So, first off, I’ll be honest here and admit that Internet memes aren’t my thing. I know, I know, how could I possibly be a college student who doesn’t like memes? I don’t know, I just don’t really get the appeal and don’t find most of them funny or amusing. But that doesn’t mean I don’t understand the phenomenon behind them and how they define the digital sphere. And although I’m not generally into memes, I’m no stranger to the extremely popular ones, and there are some that manage to get me and make me laugh (like the ones I included in this post).
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I chose this “One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor” meme because it reminded me of blogging and I wanted to relate at least one meme to my site. Also, I find it hilarious because when I first watched the film, I had no prior knowledge that this line was a meme and it made me laugh regardless, and after finding out it was a meme, I was pretty much sold on it. This particular one references writing, much like blogging includes, and I thought it was pretty funny because, in a way, one does not simply blog. It’s a little more complex, just like writing about memes, which I thought all of us beginner bloggers could relate to.
The Ideal. An ideal is the “concept or idea conveyed” by a meme, and in this case, the popular Lord of the Rings meme conveys a comical, sarcastic message (Davison, p123). It’s kind of like when you’re talking to someone and they make something sound very simple, but you know it’s easier said than done. Or it can be done in a way to mock a task.
The Behavior. If you’ve watched the film, then you’re well aware that this picture is a screenshot of the scene in the movie where the council is explaining what needs to be done, but this character, Boromir, “points out the difficulty of the task by saying, ‘One does not simply walk into Mordor.’ ” (Captain Blubber, 2009, Know Your Meme). The meme spread after one person created an image and posted it onto a thread reading “One does not simply drive into Mordor,” and thereafter, it was well received so others continued to make more versions. Google Maps even participated in the meme fun after someone searched for “walking directions from a Wisconson address masked as the Shire to an address masked as Mordor in Illinois” to which the result came up as “Use caution – one does not simply walk into Mordor” (Captain Blubber, 2009, Know Your Meme).
The Manifestation. What’s great about this meme is that its manifestation, or “arrangement of physical particles in time and space,” is just a simple screenshot and layered, block-letter text. There are tons of other memes that follow the same manifestation, but its simplicity differs from hand-drawn memes or Photoshop ones in that it can be created in almost any program with basic editing tools.
For anyone interested in creating their own memes, I believe this is the easiest way to start.
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As a fan of the band, Gorillaz, I was surprised to find out that there was a meme surrounding one of their album covers! There were so many “Gorillaz ‘Demon Days‘ Cover Parodies” to look through, but I found this particular Donkey Kong themed one to be really clever. It reminded me of when I created a header image for my blog using Pixlr, as it is a meme that is often personalized and requires a bit of editing. And clearly for this one, a very talented artist used their abilities to create it.
The Ideal. This meme isn’t necessarily an outright hilarious one, but it is definitely quite a witty one. It plays on nostalgia, and for me specifically, I encountered this album cover as a kid, so it brings together both the video games and music I was exposed to in my childhood. Memes can “represent the intent or emotional state of the person transmitting them,” and I believe that for the creator, that is somewhat the case for them too (Davison, p124).
The Behavior. Essentially, what people do to perpetuate this meme is replace the four squares with other characters that share a resemblance to the original Gorillaz characters. This is done through inserting images or original artwork because the point is to try and simulate the colors to the original album cover. The Demon Days album was released in 2005 and was inspired by The Beatles’ Let It Be album, and the first meme was created by someone on Deviant Art who replaced the Gorillaz characters with Kim Possible characters, the popular Disney Channel cartoon (Sam, 2021, Know Your Meme). Other Deviant Art users started to create more versions and the meme caught on from there. A YouTube video showing how to use Photoshop to create one was even uploaded (Sam, 2012, Know Your Meme).
The Manifestation. Unlike the Mordor meme, this one took a little more work. It required more photo editing skills and photo editing software. The ones with original artwork are usually done using digital art software, which is then incorporated into the Gorillaz album template.
This type of meme may be a little more complex to delve into, but it provides great inspiration for anyone who wishes to deal with a more graphic-design-esque venture.
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The final meme I chose to share with you guys is this fairly recent one of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. If you haven’t kept up with Musk, he has been behaving in some controversial ways, him smoking weed being one of them even though he had previously mentioned his dislike and disinterest for marijuana. And thus, the meme “Elon Musk Smoking Weed” was born. I chose this because it reminded of recording our podcasts and PSA, since Musk smoked weed during a podcast. Whilst recording my podcast, it felt almost transparent and like a genuine form of sharing content, which is something I feel podcasts bring out of people. It brings out the person in us, and Musk feeling comfortable enough to smoke a joint on a podcast that was also being filmed while he was already treading on thin ice in the professional scene seems to prove my point.
The Ideal. This meme is definitely a humorous one, and part of that is because it’s one of the most highly regarded CEOs of our time engaging in an “unprofessional” act when he was, at the time, facing troubles within his company. Musk is known for pushing boundaries in the scientific and technological field, some of his ideas seemingly outrageous, so this screen clip of him with this specific face makes for endless possibilities. It conveys a silly message in the hopes of making someone laugh, and because “the replication of memes is subjective,” there are numerous jokes spread around to appeal to different senses of humor (Davison, p123).
The Behavior. Like the Mordor meme, this one is another screenshot, but different in its own way. The podcast interview happened a few months ago, where Musk was a guest on Joe Rogan’s show. Rogan had two joints ready on the table and offered Musk to try it out with him, to which Musk obliged and, in pleasant surprise, Musk made the meme-able face. Almost immediately, a Redditor posted this meme and it went viral within hours on the Internet (Don, 2018, Know Your Meme).
The Manifestation. This meme is also just a screenshot with some text before it, but the text requires more attention here, whereas with the Mordor meme, the text was simply just meant to be in white, block letters. If the joke being written is not done so in the most effective manner, then the image will not resonate as well with audiences. Therefore, it requires a bit of skill in knowing exactly how to get a reaction from people.
This meme is a step above the Mordor one in terms of creation, but is a great way to convey jokes to others. I’d say this type is more for fun and can be a humorous way to engage with readers.
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This post was a little different to my other ones, but I hope you enjoyed this little chat about a pop culture phenomenon with me! Even though I mentioned that memes aren’t my thing, this was a neat experience looking into all the kinds of memes there are, what a meme means, and how they spread.
Featured Image Source:
Comic-woman-meme-blank by picrustable from https://pixabay.com/en/comic-woman-woman-meme-blank-meme-2825560/
Reference:
Davison, P. “The Language of Internet Memes.” The Social Media Reader
Blog with Rameen 