Texts From Hillary

How fitting that the last blog post for this class covers none other than Hillary Clinton aboard a military C-17 plane in the age-old art of texting. Texts From Hillary is in many ways, the quintessential meme because of its roots, its large appeal, and its surprising reach.

Here is the first known Texts From Hillary meme from the official Tumblr.



The original image of Hillary Clinton was taken by Kevin Lamarque of Reuters. Here is a link to the original story.

According to the official Tumblr, the Texts From Hillary meme has gotten 83,000 Facebook shares, 8,400 Twitter followers, and over 45,000 Tumblr followers. How's that for mass appeal?

Here's the best part. Clinton herself responded to the meme by submitting this image.



How's that for reach?

Moments like this make me in awe of the power of memes and how they can influence pop culture and even seemingly unreachable people.

I'll finish with a little anecdote. My friend Steve is a huge Oakland As fan. He's also an avid user of twitter. Somehow, over the summer, he managed to fuse both elements to create something special.

#fosseposse

Yep, Steve created his own hash tag which gained popularity over Twitter to the point where he was invited to attend an As game in Oakland. There, he got great seats to the game, was interviewed by a TV station and best of all, got to meet his boyhood idol Ray Posse in the dressing room. Amazing how Twitter and social media can open doors.

So what are you waiting for? Make your own meme, and with a little bit of luck, you could be interviewing for Good Morning America, meeting your childhood idol or texting Hillary.

Ridiculously Photogenic Guy

This meme has seemingly sprung out of nowhere, like an unexpected smile. ;)



I first saw Ridiculously Photogenic Guy as a shared Facebook post. Three of my friends liked it, and I must admit, I did too.

The image is of New York marathon runner Zeddie Little. Since the meme has gained popularity, Little's fame has also shot up, and he was interviewed on Good Morning America recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AUajlCjcBk

It's as if he won the Mega Millions, from unknown to celebrity overnight. I find it fascinating how easy it is for someone today to get famous with nothing more than the right image at the right time.

One thing's for sure though, Mr. Zeddie Little isn't going to have a hard time finding a job now. Who says looks aren't everything?

Mean Girls Of Panem

You know you've got a great blog topic when you get inspiration from Huffington Post's 7 Sites You Should Be Wasting Time On Right Now. But that's exactly where I found this wonderful blog which has created a meme of its own: the Mean Girls of Panem.



If you haven't seen The Hunger Games, or read the book by Suzanne Collins, you would be missing more than half of the internet memes doing the rounds now. The hit series has become an internet sensation, with hundreds of variations of memes finding their way onto people's Facebook's and Twitters, more than can be covered in one single blog post.

But this specific meme variant has gained a lot of traction and has spawned and entire blog. The meme features quotes from The Hunger Games and from 2004 teenage-cult movie Mean Girls.

The fact the blog has gathered over 5,000 visitors in just two weeks with such a narrow focus is indicative of the popularity of The Hunger Games memes.

Here are two of my favorites!

Condescending Wonka

Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you.

The Condescending/Creepy Wonka meme was born late 2011 on Reddit as a series of sexual double entendres for candy. The image is a screen-cap of Gene Wilder in the 1971 version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but you would know that already...

The image is striking as it easily conveys sarcasm and condescension, two feelings difficult to express.

Condescending Wonka follows the standard meme pattern of template and variation.

Here are two more variants:



Condescension, unfortunately, is not a very good tone to take with blog readers, so it's best to refrain from doing it too often.

However, it is okay to take advantage of another person's lack of knowledge so you can pointedly inform them of the existence and irony of a meme featuring Gene Wilder. Figuratively of course!

Condescending Wonka has gained popularity on social media sites such as Facebook and Reddit, and continues to be in circulation despite it being nearly a year old.

The longevity of memes is difficult to assess, and it's hard to tell how long a meme will likely continue to surf the interwebs in any significant capacity, but old Wonka still decides to pop his head in once in a while as proof that sarcasm is the future of internet communication.

