1,272 Rare Memes
On October 17th, we discussed an article from Abby Rabinowitz titled, “The Meme as Meme” In this article, she discussed potential reasons why memes go viral and why we should care. She pointed out that it is difficult to interpret memes as serious concepts that can tell a lot about a culture or setting around it, but there are meme theorists that do this just. Intrigued, I decided to look at a meme and its evolution.
Before deciding on which meme to analyze across time, I went to meme experts: my friends. I asked if they could think of any memes that has changed a lot throughout its existence. One friend sent me the man looking out of the window example, who has been shown in many different outfits, hairstyles, and anything else you could imagine:
Another friend took his example deeper than I had ever imagined you could go - the Pepe meme.
When first reading his response, I thought oh no, not this mainstream meme. However, his explanation revealed quite a bit of knowledge that I never knew or heard about. Straight from my friend Alex, he said “pepe went from being a sad meme to a symbol of white supremacy over the course of a decade :(“. Completely thrown off course and not sure of how to address his suggestion on what I should analyze, I asked if he had any examples/screenshots of this meme. He sent a plethora (in addition, he sent this link for 1,272 Rare Pepes):
As shown through the related images and article titles in these screenshots, Pepe isn’t just the Pepe he’s always been - he’s been morphed and manipulated by particular groups. What started out as a meme to express “sadboi” feelings and to express emotions without actually having to cry, changed into a meme added to the ADL hate database. Now before diving into the hate symbol some has used it for, why did Pepe become popular? Is it his sad, teary eyes or his quivering lips? Is it because people seem to be more open about their feelings and depression or hardships they face? Or is it because it’s a meme that clenches at your heart while still making you want to laugh at the context of the caption? Well, I’ll leave that answer up to the real meme theorists.
Moving on, why did the Anti-Defamation League identify Pepe as a hate symbol? Well, it turns out that some have been editing Pepe to look like Hitler or wear clothing and symbols related to racist and anti-semitic views. Because of this, Pepe now has an even more negative connotation attached to it. As Jonathan A. Greenblatt, the ADL CEO, has said, “Once again, racists and haters have taken a popular Internet meme and twisted it for their own purposes of spreading bigotry and harrassing users”. If interested, click here to read about the ADL’s decision in more detail.
Disclaimer: I do not support the use of memes to reprent discriminatory messages nor do I support racism and anti-semitic ideologies. I am simply writting about a phenomenon that I recently learned about.