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In this thread, we will be talking about memes we do not understand or not like completely. Remember, try not down voting someone's opinion on here.

Mine is pokemon. I have to say that I have gotten sick of the game in general. The show didn't stick up exactly for a good example. The intention of pokemon was really picking my brain. I lost a friend because of it, due to him not being able to put down the DS. I have played it before, and I got to say it did not seems very fun. So why is it such a good thing?

Post yours.

I'm not really a part of the Pokémon fandom, but I am a big fan of the main series of games. I don't follow the show anymore (haven't since the second season a long time ago,) and I don't interact with the Pokémon fandom.

I like Pokémon, because it's a simple RPG that allows you to travel and overcome challenges. It also has a ton of customization in terms your team of fighters (i.e. your Pokémon.) It always had nice, upbeat tunes. And it's a universe that you can immerse yourself in. Outside of the fact that there are obviously evil syndicates (that you eventually take down yourself) and the fact that they're are nearly all-powerful monsters, many of which are running about wild, the world is peaceful and fun.

Kinda like Zelda, you have the opportunity to explore and adventure a world that's a lot more interesting than yours usually (unless you find this world more interesting, but that's often not the case in Web culture.) I think that is the game's appeal.

But I think your friend may have been a person who simply gets wrapped up in some things. So when he found a game that he really liked, he chose it over his friends. It's sad, but it happens. I'm not one to say that it's obviously a bad thing when you choose a game over people, because that's a choice that I don't often make and most certainly on a regular basis, but some people would. I hope that doesn't feel like an insult to you. Your friend just had odd priorities, it seems.

I still don't get Touhou. I get the game, but I don't get the appeal. Perhaps I would have to read the stories behind the games, see some of the fan content, or talk to people of the community (the only user I know would be Natsuru, and Natsuru is as cool of a customer as they come.)

But I don't see how a fandom sprung up from it. The article didn't really help me understand it.

I hadn't paid much attention to Touhou. It seems to take the approach of Anime/Manga, i guess that is why so.

It's a meme/game a lot of people do not understand. I think it's liked for the reason of the characters more than the scheme. It's literally BOUND to get found (lol rhyme) by men because it's full of cute, waifu brand, lovable weaboos so I guess people just like it for more of the character fandom than the storyline/plot.

I really don't understand Me Gusta. The face is a deep frown, and yet it's supposed to represent things that you like. Is is sarcastic or what?

I never really understood Dolan that much. Some of the images for it are a little disturbing yet people somehow find it "funny". I don't know, it's just something that I've wondered about.

I think is used for things that are considered disgusting, so i guess i'ts used sarcasticly.

I don't completely understand Dolan comics, some of them are just downright bizarre.

As for the "Me gusta" face, I think that it could be seen in one of three ways.

1)

In its beginning, the phrase conveyed an odd sense of pleasure in sexually perverse contexts, but the meaning has since broadened to describe a more general state of being disturbed and pleased at the same time.

Something like what you said, Ragvak.

2) The face of sexual pleasure isn't always a smile or a grin.

See 'dat ass.

3) It could just be the odd looking face of a stereotypical pervert a la Ash Pedreiro

Dude, that's creepy.

I don't think it's used sarcastically as much as it is used to add a bit of light-hearted awkwardness to a situation.

I'll do my best to try and explain Dolan for those who don't understand:

It's a certain type of humor that is based on "So bad it's good" logic. I.E: It's funny because its just so awkwardly stupid and ridiculous.

Dolan doesn't try to be good, it doesn't try to make sense. It's just pure chaos. There is a certain charm in that which some people find entertaining.

Now the problem is that not everyone finds that funny, it's a type of humor that appeals only to a specific mindset. This is a bit hard to explain so bear with me here. What people regard as humorous is often ingrained into their very personality, so different people of different minds will see humor in different sources.

If you don't find Dolan funny then it's probably because you brain simply does not translate unwarranted vileness and corruption as a subject of amusement. You were not raised that way.

