Memes And Graphs: The Case For Making Diagram Memes

If there is one fact of life that proves hard to dispute, it is that at no point in history have as many people had as much information so readily available as we do now. While this responsibility may be overwhelming, it also provides ample opportunity for organization. If the golden age of PowerPoint taught us anything, it’s that there’s no set of statistics out there that can’t be made more palatable by running them through a nice, color-coordinated chart.

Long before Instagram infographic dumps started to spoon feed knowledge through social media, meme culture had picked up on the fact that graphs, diagrams and tables make for one of the most versatile exploitables out there. Making points in a simple, approachable way, they are the perfect vehicle for accessible humor. How this usage takes place can differ, but there are a few key themes that emerge from the biggest formats.

Reality Bites

One of the most compelling reasons to use charts or graphs is how they reveal the pattern in empirical data that might otherwise be hard to see. It can show us the reality of situations that might be too large for us to grasp otherwise.

That said, this only applies when you choose to use them seriously. When it comes to memes, these methods (or the appearance of them) are all about taking things personally. It’s not about opening our eyes in terms of the world in general, but rather the world according to the memer.

This is exemplified in memes like What Gives People Feelings Of Power, measuring the quality against factors like money, status and a third option that gives the greatest amount of power despite its seemingly minor significance. It trains us to expect the unexpected, using its bar chart to underline this.

It finds a kindred spirit in the craze for interest graphs, used to gauge when supposedly good conversations go bad. Ranging from something as innocuous as being offered chocolate raisins to controversial political disagreements, all imply the same blunt last word.

At its harshest, this personalized take on reality indicates outright denial. None But In Yellow takes a simple "No" answer and gives it the kind of unnecessary elaboration that makes it a put down on steroids. The message is clear: you can’t argue with the pie chart, and this makes it the ultimate dunk.

Culture Shock

As everyone knows, much of meme culture is not only intertwined with society, it is a direct reaction to it. They are one of the most readily available means of expressing an opinion and more importantly, they do it in a way that has entertainment value.

Diagrams, therefore, are the ultimate categorization tool for memes. They offer a means of exploring stereotypes under a structure that seems much more valid than your average low-effort image macro.

By far the most impactful of these types of memes must be the Political Compass. Derived from an online test that scores your political leanings, it has arguably become one of the most popular political meme formats. Whether using the Left/Right and Libertarian/Authoritarian axes to troll people on all sides of the square or placing every single Wojak according to their specific allegiances, the Political Compass is as good at starting arguments as it is summing up and/or misrepresenting peoples’ points of view.

Its impact has been powerful, in no small part due to its dedicated subreddit. Its influence is great enough that many of its later iterations deconstruct the cube, retaining only its colors to mark characters by their politics. However, it’s the original that confirms that no one is safe from having their beliefs satirized.

While more open-ended than its opinionated cousin, the trend for Venn Diagrams has also graced memes with the ability to make complex links with the least amount of work possible. Thanks to this format, there is no longer any connection too bizarre to be made. Proving the surprising versatility of the phrase Let’s Get This Bread has never been so easy, or eye-catching.

Opinion vs. Fact

As we have already seen, graphs are great for conveying expertise. Their serious, number-crunching aura suggests that they present us only with the utmost truths, even when there are plenty of ways these can be manipulated and falsified. Memes will often use this to their advantage. What their points lack in explanation or logic is made up for by the certainty they are afforded by using these methods.

More recent formats have been especially eager in perpetuating this trend, such as Cultural Impact graphs. Looking to rectify what parts of popular culture are considered valuable, it pits bands, memes and scenes from movies against everything from The Beatles to The Industrial Revolution. The chart may deliberately be given no context whatsoever, but it also legitimizes the rewriting that the meme partakes in, as well as giving Stan Twitter another avenue through which to advance their agenda.

In less openly biased pop culture theorizing, this year’s “Knows What Sex Is”:https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/knows-what-sex-is-table tables have sought to add another layer to presenting personal beliefs as straight facts. Placing characters from various shows and games according to their sexual knowledge and activity assumes both insider knowledge and a sense of authority. Meme lore is all the more convincing when you put a frame around it. Even the recent Sections of a Joint format proves these graph-oriented memes are nowhere close to falling out of favor.

The chaos of content that gets filtered through memes is given a sense of orderliness when filtered through diagrams and graphs. Most of the formats it produces center around advancing an argument and as a result, they have a visual approachability that makes them better for presenting complex information than something like Jim Halpert’s whiteboard or Lisa Simpson’s presentation. Combined with the persuasive powers of arrangement, they offer an undeniable appeal that is unlikely to wane despite the changes they may go through in the future.

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