the meme project

Memevolution – A timeline of memes!

godrej — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 08:26:10 +0000

The meme’s evolution is one that is unceasing. Even with regard to a single template, the message it evokes can be drastically different from the parent source. Join us as we take a look at classical paintings turned memes, campy aesthetics from the 90s, the cringe of the 2000s, the feverish entropy of the 2010s, and finally the contemporary moment – the 2020s.

At the Meme Project, we tried to map out this timeline of memes – it is in no way biblical or complete for that matter – we’d like you to contribute to it as well!

Video editor: Rohan Bhide

Image credits:
1260885_rayshatoka_motorola-dynatac – https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/rayshatoka/motorola-dynatac-8000x
woman screaming retro- https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/ridiculously-sexist-misogyny-anti-feminist-adverts-posters-billboards-present-modern-day/69598
https://onceuponascreen.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/the-giant-claw.jpg
binoculars front view – https://www.huntsphotoandvideo.com/images/Nikon/zoom/16027_1.png
Sunflower – https://pixy.org/59107/
mithun disco dancer – https://english.newstracklive.com/news/mithun-chakraborty-disco-dancer-recreate-after-38-year-by-saregama-india-sc87-nu-1072927-1.html
shaktiman flying – https://www.reshareit.com/wp-content/uploads/Shaktiman-flying-e1411129691752.png
Personal computer – https://i2.wp.com/www.alphr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/it_photo_208642.jpg?resize=1200%2C1200&ssl=1
popcorn bowl – https://www.surlatable.com/dw/image/v2/BCJL_PRD/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-shop-slt-master-catalog/default/dw4e191131/images/large/5918297_1019_vs1.jpg?sw=1350&sh=1000&sm=fit
Old TV – https://static.turbosquid.com/Preview/2019/05/06__06_30_10/Retro_TV_PanasTC_01.jpg7817E7ED-4ED1-4AA0-889E-71F3DC06F985Large-1.jpg
Twitter logo – https://www.creativefreedom.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Twitter-featured.png
Sans undertale – https://www.stickpng.com/img/games/undertale/undertale-sansImage credits:
Funny junk logo – https://www.logolynx.com/topic/funnyjunk
Anime Amino App logo – https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/amino-apps-2
Reddit logo – https://favpng.com/png_view/red-reddit-icon-reddit-logo-website-png/KLFeZ7Cx
Discord logo – https://www.freepnglogos.com/pics/discord-logo-png
Dhoom logo – https://boldoutline.in/salaame-to-dhoom.html
Facebook logo – http://pngimg.com/imgs/logos/facebook_logos/
Instagram logo – https://www.freepnglogos.com/pics/instagram-logo-png
Something awful logo – https://gifer.com/en/Speq
Twitter logo – http://pngimg.com/imgs/logos/twitter/
4chan logo – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:4chan_Logo.png
Dhoom Logo – https://boldoutline.in/salaame-to-dhoom.html
9gag logo – http://logos-vector.com/logo/logos_vector_download_9GAG_154048.htm
Belle delphine image – https://www.redbubble.com/i/greeting-card/Belle-Delphine-by-debracornell97/40883287.5MT14
Internet explorer pixel art – http://pixelartmaker.com/art/d7397d2f0e2df12
Kabhi khusi kabhi gam poster – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabhi_Khushi_Kabhie_Gham…
South Indian man – https://www.kindpng.com/imgv/xmxoJo_indian-traditional-people-walking-hd-png-download/
Old computer – https://twitter.com/guernseymuseums/status/950292441873240064
Nirvana – https://favpng.com/png_view/rock-band-kurt-cobain-nirvana-nevermind-musical-ensemble-poster-png/7KjSh39J
Cartoon fire – https://www.onlygfx.com/cartoon-fire-border-line-vector-eps-svg-png-transparent/
Khana khazana meme – https://theaims.ac.in/resources/here-are-your-all-time-popular-indian-cooking-shows.html
Kabhi kabhi lagta hai apun hi bhagwan hai – https://in.pinterest.com/pin/857161741554256993/
Ddlj meme – https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/dilwale-dulhania-le-jayenge-turns-22-twelve-hilarious-memes-on-the-iconic-train-scene/story-e7LBKyh4kP2B4AX6NRYUsK.html
Friends – https://snipstock.com/image/friends-friends-show-tv-show-program-sitcom-png-images-9-89387
Magnifying glass – https://www.pngitem.com/so/magnifying-glass/2/
Lisa meme template – https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/214030851/Lisa-Simpson-Presents-in-HD
Miss universe 1994 – https://in.pinterest.com/sarithar616/miss-universe-1994/
Windows 95 dialogue box – http://www.philonline.com/v2/support_dialup_win95.htm
Walking woman – https://www.pngkit.com/bigpic/u2q8a9e6y3w7u2u2/

How do we meme?

godrej — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 11:49:30 +0000

The meme is a cultural artefact that uses humour to form critiques and rhetoric to convey ideas. How do they adapt? How do they multiply? How do they catch you by surprise every time? Watch the video to find out how we meme.

Video editor: Pratik Dagaonkar

Image credits:
Funny junk logo – https://www.logolynx.com/topic/funnyjunk
Anime Amino App logo – https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/amino-apps-2
Reddit logo – https://favpng.com/png_view/red-reddit-icon-reddit-logo-website-png/KLFeZ7Cx
Discord logo – https://www.freepnglogos.com/pics/discord-logo-png
Dhoom logo – https://boldoutline.in/salaame-to-dhoom.html
Facebook logo – http://pngimg.com/imgs/logos/facebook_logos/
Instagram logo – https://www.freepnglogos.com/pics/instagram-logo-png
Something awful logo – https://gifer.com/en/Speq
Twitter logo – http://pngimg.com/imgs/logos/twitter/
4chan logo – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:4chan_Logo.png
Dhoom Logo – https://boldoutline.in/salaame-to-dhoom.html
9gag logo – http://logos-vector.com/logo/logos_vector_download_9GAG_154048.htm
Belle delphine image – https://www.redbubble.com/i/greeting-card/Belle-Delphine-by-debracornell97/40883287.5MT14
Internet explorer pixel art – http://pixelartmaker.com/art/d7397d2f0e2df12
Kabhi khusi kabhi gam poster – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabhi_Khushi_Kabhie_Gham…
South Indian man – https://www.kindpng.com/imgv/xmxoJo_indian-traditional-people-walking-hd-png-download/
Old computer – https://twitter.com/guernseymuseums/status/950292441873240064
Nirvana – https://favpng.com/png_view/rock-band-kurt-cobain-nirvana-nevermind-musical-ensemble-poster-png/7KjSh39J
Cartoon fire – https://www.onlygfx.com/cartoon-fire-border-line-vector-eps-svg-png-transparent/
Khana khazana meme – https://theaims.ac.in/resources/here-are-your-all-time-popular-indian-cooking-shows.html
Kabhi kabhi lagta hai apun hi bhagwan hai – https://in.pinterest.com/pin/857161741554256993/
Ddlj meme – https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/dilwale-dulhania-le-jayenge-turns-22-twelve-hilarious-memes-on-the-iconic-train-scene/story-e7LBKyh4kP2B4AX6NRYUsK.html
Friends – https://snipstock.com/image/friends-friends-show-tv-show-program-sitcom-png-images-9-89387
Magnifying glass – https://www.pngitem.com/so/magnifying-glass/2/
Lisa meme template – https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/214030851/Lisa-Simpson-Presents-in-HD
Miss universe 1994 – https://in.pinterest.com/sarithar616/miss-universe-1994/
Windows 95 dialogue box – http://www.philonline.com/v2/support_dialup_win95.htm
Walking woman – https://www.pngkit.com/bigpic/u2q8a9e6y3w7u2u2/

Memes: Censorship and Control

godrej — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 17:36:41 +0000

by Kshiti S.V.

While the transaction of memes (yes, even dank ones) seems relatively easy and hassle-free, it is as fraught with censorship as any other piece of information that gets digitized.

The very format of a meme calls for a platform where anybody can use it to represent themselves. It is a medium which facilitates the telling of a truth by making use of something that has already been created and floating in the media to symbolize an idea. This replication is essentially what leads to virality. For a meme to become viral, evidence suggests that it needs to be genuine, one that answers questions, makes relatability easier and one that can be easily registered in and appealing to the human brain. In a way, they are some of the most perfect tools for satire.

What’s a subversive meme?

If we examine the history of satire in the Indian context of visual culture, we immediately come across the illustrations by Gagandrenath Tagore to as recent as R. K. Laxman. These illustrations are full of political commentary and were an attempt to reflect the social and political conditions of that given era from a reformist lens. These visual illustrations were an important device of storytelling- which were localized to reach a wider audience. While graphic illustrations, cartoons and comics continue to serve the purpose of image-text interaction in furthering certain ideologies, in contemporary times, memes have come to serve a similar purpose with relatively more flexibility for modification. As memes borrow from several elements of pop culture, there are several subversive possibilities of memes which will explore in the course of this article. These eventually lead up to memes becoming crucial cultural devices by themselves. Thus we believe in the potency of memes turning into effective tools for communication and want to explore how censorship governs and restricts the extent of subversion that memes rampantly employ.

Given the adept nature of memes for subversion of a given idea, we would like to state that memes are not inherently subversive. Are there possibilities for subversion? Absolutely. But are they absolutely subversive in nature? Not exactly. Replication and repetition are two elements of memes that foster dynamic meaning making as they travel across sites and contexts. However, given the viral nature of circulation of memes across social media platforms, they become important sources of agency for several people. When exploring the increasing presence of memes on social media, it is interesting to look at one force which controls the nature and reach of memes- the algorithm.

Agency versus Algorithm

According to digital creator Ankit Srivastava, censorship comes through two mediums primarily- censorship by the algorithm of the app/online platform and self-censorship.

Source: https://www.memedroid.com/memes/tag/algorithm

The censorship issued by the algorithm of online platforms, Instagram in particular affects the reach of any particular meme to the ‘Explore’ section, thereby affecting the number of views it gets. The algorithm issues a “non-family friendly” clause to the creator and it is then up to them whether to continue anyway, or comply and reserve their viewership. Often creators self-censor their content in order to better appeal to a larger audience, hoping to make their meme more or less universal. However it is important to understand that even in such a scenario, the creators are largely appealing to the audience in and of the mainstream, which brings the danger of confining the marginalized to the margins. This further leads to the normalized overrepresentation of the upper middle class, thereby making the divide more and more visible.

