A tale of two
MEMES

Exploration of two memes

To be totally honest with myself I am somewhat shameful of the fact that I have not created a meme since I was in middle school. At that time memes commonly included Tron Guy, Numa Numa, Chocolate Rain Guy, Why you so mad bro?, and a plethora of other simpler memes. I suppose this assignment made me take a good look at how far memes have developed/evolved since I was a kid. I cant help but appreciate the “layered” cultural complexity found in some more contemporary memes. I even felt inspired to experiment with this “layering” of memes with other “narratives” or memes themselves.

The first meme is the Ugandan Knuckles meme now mixed/layered with the Distracted Boyfriend meme. The form has been changed to make the Ugandan Knuckles head represent the “more attractive girl walking away”, while the “girlfriend” is represented by Knuckles from Sonic the hedgehog concept art. The content is not shifted to the general preference for one form of the Knuckles from the Sonic The Hedgehog series as a whole. The stance is comically based, and the content itself is meant to be a form of sharing opinion.

The second meme is Mitten Bernie Sitting on my “Not Approved” covid status for campus despite seemingly having everything required. I couldn’t help but not turn my situation into a relevant meme, and I found the Mitten Bernie Sanders form was a great fit. The form itself features Bernie Sanders sitting patiently where the attention of the viewer is drawn to the red lettering. Hopefully the combination of the key figure himself and the text from the surrounding background provide viewers with a clue to the bigger meaning that I am waiting to be approved despite the circumstances.

-REMIXED MEMES- I would have to say that my two favorite internet memes are the Ugandan Knuckles, and Mitten Bernie Sanders. I relate to these memes not just because they are funny, but because they have a deeper significance to me personally. The Ugandan Knuckles meme was a part of a larger movement with/thanks to a game called VR Chat. No doubt a unique game that is truly first of its kind; allowing its users to interact via virtual reality as digital forms of their choosing. The Ugandan Knuckles was a meme that while not necessarily considered appropriate became a global sensation in 2018. A large living community sprung up around this meme, and the VR capabilities gave this meme the user the ability to embody the meme itself. I personally found it fascinating to not only par-take in the traditional visual memes at the time, but also the larger living the meme itself within a larger global community. Elisavet Christou and Mike Hazas in It’s Just the Internet! Appropriation in Post internet Art” article make some excellent points about the bigger significance of internet art culture, and I was always enthralled by how this community adopted Ugandan Knuckles throughout the memes lifespan. One quote from the article states Using web content and internet technology in contemporary internet art -post internet art -becomes an organic behavior within the wider context of internet culture. (1) The Ugandan Knuckles derives itself from web content, and has sprung itself into internet culture thanks to the vast amounts of internet advances in communication/sharing.

The Mittens Bernie Sanders meme was also quite interesting as it came up at a time that was a tad uncertain, but hopeful. I personally love this meme not for its versatility, but for its ability to be relatable. This was perhaps the first meme I was able to truly connect with other older generation in my family. And for a time, this meme dominated the family communication as the main representation for just about every emotion someone could have. I see this meme as a wonderful blank canvas for a plethora of creative possibilities. Shiffman Limor presents the idea that memes In order to be passed along from one person to another, memes are loaded on various vehicles: images, texts, artifacts or rituals. (5) It is also this idea that emboldens me to admire these two memes specifically, as they have carried themselves on what feels like a plethora of vehicles meant to share everything from the comical to the painfully serious.

Both of these memes focus on a singular figure, and this figure is not necessarily constrained to singular setting. This makes both memes fairly flexible in their application, and ability to manipulate the key figure in such a way that promotes the creators intent. However, the Bernie Sanders meme is more limited to more traditional forms of transition while the Ugandan Knuckles meme has its origins within virtual reality itself. As a result, the Ugandan Knuckles meme has a sense of vitality/life that is always evolving within the digital world. Without a doubt Ugandan Knuckles falls under the more “Obscure memes while Mitten Bernie is considered to be far more mainstream

The Shiffman article is Memes in a Digital World- Reconciling with a Conceptual Troublemaker provides a lot of great insight into memes and deeper understanding with these two memes specifically. When exploring digital culture ...Memes diffuse at the micro level but shape the macro structure of society; they reproduce by various means of imitation; and they follow the rules of competitive selection. (11) Both the Mittens Bernie and Ugandan Knuckles memes ascribe to these three attributes. Shiffman begins to conclude with perhaps the most important point of all. Stating that While memes and digital culture seem like an ideal fit, scholars — particularly in the field of communication.(10). These two memes are favorites of mine not because they bring joy to my life, but because they are forms of communication I can relate with, understand, build off of, and share.