Internet Memes

22 Internet Memes Kate M. Miltner INTRODUCTION to the endless listicles of Buzzfeed, an entire media infrastructure has developed to report The fact that this chapter exists is somewhat on, disseminate, and dissect the newest piece remarkable. Not, of course, that approxi- of digital culture to emerge, whether that is mately 8,000 words were written and pub- weekly, daily, or hourly. As internet scholar lished in a massive tome (although that does Ryan Milner (2016, p. i) notes in the intro- take quite a bit of effort), but the fact that a duction to his new book on memes, ‘it’s hard major academic publisher thinks that the to imagine a major pop cultural or political topic of internet memes is canonical enough moment that doesn’t inspire its own constel- to include in a Handbook of Social Media. In lation of mediated remix, play, and commen- 2010, you could count the number of schol- tary’. Similarly, digital culture scholar Limor ars interested in internet memes on one, Shifman (2013b, p. 3) has argued that our maybe two hands. Furthermore, most of media landscape is governed by a ‘hyper- those scholars had to consistently make their memetic logic’ where ‘almost every major case as to why pictures of cats with mis- public event sprouts a stream of memes’. spelled captions or videos of New Jersey However, while memes’ omnipresence teenagers lip synching to Moldovan pop may make meme research more legible to songs were worthy of academic inquiry. both academic and lay audiences, it is not the In our current media landscape, such argu- key to their significance. Memes were impor- ments are less necessary. In the space of a dec- tant before they were ubiquitous because they ade, internet memes have gone from quirky, represent a practice of vernacular creativity subcultural oddities to a ubiquitous, arguably (Burgess, 2006), a blending of folk practices foundational, digital media practice. From (such as storytelling) with contemporary Comedy Central’s television program Tosh.0 media savvy and skill. In this way, they act BK-SAGE-BURGESS ET AL-170281-Chp22.indd 412 24/10/17 12:24 PM INTERNET MEMES 413 like a funhouse mirror for culture and soci- unit the ‘meme’, short for ‘mimema’, an ety, reflecting and refracting the anxieties and ancient Greek word meaning ‘that which is preoccupations of a variety of social groups imitated’ or ‘imitated thing.’ The concept of across a series of national contexts. Memes the meme is based upon the principle of have always been a method of circulating Universal Darwinism, which argues that any ideas and influencing discourse; they just do information that is varied and selected will so now on a grander, more rapid scale than produce design, whether that is biological or they did in the late 1990s and early 2000s. cultural. That is to say, Dawkins believed that As Limor Shifman argues in her book Memes information – whether in the form of a gene in Digital Culture, ‘internet memes are like or a song – is interested in one thing, which Forrest Gump. Ostensibly, they are trivial is to be spread far and wide. Dawkins argued pieces of pop culture; yet, a deeper look that these ‘viruses of the mind’ – which can reveals that they play an integral part in some be anything from the Happy Birthday song to of the defining events of the twenty-first cen- religious beliefs – have a certain agency of tury’ (2013, p. 4). their own, and propagate themselves to This chapter is constructed as a primer on ensure their survival. internet memes and internet meme research. While Dawkins has since distanced him- It aims to provide a solid foundation in the self from memetics, others took his ideas theoretical and empirical work that has been and developed them into a field of study. done on internet memes up to this moment Scholars such as Richard Brodie (2009) and (2016), while simultaneously illustrating the Susan Blackmore (2000) argued that humans significance of internet memes for students are merely hosts and propagating machin- of communication, sociology, anthropol- ery for memes. They maintain that humans ogy, cultural studies, or any other discipline developed to receive and spread memes, such invested in what has come to be known as as language – versus the other way around. participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006). It will From this point of view, information is self- discuss the theoretical origins and definition ish and strives to get copied, regardless of memes, and trace the history of internet of the consequences. While controversial, memes from the late 1990s to the current this position still has certain proponents; in moment. It will examine memes as a politi- 2014, TechCrunch journalist Josh Constine cal and activist practice in cultures across the explained the results of a Facebook social world, and it will explore the process of com- influence study with the headline ‘Facebook modification that memes have undergone as Data Scientists Prove Memes