Another aspect to self-censorship is its relation to creators who want to deliver their content in the truest manner possible and in that regard, self-censorship is restricted to making the online networking communities more and more comfortable with the content in question. For such content, the makers must rely on the virality potential of their meme.

(Un)Safe Spaces

Censorship in the context of memes is interesting to explore in terms of state control and use of memes to contest it. Let’s start by discussing the relevance, scale and participation in online memetic communities. We’ve heard of popular 4chans and 9GAGs and the huge community of users who actively generate content and circulate it there. If we explore the reasons leading to circulation of memes- it’s because of the interactive and participatory functions that such communities serve, in a way democratizing the content that can go under the meme format. While appreciating their democratic nature, it is also important to be mindful of the scale of violence that online communities, under anonymity can ignite. Cyberbullying cases are galore and worth checking into before committing to a community. An analysis of comments on 4chan by VICE has indicated a spike in hate speech by 40% since 2015. Two key things that help such platforms escape reported violence are- coded language (not explicit) and dynamic reach to servers. If one server rejects their site, they can set it up on another. So while being a platform for expression and casual in nature, these also act as validation for the darker sides of humanity and that’s a tension that needs easing.

In the dark times will there also be memeings?

A key point, as proposed by Professor Sangeet Kumar, is how memes act as a disguise to dissenting speech due to the garb of satire and humour that they are embedded in. They provide a space for to further alternate discourses often looked upon as dissent. Since the very nature of memes is in stark contrast to academic debates and furthering of ideologies, they have a wider reach and grip over their audience. This also plays into the increasing levels of cultural literacy that becomes accessible to a large number of the population. Social media platforms that facilitate the circulation of memes also ensure that recirculation is made easy- just a click, a share, a retweet away (Kumar, 2015).

It’s not wonder then that memes as a voice of dissent have come to assume a central place in several social movements. In censorship heavy countries like China, the ‘cute cat memes’ are an effective way in which activist messages can be embedded and conveyed. An Xiao Mina, author of Memes to Movements: How the World’s Most Viral Media is Changing Social Protest and Power writes about how social movements have become ‘transmedia hubs’- a term coined by Sasha Constanza-Chock, and how memes play into the larger discourse of creating and reproducing symbols. The Umbrella movement can be an example here, whereby the umbrella was used as a symbol by Hong Kong protestors demanding democracy. It was used as a symbol in several memes to escape narrative control by censorship authorities.

Hence it is interesting to explore the blurry lines between the silly and serious nature of memes, as proposed by Mina. Political messages are often embedded within memes and animals that represent memes like cats or goats and care is taken for its meaning to be culturally entrenched, so as to engage the audience on a deeper level than a mere semantic one.

#HongKong netizens mocking #hongkongpolice with memes, after around 100 cops holding shields were sent to clear memos with officers' information off the walls of a tunnel in Tai Po. "Lion" in Cantonese sounds like "tearing off paper", hence Lion King #antiELAB pic.twitter.com/TmlVpq08hQ
— Frances Sit (@frances_sit) July 10, 2019

However memes are not always used as tools to further empower a social movement. There have been instances when memes were used to ridicule a movement that gained traction on the internet. Owing to the humour that is inherent in memes, they were used to ridicule the #metoo movement by humiliating people who used that platform to voice their experiences.

The Me Too movement was started by activist Tarana Burke on Myspace in 2006 to help other women with experiences of sexual harassment to stand up for themselves. A decade later, actor Alyssa Milano popularised the movement on Twitter turning it into a hashtag post the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases. The path-breaking movement, which recorded 19 million tweets with the same hashtag within a year, led to survivors’ statements being viewed with much skepticism. Disbelief in survivors’ narratives is essentially a viral idea that perpetuates the hegemonic practice of mostly cis-het men twisting a narrative to suit their own selves. One of means employed for this counter movement was making memes and circulating them.

Source: https://awwmemes.com/t/me-too-status-meme

Source: https://moveme.berkeley.edu/project/metoo/

TikTok Takeover

A relatively new platform that has literally transformed the very format in which memes are presented is TikTok. Video memes aren’t new, YouTube has them too, but the 15s feature of TikTok videos makes it reach a wider audience because of the ease with which one can produce and upload a video on the platform. A 15s tap away and we can watch about 4 memes in under a minute. TikTok curates our feed based on our liking, which it records based on what we see and its algorithm functions accordingly. However, beyond these various offers that TikTok makes to reach out to and attract more users, there are also reports of its unclear and skewed “community guidelines”.

TikTok’s community guidelines are largely vague and secretive, reports suggest that moderators are asked to eliminate content that makes a mention of historical anti-state events like the Tiananmen Square and no mention of listed political leaders. Along with this, TikTok heavily allegedly monitors several parameters before sharing content across its algorithm- standards of beauty, the background in your video, class, race, etc. Censoring the representation of traditionally marginalized communities and altering political speech explains how TikTok remains controlled. Such furthering of normative ideologies serves as a problem for so many TikTokers who look at the space as a free platform of self-expression.

This could also explain the niche community of Indian TikTok v/s other TikToks. The usage of TikTok has been starkly different from other places where it has gained popularity. Along with actively repressing narratives from the oppressed communities, there have been reported incidents of violence which stemmed from TikTok. In one instance, a man from Tamilnadu yelled casteist slurs and threatened violence against the Dalit community. When protests broke out in response to such an atrocity, the accused shifted the blame onto his friend who encouraged him to produce and upload such content and went on to kill him. Thus it becomes important to acknowledge the violence that digital platforms can foster, and understand the nuances of censorship when it comes to hate speech.

Memes as tools that effectively aid communication, constantly negotiate their existence and prevalence. Whether through organic virality or through strategic co-option, memes serve diverse purposes and ideologies, navigating between the possibilities of subversion and impossibilities of censorship.

References

Memes: Innocent fun or internet bullying?: https://world.wng.org/2015/03/memes_innocent_fun_or_internet_bullying

Memesis: community and self-definition in the age of memes: http://digicult.it/internet/memesis-community-and-self-definition-in-the-age-of-memes/

Instagram Memes: The Best Brands Embracing Memes on Instagram: https://buffer.com/resources/the-meme-ification-of-instagram

The Age of Post-Authenticity and the Ironic Truths of Meme Culture: https://medium.com/s/story/post-authenticity-and-the-real-truths-of-meme-culture-f98b24d645a0

Meme communities and how to meme correctly: https://www.diggitmagazine.com/interviews/memes-communities

Instagram and Algorithms [Text Messaging]. Instagram Chat with Ankit Srivastava.

Contagious memes, viral videos and subversive parody: The grammar of contention on the Indian web: https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048514568758

No laughing matter: The Politics of Satire: https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/no-laughing-matter-the-politics-of-satire

Revealed: How TikTok censors videos that do not please Beijing: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-how-tiktok-censors-videos-that-do-not-please-beijing

Memes to Movements: https://datasociety.net/library/an-xiao-mina-memes-to-movements/

Invisible Censorship: https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-users-discrimination/

We Analysed More Than 1 Million Comments on 4chan. Hate Speech There Has Spiked by 40% Since 2015: https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/d3nbzy/we-analysed-more-than-1-million-comments-on-4chan-hate-speech-there-has-spiked-by-40-since-2015

19 million tweets later: A look at #MeToo a year after the hashtag went viral: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/10/13/metoo-impact-hashtag-made-online/1633570002/

New investigation reveals TikTok’s compliance in spreading hate and violence in India: https://screenshot-magazine.com/technology/social-media/tiktok-hate-india/

Two otakus on the Holy Grail i.e. desi anime memes!

godrej — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 21:53:07 +0000

I- Hi, I’m Isha Sanekar and I’m an Otaku.

A- Moshi Moshi, Watashi wa FP2-

I- Bro, let’s try to allow the readers to actually understand what we’re saying?

A- Sowwy hehe, hi! I’m Fp2 and I blur the line between an Otaku and a Japanophile.

I- And we welcome you to the ‘Animeme’ show!

A- Did someone say ‘anime + memes’?

I- Naruto speedruns towards that tea.

A- Haha..

How did it begin?

A- Well personally I would have said it all started with manga but anime is actually a form of its own. Sure it is linked to manga, in the sense that most anime start off as manga or light novels in recent years, but anime is its own thing. Out of the oldest anime titles, only Astro Boy was a manga adaptation, while the others like Katsudo Shashin, Uramisha Taro and Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki are all anime originals.

I- Yeah, but what sense would it make in context of Indian anime memes?

A- When you look at how anime came to India, it was first through channels like AXN and Star TV which brought in shows like Dragon ball Z and Cardcaptor Sakura followed by other huge shows like Pokemon, Digimon, Doraemon, Shinchan, Kochikame, Kiteretsu and Ninja Hattori which made otakus out of little kids who didn’t even know a term like that existed. I know because I was one of those kids.

I- Yeah so was I!

A- So, I think when anime is memed by modern Indian pop culture, these are usually the most commonly seen. People are just more exposed to and/or comfortable with these anime.

I- It also helps that anime has a wide amount of genres built for different tastes, like Shounen, Shoujo, Hentai, Harem and so on, all with their own target audiences. For Shounen it’s teenage males, for Shoujo it’s young female audiences, while genres like Yaoi feature romance between men, created by and for women. Some of these genres can really give in to the stereotype, with all the hypersexualisation it has.

A- *coughs* Don’t forget Tournament arcs.

I- While there’s space and audiences for all kinds of anime, I personally can’t get behind Hentai that have underage characters. Also dominantly male fandoms of Hentai can become quite sexist, encouraging fanservice that involves rampant objectification. But apart from that, we can’t deny Hentai is meant to be erotic, and people really enjoy that. I mean how can we forget body pillow merchandise?

A- You leave the sacred body bags alone! But I do think modern anime have actually recognised the problem of hypersexualization through the male gaze and have actually curbed this to show some strong female characters. A few notable anime could be Shingeki No Kyojin, Made in Abyss, Burakku Ragūn,Yakusoku no Neverland, Boku Dake ga Inai Machi, Psycho Pass and even Kimetsu no Yaiba. But you’re right about Hentai tropes existing with their own legit viewership.

I- Actually the anime community called it out with ‘Mineta’ from Boku no Hero Academia.

A- God, I hate that guy!

I- I rest my case, your honour.

