For this second creative-making project, I wanted to create a series of memes that demonstrate the characteristics of what makes a "successful" meme, as per Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear's findings in "Online Memes, Affinities, and Cultural Production."
The first is a rehashing of the familiar "All your base are belong to us" meme, and is meant to demonstrate the first concept of humor. Given how broad and complicated the notion is, I thought it best to demonstrate this idea through the example given by Knobel and Lankshear when describing the subject. Because it is such a well-known and long-lasting joke, it is clear that the humor demonstrated in "All your base are belong to us" (described in the article as "geek kitsch" due to its base in syntactic error and game-based context) is an endurable one. Grammar mistakes and the unintentional ruining of a "serious" moment through them just work, it seems. Through it, however, I also wanted to demonstrate other concepts regarding memes that we've discussed, both through this article and others: the longevity of a meme and the act of "ruining" it through its oversaturation in public consciousness and use in the "mainstream" (as per the "Thanks, Obama!" joke).
The second meme is another familiar face: the "doge" joke. Through it, I wanted to demonstrate the second concept that Knobel and Lankshear discuss: intertextuality. Memes are largely memorable because they do not exist in a vacuum. They are either inspired by recognizable pieces of pop culture, or eventually incorporate other ideas as they evolve and spread. This can lead to an incredible amount of creativity, as a singular joke grows to take on multiple references to current or past events, films, music, or even other memes. As such, this use of "doge" incorporates references to several other memes and alters them to fit the context of its original idea (the bad grammar, the "wow"). I've included the aforementioned "All your base" meme, the "Afro Circus" meme, and the "Me gusta" meme.
The third and final meme is not a pre-existing one, but the use of a GIF to reflect the importance of the juxtaposition that Knobel and Lankshear talk of. In this case, I used a moment from the new Netflix comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which in and of itself relies upon this idea for much of its humor, and even for its very core idea: a woman who has been forcibly held inside a bunker for fifteen years as part of a religious cult is finally freed, and attempts to move on with her life. This sort of subject would likely make for a dark, intense drama examining PTSD, brainwashing, cultural isolation, and the like, but Kimmy Schmidt instead uses it in a lighthearted, altogether silly manner. Many of its jokes and storylines, in fact, are based off of the main character's difficulty to adjusting to city life. So, the GIF I employed references this and the conflict in implications and tone.