For everyone else, Dolan is a hilarious corruption of Donald Duck; transformed into a psychotic killer, serial rapist and overall obnoxious bastard and there are people who look at the unexpected irony in that and find that funny.

Dolan is really a culmination of various terrible things the internet obsesses over in an ironic way. According to the internet; corrupting childhood figures is funny, murder is funny, rape is funny, imbecility is funny and shitty MS paint drawings are funny. Dolan is all of that put together.

Of course this is just how I see it, I'm not a Brolan or anything so an actual Brolan can come in here and correct me if I got anything wrong

@BSOD

Thank you very much for the explanation. I have never understood Dolan and i guess that i will never find it funny, but your explanation makes sense.

I mean i could consider aspects of Dolan humorous, but they don't work very well together – at least for me. Alchemy doesn't work as well, you just can't mix a pile of …. and transform it into (comedy) gold.

I love Homestuck, even though I do not understand it.

@Adam DeLand:

I've always taken "me gusta" as being in the vein of Verbose's #3 answer. The concept is that of being turned on by something that's not quite right, e.g. I don't think one would put the "me gusta" face on a picture of a supermodel in a bikini. Thus the expression is showing a mixture of sexual arousal and light confusion/disgust.

@BSoD:

Wow, that was an excellent and thorough explanation of Dolan. I am very impressed; I don't think I could have done so well.

@thread:

It's been an ongoing mystery to me in general why all those things listed in BSoD's post, with the addition of racism, are things considered funny that really have no reason to be. This isn't a meme thing, but it is related to a lot of memes. I mean, one of the best examples that is really beyond me is why there are viral videos of people getting injured in rather nasty ways. Why is it entertainment/comedy to see some guy on a skateboard do a faceplant and then flip over and break his arm?

Obviously (or at least to me) I never understood how powerful MLP became in terms of memetic spread.

Now, I understand fairly well but I obviously don't try too think to much about it, it still surprises me.

I have never understood Advice Animals. I realized this during the KYM-RPG development, I see them so often yet I don't know when to use them or how to use them at all or why I should use them, because I can make an equally effective joke or reaction without the use of that same dog cat.
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@Verbose: From what I see, the primary drive behind the Touhou Fanbase is the fact it's immediately open to 3 major "geek types", Music Gamer and Otaku. (I myself am a Gamer and Otaku, so that is how it hooked me in)

It's all complicated, but the games Music (the games creator ZUN is a Composer first and a Game Designer second) and Remixes tied in the Music Community, the harder than rock Game-Play and the fact it's an independent game attracted all the Gamers, and the hundreds of Anime Women and Loli's who can throw out extremely powerful attacks without having to charge up for an episode let alone 3 seconds attracted the Otakus.

There is more details to this and I could go more in depth about some things, but that is the general idea.

I just wonder Why there are so many Advice animal variants.

I find it strange that every now and then, a new Advice Animal variation pops up.

This topic seems less about confusion and more about humor preferences.

My big beef is probably with stuff like "Keep Calm and Do Whatever" sort of things.
Never got why that was funny.

I don't get Know Your Meme. I mean, what's the point of having a site that spends all of it's time just making articles about trends on the internet? It seems silly to me.

Memes? Nope, Chuck Testa.

I never really saw the humour in that. The original commercial was cheesy, but frankly it was neither funny enough nor bad enough to be memetic. Even the derived meme, "Nope, Chuck Testa" is funny and often seems rather forced.

Speaking of forced and unfunny, arrow in the knee jokes.

One meme that has always struck me as a little odd is the Condescending Wonka series of image macros. I find it strange because the picture used for the macro was previously being used for a rather well-known meme You Must Be New Here

I realize that an image can have multiple uses, but in the case of Condescending Wonka it just seems like it was created due to a misunderstanding. To me it looks like some people just getting accustomed to memes saw You Must Be New Here, and due to their inexperience thought it was an entire advice animal centered on being condescending to others. They then proceeded to create the hundreds of instances of the “advice animal” without thinking about the origin or intent of the original image macro.

