remixing are not just prevalent but highly valued. Internet memes are no longer the insignificant images they once were. We live in a world where information spreads almost instantly and the meaning of images is transformed in a flash. Gradually, people who use humour as a coping mechanism find their own niches and networks, making the idea of reconnecting a simple yet lively experience. By initiating conversations which are otherwise difficult to begin, memes have proved to be a democratic medium with more influence on public opinion than any other. Rather than simply providing uplifting yet quickly missed entertainment on social media, these flickering photographs are more dynamic and effectual than they are often understood to be.

References:

1. Blackmore, Susan. The Meme Machine. Oxford University Press, 1999.
2. Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, 1976.
3. De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. University of California Press, 1984.
4. Shifman, Limor. Memes in Digital Culture. The MIT Press, 2014.

This was first presented as a paper in the annual seminar of the English Department at Ramjas College on 12th March, 2021.