A joke by another name would be as awesome.
Remember the first time you saw the word “meme”? How did you say it?
I thought it was pronounced “me – me” (like “It’s a- me, Mario!”) or “même” (meh-m) like French.
English is a silly language, so words you’ve seen but haven’t heard can be tricky.
And internet English is even more so.
Crash cut to me in the break room. A younger coworker drew a 🐸 and a ☕ on the big whiteboard. Scribbled under an inspirational quote, next to a report of how badly we failed the day before.
“What is that?” I asked, “What does it mean?”
“I don’t know… sort of like: That’s none of my business.”
“Frog-cup means: That’s none of my business?”
I felt like an Archaeologist-Anthropologist stumbling into Pompeii. What happened here?!
“Well, it’s Kermit the Frog drinking Lipton Tea,” they explained.
“Yes… of course it is,” I said cluelessly, “But I need you to start at the beginning.”
All The World’s A Meme
First came cave memes.
Egypt memes.
Street memes.
Then Ascii Art <( o.0)> (see the ASCII Art Archive, doing the Lord’s work).
Followed by Philosoraptor and Good Guy Greg. Grumpy Cat and the fill-in-the-blank format.
Culminating in GIFs, which are the highest form of art humans will ever achieve.
Then emojis, which are essentially hieroglyphs again. 🐸☕
I’d need a Gen Alpha child to take over the timeline here. But they’re loving deep-fried visuals, absurdist nonsense, and super loud sounds, I think?
To Thine Own Meme be True
In my experience, people want two things: to be safe and to feel seen.
Memes = inclusion. Being in on the joke. The in-crowd shorthand.
“Hey, I know that feeling/show/format!”
It’s how young people in the 1920s started saying “hip.” And my 6th-grade teacher didn’t understand how “bitch” could refer to men.
Language as a form of rebellion and inclusion. “Kids these days” vs *knowing thumbs up.*
The voice of my generation.
Yes, I stopped typing “xD” but they can pry “🤣 and 😅” out of my cold, dead hands.
Showing your age isn’t a sin. Owning it can be freeing (it’s some people’s whole brand — which might be exhausting).
It’s totally okay to be out of the loop. There are SO MANY loops. You can’t be in all of them.
But you should take the occasional trip through new loops. To keep your neurons firing and your empathy flowing.
Remember when your teacher said, “If you read a word you don’t know, look it up!” And you never did?
Because the dictionary was too far away, you’d Do it Later™, etc.
It’s the same now as it was then: You don’t have to know everything, you just need to know how to learn.
When in doubt: Know Your Meme.
But, it’s the same now as it was then… you’ll probably Do it Later™.
To Meme or Not to Meme (Corporate Edition)
The Wendy’s vs Burger King beef was a shedding of the clean-cut corporate voice. The embracing of a clever, conversational, and cutting “social media” tone.
It was fun and seemed genuine (or at least entertaining) at the time. And because it worked, it got copied, and became #cringe AS SOON as more marketing departments got ahold of it.
But such is life. Always.
A capitalist scrambling into every space, trying frantically to turn fun into dollars.
But we don’t need to let them. And I don’t think they get it anyway.
We Are Such Stuff as Memes are Made On
A top-hat, slam poetry moment:
Memes, like all art, are culture reflected. A barometer of human resilience and rebellion.
What makes us laugh and why.
Fluid parodies and connections that spread organically exactly where they’re needed.
Marketing could never and will never control it.
That’s why strategists follow so doggedly behind. Grasping at the coattails of what makes people feel seen.
Memes are the Soul of Wit
So rawr and Skibbidy your little hearts out, you hip cats.
One man’s cringe is another man’s treasure.
Words About Stuff by Amy the Copywriter | Art by RAD Studio