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  3. What makes good memes? What are facts about meme history you want to share ?

What makes good memes? What are facts about meme history you want to share ?

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  • S [email protected]

    We want to do a Workshop about memes during a weekend. Like what are memes ? How to do memes? And also a little bit about meme history. We are around for some time and thought we have a good amount of knowledge. But we also realized that memes are very subjective and even though there are some events we both had in our minds (e.g. fuck spez) there a lot that only one of us remembered. So what are your must haves for such a presentation? Or what are your fun facts about memes?

    tetris11@lemmy.mlT This user is from outside of this forum
    tetris11@lemmy.mlT This user is from outside of this forum
    [email protected]
    wrote last edited by
    #6

    I see it as a form of mass hysteria, similar to the dancing plagues in medieval europe, but less influenced by physical poisoning but of a mental one

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    • S [email protected]

      We want to do a Workshop about memes during a weekend. Like what are memes ? How to do memes? And also a little bit about meme history. We are around for some time and thought we have a good amount of knowledge. But we also realized that memes are very subjective and even though there are some events we both had in our minds (e.g. fuck spez) there a lot that only one of us remembered. So what are your must haves for such a presentation? Or what are your fun facts about memes?

      crazi_man@europe.pubC This user is from outside of this forum
      crazi_man@europe.pubC This user is from outside of this forum
      [email protected]
      wrote last edited by [email protected]
      #7

      Meme is actually just a single unit of information.

      The way the image macro jokes are made now have come about from the way social media is laid out and needing quick consumption. They're aldo easily made by anyone. Otherwise there was a time when Flash videos were the preferred medium for internet jokes.

      Tom Nichols did a good video on an unrelated subject, but he covers a good and relevant point. That communities want to clarify who is part of the "in-crowd" and who is not. This is a role that inside jokes have always had. If you're part of a group, then you have inside jokes that no one else understands, and there's a feeling of community in that. Memes do this. My wife sees me laughing and asks why; then I find it difficult to explain 3 layers of reference in a meme (you have to know about the videogame and the political issue they're referencing, as well as the fact that the meme is a variation of another meme....try explaining a derivative of a derivative of a "loss" meme and why that's funny and why this story of miscarriage is funny).

      Similarly the jokes look to exclude the undesirables. Boomer conservative memes do really well on Facebook and have no value in youth and liberal spaces. People do a lot of virtue signalling and display of values through memes.

      We all love our memes, but essentially they're all a bunch of dumb inside jokes. And the deeper you get inside a community, the more convoluted and weird the jokes get.

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      • S [email protected]

        We want to do a Workshop about memes during a weekend. Like what are memes ? How to do memes? And also a little bit about meme history. We are around for some time and thought we have a good amount of knowledge. But we also realized that memes are very subjective and even though there are some events we both had in our minds (e.g. fuck spez) there a lot that only one of us remembered. So what are your must haves for such a presentation? Or what are your fun facts about memes?

        T This user is from outside of this forum
        T This user is from outside of this forum
        [email protected]
        wrote last edited by
        #8

        Anything can become memetic if not properly secured, contained and protected

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        • S [email protected]

          We want to do a Workshop about memes during a weekend. Like what are memes ? How to do memes? And also a little bit about meme history. We are around for some time and thought we have a good amount of knowledge. But we also realized that memes are very subjective and even though there are some events we both had in our minds (e.g. fuck spez) there a lot that only one of us remembered. So what are your must haves for such a presentation? Or what are your fun facts about memes?

          A This user is from outside of this forum
          A This user is from outside of this forum
          [email protected]
          wrote last edited by
          #9

          Meme is a one-shot less-effort message juggling objects, meaning and references to convey a feel, a joke, an idea or really whatever, more characterized by how it's easy to share it (sometimes causing it spread like a virus) and canibalize it into another meme - just what social media needs. To succeed, a meme should be discernible by a target group, relevant to it and not contradicting itself. Due to how all sorts of multimedia are intertwined, nearly everything can become a meme or a meme material, but if the crowd don't get, see it irrelevant or erroniously composed - it's dead.

          Best memes are usually organicly occuring first sources, e.g. videos of people doing awkward things (overly enthusiastic man drawing connections on a board), or best takes at interpreting them with added context (TFW you are explaining the minesweeper lore to your spouse), or best takes at repurposing them (your spouse is thankful you didn't expose others to minesweeper lore at the extended family diner). And so it goes.

          Worst memes are like jokes: you are either trying too hard, don't know the audience (e.g. zoomers), try to promote your products or worldviews or just fail at composing a sensible message from the materials you use.

          The easiest to understand proto-memes like emojies, stickers and reaction gifs aren't that far from simplistic ragecomics of old, and characters from the latter found their way into the pool of the former ones. In the context, these reactions don't need anything else to work and convey your simple opinion or idea. But the meme needs that context packaged-in to be understood when shared elsewhere to strangers, like rage comics were actually comics explaining why someone feels foreveralone or a smiling trollface in the end.

          In the modern meme scene, there are layers over layers of added references, symbols, meanings and subversions, but their fast-food tier digestability is still the key of why they are here.