A- But then I wouldn’t say it’s just hypersexualisation, it’s also anime being simply confused with cartoons and then categorised as kids content, when the reality is a little different.

I- Yes, although, I’ll have to admit, that anime being around in India for almost three whole decades has made a difference by now – people appreciate it as an art form with varying genres suited for different age groups.

A- And they’re providing some quality memes indeed.

I- Haha..

What about some golden memes which are popular even among non-anime fans?

A- Memes always go forward, evolve and progress with the passing ages, it was only a matter of time before people looked back at retro anime and were able to figure out some brilliant sarcastic memes which everyone could relate to, regardless of them being a part of the fandom or not.

I- Although reference loaded meme templates are successful, the internet has seen many anime meme templates that require no prior knowledge of anime at all and everyone could relate to. Some really good examples of these include the “Omae wa mou shindeiru” from Hokoto No Ken; “ok.” from One Punch Man; “Skeleton hand” from Ranma ½’;

A- Not to forget the classics that are the “Over 9000!” meme from Dragon Ball Z, “Surprised Pikachu” from Pokemon, and the “Is this a bird?” template from Brave Fighter Son Fighbird.

I- Yeah, memes do have an interesting history with some major fan-subbing fails. Their enthusiasm to make subtitled anime available for International slangs, can lead to creating more cringe content. They were quite controversial in their own right, y’know.

A- Dude, fansubs were my main introduction to anime.

I- Honestly, same. I remember going through kissanime and looking at those ridiculously coloured subtitles with big outlines drawing all the attention away from the anime.

A- How do you think I have my encyclopedic knowledge of Japanese terminology? It’s because our dear fansubbing overlords often loved to leave out the translations of so many words. (P.S. If any reader speaks fluent Japanese, don’t talk to me in Japanese as I would mostly understand only a few words) And don’t get me started on those footnotes!

I- Oh my god those footnotes! You’d be lucky if you were able to watch the anime and read everything at the same time.

A- I mean, I would just pause the video and read everything, when the pause button didn’t magically disappear. My major problem was them covering up the entire screen.

I- Or, them coming up when they are completely unnecessary.

A- Dude, yes! I think my favourite fansubs are the Karaoke OP’s that help me to properly sing the songs.

I- Nah, I’m just a fan of the subs which write the untranslated words in the subtitles and then add the meaning of the words in footnotes. Pretty much like the ‘Just According To Keikaku’ meme from Death Note.

Source: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/just-according-to-keikaku

A- Hahah, I remember watching Nichijou that way. Good god, it made an already funny anime even funnier. But it kinda brings to question here, is it the subbing that we’re laughing at or the language inferiority?

I- Meaning?

A- I’m saying. We laugh so much at fansubs. Is it because the fansubs are truly bad? Is it because we see English as a sort of superior language? Or is it probably just because of bad acting? Where do we draw the line between bad translations and English superiority?

I- I think I understand what you’re trying to say. I think both are at work but in different places and ways. I mean, we need to look at different examples here. If we look at the ‘Just According to Keikaku’ meme, that is just the absurdity of the translation method, or as everyone seems to understand it – bad translation. But if you look at the “Your base are belong to us” meme, that may have some English superiority undertones because the subbing and dubbing people were all Japanese who may not have known English as well, yet they were heavily memed for not speaking correct English.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQE66WA2s-A

A- I think ‘K-On! The Movie’ really called out this trope, where they went to America and basically shenanigans ensued when everything got lost in translation. But then again, Japanese is a funky language and English is but a funkier one, words have multiple different meanings and just a few words originally intended to be compliments could suddenly be seen as gross insults, so i think I can probably see many errors being made in translations. Although I must say I have now been transitioning more into just official subs and/or the normal subs as compared to fansubs.

I- GASP! You traitor!

A- Yeah, sorry not sorry, they are less fun, yes. But a lot more accurate. This kinda brings us to the biggest question ….. subs or dubs?

I- Bro NO! We are not fueling that fire!

A- Hahahah.

I- Y’know, we’re saying all this, and how much we love fansubs. But we can’t really ignore how controversial they are and the massive debates they have caused within the communities regarding their culture, intellectual property and of course, their economic impact.

A- Yeah, but isn’t that the whole piracy aspect in general though? It has always begged the question as to who really is benefiting from all of this? Is it the fans, who digitise, translate and distribute? Or is it the anime studios, who actually put so much time and effort into making the anime?

I- Not all anime studios have stayed mum with respect to fansubbing. In 2004, a few anime production industries delivered a letter via a Tokyo law firm to several fansub groups and websites with a warning.

A- And what happened then?

I- Well, it’s not that simple now is it? Because, you can’t really reach these fansubbing sites because they aren’t really sites per say as much as they are a collection of networks. That’s why the redirects exist.

A- So it’s like a hive based system?

I- Kind of, look at bit-torrents as an example, they never really launched a proper website but a series of tiny domains and .io type sites.

A- Come to think of it, I have seen so many pirated anime websites keep switching web addresses constantly- from .io to .mov to so many different styles just cycling around.

I- Like little insects. Ian Condry mentioned in his book, Soul of Anime that it’s rather unsure whether or not creators support this kind of piracy. Many do, many don’t, and for many, it’s just a facade. I remember his interview with Studio Ghibli producer, Toshio Suzui, who tried evading the question of fansubs and when cornered by the question, he just locked eyes with the interviewer and gave a nervous smile suggesting how even anime creators aren’t able to stop the forces of fansubbing and how licensers, distributors & producers anonymously might just be supporting fansubbing and internet is an important tool of the promotion of anime.

A- As much as I enjoy a good Ian Condry reference, I can’t help but feel like you’re kinda calling me as a viewer out though, here with all this scary stuff.

I- Listen, it’s not the viewers committing the crime, it’s the pirates. Such are the piracy laws of the interweb. But that doesn’t mean you close your eyes to the fact that these informal practices still exist. We aren’t sure if creators support them, we just know that many don’t.

A- So what do we, as viewers do? We don’t know if the piracy and fansubs truly supports the industry or if they’re just taking advantage of fans who can’t afford to buy and watch the original animes, and profiting for themselves. Fans like me.

I- I think those who actually have the means to support the industry and anime creators, should do so. It doesnt make you stupid to subscribe to anime streaming platforms like Crunchyroll, Funimation or Netflix.

A- NHentai

I- I’d like to remind you this is a PG13 blog.

A- Too much culture? Sorry.

I- Anyways, the point of this is that meme-ing is also one of these informal, remixing practices – referred to as something called collaborative creativity.

A- Fortune cookie wisdom from dear Senpai!

I- Oh please!

Rise of the Multifandoms

I- I’d consider myself a multifandom person. That is, my interests lie not only in anime, but in other fandoms as well.

A- I don’t think a person exists that’s only interested in one thing. We all are multifandom beings in that sense.

I- True and that really shows in our memes. As India grows more and more digital, we have more access to different media and fandoms and you’d often see a meme that combines two or more of them, for example the Sacred Games-One Piece memes, the Naruto-Marvel memes.

Source: https://aminoapps.com/c/anime_india/page/blog/indian-anime-memes-part-2/4YD3_DVcYu2dzkkx4Vkd65agK4gkjeP18G

A- Or even the Jojo-Pewdiepie memes.

I- Exactly! Finding memes that pertain to multiple fandoms rather than one is very common in this day and age. so many small youtube channels & instagram pages are releasing crackversions & mematic dub content on their pages. Have you heard of a YouTube channels called animetalks & anime mirchi?

A- I have not

I- So they dub over popular anime clips with awkward and funny scenes from Indian web series, it’s really a laugh riot.

A- Oh really?

I- It basically gives us what desi anime fans have always low-key wanted, Bollywood ishtyle dubbed anime memes.

A- But then how does this affect anime? In the sense that why do think Indians are more into this now?

I- It’s all basic convergence culture. These are all a sort of fan participation or actually, more like fan labour. I remember this article by Ritika Pant where she writes about this, trans-cultural fandoms and how this kind of re-appropriation of stuff in a much more local context is actually a form of fan labour.

A- So it also helps in pushing the anime forward?

I- Pretty much yeah, it always ties to that. However, multifandoms and their related memes help fandoms and cultures of all genres to grow progress. They both help to widen cultural horizons.

A- Hum saath saath hain?

I- Exactly, so when we see all these Mirzapur, Patal Lok memes mixed with anime music or anime images, we’d then watch the show or engage in the fandom just to understand the memes. That seems like some pretty cool free marketing to me.

A- If there’s one thing we broke college kids love, it’s free stuff.

I- Hahaha yeah.

A-Yeah even in my normal day-to-day life, I would just jam to flamingo or caramelldansen while doing any sort of work.

I- you know the caramelldansen dance?

A- every true otaku has done that at least once in their life.

I- Satya vachan. (P.S.- Stop exposing our community like that!)

What is the recipe for Desi Anime Memes?

I- Aaiye dosto, aaj hum seekhenge ek shaandar aur bohot hi simple dish-

A- What are you? Sanjeev Yukihira? (A Sanjeev Kapoor x Food Wars joke in case y’all didn’t get it)

I- more like ‘Chai peelo aunty’, but anime ishtyle.

A- Hello friends, meme banao!

I- The ingredients include –

A popular meme template from anime:

Source: https://imgflip.com/i/2ace9q

Any mention of relatable pain or relatable schitzengiggles (because desis have always been fan of ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo_dR5XHEtD/

A basic knowledge of current affairs (or lack thereof)

Regular meme fonts like Montseratt, Comic Sans, Impact, Open Sans or even our dear Word Art!

Source: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/711428072368649983/

Basic knowledge of Otaku concepts (e.g. senpai, waifu, chan etc.) in the context of desi scenario and culture.

Some editing and graphic effects like traditional wear, ornaments, food & desi characters etc. on the anime character just to show some desiness ( for garnishing).

Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1028793667307380&set=a.691530684367015

A- Spoken like a pro indeed.

I- Bachpan se pro, bro.

A- I’ll pretend you didn’t say that and smoothly transition to talking about a few Indian Anime Meme Pages like The Hindu Nationalist Anime Girls page on Facebook which has recently garnered quite some media attention because of their usage of anime memes to make socio-cultural and political commentaries. Similar pages could include Anime Memes for an Indian Otakus and Anime Bhosdi.