Mutate and they moved from subcultural to mainstream Adapt Like DNA’, stating that ‘memes adapt media realms. Finally, it will discuss the cur- to their surroundings in order to survive, just rent state of meme research and avenues for like organisms’ (Constine, 2014). further scholarly investigation. In the internet studies/cultural studies world, memes are treated as media objects with particular characteristics and and asso- ciated practices instead of self-propelling WHAT IS A MEME? ideas. Media scholar Limor Shifman (2013a) argues that Dawkinsian memes and internet In 1976, evolutionary biologist Richard memes are both social phenomena that are Dawkins published The Selfish Gene. In it, reproduced by various means of imitation he made the case for a new unit, a ‘cultural and are diffused through competition and replicator’ that spread ideas and behaviors in selection. However, Shifman (2013a, p. 367) an infectious, gene-like fashion among indi- contends that the issue of human agency is viduals and populations alike. He called this central to understanding internet memes, BK-SAGE-BURGESS ET AL-170281-Chp22.indd 413 24/10/17 12:24 PM 414 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL MEDIA defining them as ‘units of popular culture content, form, and stance. The content of that are circulated, imitated, and transformed internet memes refers to the ‘ideas and the by individual Internet users, creating a shared ideologies’ that are expressed in the meme. cultural experience in the process.’ The form involves the ‘physical incarna- Similarly, Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and tion’ of the meme; this includes the format Joshua Green (2013) assert that internet (a video, a picture) and the ‘genre-related memes, which they describe as ‘spreadable patterns’ of the format (such as font and text media’, are successful because they allow position, or whether the video is a lip dub or different audiences to make their own mean- fake movie trailer). The stance of a meme ings from the same media artifact; the spe- has three sub-components: the participa- cific element within each internet meme tion structures, keying, and communicative that strikes a chord will differ from person functions. The participation structures of a to person. Internet memes are texts, and like meme involve who is entitled to participate any other text, different readers will interpret and how; the keying of the meme involves them and put them to use in varying ways. the tone and style of communication; and the Other scholars (Miltner, 2014; Milner, 2016) communicative functions involve the type of have argued that internet memes succeed communication that is happening. because of their ‘emotional resonance’ with In order for a piece of content to become audiences; people share memes not because memetic, users need to modify at least one they are mechanistically compelled to pass of these dimensions. This is the key differ- on a cultural replicator, but because they are ence between ‘memetic’ content and ‘viral’ emotionally compelled by some aspect of the content; if a piece of content is passed along media object with which they are engaging. intact and unaltered, it is considered to be The media objects that come under the viral. If a piece is altered or changed as it is aegis of the term ‘internet meme’ are far passed along, it is considered to be a meme from uniform, but they do tend to fall into (Shifman, 2013b). For example, the 2009 specific categories. As Shifman (2013b, performance of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ by p. 99) quips, ‘in theory, all Internet users are Britain’s Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle free spirits, individuals who take their unique is a viral video, since it was passed along path to the hall of digital fame. In practice, without any alterations. However, 2012 they tend to follow the same beaten tracks K-Pop video Gangnam Style is considered a of meme creation.’ These ‘beaten tracks’ are meme, as it inspired a series of spinoffs and genres, ‘socially recognized types of com- imitations. municative action’ (Yates and Orlikowski, 1992, p. 299) that are the ‘keys to understanding how to participate in the actions of a community’ (Miller, 1984, p. 165). There EARLY INTERNET MEMES are dozens of genres of internet memes that have their own rules, structures, stylistic fea- The exact origins of the very first internet tures, themes, topics, and intended audiences meme are somewhat contested. As Lessig (Shifman, 2013b). Some of the most recog- (2008) and Jenkins (1992) have argued, par- nizable meme genres include flash mobs1, ticipatory culture did not start with the inter- recut trailers2, rage comics3, lip dubs4, image net. In fact, some of the earliest and most macros5, and exploitables6. popular memes were very similar to offline However, no matter what the subgenre, ‘memes’ from the 1970s and 1980s.

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