StoryFire: A New Way to Meme

YouTube's extensive and ever-changing restrictions are something creators on the platform have commonly expressed their frustrations with, especially in recent years. After experiencing these limitations himself, YouTuber McJuggernuggets created StoryFire as a YouTube alternative back in 2017. While the platform has attracted a modest user base since then, it never quite exploded in popularity as a true YouTube alternative.

That all seems to be changing in 2020, though, with the addition of YouTube heavyweights like Justin Whang, Boogie2988 and Twomad joining the site, just to name a few. With promises of exclusive content and a less restrictive platform, StoryFire is in the middle of one of its biggest growth periods. Despite this, one question remains: How’s the meme scene over there?

What Is StoryFire?

StoryFire is more than a mere YouTube rip-off. A more accurate description of the platform would be a combination of YouTube mixed with Twitter, but with a section for short stories, too. The site incentivizes content creation and interactions with its digital currency system, called "Blaze," which can be earned by performing a variety of activities on the site or by purchasing it directly from StoryFire. You can also buy Blaze with real money to tip story writers. Additionally, some of those stories require a small amount of Blaze to unlock.

Currently, the short story section is an extremely popular area of the site, and the majority of users upload serious attempts at literature across multiple genres. A social media platform based on storytelling has never really taken off, but StoryFire seems to be pulling it off in a lot of promising ways thanks to its intuitive design.

Reading stories on the platform is simple. You view the stories one line at a time, tapping the screen to progress to the next line. This keeps the user from reading ahead, adding an element of surprise to each unique work. The concept itself works great on mobile, and the tap-to-advance function has a curiously addictive quality.

While most users upload legitimate stories, a growing niche of users has started uploading "meme stories" to the site. These stories look to transfer the frantic humor of memes into a story-based format. It goes without saying that memes are an important part of every social media site, as they’re often the reason many users stick with a particular platform. Now that memers have realized the potential for memes on StoryFire, users are being given a whole new reason to signup and regularly check the platform.

Memes That Tell a Story

Memes on StoryFire currently range from cringey to funny, just like memes anywhere else. Some of the most successful StoryFire memes throw the meme in at the end as a surprise – a bait-and-switch of sorts, akin to the Walk the Dinosaur memes popularized by 4chan. These stories appear serious, luring you further in with a compelling premise line by line. Then you get to the end and you’re bombarded with a surprise, text-based meme. It can be anything from the Navy Seal copypasta to a seemingly endless string of text reading Big Chungus. It’s a low-effort concept, but it’s a tried-and-true format that shows the basic potential of the StoryFire format.

The idea of telling a story through meme and internet humor isn’t new. The most prominent example of it can be seen in Greentext Stories, a phenomenon popularized by 4Chan in which an absurd story is told one line at a time. Greentexts undoubtedly had some inspiration on the StoryFire format, as some users can be observed ripping Greentexts from the web and putting them on StoryFire. This offers a new, interesting way to read Greentext-like stories, and it’s likely we’ll see more memers use this format on StoryFire in the future. It’s a proven, successful format in the memeverse, so why not offer users a platform that expands on it?

StoryFire differs from webcomics – which often employ meme humor, too – as it’s completely text-based. It leaves the visuals up to the reader’s imagination. It’s a welcome change-up to the usual image-reliant formats we so commonly see floating around the web and incredibly refreshing.

Fan Fiction Meets Memes

Arguably, the most contentious attempts at memes on StoryFire are stories that feature memes themselves as the primary characters. These stories depict the adventures of characters like Big Chungus, Doge, and literal Rage Comics characters as they go about life. The site also has its fair share of more traditional, ironic fanfiction based on memeable characters like Shrek and Sonic. These are often cringeworthy, filled with typos, bad writing and half-baked plots, but it’s hard to tell how much of this is intentional or not. This might sound like a bad thing, but they’re actually some of the most entertaining memes on StoryFire right now.

Memers embrace cringe-humor now more than ever. So many memes rely on it, and the blurred lines between intention and pointlessness have never been blurrier, giving these StoryFire memes an intriguing, raw feel. They’re quick and dirty like a deep-fried meme you might see on Instagram.

It’s easy to get lost in StoryFire reading through these quick, cringeworthy meme stories. It’s fascinating to see someone try to slap together an effective tale using memes as the driving force. It’s like fanfiction about the memeverse, an avenue many don’t dare explore. If you can embrace the cringe, you can have a lot of fun here. Nowhere else will you find a story about Big Chungus fighting for supremacy on an island full of other dead memes.

The Future of Memes on StoryFire

There’s nothing but potential for the meme scene on StoryFire. With video, social and story sections, there are tons of ways to meme on the platform. As the video section expands, we’re seeing more video memes pop up. The social section, essentially being Twitter, allows for the same photo-plus-caption memes we see over there. But the biggest addition to the meme-verse lies in the story section, with its intriguing and addictive format.

As more memers join the platform, we’re seeing story-based memes on StoryFire continuously evolve. StoryFire memes may be in their infancy right now, but there are some real diamonds in the rough. As memers learn the platform and perfect the craft, they’ll only get funnier and more successful. With the video and social sections to prop them up, and more legitimate stories there to keep users grounded in the platform, StoryFire seems to be on its way to social media success.

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