Tatparya (Conclusion):

I- At this point, the anime industry and culture in India has made so many achievements. Unofficial fan practices, leading to the burst of popularity, be it fansubbing or fanart

A- Don’t forget piracy is also a huge part of contribution, arguably the biggest. Even what we’re doing right now, this very blog is a sort of unofficial fan practice.

I- Indeed my friend, just like yin-yang (there is good in bad too!). Just as buying pirated CDs on the streets grew the Indian masses’ love for bollywood, pirated anime websites have kept the spirits of the Otakus alive.

A- Yeah, Indian youth has been always trying to balance between flying chappals from parents and scarce pocket money, these sites are like the only bits of happiness we had left.

I- You actually got pocket money?

A- Moving on… even anime merch has become such a huge thing in India. It’s no longer awkward for me to wear anime merch when going out.

I- Nice way to dodge the question but yeah, I do agree, today’s desi anime fans wear the merch representing their favourite anime. There’s this massive sense of pride that comes with showing off something you love a lot.

A- Agreed, it is a sort of cool-ness now, to represent the culture you support, be it through clothes, blogs, fanart and so on.

I- Also the availability of this merch varies from Colaba markets to a custom store in your nearby mall to online stores like Bewakoof, Souled Store, Comicsensexyz, and so on, enjoying anime merchandise is no more of a luxury or something to be ashamed of now.

A- It’s a power. Forget Netflix & chill, Hentai with Senpai is the trend now!

Source: https://www.comicsense.xyz/hentai-senpai-netflix-anime-shirt

I- Haha, yeah and with the spread of content sharing sites and social media, all these fan practices work as, not only a hindrance and challenges, but rather opportunities for promotion and distribution.

A- Economy101. It kinda reminds me of what Ian Condry calls, ‘dark energy’, where, although he draws parallels to universes and galaxies but he still boils it down to anime, saying the effect is measurable and observable but poorly explained by theories of economic motivation.

I- Condry is a Japanophile elite. Also the multifandoms are bolstered due to the increase in the popularity of anime.

A- Not to mention anime being a huge part of the mainstream Indian pop culture, for example rapper Raftaar who makes many DBZ references in his rap songs.

I- Even many fandom apps like Amino and Discord helping the fandom to take pride as an anime fan & discuss some relevant memes together.

A- Even people outside the fandom have recognised Otakus, Weebs, Japanophiles and everything anime as a true and relevant subculture

I- It is no longer a subculture, it’s a sab-culture!

A- It sure is.

Both- Sayonara!

References

World’s first anime: Katsudo Shashin (1907): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DMQx0dTqbs

Urashima Taro (1918): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZZsjGdCqtM

Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki (1917): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KGZLFzXvws

A guide to anime genres: https://www.looper.com/189420/anime-genres-explained/

Review of anime ‘Attack on Titan’: https://myanimelist.net/anime/16498/Shingeki_no_Kyojin

The soul of anime by Ian Condry: https://books.google.co.in/books/about/The_Soul_of_Anime.html?id=iQJ6LwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

When piracy becomes promotion: https://www.technologyreview.com/2004/08/10/274810/when-piracy-becomes-promotion/

For nostalgic anime memories in India: https://armchairjapanophile.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/animes-entry-into-india-part-i/

About K-on! moviE: https://myanimelist.net/anime/9617/K-On_Movie

Just according to ‘Keikaku’: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/just-according-to-keikaku

Is This Pigeon Meme a Think Piece?: https://medium.com/new-york-magazine/is-this-pigeon-meme-a-think-piece-ba3880a1fda3

The Internet is filled with ‘Is this a pigeon?’ meme and they are way too real: https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/is-this-a-pigeon-meme-5176299/

Anime meme pages as popular culture in India: https://scroll.in/magazine/847313/these-japanese-anime-girls-are-endorsing-patanjali-products-and-hanging-out-with-narendra-modi

The silver lining of official release of anime movies in India: http://www.businessworld.in/article/Indian-Anime-Movement-Brings-Japan-s-Blockbuster-Weathering-With-You-To-India-/12-09-2019-176036/

Mixed feelings of Indian audience regarding anime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zNnldjfZUA

Disclaimer: The memes linked, embedded or mentioned in this blog do not belong to The Meme Project and are not the views of the Meme Project Team. They have been used here to refer to their content or make a statement about their use.

IG Live on class, power and comedy with Deepika Mhatre

godrej — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 21:28:16 +0000

“Tough Crowd” with Deepika Mhatre

Deepika Mhatre joined Leadership Programme Fellow Laxmi Krishnan on 29 May 2020 in the run up to the launch of The Meme Project.

They talked about how humour can be subversive and how Deepika’s stand-up sets have forced audiences to confront their own class biases. They also discussed virality, identity and the stand-up comedy scene today.

Video editor: Nikita Saxena

IG Live on Auntology: aunty memes and queer aesthetics

godrej — Sun, 31 May 2020 21:49:40 +0000

Auntology with Kareem Khubchandani

In the run up to The Meme Project, we hosted writer, professor and performer Kareem Khubchandani for a chat on Auntologies on 15 May 2020.

Leadership Programme Fellow Kshiti S.V. chats with Kareem about the cultural and ideological spaces shaped by aunties, and how they inform geographies of humour and performance.

Video editor: Nikita Saxena

Memes in the mainstream: Bollywood

godrej — Sun, 31 May 2020 17:01:42 +0000

by Kshiti S.V.

Bollywood is quite a pervasive entertainment source which has come to play an influential role within the culture of meme-making. We’ve all come across several memes that make references to scenes, actors, songs and stills from Bollywood films to better convey an idea.

Source: https://www.thequint.com/neon/memes/honest-bollywood-memes-question-logic

Bollywood memes follow a timeline which can be traced right from older film stills to recent ones, acting as meme templates. We want to deep dive into all aspects of Bollywood memes and we’ll start by looking at what could be called camp and retro memes. It’s interesting to look at these templates that have only been used as measures of expressing a sentiment through the meme. We have retro memes that suggest not very contrasting ideas but definitely a different nuance to the humour contained in them. It is interesting how eventually humour and exaggeration from Bollywood, come to be accepted into memetic culture and are widely transmitted as well.

Source: https://www.curiouskeeda.com/curious-insights/10-bollywood-memes-which-would-crack-you-up/

This still from the extremely popular film Deewar, is yet another template that can be used for meme-making! Another instance of a retro meme that went viral in 2017 is quite interesting to look at the ways in which memes are becoming a pervasive influence in the culture we take part in. Here’s an example:

Source: https://www.scoopwhoop.com/desi-memes-made-2017-bearable/

Quite a pressing question, right? Quick to follow were the many memes depicting women taking ownership of their stories, from old Bollywood film templates.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-3pvEKF48-/

Like this one, challenging the long accepted stereotype of girl jealousies. One more favourite of ours is the string of aunty meme templates that followed, our best pick being this one from Pretentious Movie Reviews followed by this classic Kirron Kher meme:

Source: https://giphy.com/explore/kirron-kher

We may have come across memes that stereotype against people from South India making us believe how they are necessarily darker skinned, speak in heavily accented Hindi and necessarily have oily hair. Such ethnicity-specific stereotypes exist for almost any given ethnicity in India. A lot of memes that make fun of the roles and identities of people of colour are highly prevalent everywhere and are often passed as “dark” jokes; except they are often taken at face value and may perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

Source: https://www.topcount.co/10-things-that-a-typical-north-indian-thinks-of-a-south-indian/

This scene and several others from Bollywood films adapted from Chetan Baghat books, make for good meme ‘material’ owing to their adherence with ideas of popular imagination. But they also highlight issues of colourism (as seen above) along with provincialism and can may well be slurs. One example that we thought of is this meme, which went viral soon after the trailer of Half Girlfriend (2017) was released.

https://twitter.com/heisenjit/status/852555786643529728

Poor English speaking skills are loosely equated with inability and low comprehension, which furthers the idea of the core and periphery of a given region and how that plays into our self-presentation. This is made into something that people can get ridiculed for, like in the following meme. An alternate perspective, as proposed by Ulka Anjaria, is that Bhagat uses a language that is economized and indigenized for everybody to understand. It is provincial, it reserves your faith in your land and doesn’t push you to depart unlike other Indian English authors who have been writing about the other end of the spectrum (read Lahiri, Rushdie). Anjaria argues for Bhagat’s literature as something that standardizes and instills a new degree of faith in the local. In that sense, the virality of this meme template as well as the reception Bhagat’s literature gets, is explanatory.

Another problem that a lot of Bollywood memes need questioning for, is the disproportionate representation of various communities. As if this isn’t enough of a problem, a lot of these representations are often inaccurate and terribly incomplete. To address this, we can look at how a lot of the series of popularly acclaimed films are mostly depictions of the upper class, upper caste populations. These lines between classes and their representation is so flawed and inappropriate calling for problematization of the narratives they seek to further. In a country where the majority struggles to eat one square meal, it is problematic to perpetuate the image of a utopian world and furthers a sense of incompleteness. Memes, as usual, are used as tools that inevitably further this feeling. Such practices perpetuate and make the lines blurry between different classes and their differently enabled social structures.

Climbing stairs to reach Karan Johar' office when the lift is not working pic.twitter.com/dZ8H5n7lIC
— Sir Yuzvendra (parody) (@SirYuzvendra) January 2, 2020

Struggles sure are based in people’s subjective realities, however the popular ideas of classes are heavily influenced by Bollywood portrayals as well as the film industry, further altering our opinions and understanding of it. This also shows itself in the many Taimur Ali Khan memes based on the inordinate amount of media attention he gets, in terms of the privilege ‘star’ kids have, and how memes often make fun of it. A few examples as below are not even appalling anymore.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-PRV4iJ4Tr/

While we’re at it, it would be interesting to look at how several Indian TV stills are used as meme templates. The ‘Pooja what is this behaviour’ template became viral in no time, and is one of the very few reality TV stills to escape it’s confined boundaries and become a meme. A similar example is that of the ‘how can she slap’ template that is being used widely.

It is vital to look into how women’s anger on such reality TV shows is perceived to be something ridiculous, and worth applying in multiple contexts. Humour is a fundamental device that memes carry, and it is interesting to read into why women getting angry and snappy becomes material for memes. While there is no condoning violence, it is telling to analyse what is seen as funny versus something seen as threatening – gendered ideas of ‘hysteria’ are often perpetuated through these artifacts. Recently, with Hotstar’s re-telecast of the show Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai, the ‘middle class Monisha’ template has become a rage. It usually features Maya schooling us into challenging several seemingly inappropriate and inaccurate things by calling them middle-class. We appreciate the satire attached to the huge Indian middle class and the schooling that comes with it. At the end of the day, our good old Hansa (from the show Khichdi), and Sarabhai memes could save the day for Indian TV’s presence and contribution to memetic culture. Here’s an example of how these memes address several societal issues.