          S 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • S [email protected]

            We want to do a Workshop about memes during a weekend. Like what are memes ? How to do memes? And also a little bit about meme history. We are around for some time and thought we have a good amount of knowledge. But we also realized that memes are very subjective and even though there are some events we both had in our minds (e.g. fuck spez) there a lot that only one of us remembered. So what are your must haves for such a presentation? Or what are your fun facts about memes?

            corrodedcranium@leminal.spaceC This user is from outside of this forum
            corrodedcranium@leminal.spaceC This user is from outside of this forum
            [email protected]
            wrote last edited by
            #10

            If you count widespread 90s jokes as memes the lady who got burnt by McDonalds coffee was seriously injured and and a dingo really did eat that woman's baby.

            Both are jokes in Seinfeld, S7 E2 and S10 E10 respectively. I feel like there's a couple other examples of event-specific jokes not aging well in hindsight but I can't remember them.

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            • S [email protected]

              We want to do a Workshop about memes during a weekend. Like what are memes ? How to do memes? And also a little bit about meme history. We are around for some time and thought we have a good amount of knowledge. But we also realized that memes are very subjective and even though there are some events we both had in our minds (e.g. fuck spez) there a lot that only one of us remembered. So what are your must haves for such a presentation? Or what are your fun facts about memes?

              R This user is from outside of this forum
              R This user is from outside of this forum
              [email protected]
              wrote last edited by
              #11

              What I like about memes is that it sets the stage with a single picture. You see Willy Wonka resting his head on his hand, and you instantly know the intended tone of the text.

              Slap a troll face under a statement and suddenly everybody knows you aren't being serious.

              Memes instantly create the context for whatever you're trying to express.

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              3
              • S [email protected]

                Interessting. Why do you like sniper copypasta

                gon@lemmy.dbzer0.comG This user is from outside of this forum
                gon@lemmy.dbzer0.comG This user is from outside of this forum
                [email protected]
                wrote last edited by
                #12

                It's just so over-the-top ridiculous, yet trying to sound so obnoxiously serious. The combination makes for great comedy, IMO.

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                • A [email protected]

                  Meme is a one-shot less-effort message juggling objects, meaning and references to convey a feel, a joke, an idea or really whatever, more characterized by how it's easy to share it (sometimes causing it spread like a virus) and canibalize it into another meme - just what social media needs. To succeed, a meme should be discernible by a target group, relevant to it and not contradicting itself. Due to how all sorts of multimedia are intertwined, nearly everything can become a meme or a meme material, but if the crowd don't get, see it irrelevant or erroniously composed - it's dead.

                  Best memes are usually organicly occuring first sources, e.g. videos of people doing awkward things (overly enthusiastic man drawing connections on a board), or best takes at interpreting them with added context (TFW you are explaining the minesweeper lore to your spouse), or best takes at repurposing them (your spouse is thankful you didn't expose others to minesweeper lore at the extended family diner). And so it goes.

                  Worst memes are like jokes: you are either trying too hard, don't know the audience (e.g. zoomers), try to promote your products or worldviews or just fail at composing a sensible message from the materials you use.

                  The easiest to understand proto-memes like emojies, stickers and reaction gifs aren't that far from simplistic ragecomics of old, and characters from the latter found their way into the pool of the former ones. In the context, these reactions don't need anything else to work and convey your simple opinion or idea. But the meme needs that context packaged-in to be understood when shared elsewhere to strangers, like rage comics were actually comics explaining why someone feels foreveralone or a smiling trollface in the end.

                  In the modern meme scene, there are layers over layers of added references, symbols, meanings and subversions, but their fast-food tier digestability is still the key of why they are here.

                  S This user is from outside of this forum
                  S This user is from outside of this forum
                  [email protected]
                  wrote last edited by
                  #13

                  , more characterized by how it’s easy to share it
                  I do really fell that. Could never put a finger on what a meme really is. But together with the rest of the context this might be it

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                  • S [email protected]

                    We want to do a Workshop about memes during a weekend. Like what are memes ? How to do memes? And also a little bit about meme history. We are around for some time and thought we have a good amount of knowledge. But we also realized that memes are very subjective and even though there are some events we both had in our minds (e.g. fuck spez) there a lot that only one of us remembered. So what are your must haves for such a presentation? Or what are your fun facts about memes?

                    kolanaki@pawb.socialK This user is from outside of this forum
                    kolanaki@pawb.socialK This user is from outside of this forum
                    [email protected]
                    wrote last edited by [email protected]
                    #14

                    If we mean the OG definition coined in the 80s as being just "any information shared via non-genetic means" then a good meme is something useful and/or relatable to a large number of people so that it is shared more and spreads further.

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                    • S [email protected]

                      We want to do a Workshop about memes during a weekend. Like what are memes ? How to do memes? And also a little bit about meme history. We are around for some time and thought we have a good amount of knowledge. But we also realized that memes are very subjective and even though there are some events we both had in our minds (e.g. fuck spez) there a lot that only one of us remembered. So what are your must haves for such a presentation? Or what are your fun facts about memes?

                      stern@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
                      stern@lemmy.worldS This user is from outside of this forum
                      [email protected]
                      wrote last edited by
                      #15

                      I saved this because I saw a relevant article, then forgot about it for a day. Anyhow

                      https://bigthink.com/mini-philosophy/what-makes-a-meme-take-off-the-3-rules-of-virality/

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