KONY 2012

Non-profit organization Invisible Children Inc. have made themselves very visible with their viral online campaign KONY 2012. For the uninitiated, KONY 2012 is a campaign focused on the capture and removal of Ugandan guerrilla group leader and head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony. The aim of the organization is to promote Kony and make a big enough fuss about it that the American government sends in

On February 20th 2012, Invisible Children released a video documentary on Vimeo highlighting the crimes of Joseph Kony and urged people to contribute to the campaign to remove Kony. The methods for contribution include making Kony famous through social media and writing requests to government.

Here is the youtube version of the documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

The Kony 2012 campaign has seemingly been a success with the video on Vimeo notching 7 million views in two weeks and the youtube version currently at over 80 million views. Notable celebrities have also endorsed the campaign such as Justin Bieber.

Twitter has also featured trending hashtags including #Kony2012 and #StopKony.

The Kony 2012 campaign is an example of a media campaign gone viral and every piece of promotional material for Kony be it a tweet or poster can be considered a unique meme furthering the cause Invisible Children are fighting for.

Linsanity

Asian basketball sensation Jeremy Lin has launched a new internet craze with his breakout performances for the New York Knicks this season. His rapid rise to prominence has also begun an internet meme based on mixing Lin's name with common words.



Enter the Linsanity. The term was first used as a # on Twitter with no definite origin. The #Linsanity hit its trending peaks on Twitter on February 10th in a game between the New York Knicks and the L.A. Lakers which saw Lin hit 38 points and propel his team to victory. Since then, the #Linsanity has been used to refer to the internet buzz surrounding Lin's meteoric rise, anything from live play by play tweeting during his matches to his consecutive appearances on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Linsanity is not the only Linspired word floating around the internet. Numerous Lin based puns have made it into media articles and user posts. Here is a list of the top ten Linspired words.

Linsanity is now an official word in the Oxford English dictionary after accruing the requirements of "25,000 citations across the breadth of the English-speaking world, with the requisite depth of usage in books, journals and periodicals, on the Internet, blogosphere, social media, and in the top 75,000 global print and electronic media."

The level of buzz generated by Lin's NBA rise has been unprecedented, and much of that is due to the #Linsanity and the ability of social media to spread the story of a worldwide phenomenon.

Just in case you've been living under a rock, here's the game that launched the Linsanity and made Jeremy Lin a global star.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iWWFk6TX18

Angelina Jolie's Right Leg

The Oscars this year left us with more than we bargained for. This iconic image of Angelina Jolie standing with her right leg exposed has spawned numerous memes to the amusement of many.



The absurdity of the meme which has mutated in various ways including the symmetrical variation and octopi garnered 12,000 followers on Twitter with the handle @Angie's Right Leg the night of the Oscars.



 

 

Jolie's leg has since been found everywhere on the planet and even the moon, with the infamous moon landing picture featuring her photoshopped leg. The meme is a typical type of meme in which an original photo is altered to amusing effect.

The meme has also launched a new internet phenomenon known as leg-bombing, in which Jolie's leg is superimposed into other iconic photos. The moon landing picture is an example of that, and here's one which is my personal favorite. A leg bomb of the Beatles' cover Abbey Road.

BREAKING ROLL: OREGON WON'T GIVE UP ON RICK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZi4JxbTwPo

Yes, you have just been the subject of the infamous Rickroll.   This internet meme has gained cult status, and has been featured in classrooms, newsrooms and even a baseball stadium.

The meme features a music video of Rick Astley singing his 80s hit "Never Gonna Give You Up".  The song was a pop hit internationally and reached number 1 in the UK singles chart among others.  Astley's career peaked with 'Never Gonna Give You Up' and he disappeared into obscurity until the famed internet meme was born on mass bulletin site 4chan's video game board in 2007.   Users on 4chan's video game board were anticipating the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, a popular game, and one crafty user posted a link redirecting to 'Never Gonna Give You Up'.