A few meme pages, however, are a welcome change that make use of Bollywood memes to initiate a movement that challenges stereotypes. It helps to stop their reinforcement in pop culture. These meme pages are using the medium to challenge and break stereotypes usually associated with a specific gender, sexuality, race, class or caste. Some handles like @rayonmag on Instagram take a direct dig into the privileges of Bollywood and make ironic, meme-y posts. This helps reading further into the apparently altruistic and giving nature of all things (and people) Bollywood.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAu5zVBp7ra/

This meme, makes a sly but important remark on every other person, especially celebrities who take a stand against police brutality in the West and almost always keeps mum on such similar inhuman issues back home. It is important to identify, critique and remember institutional violence and this post asks us to reflect on just that.

Another page that challenges several stereotypes that have been fostered by Bollywood (with its Kantabais et al) against the queer community is @desiqueermemes on Instagram. How do they do this? Using Bollywood memes and popular TV vamps like Komolika! Here are a few examples.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_SPncXFzHw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAac3svlLh7/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_XFmLelscA/

Some of these have queered even the typical ‘aunty’ memes, an interesting take towards a more inclusive space.

In another instance, a Facebook page formed by a few students, belonging to marginalized backgrounds- Just Savarna Things, calls out the denial of caste privileges in Bollywood through memes. It makes a call at the “casteless” yet extremely casteist nature of Bollywood. Here are a few examples.

This way of challenging stereotypes is essential in rethinking and eventually relearning. It also helps the particular group in question gain ownership over its own narrative and propagate it truest to their lived realities.

Meanwhile, as we discuss the various types of memes and their use to address issues in the cultural fabric of the country, several brands are capitalizing on memes. Yes, several Bollywood and Indian TV templates are being used to enhance brand value/increase awareness and reach a wider audience. We have a few examples, from a few Instagram handles we know.

Here we find the Mumbai Police, asking people to respect traffic rules in a fun way with this meme.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm_RuGQFALh/?hl=en

Netflix India has quite effectively and openly owned their association with Radhika Apte and further capitalized off it, by making more memes as promotion. One such meme template that has not only caught our attention but that of several brands as well, the Maya template from Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai. This was just a sneak peek into how memes have also become a currency in contemporary times. This analysis was solely based on Bollywood and TV meme templates, however several brands use various other templates to enhance their brand value. Such is the potency of a viral, well-received and potent meme. https://www.instagram.com/becurefit/?utm_source=ig_embed

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_XEqiFn5QC/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Source: https://www.facebook.com/SusuSwamy/

Memes that are made using Bollywood components, can ensure that it rightfully pushes us to question the content and depict its accuracy. Of course, humour is supposed to be received in a certain manner but respect can still be retained and is a good enough cause to advocate for. As proposed by Lab speaker Krishanu B. Neog, we’d like to focus on how memes act as crucial devices for communication. They have attained an important place in pop culture and have become a language in and of themselves. Such tools of communication further our cultural literacy by several notches by adding depth and nuance to it. In a country where the formal literacy industry has been battling the same issues in a viciously circular manner, it is important to pay attention to alternative sources such as cultural literacy. We can better examine the importance of cultural literacy, given the comfort and respite they provide to almost everybody for communication.

References:

The Dawn of the Indian Male Meme: https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/kz5z3z/the-dawn-of-the-indian-male-meme

18 Hilarious Memes that Perfectly Describe hoe Bollywood Logic works: https://www.dailymoss.com/hilarious-bollywood-logic-memes/

The Double Standards of Cultural Appropriation | The Bottom Line: https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2017/02/how-black-culture-is-exploited-in-memes-copy-headline-plz

Maymay wahi banaenge: Ambiguous Politics in Globalized and Localized Online memetic communities: http://www.fordigitaldignity.com/maymay-wahi-banaenge-i-ambiguous-politics-in-globalized-and-localized-online-memetic-cultures/

Chetan Bhagat and the New Provincialism: https://www.academia.edu/20190572/_Chetan_Bhagat_and_the_New_Provincialism_

@officalmarketingwarrior on Instagram: How brands reacted on Sarabhai’s #MonishaBeta statement, with their own twist: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_XUAzcoDpx/?igshid=oyrgswvwabcc

Podcast on Political Memeings: A chat on inclusions, exclusions and resistance

godrej — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 08:00:41 +0000

Talk Meme to Me – Political Memeings with Krishanu B. Neog

Talk Meme to Me, is the podcast chapter of The Meme Project led by the Godrej India Culture Lab’s Leadership Program Fellows of 2020! We bring to you Political Memeings, a conversation with meme scholar Krishanu B Neog. Come along as Krishanu and our host, FP2 decode the politics of meme making and meaning making in contemporary digital India. Krishanu is a doctoral candidate at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, currently studying the role of memes in digital populism and social media. He has been associated with a project that looks into the politics of religion and national belonging in South Asian online spaces.

Host: Aditya Talpade aka FP2

Produced by: The Godrej India Culture Lab + Leadership Programme Fellows Batch of 2020

Music: Weed Flora by swimrabbit

Editor: Pratik Dagaonkar

Podcast Transcript

Aditya aka FP2: Hello and welcome to our podcast- Talk Meme to Me, I’m FP2 your host who is so incredibly handsome, they had to give me the only job that did not reveal my face. But all jest aside this podcast is part of The Meme Project led by the Godrej India Culture Lab’s leadership program fellows that seeks to figure out the origin, evolution and transmission of memes and memetic threads in India. That is to say we are figuring out the way memes began, got passed around and evolved over time. Ladies and gentlemen before we begin/ continue with this podcast I’ll have you know that due to the current state of the world and.. Everything.. We have recorded this podcast remotely amongst a lot of technical constraints so please excuse any issues with audio quality… and blame Skype. Today’s guest is a doctoral candidate at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, currently studying the role of memes in digital populism and social media. He has been associated with a project that looks into the politics of religion and national belonging in South Asian online spaces.

He has a master’s in developmental studies from TISS that is Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. His work is so good, in fact, that when he agreed to do this podcast with us, I almost sprained my ankle dancing. So please, everyone give a huge round of applause for Krishanu B Neog.

Krishanu B Neog: Thank you Aditya for that effusive praise. It’s almost like you’re setting me up for a fall!

Krishanu: Thank you to you and thank you to your colleagues in the Godrej India Culture Lab and the Meme project for having given me this opportunity. And I would also at this moment like to thank all my friends who pushed me to go ahead with the podcast you know, I was a little bit hesitant as I had never done something like this before. And I would also like to thank them for all the help that they have provided me in my research in the last few years, you know, finding out meme sites for me, helping me translate memes sometimes I don’t get the references, especially when it comes to films from down south. So, you know, telling me that this screenshot is from that movie, and in that context and so on. So yeah, let’s begin Aditya.

FP2: Hahaha..Yeah, honestly, even I’d like to thank your friends so much because, you know, they allowed us to interview or to have a conversation with someone as great as you like, I’ve been reading your through work and it’s honestly amazing, like, seriously.

Krishanu: Yeah, thank you again. You are like really boosting my self esteem over here.

FP2: As someone who studies memes and how internet memes became such a huge global phenomenon today, because you know, they’re practically everywhere.

Krishanu: Well the reason that internet memes have become so huge today, I think, would be because of two dynamics that are inherent to the whole mimetic culture. And I would like to categorize them as inclusive and exclusive, you know, the dynamic that leads to inclusion of more and more people and at the same time, a dynamic that leads to exclusion of some people. So, in the inclusive dynamics part, I would like to include the various technological reasons such as, you know, the advent of Adobe Photoshop in 1990. And its subsequent iterations that let you play around with images, insert texts into images, you know, and form image macros thats the traditional format of the meme, format of a meme, you know you have an image and then you have a text on top and at the bottom. Another important factor would be the advent of web 2.0, which is a term that Tim O’Reilly had coined, and its associated concepts such as ‘Prosumers’- an amalgamation of the words producers and consumers. So we are no longer just passive consumers of mediated content. We are also expected to be producers of media, and other concepts such as ‘participatory culture’, which is a term by Henry Jenkins, as you know, very well i think he had a master class with you guys. You know, some time. So participatory culture is a huge, you know, explanatory concept when you study memes. So it involves looking at technology that has made it easier for people to share their creative artistic expressions with each other online and create connections. And these connection in turn lead to communities and these communities are actually at the root of memetic culture in all those anonymous and pseudo anonymous online speech spaces such as image boards, and the cheeseburger network of websites. These are the spaces where meme making actually began.

Another important factor driving you know, memetic culture is popularity is the playfulness that is involved in memes, you know, the kind of juxtapositional humor you see where you take elements from very, very different parts of your life or parts of culture and politics and mash them together and remix them to create something entirely new. So, you take the faces of Chief Ministerial candidates in the Delhi elections and superimpose them on the faces of wrestlers in the WWE match, you know, that kind of thing. And this sense of being playful, like a trickster, you know, pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable and unacceptable. This is an area that I’ll go into more detail, I hope to as the conversation progresses. And memes are so popular simply because there’s such an easy way of communication, you know, they’re light they’re humorous, they’re banal, and almost inconsequential to the point where somebody might actually question you. ‘Why are you doing research on memes? They’re these meaningless inconsequential things’. But if you look at media scholarship that goes back a few decades, at least, you will find that a lot of them talk about the kind of hesitance and problems that people have everyday citizens have while talking about politics out of fear of how it could impact their relationships, how it could have adverse reaction, other adverse reactions.

So memes make, for instance, make it easier to talk about politics because you can slip in a political point or a point to a meme, you know, amongst the people who are a part of your network. So and I’m telling you all of this because this is a real issue as CSDS Lok Neeti’s data from 2019 found that out of the one third of India’s voting population that does have access to social media, other than one third only 25% felt comfortable expressing themselves politically online.

FP2: Wow, only

Krishanu: Yeah, only 25%.

So not a whole lot of people feel comfortable talking about politics on in digital spaces, you know, on social media platforms also checking platforms.

