what’s the meaning of all this memeing

Can you scroll through your Twitter feed without finding a hilarious meme within the first few minutes? What about checking your Instagram explore page without seeing the newest Worldstar HipHop or Daquan meme? Being a Gen-Z boy spending more time on my cell phone than my parents could have ever wanted, I’ve been exposed to memes and meme culture since the Facebook days. I’m sure most of you reading can relate to this exposure, as memes have become a mainstay in our daily lives and our senses of humor. Spending all this time being involved in this culture leads me to question a few things. 

Is there a point to memes? 

Have we been wasting our time on stupid, meaningless jokes with low-hanging fruit comedy? 

Or is there more? 

In Heidi Huntington’s article “Subversive Memes: Internet Memes as a Form of Rhetoric”, she argues that memes have rhetorical properties that can compete with more dominant forms of media. She brings up a few points including how their subversive nature leads to a widespread appeal that isn’t seen in more common forms of media. She states that a semiotic approach can lead to finding symbolism and deeper meaning in the content, leading to an internet discourse of deep dissections of memes. 

Her argument brings up some good points, but I think she’s looking at memes from a completely different viewpoint than kids do today. 

To me, memes are supposed to be for brain-numbing laughs. 

The more avant-garde, obscure, and niche the better. 

And typically, the less serious thought put into memes and discourse, the more we can get out of it in terms of entertainment. 

This is a Tik Tok meme of Enya Umanzor, who goes by @enjajaja online, where she’s pretending to order Chipotle. She repeats “put some more, c’mon don’t be shy, put some more” in regards to her food, theoretically harassing a Chipotle worker. The camera angle is fish-eyed and close, presenting her in a comedic fashion. There really isn’t much to the joke besides the delivery, physical and situational comedy. It’s a funny reference that a lot of kids can relate to, and many people are quoting it till this day. It’s dumb, and it’s worthwhile.

The state of meme culture today isn’t about finding deeper meanings in the memes. I believe once you try too hard to understand or grasp any sort of serious social commentary out of memes, you’ll end up nullifying the enjoyment of the meme experience itself. Memes are here and will always be here as an escape from gritty realism. They’re for quality references, internet bonding, and jokes our parents would never be able to comprehend. 

Thanks for listening this week, and protect memes from getting too serious. And I’m putting that on Periodt.