Internet meme

The word meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene as an attempt to explain how ideas replicate, mutate, and evolve (memetics).[19] Emoticons are one of the first resemblances of internet memes.[23] In 1982, Scott E. Fahlman introduced the sideways smiley face formed by punctuation marks, with an intention to create emotion and expressions with the use of digital imagery.[23] The concept of the Internet meme was first proposed by Mike Godwin in the June 1993 issue of Wired.[24] In 2013, Dawkins characterized an Internet meme as being a meme deliberately altered by human creativity—distinguished from biological genes and his own pre-Internet concept of a meme, which involved mutation by random change and spreading through accurate replication as in Darwinian selection.[25] Dawkins explained that Internet memes are thus a "hijacking of the original idea", the very idea of a meme having mutated and evolved in this new direction.[26] Furthermore, Internet memes carry an additional property that ordinary memes do not: Internet memes leave a footprint in the media through which they propagate (for example, social networks) that renders them traceable and analyzable.[16]

A lolcat image macro, of a style popular in the mid-2000s

Internet memes grew as a concept in the mid-1990s. At the time, memes were just short clips that were shared between people in Usenet forums. As the Internet evolved, so did memes. Over the years, many memes have originated on the 4chan website, which have been described as "the cradle of memes, trolling and alterculture"; major memes popularized by that site include lolcats as well as the pedobear.[27]^: 74 When YouTube was released in 2005, video memes became popular. Around this time, rickrolling became popular and the link to this video was sent around via email or other messaging sites. Video sharing also created memes such as "Turn Down for What" and the "Harlem Shake". As social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook started appearing, it was now easy to share GIFs and image macros to a large audience. Meme generator websites were created to let users create their own memes out of existing templates. Memes during this time could remain popular for a long time, from a few months to a decade, which contrasts with the fast lifespan of modern memes.[28]

Early in the Internet's history, memes were primarily spread via email or Usenet discussion communities. Messageboards and newsgroups were also popular because they allowed a simple method for people to share information or memes with a diverse population of Internet users in a short period. They encourage communication between people, and thus between meme sets, that do not normally come in contact. Furthermore, they actively promote meme-sharing within the messageboard or newsgroup population by asking for feedback, comments, opinions, etc. This format is what gave rise to early Internet memes, like the Hampster Dance.[29] Another factor in the increased meme transmission observed over the Internet is its interactive nature. Print matter, radio, and television are all essentially passive experiences requiring the reader, listener, or viewer to perform all necessary cognitive processing; in contrast, the social nature of the Internet allows phenomena to propagate more readily. Many phenomena are also spread via web search engines, Internet forums, social networking services, social news sites, and video hosting services. Much of the Internet's ability to spread information is assisted from results found through search engines, which can allow users to find memes even with obscure information.[30][31]

Advice animal meme

The earlier forms of image based memes include the demotivator, image macro, photoshopped image, LOLCats, advice animal, and comic.[32] The Demotivator image includes a black background with white, capitalized text, often in Times New Roman. The objective of using this format was to parodize inspirational and motivational posters, where the name "demotivator" is derived from.[32] Image macro consists of an image with white Impact font within a black border. The text/context of the meme is at the top and bottom of the image itself.[32] The photoshopped image is closely related to the macro image, but often is created without the use of text, mostly edited with another image.[32] Advice animals contain a photoshopped image of an animal's head on top of a rainbow/color wheel background. It includes the image macro of the top and bottom text with Impact font.[32] LOLCats incorporate the design of image macro and advice animals, but instead of just the cat's head, it is the entire picture unedited with top and bottom text, often with the usage of Internet slang.[32] Comics follow a typical newspaper comic strip format; there are a variety of different ways to create one, as multiple images and texts can be used to create the overall meme. Rage comics such as Trollface were often used to create comic memes.[33][34]

Modern memes can generally be described as more visually (rather than contextually) humorous, absurd, niche, diverse and self-referential than earlier forms. As a result, they are less intuitive and are less likely to be fully understood by a wider audience. By the mid-2010s, they began to arise first in the form of "dank" memes,[35] a sub-genre of memes usually involving meme formats in a different way to the image macros that were in large use before. The term "dank", which means "a cold, damp place", was later adapted by marijuana smokers to refer to high-quality marijuana, and then became an ironic term for a type of meme, also becoming synonymous for "cool".[36] This term originally meant a meme that was significantly different from the norm but is now used mainly to differentiate these modern types of memes from other, older types such as image macros. Dank memes can also refer to those which are "exceptionally unique or odd".[37] They have been described as "Internet in-jokes" that are "so played out that they become funny again" or are "so nonsensical that they are hilarious".[38]

