It
is a little crazy that there are scholarly articles involving memes. It brings
up a small question. What does this say about our society today? What made us
strive to create scholarly articles and journals about memes? I am sure there
are better things to be discussing in our world today. Enough about this little
rant, now I would like to discuss the Everywhere meme a little further. But
before I get into this specific meme, I would like to discuss the background of
memes in general. Why were memes created? Why did they become so popular? These
are questions that come up and need some answers.
The
word “meme” was originated from Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene ( Where/How Did Memes Actually Start? ). The word “meme”
was always around rather the idea behind a meme was created more recently.
Memes
are a lot of things. They can be symbols, catch-phrases, languages, and styles.
Some are more world known some are between a few friends. Some embarrass people,
some are just plain funny. Why did they start? When researching where memes
originated from, I could not find a solid answer. They are something that just
started. One day someone decided to put a caption on a picture and a meme was
born.
The
Jung Journal discusses the Great Mother and the Wise Old Man. These are two archetypes
that memes are thought to have begun. These two archetypes are found consistent
across several different cultures and religious backgrounds ( Hossain, 2015 ).
It seems that religion and older figures are easy targets for memes to be
created.
The
Jung Journal mentions, “the notion behind the internet jargon of an idea ‘going
viral’ in reference to the new class of concepts known as Internet memes”.
Hossain then mentions Dawkins and how he introduced the concept of the meme as
something that “conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission” ( Hossian,
2015 ). Dawkins linked a meme to a gene. “A replicator that follows the laws of
evolution as the basic unit of cultural transmission” ( Hossian, 2015 ).
Basically
memes are spread because of the funny picture along with the hilarious caption.
The “Everywhere” meme is an example of a popular meme because it caught on. A
meme has to catch on to become popular. People need to like a meme for it to go
worldwide. The “Everywhere” meme started in a not so liked meme. It was of a
pornographic phrase of “Dicks, Dicks everywhere”. People were not fans of this
to they did not share it. Then others liked the idea and the picture behind the
meme so they change the wording to either “drama, drama everywhere” or “XXX,
XXX everywhere” ( fill in any fitting word with the X ). After this happened,
the meme started to become popular and began to, as Hossain says, “go viral”.
The
“Everywhere” meme became even more popular when they put the Toy Story version
in. It just comes to show that anything can become popular once it goes viral.
Especially memes.
"Where/How Did Memes Actually Start? | Meme Research
Discussion." Know Your Meme News. N.p., 2012. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
Hossain, Shaikat. "The Internet as a Tool
for Studying the Collective Unconscious." Jung Journal 6.2 (2012): 103-09. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
Good sources here - and you do a nice job articulating the issues raised by these articles. Yes, the Internet meme has become a vehicle for just about anything - from jokes to satire to social criticism. This particular phrasing, the "everywhere" meme, has been used - as you said - in many ways. The significance of the porn-originating phrase, however, is fundamentally different from the Toy Story usage (was it Buzz who said the porn phrase too?) Was this a phrasing the character actually used during that particular scene of the movie? I think whatever popularity this meme can claim is more likely due to the movie reference than the porn reference - and I think that approach would yield more valid criticism as well.
ReplyDeleteLook more into the notion of "cultural transmission," as that seems very consistent with the sort of public resonance we are looking to analyze in our papers. Good stuff here! Keep working!