Another huge factor that drives the popularity of meme is the fact that it simply bypasses the need for formal literacy, you know, so instead of a public sphere, where which is based solely around the written word, so I’m thinking of a public sphere formed by news media print publication, novels and literary works and so on. You have these artifacts you know, which are composed of elements drawn from popular culture. So, when I say popular culture, I am thinking of Bollywood, the film industries and cultures in southern India,television shows, music videos, popular speeches, celebrity images and so on. So, memes because these elements are drawn from these elements that go into the construction of memes are drawn from popular culture can now reach a much wider population, you know, because you don’t need a whole lot of formal education to understand the meme that involves say a screenshot from the movie Dhamaal, which was quite a hit movie from back in the day and it has given us many meme templates that are quite popular in India. So, this role of popular culture which helps you bypass form illiteracy is plays a huge role behind the popularity of memes, you know and because then you require a sort of cultural literacy, which is based on familiarity with, say, cinema and cinematic culture. And you’ll find a lot of work by Indian scholars that look into film cultures in India and how it, how it penetrates and percolates into sections of society that are underprivileged and might not have access to formal education.

The last point I would like to make in terms of, you know, inclusivity would be that, why does anything get done on social media in the first place? Why do we make memes or circulate them? Why do we tweet or why do we put up posts? One explanation for that, that scholars have given Given and I’m thinking of Yochai Benkler, who’s seminal 2006 world, Wealth of Networks is very relevant book even now, although it was written before social media platforms were very popular. So he talks about the kind of symbolical recognition you gain by sharing your artistic work. So you get symbolical recognition by sharing your artistic work, you know, by because it might be a very witty it might make a very witty point, it might have a lot of biting sarcasm and so you gain some amount of prestige in social media networks by doing that. And coming to the potential for exclusion. That memes have when I’m talking about symbolic recognition, I’m talking also of the kind of pleasure and satisfaction that is involved, you know, when you receive symbolic recognition of that sort and there are there is a feeling of superiority attached to this and this superiority come can.. come in many ways. So the superiority it could be because of the fact that you are the humor in the meme that you’re shared or created is at the expense of someone else, it could be a political opponent, but it could also be someone in your family or your friends or it could be someone belonging to marginalized communities. So, that is one way in which superiority works and could create boundaries, you know, to participation in memes,

FP2: Hmm

Krishanu: another way would be to have the cultural capital or sub cultural capital required to understand all the references that are included in a meme, you know, all the references that are made through the elements that that have been put together for the creation of a meme, the image itself or the video clip, and so on, that could potentially create boundaries for people you know, as to who gets it and who does not. And of course there is this factor of edginess or coolness, like I understand all the references being made this meme, but somebody else does not, or I understood this meme first or saw it first, before it became popular and that sort of things. And these are cultural traits that have that are remnants from the places from which memes emerged, you know, places like 4chan, and its many boards

FP2: I feel kind of called out by that statement.

Krishanu: Hahahaha..well, you know, this kind of petty superiority matches are quite common in memetic cultures, and since all of us participate in it, I’m pretty sure you know, it’s something we can all relate to. This, you know, constant tussle for edginess. You know being an edgelord and so on.

FP2: Yeah..

And this point about superiority and boundary creation and exclusion brings us to the point where because memes are so playful and light, and are always pushing boundaries of what is acceptable and appropriate. You can stay say stuff through memes that you really, really discriminatory stuff into your memes. Now, it could also work in the opposite way..stuff that is usually not allowed to be fair in you know, in the public sphere with regard to sexuality, or gender and all of these things have lived experiences from the margin could be, you know, expressed through memes.

FP2: So you could say that the anonymity of the Memers basically allows them to have more confidence in posting said offensive or content that is not allowed, right?

Krishanu: Well, I wouldn’t put it that way because anonymity is something that you won’t really have on social media platforms and the kind of architecture they have. Anonymity was possible in the kind of spaces where memes first came into being. Before social media was a thing. So again, I’m going back to 4chan and cheese burger network and all of these places…also, Reddit threads, that’s a place where you have a lot of anonymity, you know, but not in the kind of spaces we are talking about. So this, the exclusion that I’m talking about happens a lot through the humor of memes, the kind of edgy humor that I was talking about. This constant striving for edigness, so a lot of offensive content. It’s, they try to slip in a lot of offensive content, discriminatory and discrimination and bigotry under the radar because of the kind of humour that inherent in memes, and a lot of this has to do with the kind of irony and ironical distancing that you see in memes, you know, and this is this comes up again and again in discussions about cyber culture and exclusion because just joking is used as a defense when, when one sees offensive or bigoted content being shared, and the defense usually is in this way that the content that I ..that has been put out is funny because of the cleverness involved in the joke, you know, it is not because of the content of the joke bigoted content that is discriminatory towards marginalized communities, towards women, and so on. A lot of research by psychologists as well as activists from marginalized communities, they strongly argue that such discourses which are bigoted and discriminatory can have very strong adverse consequences and has a lot of potential for harm and exclusion. So, yeah, I mean, offensive and hateful narratives that cannot be said in normal conversation being worked in through memes is a huge problem. And it is a lot of people are trying to address that and it is usually couched in this language of irony and ambiguity. But the dominant understanding now is that the final responsibility for deciding whether irony has actually worked in a particular instance in a particular meme, or what that ironic meaning is, that decision is with the interpreter with the reader of the meme, not the creator. So, this is the, you know, main potential for exclusion that memes have, that has raised a lot of concern and scholars of cyber culture such as Ryan Miller and Whitney Phillips, they talk about the creation of an in-group and out-group to the humour in memes, you know about who’s laughing and who’s being laughed at and there is always an ‘us’ that is laughing at them that is not and the ‘them’ that is not laughing is often determined by socio economic and historical social location. There are other approaches to this issue. Some scholars take more of a Freudian and psychoanalytic approach. They look at these issues through concepts such as taboo and repression, and sublimation and how it relates to current politics. So I’m thinking of scholars such as Alengka Zupancic over here and our colleagues at the Ljubljana school and also the writer such as Angel, Angela, Angela Nagel, who had a book out a couple of years ago on the rise of cyber culture, and how it relates

FP2: Oh Kill All Normies?

Krishanu: Yes, that book and it looks at how

FP2: You know coincidentally, I’m actually reading that book right now.

Krishanu: Oh, okay. Well, I must ask you your thoughts about it because it raised a lot of controversy. Although the book is an account of how cyber considered the new cyber culture including memes and the far right in the West are related. It has to be quite controversial, what I have told you earlier about you know creating in-groups and out-groups and the potential for exclusion through the humor in memes, that is the dominant understanding nowadays.

FP2: So, then how do you bring this down to you know Indian social realities such as maybe discrimination based on religion, gender, caste and how like and how these are translated into digital memes.

Krishanu: So, what do you find when it comes to India is that, and a lot of scholars I’m thinking of scholars such as Assa Doron and Shahana Udupa professors initially India’s cyber culture had a very pronounced and middle class, pronounced middle class and upper class slant as well as upper caste slant. And this was reflected in the kind of memes that were circulating as well. And they might not always have been intentionally overtly exclusionary, but what you would find in them is a lack or an absence of lived experience, from the margins, you know, of those belonging to marginalized communities. And here I reminded of the Indian dad memes that are popular a long, long time ago, like six, seven years ago, it had this very, very, very pronounced middle class bias, in terms of the kind of experiences it was talking about.

FP2: reminds me of the Sarabhai vs Sarabhai memes, I mean, have you ever seen that one where it’s like, ‘oh, my, oh Monisha this is so middle class.’

Krishanu: Yes, yes. I have seen those. Well, yeah, they are quite popular. They have become quite popular in the past month I think during this lockdown period. So, yeah, that reflects a particular Indian you know reality with regard to how class works in Indian society. So, this dominance that I mentioned about you know, middle and upper class Indians and upper caste Indians, it is still prevalent, but it is increasingly being challenged by voices coming from the margins, as well as a lot of vernacular language content that is prevalent in social media nowadays, that is strongly challenging the dominance of English or content in English. So, when it comes to countering, you know, these dominant narratives with regard to the Indian social realities of caste and gender and sexuality. The first instance that I can think of via memes would be the Facebook page in a Inedible India it had received media attention as well because of the freshness of its content and the kind of perspectives it brought. The page was started and run by Rajesh Rajamani, who was a banker from Bengaluru. And the page featured comic strips created by him and the strip’s consisted of paintings by Raja Ravi Varma and miniature Mughal paintings as well. So what happens in these memes is that, you know, in each panel, you find these paintings being repeated with different text captions. And it is true that in the text in these speech balloons that you know, the socio political commentary is being done and they were, they have a very, very stinging I remember and criticized the dominant narrative surrounding caste, gender, sexuality and so on, is also an evolving and established an Amedkarite ecology in in Indian cyberspace nowadays and and Amberdkarite meme pages are a part of it. When I say ecology I am talking about sites such as Round Table India, there are a lot of pages such as the Ambedkar Perrier study circle from IIT Mumbai, there is Dalit camera. So along with that there are a lot of Ambedkarite meme pages as well. I’m thinking of pages such as Badass Bahujan memes, Just Savarna Things, Savarna Fat Cat among others. And a lot of these groups began on Facebook and have since then moved on to Instagram. And so what you find in the memes in these groups is that of course they, you know, strongly criticized and contest the conservative and regressive social forces in our country and the kind of hierarchical structure of caste and gender and sexuality. But they also extend a critique of the kind of, you know, proclivities of upper caste and privilege..privileged Indians who consider themselves to be liberal. So they talk about the Savior complex that upper caste liberal Indians have. So coming to Savarna Fat Cat, they use as their template, you know, an old internet favorite -cats, you know and memes featuring cats go back to the time of, you know, LOLcats, which was a very, very popular template in the first decade of this millennium. So, what do you find in the memes of when a fat cat is the template is composed of a picture of a fat, plump cat, which is this lazing around, perhaps symbolizing unearned privilege and the criticism is then done through the text which is superimposed on these pictures and they usually criticize things that as you know, Indians who blame affirmative action policies and reservation for all the social ills that plague this country.

