Whether you like them or not the internet has had a thick layer of memes spread form one end to the other. Sometimes they’re funny, and if not they can be ignored. But sometimes there’s one that seeks to forcefully force itself into our lives. And all we want is for everyone else to stop replicating them.
Doge
This is the very meme that prompted this article, thanks to an incident at a board game day where people kept talking like idiots (yes, you, Hedgie). It’s a picture of a dog with some mongoloid sounding text scattered around it. People talking like this in real life is even worse. This meme requires no imagination, creativity or humor – it’s very much a case of people parroting what they’ve seen before.
Friend-Zone Fiona
There’s nothing that separates out this macro from some of the others, such as Scumbag Steve and Good Guy Greg, but it makes the list for perpetuating the modern use of the term ‘friend-zone’. The term is deployed by lonely men to shift the blame of their rejection on to the woman rather than themselves. Because heaven forbid there’s something undesirable about a fedora obsessed My Little Pony fan.
Incredibly Photogenic Guy
A photo was taken during a marathon and one guy in the background was captured looking incredibly photogenic, standing out in stark comparison to the other runners caught in the frame. After all, who looks good while running a marathon? The joke was that this guy would look good no matter what the circumstances and much fun was had. What made this meme an annoyance wasn’t the denizens of the internet jumping on board the joke, but the subject matter himself trying to cash in on his new-found ‘fame’. Suddenly the photogenic guy, or Zeddie Little as he was revealed to be, was turning up on talk shows and news stories everywhere. At first it was amusing to see him come forward, but it quickly became tiresome.
Nerd Girl
This one could be listed under the heading of bullying. Although the entire geek subculture has seen it’s numbers not only increase but spread across wider demographics in recent times there’s still a vocal minority who have an elitist attitude. This manifests itself in the claim that most geek and gamer girls are just putting on airs to sound weird or quirky. Some even treat girl gamers as a rare and revered species even though they make up 48% of the market. Trying to re-enforce the idea that girls can’t be geeks is stupid on so many levels.
Dolan
These badly drawn and desperately unfunny comics started with one strip uploaded to a Finnish discussion board and have spread like an especially itchy rash. They feature badly represented Disney characters partaking in one note stories told with missing letters in the dialog. every punchline (if they can be called such) is about ‘Dolan’ being violent or a sex addict. They don’t even approach something resembling humour, but they enjoyed a very brief amount of time in the spotlight because they pissed so many people off. As with anything on the internet the moment people dislike it they’ll be a small collective of lonely folks who will flood public online space with the annoyance in the hope it will draw attention to themselves.
First Day on the Internet Kid
There’s a couple of memes that run on this theme, with others featuring on a grandmother and a dorky middle-aged guy. This one is a dorky kid celebrating a rudimentary internet achievement. The original joke concerned the kid making mistakes, including using Internet Explorer, visiting goatse sites and being exciting about being the 1 millionth visitor to the site. Now the meme is only used to address other new memes that have become popular. Everyone is talking about Kony? Someone will make a FDOTIK meme about it. Miley Cyrus twerks? Someone will post a FDOTIK joke about posting a twerking joke.
Basically, if everyone is enjoying a new joke someone will use this meme to piss on it.
Keep Calm
During the second World War the British propaganda sector utilised the phrase ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ to reinforce the British attitude of keeping their chin up and going about business as usual in the face of crisis. It’s a powerful message. These days you just copy the typeface and put in a phrase from something you’re a fan off. What irritates about this one is that many of the perpetrators have no idea of the phrases/motifs origins and don’t riff on the theme, but treat it like a blank space to label themselves a brony or whatever. This is less a meme and more of a blank page being scribbled on.
What People Think
This flash in the pan meme burned out quickly due to the insane speed it spread. In essence people would describe, with images, how people view their job or hobby. There were rarely funny or clever but it was easy for people to throw them together and post them on facebook, and everyone had something they could apply it to. They were once the bitstrips of social networking (although that bullshit burnt out much, much quicker).
Hey Girls, Did You Know
Urgh, this one. The internet is filled with tacky pseudo-philosophy and advice. With this teenage girls would post ‘inspiring’ messages in a four-image macro. Not that their message is worth four panes, since one of them features the girl saying ‘uhmmmm’. Body image is an important issue in this day and age, and the internet is an important medium for sending the right message, but these annoyances multiplied insanely quickly – followed by parodies, pop culture references and eventually outright shaming girls. Whatever the intention they just come across as nasty.
I Don’t Want to Live On This Planet Any More
Seems pretty straight forward – something makes you sad with the general human race so you attach a picture of Professor Farnsworth declaring that he doesn’t want to live on this planet any more. According to the people of the internet the worst humanity can offer is Justin Bieber. Sure, there’s wars, famine, pestilence, terrorism, slavery and child abduction, but it’s Justin fucking Bieber that makes people want to leave the planet. Priorities, people (says the guy who just wrote 1000 words on which memes annoy him).