Since then, the meme has grown in popularity and has been used to humorous effect.  The term for the meme's purpose is bait-and-switch.  The idea of the Rickroll is to refer someone to a link intended for serious purposes and redirect the user to the video of Astley.

The Rickroll has since become the bait-and-switch link of choice, and has been used to lighten moods and play pranks the world over.  The significance of this meme is its various spinoffs and use in real life situations.   Rarely do internet memes reach out beyond the realms of web entertainment, but the Rickroll has highlighted how a good internet meme can spread as a marketing tool across different media.

For the record, the baseball team that got Rickrolled was the New York Mets in April 2008.  They played the song during the home opener to loud boos.

http://youtu.be/N8ErbVOfvqw

The Rickroll has decreased in popularity since its heyday in 2008, but when it was in its prime, it was the meme to beat, and even found its way to Congress.  Here is a video of a spinoff featuring John McCain in his unsuccessful campaign for president in 2008.  The Rickroll video was imposed on the screen and didn't actually play, but the spinoff became so popular, it won the Favorite User Generated Video Award at the 35th People's Choice Awards in 2009.

Despite the huge success of Astley's song, rumors are that Astley has made a mere $12 in royalties from YouTube despite acquiring over 40 million hits on the official video.  However, he has found a way to make big money out of the meme, and here's how he did it!

What People Think I Do / What I Really Do

People who have been on any form of social media in the last month have most likely encountered this catchy meme gone viral. The basis of the meme is the ironic comparative perceptions of people, jobs, things or just about anything.

According to KnowYourMeme, a website dedicated to logging and tracing memes, the What People Think I Do / What I Really Do meme can be traced back to contemporary artist Garnet Hertz via his Facebook page where he posted this meme on February 2nd 2012.

The meme has since reached millions of people via Facebook with users creating their own versions of the meme.

The What People Think I Do / What I Really Do meme is a great example of the basic formula of an internet meme.

The process begins with the creation of one prototype meme. The meme would typically entertain or inform in a humorous manner and lead people who see the meme to create their own, mimicking the prototype but changing it in subtle ways. The basic structure remains in place, in this case, the blank formula of:



Users who create their own memes take this basic structure and create their own. The comparison here between genes and memes is obvious. The memes created after the original are mutations of the first much like a gene mutates to create a unique characteristic.

The What People think I Do / What I Really Do meme has really exploded, and it's cool to think it was created just 3 weeks ago. Here's a sample meme created for people like me.

The Birth of Internet Memes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw

Yes, it's really that shocking, a new blog on the web phenomenon that is internet memes! The above video is of an extremely popular internet meme called Dramatic Chipmunk. The footage of the video was taken from a Japanese TV Show Hello! Morning which featured a bright eyed prairie dog. Youtube user magnets99 proceeded to cut the video footage to a short 5 seconds and put the music from Young Frankenstein over it. The result was a viral video which spread all over the world and has accumulated over 5 million hits. The bacteria-like spread of internet memes has fascinated and entertained users the world over, but where did it all begin?

The term meme was first used by scientist Richard Dawkins in his publication on evolution: The Selfish Gene, 1976. Dawkins referred to memes as a unit of human cultural evolution analogous to the gene. This defines memes as building blocks with variation much like the gene does for human characteristics.

Internet Memes have existed since the world wide web was launched, and has no defined roots, much like the internet itself. One of the earliest internet memes was the emoticon.

: - )

Coined by Scott E. Fahlman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in 1982, the emoticon has since evolved to include the tongue face :P and the sad smiley. :-(

Emoticons have since taken off in cyber space, and have graphic representations such as the ones above. They are the quintessential internet meme because of how they have evolved from the basic concept of symbolizing a smiling face to representing various facial features. Now, emoticons are ubiquitous and most people wouldn't have guessed that the simplicity of a smiley kicked started an internet revolution.

Here is a timeline of internet memes for reference.

http://www.dipity.com/tatercakes/Internet_Memes/