Fierce Pika

Don’t get me wrong, this is all kinds of awesomeness (and good writing with good examples). But like a LOT of entries here, I’m wondering whether this is really an internet meme or just a 4chan meme. Doesn’t the meme have to be propagated well beyond the boards to count as anything other than a sub-meme?

Just because it’s a meme on the boards doesn’t make it a meme for the REST of the internet. If we got that route, pretty soon all the in-jokes on freakin’ furry boards or whatever will have to be counted as “memes” too, and then this just becomes a repository of the entire internet.

Links no work!

GraphJam evolved from the music graphs, based on graphing rap lyrics (in particular: Mo money, mo problems). That is how it in fact got its name. Obviously memetically it now refers to just about anything that people care to graph.

All we really need here is to nail down the precise origins and some firm dates, although finding a proper name for this meme other than lolgraphs would prolly be good.

Most definitely a meme: a catch-phrase par excellence, and applied in many different situations such that its meaning has subtly evolved.

Deuxieme makes a good point, and I’d like to add (caveat: do not lurk in forums here enough):

Xiao Xiao just by itself was as big in its day as most of the memes here, crippled only by pre-existing Youtube, Gorillamask, etc. Isn’t it worth documenting stuff that was (or is) huge that isn’t strictly mimetic, but that most net-savvy people know about/visit/contribute to?

OTOH, this starts to get into kind of a social history of the internet, rather than just tracking memes. Then again, that seems like a good use of people’s input: the ultimate net culture encyclopedia, for lack of a better term. Just a thought.

Captain Blubber is right: PBF reference must be added with original comic. I am engorged…er, enraged, also.

Yeah, not a meme. A meme has to have both components: DERIVATIVES and OTHER PEOPLE. This would be like saying different Homestarrunner toons collectively make a meme. Deadpool this.

Two problems here:

1. Needs much more info about origins and usage beyond “It’s sort of a joke, except when it’s cruel, then it’s not.”

2. Dear God, you need to write this much more clearly. It’s only barely intelligible right now.

Indeed, this is where it gets sorta tricky. I would count it as an internet meme from the standpoint that it is very frequently used in written form, particularly forums. In this respect it’s almost as common to see “meh” as “ROFL”, etc. Relatively few people SAY “meh” unless they’ve written it first, in my opinion.

On the other hand, that’s really where the criteria angle comes in: does an “official” internet meme have to either originate online or take new meaning online? If it merely “shows up” online does that count?

I would argue that the portal aspect of Portal has become somewhat mimetic. But if that’s the case, this entry needs majorly rewritten, and should be about the portal MEME and not the game. “All your base” as an entry is not written primarily about Zero Wing.

Yeah, this started June 2008. Palin’s comment only gave it new life.