Meme culture

Uncategorized Comments Off on Meme culture

For people unaware of this meme: Spongebob is seen getting up from his chair ready to leave with the words “Ight Imma head out” below. The use of this meme is for if someone fails a test or doesn’t want to do anything anymore (Google Images).

by Paulo Montimor

Memes, comedy that appeals to young people can be surreal and dark—and completely meaningless. Memes are captioned with a funny text and are usually associated with a photo, video, or any form of visuals that’s been imitated with little change.

Memes are a medium of comedy for entertainment-loving people. Of course, we all know that students—for sure—know more about memes than adults.

So a question came to my mind: what do adults think about memes?

“I like ‘em as long as it’s done a good fun,” said Dan Butler, assistant principal for seniors. “Off the top of my head, I can think of one. There’s this high school student, he had braces, and he had a cheesy smile, and I forgot what the title of the meme was, or what it was about.”

With Mr. Butler’s response, I thought to myself, “One does not simply reference a meme to me and expect me to not be nostalgic about it.” I had a vague idea of what he was talking about.

Truthfully, I know I’m not an expert when it comes to memes, but I would guess that Mr. Butler last remembered a meme from 2012 called Bad Luck Brian where he has an awkward look as if he thought he finally got lucky after misfortune after another but turned out to be in an even messier spot.

Even Mrs. King, the school’s social worker, admits that her husband shows her the memes he’s found.

Memes are part of a constant sight on the internet just like how some Chile employees say “Hi! Welcome to Chile’s” to its customers. We see them every day in our lives that it will be noticeable if they’re not there as if memes themselves say “I am inevitable.”

“I like the ones that aren’t meant to be negative towards somebody,” said Jeremy McLaughlin, counselor at GHS.

It is true, it is funny when you’re not the one being made fun of. However, memes can also hurt people, memes should be perfectly balanced as all things should be. Just because we put captions to a visual doesn’t always result in it being considered funny, it might hurt other people’s feelings.

It’d be like that sometimes. We don’t notice how mean we are by typing those words that we thought were funny.

Memes are always going to be there. We only need to be considerate when we post them.

Yeah, memes are fun, but you know what else is fun? Trying to find the 6 meme references I’ve made throughout this article. Email me at montip@students.goshenschools.org when you’ve found all six and you’ll be entered in a drawing to receive a prize!

 

Author

lshetler

GHS English Teacher

Search

Back to Top