The formats are usually from popular television shows, movies, or video games and users then add humorous text and images over it. The culture surrounding memes, especially dank memes, grew to the point of the creation of many subcultures surrounding them. For instance, a "meme market", satirizing on the kind of talks and stocks found normally on Wall Street, was created in September 2016. Originally started on Reddit as r/MemeEconomy, people would only jokingly "buy" or "sell" shares in a meme to indicate how popular a meme was thought to be. The market is seen as a way to show how people assign value to commonplace and otherwise valueless things such as memes.[39]

One example of a dank meme is "Who Killed Hannibal", which is made of two frames from a 2013 episode of The Eric Andre Show. The meme features the host Andre shooting his co-host Buress in the first frame and then lamenting that his co-host has been shot in the next, with Andre often depicted blaming someone else for the shot. This was then adapted to other situations, such as baby boomers blaming millennials for problems that they allegedly caused.[40]

Dank memes also stem from interesting real-life images that are shared or remixed many times. So-called "moth" memes (often stylized as "möth") came about after a Reddit user posted a close up picture of a moth that they had found outside their window onto the r/creepy subreddit.[41] The image became popular and began to be used in memes; according to Chris Grinter, a lepidopterist from the California Academy of Sciences, moth memes gained recognition because of the inexplicability surrounding moths' attraction to lamps.[42]

Example of the "deep-fried" style of meme, where colours are distorted and saturated and characters have glowing eyes

Many modern memes stem from nonsense or otherwise unrelated phrases that are repeated and placed onto other formats. One example of this is "they did surgery on a grape", from a video of a da Vinci Surgical System performing test surgery on a grape.[43] People sharing the post tended to add the same caption to it ("they did surgery on a grape"), and eventually created a satirical image with several layers of captions on it. Memes such as this one continue to propagate as people start to include the phrase in different, otherwise unrelated memes.[44][45][46]

The increasing trend towards irony in meme culture has resulted in absurdist memes not unlike postmodern art. Many Internet memes have several layers of meaning built off of other memes, not being understandable unless the viewer has seen all previous memes. "Deep-fried" memes, memes that have been distorted and run through several filters and/or layers of lossy compression, are often strange to one not familiar with them.[47] An example of these memes is the "E" meme, a picture of YouTuber Markiplier photoshopped onto Lord Farquaad from the film Shrek, photoshopped into a scene from businessman Mark Zuckerberg's hearing in Congress.[48]

"Surreal" memes are based on the idea of increasing layers of irony so that they are not understandable by popular culture or corporations.[49] This strange irony was discussed in the Washington Post article "Why is millennial humor so weird?" to show the disconnect from how millennials and other generations conceive of humor;[50] the article itself also became a meme where people photoshopped examples of deep-fried and surreal memes onto the article to make fun of the point of the article and the abstraction of meme culture.[51]

After the success of the application Vine, a format of memes emerged in the form of short videos and scripted sketches.[52] Vine, in spite of its closure in early 2017, has still retained relevance through uploads of viral vines in compilations onto other sharing social media sites such as Twitter and YouTube.[53] Since Vine's shutdown, the service TikTok has been described as a better version of Vine and many comparisons have been made between the two platforms.[54] TikTok is also focused on short form video, but permits longer videos than Vine, with it allowing videos of up to 15 seconds when it launched, and slowly expanding to 1, 3, and most recently 10 minutes, blurring the boundaries between short and long-form video.[55]

The short-form videos created on sites like Vine and TikTok found use in being posted on other social media sites, such as Twitter, as a form of reacting and responding to other posts. These videos become replicated into other contexts and often become part of Internet culture. An example of a TikTok meme is the cosplay by Nyannyancosplay juxtaposed to the musical track "Mia Khalifa" by iLoveFriday. This meme became known as Hit or Miss.[56] Hit or Miss has been referenced multiple times, including PewDiePie's 2018 Rewind as one of the most influential memes of the year alongside numerous other influential memes of the year.[57] PewDiePie's 2018 rewind video has been viewed over 83 million times and has 9.5 million likes as of October 14, 2021. Hit or Miss has been remixed as well, including by other social media influencers such as Belle Delphine. SirKibbs' YouTube has uploaded a video of Belle Delphine and Kat (Nyannyancosplay) side-by-side comparison and has garnered over 4.4 million views as of October 14, 2021.[58]

Meme stocks, a particular subset of Internet memes in general, are listed companies lauded for the social media buzz they create, rather than their operating performance.[69] r/wallstreetbets, a subreddit where participants discuss stock and option trading, and the financial services company Robinhood Markets, became notable in 2021 for their involvement on the popularization and enhancement of meme stocks.[70][71]

Pepe the Frog is a politicized Internet meme that has been used both by the alt-right and Hong Kong protesters

A comedic rendition of the Gadsden Flag, which pokes fun at the political position of those who use it, such as libertarians.[72]

Internet memes are a medium for communicating comical images and or phrases for mass online audiences.[23] As internet memes become a common means of online expression, they become quickly used by those seeking to express political opinions or to actively campaign for (or against) a political entity.[73] In some ways, they can be seen as a modern form of the political cartoon, offering up a way to democratize political commentary.[74]

Early examples of political memes can be seen from those resulting from the Dean Scream. Another example can be seen from MyDavidCameron.com, a website that allowed users to change the text of a British Conservative election campaign poster featuring David Cameron from the 2010 general election. This website was often used to produce memes that replaced the original slogan with a series of exaggerated claims or sarcastic fake campaign promises along with derision of David Cameron's airbrushed appearance.