They offer criticisms of the lack or absence of caste as an analytical factor in Academics or socio-political discourses. And when it comes to Bad Ass Bahujan memes and Just Savarna Things they you use stills from our screenshots from Bollywood and Hollywood movies as their template. And these screenshots are usually of characters delivering a dialogue or about to engage in some sort of action. And the commentary is done usually through texts again, which is superimposed on the image in the classic meme format nd the text here plays the anchoring role, you know, it holds down the meaning that the meme is trying to express. Of course, the image also plays an important role here in the overall meaning our political message that is intended to be delivered, and a lot of times they also use video clips in our memes or memetic videos, and some of these meme you’d be interested to perhaps know also feature important political and historical events from India such as Dr Ambedkar’s demand for separate electorates in 1932, for the repressed classes.

And these meme pages also use contemporary meme formats such as you know, the ones you see across the globe. Feels Guy, Wojack, Filthy Frank, the one of Liza Simpson standing in front of an empty screen, the one of Grant Gustin, who plays flash in the ABC television show, giving the victory sign in front of a gravestone. We are some of these I’ve seen being used.

FP2: Yeah.

Krishanu: So again, these names go beyond the criticism of conservative Indian societal norms, and they also criticize other strands of politics in India such as liberalism. And you know, the left they question caste privilege to question caste blindness of those upper caste Indians who believe they have transcended all together. They criticize the NGO sector as well. And they have a lot of commentary that they deliver on through their memes on social and political events and protests that are ongoing. And because they are operating from a very strong, Bahujan and Ambedkarite standpoint, they also address issues of gender and sexuality.

And then there are Twitter handles such as the Dard-e-discourse of the writer, Shivani Chandran, who makes, again makes memes from an Ambedkarite- Bahujan standpoint, he also has a Tumblr blog that you might be interested in checking out it has a lot of memes, and I here must express my gratitude to a friend of mine she is the one who introduced me to her work, as well as pointing me towards the Desi Queer Memes Instagram page, which I’m going to talk about next. So the Desi Queer Memes page has a lot of followers on Instagram and they also use as the base template images and videos. You know video clips drawn from popular culture. So a lot of celebrity interviews, clips taken from TV shows such as big boss in the serials such as Kasauti Zindagi Ki, They feature a lot of this character called Komolika. And these memes you deal with in a very humorous way with you know, your lived experiences in India and also featured political satire on queer phobia that is in our country.

FP2: when you’re talking about this political satire and on right..How do you think that you know memes I used to question their representatives, like, particularly could you just comment on how memes can be employed to bring about, you know, some sort of changes?

Krishanu: The first, you know, impact that I impact or change that we could talk about that happens through memes is that they improve participation. And I have also have already talked about, you know, the concept of participatory culture that was started by Henry Jenkins, and so on. So I’m talking about everyday lives of citizens and how they draw meaning from it. And this is important when it comes to exercising your citizenship and participation and especially participation online. And this is not a neutral field of course, there are a lot of power differentials here when it comes to issues of access and cultural and social capital and what is considered as you know, acceptable means of expression and so on. So, that is one way where you know, in which memes have an impact, I think, and because, and this is the point I have been stressing over and over again because memes draw from popular culture, they make participation, so, much easier, you know, and all the meme groups, the back token about, you know, all the memes that I’ve spoken about are all related to you know, draw their component elements from popular culture. So, when you make when you, you know, put forth political commentary through them, you are engaging in, you know, you are trying to, in a way shape, the public conversations that are going on online, in this country. And Henry Jenkins famously called it photoshopping for democracy. You know, he was talking in the context of how people were engaging in conversations online during the 2008 American presidential elections. You know, the one in which Barack Obama became the president and he was talking about the memes, you know, that people made of Obama and of his woman’s John Mccain and the vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and it is in this context. You know, he was talking about this term, he coined this phrase photoshopping for democracy. As you know, popular or mass visual culture usually encourages more participation than, say, your traditional print media circulation, you know, the one of op ed pieces and all of that. So it makes it easier for individuals to put forward their personal opinions in public.

Another important way in which a memes engender you know and encourage participation is the fact that it begins with the individual. You know, and this is something that Bennet and Segerberg talk about, you know, the logic of collective action. So, you take a popular meme format, and you transform it based on your lived experience, as you know, as someone who belongs to a particular community, religious community or caste or gender or sexuality and you put elements into it that reflects, you know, your experiences

FP2: Hmm

Krishanu: and you put it out in the world based on your personal experiences, but at the same time, this also lets you make connections with other people who have had similar experiences and you know, this could be to the formation of the collective. And this is something you see happening online a lot.

FP2: You know since there is such relatability factor in all of these memes right?

Krishanu: Yeah.

FP2: ..Do you think they work only within echo chambers like people with similar ideologies or is it possible that they can be communicated or conveyed between you know, people or groups who may not see eye to eye?

Krishanu: Well, some amount of, you know, echo chamber formation is inevitable when it comes to social media platforms, because unless you try really, really hard to stay ahead of the algorithms, they are just going to show you content that you agree with or have agreed with in the past. And I think this applies to memes as well. But what I have seen is that often meme groups belonging to different sides of the political divide do usually keep an eye on what the other side is doing, you know, on, especially online. And Ryan Miller talks about this when he studied the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement of the earlier that happened in the earlier part of this decade. He said that people who belong those who supported the movement and those who didn’t, they were often seen to be using the same meme templates and memes where, you know, where a popular means of expression during the course of this movement. So, that is something you also see in India as what usually happens is this thing called that media scholars called mediation, you know,

FP2: Yeah

Krishanu: or rather meta mediation. So you take the social media post that your political opponents have made. Now, this could be a celebrity, it could be a politician, it could be an activist. You take a screenshot of that and you embed that in the meme that you have made and it goes on via video, and then you do the usual thing where you annotate it or some superimpose text over it and make a satirical point or, you know, make a joke at their expense as a means of putting forward equity, it could be because they made a faux pas on social media, or it could be to expose hypocrisy by politicians, especially a politician you don’t agree with you know, and, you know, maybe this politics politician has said something different when they are not in power and now that they are in power, they’re saying the complete opposite thing. So, this is well in keeping with the kind of schadenfreude you see associated with memes, you know, this tendency to evoke humor at the expense of others. So, there is this kind of process happening. So, there is some amount of conversation happening through memes although they are not always cordial conversations, but there is some amount of conversation happening also because Indian meme groups, the political ones also seem to sometimes use the same meme template, you know, to express very different political points. You know, I’ve seen the Batman slapping Robin meme being used by so many different political meme pages, though on the left, and so on. So, you see is something of the sort of thing that the political philosopher Chantelle Mouffe used to talk about this agonistic, adversarial and sometimes antagonistic kind of politics being carried out through memes between these different meme groups, you know, because there is an ‘us’ and there is a ‘them’, you know, and just here not just talking about the marginalized, and the privilege but also between people belonging to different political ideologies. And so there is this tussle to establish dominance in cyber spaces. And mimetic culture is one of the means through which they attempt to do it.

FP2: So when you speak of, you know, in groups and out groups, right. How would you say? How do you think that these said out groups and out to grouped communities, the people who are being laughed at, as you’d say, right, how would they deal with you know, the exclusion that happens through all the memes?

Krishanu: One example I could think of is, you know, an early 2017 Ambedkarite website Roundtable, India had taken action against 13 casteist memes in certain Facebook groups. And they had also given out an advisory on the legal steps that could be taken in such cases. And you will find a lot of Ambedkarite progressive feminist and queer meme groups that are popular that try to create a counter discourse to the dominant bigotry and bigoted narratives and discrimination and exclusion that you see inside the memes and they try to do it through meme culture itself. So, again, religious discrimination is something that a lot of meme groups, you know, talk about. Here, I’m thinking of groups such as Unofficial Subramanian Swamy is quite popular and it becomes popular for because of a particular incident involving its administrator. So, Subramanian Swamy had filed a case with Facebook asking them to ban this page because it you know, it is to create memes, ridiculing Subramaniam Swamy’s statements. So, what instead happened is Facebook, blocked Subramanian, Swamy, his own official page and this other one,

FP2: What?! Hahaha.. *snorts*

Krishanu: Yeah, that’s what happened! Facebook by mistake, blocked Subramanian Swamy’s official page and this other page continued to function. So, pages like this they try to counter the narratives of narratives of exclusion aimed especially at religious minorities in India by making memes on very relevant topics such as contemporary topics such as the consumption of beef are the kind of lynching incidents that you see happening in India from time to time communal violence and all of that. So, these are some of the ways in which meme groups tend to, you know, fight back against kind of exclusionary parts of cyber culture that you see in India by the by acknowledging the talking about the kind of damage and harm that it causes, but also by trying to create its own counter discourse through memes.

FP2: Yeah, looking back at the, you know, the examples you raised I can remember the fat cat that you said right.

Krishanu: Yes

FP2: And it reminded me quite a lot of know this meme, just while the lockdowns going on I’m just looking, looking for so many memes and this meme recently just came up on my feed it was by I think it was a meme by Meghnad s, who is like a public speaker like and he made this meme on Schrodinger’s Ram Mandir, where he used a cat as the main image. An where he, you know, mixed concepts like Schrodinger’s cat and Ram Mandir, the entire thing.

Krishanu: Yes, yes. I think I have come across that on Twitter. Yes. Yes, I’ve seen that particular meme. So yeah. So you see, that’s the kind of, you know, contestation that happens through memes and there, you will find a lot of memes that talk about ‘mandir wahi banaenge’ So, there is this kind of tussle again, that I spoke of, you know, to establish dominance in cyberspace, through memes and there is a lot of satisfaction and pleasure that is involved in doing so that you know, research is on so Professor Sahana Udupa talks about this, you know, fun as a meta-practice, so, deriving fun and pleasure are inherent to these practices of making political memes knowing in addition. So this there’s this emotional component that is always involved in memetic culture, especially when you’re putting forward political commentary. And this is where a distinction has to be made because I‘ve spoken so much about the creation of in groups and out groups and discrimination and bigotry and you know, harmful narratives against marginalized communities. Scholars also make a distinction between incivility and rudeness in cyberspace you know, so, you cannot have public discourse or a public conversation without sarcasm and wit and some amount of meanness and nastiness aimed at each other. So you need to maintain a distinction between what is merely rude and what is uncivil, you know, behavior that leads to the exclusion of people so because if you try to police and scrub the public You’re so clean that you allow nothing but the most rational and academic, you know kind of language that you might see in the newspaper, you will again end up excluding a lot of people who might not be using that particular kind of very staid expression. So yes, that is an important part of memetic culture actually.

FP2: Kind of brings to mind the current YouTube versus TikTok thing that’s happening, you know, and you say all when you mentioned all the rudeness and all and, you know, looking at how things are progressing currently with the entire issue.