BUT ALL KNOW YOUR MEME DOES IS STEAL MEMES FROM 9GAG.

@Twins

I never really thought very highly of the Chuck Testa and Arrow to the Knee, but luckily they both seemed to die rather quickly. They were fads, just single lines that will only be funny for so long, compared to Advice Animals, which honestly have a way to tell any joke imaginable. A lot of new Advice Animals are pretty funny, and they've still got a lot to draw from. There will be stupid ones, there will be ones made by people who don't understand, but…

@Tristis

But is that such a bad thing? I don't think the Willy Wonka ones are that bad. Just because someone is new to memes doesn't mean they can't make something funny. They'll make stupid memes, but the Internet is a brutal place and will crush that which is not funny without mercy. Memes will be forced by people who don't understand, like Chuck Testa and Arrow to the Knee, but if they weren't funny to begin with they'll never be funny and I trust the Internet to see to their fate.

So, in conclusion: a misunderstood meme, in my opinion, is a meme that continues to be forced to spread despite generating no interesting or new content.

@Regarding Advice animal spinoffs.

I'll try and explain this too.

As far as I can tell, the advice animal corner of memes and it's massive number of spinoffs is the result of just 100% pure bandwagoning. If the original meme was a train, it would be pulling a million carriages

People force so many advice animal memes because the concept is so simple and easy to replicate. People who do this just want to be able to create their own meme, anyway and anyhow. But they don't understand memes fully and so they need an easy place to start. The advice animal format has the smallest learning curve.

An advice animal spinoff only requires the following:

• Any image depicting a stereotype or a figure representing one
• A top sentence suggesting what the figure does
• A bottom sentence suggesting how the figure contradicts it

…that's it!

Since pointing out hypocrisy or contradictions, real or perceived, in anything is so easy to do, this meme could not possibly be any easier to rip off. It's so easy, a basic flash program on the internet can build more for you. Going back to our train analogy; making an advice animal spinoff is just like taking another carriage and connecting it to the train. Not a whole not of effort is involved at all.

So that's how I understand advice animals. It's isn't replicated so much because people really find them that funny, it's just that easy to replicate. Furthermore: contradictions are everywhere

Actually, it's just a trap to lure you in so that grammar Nazis like me can pounce on you and cry, "AHA!!!! You've used the wrong form of 'its/it's', AND you forgot to capitalize 'Internet'!!!!!! Now you will face my wrath!!!"

Just thought I'd mention that I fixed the wrong "to" in that sentence ' >_>

Regarding OP.
Your friend couldn't put down the DS?
Well if he got addicted to the DS versions of the game. I have something to tell him.

I never did like the "Arrow in the Knee" meme. I thought it was good just for a little chuckle in Skyrim, because I knew what they were referencing. (i.e. Lack of equippable leg armor, like oblivion had.) But that got old after one or two times. When it became memetic, every instance of it seemed forced, and honestly, in my opinion, didn't deserve to be featured in the "Skyrim Memes" episode.

This meme confuses the heck out of me.
I understand taking a soundbite out of context and exploiting the fuck out of it. I don't like it, but I understand it. My problem is most of the images, like the one above, make no sense. First off, they actually did have nothing to do with building the pyramids, it was a completely unrelated civilization. Secondly, is the implication here the the pyramids weren't a government program? Because it most emphatically was. It was a shitty program that killed a lot of people, but a governmet program nonetheless.

Sorry if I'm sounding like captain obvious, but I just don't follow any of the logic here.

@Windigo:

The person who made that picture probably either didn't know those facts, or just wasn't thinking about them when they made it. The point was finding a picture of some construction and slapping the quote and Obama on it, and that was supposed to be funny. It reminds me of this one:

It's gotten a lot of positive votes because the line is very funny, but all the comments on it point out what should be rather obvious: that's not actually a chocolate lab. I figure the person who made that one needed a picture of a chocolate lab in what looked like a condescending pose, and upon not finding one, figured this was close enough for humor.