Within each subsequent election, and the growing importance of visual communications due to the Internet and social media, memes have become a more important element within political campaigns as fringe communities have shaped broader discourse through the use of Internet memes.[75] For example, Ted Cruz's 2016 Republican presidential bid was damaged by Internet memes that speculated he was the Zodiac Killer.[76]

Another internet meme was created from the 2012 US presidential debate surrounding United States politician Mitt Romney's usage of the phrase "binders full of women". Internet meme creators quickly created "My Binders Full of Women Exploded", referencing the Korean pop song "Gangnam style" by overlaying the politician's quote onto a frame from Psy's music video where paper blows around him. This internet meme specifically indexes the central attribute of intertextuality by blending together pop culture with politics.[4]

There has further been academic research that provides evidence that the use of memes during elections has a role to play in informing the public. In a study of 378 Internet memes posted across Facebook during the 2017 general election, McLoughlin and Southern found memes were a widely shared conduit for basic political information to audiences who often did not seek it out.[77] Indeed, a fifth of all political memes posted during the election referenced a political policy which was part of a political parties mandate, while messages promoting people to vote were shared more than 160,000 times, suggesting memes have a small role to play in increasing voter turnout.[77] Satirical memes that express political opinions are effective in not only informing others but also driving political debate and engagement with politics by offering an easy and even fun way to talk about important issues.[78]

Some political campaigns have begun to explicitly taken advantage of the increasing influence of memes; as part of the 2020 US presidential campaign, Michael Bloomberg sponsored a number of Instagram accounts with over 60 million collective followers to post memes related to the Bloomberg campaign.[79] Similar to criticisms against corporations who use meme marketing, the campaign was faulted for treating meme culture as an advertisement or something that can be bought.[80]

The 2020 Presidential Campaign of Kanye West quickly became a meme, following its announcement on Twitter, with numerous celebrities and influencers endorsing the rapper out of irony. Other personalities began announcing their own satirical presidential campaigns, parodying West.

Internet memes provide significant contributions toward social issues.[11] Memetric structures have enabled social movements to become spreadable pieces of information.[11]

During the 2010 It Gets Better Project for LGTBQ+ empowerment, memes were continuously used to promote and uplift LGTBQ+ youth.[81] The Human Rights Campaign equal rights symbol became an internet meme in defending the legalization of same sex marriage.[82]

The Ice Bucket Challenge became a viral meme in promoting and raising money and awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.[11]

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest movement saw a rise in internet memes after gaining attention on social media. All internet memes that were created and shared during the movement were very important in mediated discussions surrounding the OWS. Typical phrases such as "We Are the 99%" and "This is what democracy looks like", were remixed into memes and subsequently posted in the discussion board of OWS on popular social media sites such as Reddit, Tumblr, and 4chan. Those who actively participated in the movement conversed through these visuals.[83]

Memes making political or social points are sometimes structured as ostensible thought experiments in various forms, such as, "What if A were B in situation X?" and are framed to provoke a particular response. The conclusions intended, however, do not necessarily follow since there can be multiple factors determining the outcomes in situation X.[84]

Internet memes have also been used in the context of religion.[85][86]

Under United States copyright law, a creation receives copyright protection if it satisfies four conditions under 17 U.S.C. § 102.[91] For a meme to get copyright protection, it would have to satisfy four conditions:

1. It falls under one of the categories of work which is protected under the law
2. It is an "expression"
3. It has a modest amount of creativity
4. It is "fixed".[92]

Memes can be considered pictorial, graphical or motion picture, and so are subject to copyright law.[91] As such, memes are protected under copyright under the same conditions as these mediums, including concepts such as the low threshold of originality for what constitutes creativity (as demonstrated by Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co).[93] Since a meme is essentially a comment, satire, ridicule or expression of an emotion it constitutes the expression of an idea. Memes are contained in the medium of the Internet and so are fixed expressions by 17 U.S.C. § 101.[94]

Fair use is a defense under U.S. copyright law which protects work that has made using other copyrighted works.[95] The section provides that if a copyrighted work is reproduced "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching [...], scholarship or research", it would not amount to infringement. Notably, for memes, the use of the term "such as" in the section denotes that the list is not exhaustive but merely illustrative. Furthermore, the factors mentioned in the section are subjective in nature and the weight of each factor varies on a case to case basis.[96]

The four factors are:

1. The purpose or character of use,
2. The nature of the copyrighted work,
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used, and
4. Effect on the market.

