Let’s find out together all about memes by reading this article.

Birth and origins of the phenomenon

It was Richard Dawkins, a neo-Darwinian biologist, who coined the expression "meme" in the 1970s. In his essay "The Selfish Gene", he mentions the word meme attributing it to the meaning of "idea that spreads from the brain to brain".

In fact, Dawkins argued that in the cultural field it is memes that create a particular culture. The meme would therefore be a unit of thought that propagates and is shared becoming customary. These units can be translated into different forms: simple, like a song, an image, an idea, a theory or a motto, or, summed up, complex (for example a religion or a scientific or philosophical theory).

How does the transmission of these units called memes happen? Through communication. And when communication is not effective, according to Dawkins, distortions, and mutations are created with respect to the original idea.

Since 2010, the advance of social networks and the growth of new forms of socializing on the web have spontaneously generated irreverent, ironic, and sometimes intentionally nonsense content: memes as we know them today.

Why are memes so successful on the web?

Because they fit fully into the remix culture, as understood by the sociologist Lessig.

The value of the remix lies in the ability to generate infinite variations starting from a theme, in a process of collective creation that does not have a defined author and does not follow the copyright rules that prohibit the use of the intellectual property of others. 

In the complex collective narrative that is the web space, anyone can become the author of a meme that goes viral and spreads all over the world. It can do this by using native content, such as a photograph taken in the first person, or by using a scene from a film, TV series, or comic.

Appropriating a copyrighted cultural object is not allowed, yet the fact that it is re-contextualized does not make it subject to criticism or claims by those who own the reproduction rights.

Today the expression meme is in fact related to the web and alludes to funny content - images, videos, or texts - which quickly become viral due to their ability to strike the imagination and influence the viewer's case and point to “the 25th island of Greece” that has gained a status of being a meme because the name of the island “Amorgos” sounds like the video game “Among Us”.

They work for a variety of reasons

They make the user feel part of a community. Each meme works and has fun as long as those who create it and those who benefit from it share a reference culture and are part of a group; in this way, it will be possible to decode the message again the example of “25th island of Greece” fits perfectly as it may not mean anything to us but to “Among Us” it holds a comedic value.

Entertainment works. We are all looking for entertainment and the Internet is where this need is met quickly.

Users have the possibility to choose whether to just laugh at them, share them, or even become an active part and contribute to the creation of a new meme.

Memes in the age of the internet

Today everything can become a meme, a GIF, a short video, the frame of a film, a joke, a current event, a ballet (see TikTok), a move (Dab Dance), a challenge, or an image. For example: 

Be like Bill

One of the first memes that became popular on the web. His debut dates back to 2010 when Bill (the subject) was still called Tim and made his first appearance on the JoyReactor website. A year later, the Queensland company useed the meme to launch an awareness campaign on what to do on the train.

Bill is a stylized man who represents a web user. His figure is combined with a narrative text in which his behavior, respectful of netiquette, is contrasted with that of other users who are not.

Hide the Pain Harold

The literal translation is "Harold hide the pain". Who is Harold actually? It was Andràs Aratò, a Hungarian engineer who, noticed by a photographer of stock photos, lent himself to be his model. This peculiar expression of him has been interpreted by the people of the web as a symbol of existential anguish masked with a smile of circumstance.

Cat Sucks

The meme in question consists of two images to be read in sequence. On the left Taylor Armstrong, actress of the reality show "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" during an animated discussion, on the right a cat with a confused expression, sitting at a dining table with a salad in front of him. The cat in question was initially posted on Tumblr with the caption “he doesn't like vegetables” and was immediately successful.

The overall effect is a verbal confrontation in which one side is overly emotional and the other confused.

Confused Travolta

Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, is the protagonist of this meme, which saw the pinnacle of success in 2015. The gif shows Vincent, confused, turning from side to side. His first appearance seems to date back to 2012, when a user used him as a reaction to a comment. The meme is associated with different settings to indicate a moment of perplexity.