Many memes are transformative in nature as they have no relation to the original work and the motive behind the communication of the meme is personal, in terms of disseminating humor to the public; such memes, being transformative, would be covered by fair use.[96] However, copying memes that are made for the sole purpose of being memes would not enjoy this protection as there is no transformation—the copying has the same purpose as the original meme which is to communicate humorous or entertaining anecdotes.[97] Purpose and character of use weigh in against memes which have been used for commercial purposes because in those cases, the work has not been created for the communication of humor but for economic gain. For example, Grumpy Cat won $710,001 in a copyright lawsuit against the beverage company Grenade which used the Grumpy Cat image on its roasted coffee line and t-shirts.[98]

The nature of the copyrighted work asks what the differences between the meme and the other material are. This factor applies to many types of memes because the original work is an artistic creation that has been published and thus the latter enjoys protection under copyright which the memes are violating. However, as memes are transformative, this factor does not have much weight.[88]

The amount and substantiality of the portion used tests not only the quantity of the work copied but the quality that is copied as well.[99] Memes copy only a small portion of a complete film, whereas for rage comics and personal photographs, the entire portion has been used to create the meme. Despite this, all categories of memes could fall under fair use because the text that is added to those images adds value, without which it would just be pictures.[96] Moreover, the heart of the work is not affected because the still/picture is taken out of context and portrays something entirely different from what the image originally wanted to depict.[100]

Lastly, the effect on the market offers court analysis on whether the meme would cause harm to the actual market of the original copyright work and also the harm it could cause to the potential market.[101] The target audience for the original work and meme is entirely different as the latter is taken out of the context of the original and created for use and dissemination on social media.[88] Rage comics and memes created for the purpose of being memes are an exception to this because the target audience for both is the same and copied work could infringe on the potential market of the original. Warner Brothers was sued for infringing the Nyan Cat meme by using it in its game Scribblenauts.[102]

Some subjects of memes made money from them through licensing deals. In 2021, in a new version of this concept several subjects of memes sold NFTs through auctions.[103] Ben Lashes, who managed numerous memes, said sales of these as NFTs had made $2 million and established memes as serious art.[104] One example of how this idea works is the case of "Disaster Girl", based on a photo of Zoe Roth at age 4 taken in Mebane, North Carolina in January 2005.[104] After the photo became famous and was used hundreds of times without permission, Roth decided to sell the original copy[105] as an NFT, for the equivalent of US$486,716.[106] The smart contract was programmed to give the family 10 percent of proceeds when the NFT was sold.[105]

Under Section 2(c)[107] of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, a meme could be classified as an 'artistic work' which states that an artistic work includes painting, sculpture, drawing (including a diagram, map, chart or plan), an engraving or a photograph, whether or not any such work possesses artistic quality.[92] The section uses the phrase "whether or not possessing artistic quality", the memes that are rage comics or those such as Keyboard Cat would enjoy protection as they are original creations in the form a painting, drawing, photograph or short video clip, despite not having artistic quality.[108] Memes that made from cinematograph still or photographs, the original image in the background for the meme would also be protected as the picture or the still from the series/movie is an 'artistic work'.[87] These memes are a modification of that already existing artistic work with some little amount of creativity and therefore, they would also enjoy copyright protection.

India follows a fair dealing approach as an exception to copyright infringement under Section 52(1)(a) for the purposes of private or personal use, criticism or review.[109] The analysis requires three steps: the amount and substantiality of dealing, the purpose of copying, and the effect on potential markets.

The amount of sustainability of dealing asks about how much of the original work is used in the meme, or how the meme transforms the original content. A meme makes use to existing copyright work whether it is a cinematograph still, rage comic, personal photograph or a meme made for the purpose of being a meme. However, since a meme is made for comedic purposes, taken out of context of the original work, they are transforming the work and creating a new work.[92]

The purpose of copying factors in the purpose of the meme compared to the purpose of the original work. Under Section 52(1)(a), the purpose is restricted to criticism or review.[109] A meme, as long as it is a parody or a criticism of the original work would be protected under the exception, but once an element of commercialization comes in, they would no longer be exempted and because the purpose no longer falls under the those mentioned in the section .[108] When the Indian comedic group All India Bakchod (AIB) parodied Game of Thrones through a series of memes, the primary purpose was to advertise products of companies that have endorsed the group and thus was not fair dealing.[97]

Memes generally do not have an effect on the potential market for a work. There must be no intention on part of the infringer to compete with the original owner of the work and derive profits from it.[110] Since memes are generally meant for comedic value and have no intention to supplant the market of the original creator, they fall within the ambit of this section.[108]