Krishanu: Well, that particular case that you mentioned, I think it was far more than rudeness I think as the queer group that actually took action against the video. I think it’s Yes We Exist India. I think that is the name of the group, if I’m not mistaken, that brought this into public light that, you know, that particular video featured a lot of queer phobic content. So, it goes well, it goes beyond being you know, just being snarky and sarcastic it It reflects the potential for harm that such you know, discourses can cause in the public sphere. So, these networks would not exist without the circulation of content, you know, content going round and round. So, something like a meme being sent from one person to another and the other person again may be works back and it says come something completely different and then he passes it on, and it goes on and on, along with this circulation of content. You know, through these networks, you also have the circulation of emotions, which is very important and a lot of scholars such as I’m thinking of Sara Ahmed here talk about how emotions also work in a similar way they circulate through people through social networks and when you have discriminatory content of this sort of the sort that Yes We Exist India, the group was talking about these sort of negative stereotypes start get becoming you know, adhesive. So, Sara Ahmed calls this stickiness, so, certain negative stereotypes started start becoming associated more and more with certain populations, and then it becomes normalized to talk about them in a ce-in a certain way, and that is why, you know, a lot of these meme groups try very hard to put up a counter discourse of course, through very humorous ways and that is why, you know, a counter discourse is so important even through memetic means, of course, this sort of circuit of emotion what you just broke off, you know, circulation of emotion could also work in positive ways in social media.

You know, you can send them across to friends just as a form of a greeting, you know, instead of saying ‘hello, how are you doing’, especially during this lockdown period and across a meme. And this is something I do and my some of my friends get really annoyed, you know, they’re like ‘why do you keep sending us memes you spam our phones with all the memes or links you send’. So, these kinds of phatic networks keep phatic communication sorry. And when I say phatic communication, I mean communication that is not meant to achieve an end goal, you know, but rather to keep relationships and networks alive. So, this kind of phatic communication has the potential, you know, to later on, build up emotional intensity that could lead to meaningful social political change. And,

FP2: Yeah, I kind of also send you know, all these memes to my friends, like, you know, as the lockdowns going on and you, you just want to just tell them, ‘hey, look, I’m still here. Remember me? I’m your friend’, as just, I’m just, you know, have a nice little decent laugh together with those emojis.

Krishanu: Yeah, I think we can all relate to that and important part about that is that there is a politics involved there too, because in the past this kind of communication was seen in very gendered terms. You know, if you look at media studies going back a few decades, they consider women especially who are confined to the houses, who spoke over the phone and were engaged in what was then considered idle gossiping, it actually researchers found that such kind of conversations involved a lot of you know, caring for each other and you know, keeping networks alive, sharing life experiences that were earlier not allowed to be, you know, put out in the public sphere or was confined to the just to the private household, you know, so, these kind of this kind of communication is also very important and memetic culture allows you to do that and that is another way in which memes can have a potential political potential. And these are this kind of communicative networks are very important although they were ignored in the past in favor of, you know, more overt forms of political communication involving speeches by political leaders, grand speeches and posters and all of that. People are now taking phatic communication, with memes, you know, taking them seriously. And you see that happening in India as well, you know, you could find a lot of cases where people have been put into jail because of memes, because they made memes of political leaders and circulated there are quite a few cases in the past couple of years.

FP2: Yeah. So Krishanu, since we are you know kind of nearing the end of our podcast, I think I’d like to to ask you, the most, probably THE MOST important question: What meme are you and why? haha!

Krishanu: Ohhh me? well, that is something that would require a lot of thought! Well, it would help me a lot if you tell me what you meme are you and what meme do you relate to?

FP2: Well personally for me, I’m just a massive massive fan of the anime memes of any kind. But recently, I’ve gotten a lot into this anime called Jojos Bizarre Adventure and the memes which are linked to those animes uh and yeah to that anime. So yeah,

Krishanu: haha- so I see that you’re a man of culture as well and I can very well see you going ‘ora ora ora ora’ on online forums and I am a bit of an Otaku myself!

FP2: but you still haven’t really answered the main question? What meme are you though?

Krishanu: Well let me put it this way I am probably I probably belong to those memes, you know? I don’t know if you’ve seen them the awkward penguin kind of memes that featured penguins and I think the whole trend was called awkward penguins.

FP2: Oh oh, yeah, yeah yeah! I remember! Yeah!

Krishanu: Yeah, I would. I think that would be the one I would relate to the most. And, of course, some of the Feels Guy memes that I’ve seen some variants of that, you know, the Doomer Memes and so on.

FP2: The Boomer memes? haha

Krishanu: Not the boomer, the Doomer haha! That is, that is a variant of the Feels Guy memes I think the Wojack and Feels Guy kind of cluster, you might want to check it out. I think those are the ones that would relate to the most. I relate to them only because of the music associated with them you know, like the Cure, the Smiths, Slowdive and so on.

FP2: So memes have been used to communicate a lot of you know socio political messages in a world where you cant really talk about your political identity or your political views, wrapping them up in memes really you know helps get that space or mode of communication. Memes have been used to bring together communities and even you know, tear them apart because as you mentioned there is always someone being laughed at. There will be both inclusions and exclusions and they can be either caused or shouted out by memes. When I say shouted out by memes I mean like memes can be used to call those negatives out. You pointed, hinted and referenced towards so many really really interesting works. From works like Angelika Negel’s Kill All Normies to the facebook page, ‘Hindu nationalist’ Anime girls and you showed how all of these are important in the building of memes that each and every one of them is essential . Alongside that you also gave like this timeline or a framework of understanding memes! And thank you you know for refilling my to see list you know with such seminal works from all across the digital landscape and I am truly genuinely genuinely grateful i have so much to see and so much more to think about because you have provided me with such a brilliant way of unravelling memes! Thank you for coming and joining us on this podcast!

Krishanu: Thank you guys! thank you so much!

FP2: And to our listeners thank you so much for listening! If you want more of this quality content log on to www.memeprojectindia.com! Where you will find more podcasts, a timeline of memes, blogs, videos and so so much more! I repeat! www.memeprojectindia.com!

(Music)

Cat-hartic content

godrej — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 20:23:51 +0000

by Ambika Lambah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLFuAdnBuxxvXCQ-z-kLas5sQwPSoSgu3o&v=SaA_cs4WZHM&feature=emb_title

A sizeable chunk of memes we (hoping that it is in fact, a ‘we’) encounter on the daily can be considered as animal-centric.

Whether it’s an emotionally-saturated-2020-appropriate Doge meme, an anthropomorphic Pepe the Frog one, or a glitch-ey hampster dance meme (circa 1998) there are a very small minority of animals left in Noah’s ark that haven’t yet become memetic indoctrination. Most popularly seen in the form of ‘Image Macros,’ these memes relay popular feelings that humans are sometimes too complex a species to exhibit.

Let us take, for example, cats. Arguably the most popularly reproduced animal memes have been about furry felines.

These mimetic muses didn’t just stop at Nyan Cat (on a separate note: here’s the link to a piano cover that is also a part of our Meme Playlist) – they marched fiercely to the past year with the ‘Woman Yelling at Cat’ craze.

Their evolution has been a steady one. From ‘classical cat memes’ – that existed long before the internet came into being – such as Thomas Edison’s ‘Boxing Cats’ or Harry Pointer’s ‘Brighton Cats’ to the emergence of YouTube Channels such ‘Kittisaurus’ and ‘Aaron’s Animals’ which have become significant pop culture references, but this rise in fame couldn’t have been without the presence of websites like LOLcats that archive cat-related (and relatively easy to create) image macros.

“As lolcats became popular, so did a second kind of timesaving macro, which would place the text automatically on the base image— much faster than downloading it to a separate program. These meme generator sites promoted a consistent meme aesthetic: the all-caps, black-bordered white Impact font (a brilliant innovation in automatic caption generation because it stands out easily no matter what colors or patterns are behind it).”

– Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, Gretchen McCulloch

But why do cat memes matter? And why do they allure us?

As for the latter question: thinking back as to how cat memes have generated such popularity, a good point to note would be that their lackadaisical nature and a natural aversion to the camera make their content more compelling. That explains Grumpy Cat. ‘Lolspeak’ has become a popular way of writing captions for cat memes – mostly for it increases the cuteness quotient of the message.

“This (‘LOLspeak’) is a complex, nonstandard, childlike English Internet dialect, which is celebrated by its users as ‘teh furst language born of teh intertubes.’ Enjoying the genre involves the sweet scent of an inside joke, understood by those who are immersed in the digital cultural landscape. In addition, in many cases LOLcats are created or shared for the purpose of interpersonal communication: they serve as indirect ways to convey a wide array of feelings and states of mind.”

– Memes in Digital Culture, Limor Shifman.

Source: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2270&context=gradschool_theses

“Cats have very expressive facial and body expressions, so they are a perfect canvas for human emotion, which makes them awesome for captioning and anthropomorphization,”
– Ben Huh, CEO of The Cheezburger Network.

Another priceless example of the above is ‘Henri’, the verbose cat.

And an example to substantiate our former question – according to Technologist and Digital Media Scholar An Xiao Mina, cats only came to the fore during the dot-com bubble period because their asocial nature didn’t allow them to be brought into the public eye (in contrast to domestic pets such as dogs) without the help of internet uploads, making their debut in memes a significant one.

“And herein lies the revolution of the cat: media at the margins moved closer to the center, revealing what was, in so many ways, always there to begin with. Taken in the context of a hegemonic media environment that has historically favored dogs, the rise of the cat on the internet can be seen as presaging the rise of citizen creative media and memetic expression for social change advocates and communities around the world. If one reads the tea-er, catnip-leaves, the creative culture that birthed cat videos, GIFs, image macros, and other media phenomena signals a shift in people’s orientation to the media environments they had inherited. An obsession and practice that was once private – humans’ love for cats – was revealed to be a lot more widespread than previously believed. Media that were once difficult and expensive to create were, with the help of technology, placed in the hands of millions to do with as they wished, and they now had the means to share their creations globally at a scale unique in history.”

– Memes to Movements: How the World’s Most Viral Media is Changing Social Protest and Power, An Xiao Mina

Not only did the internet help broaden the public perception of memes, but it also birthed theories such as ‘The Cute Cat Theory’ by Ethan Zuckerman to explain that the same set of tools could help encourage as well as disseminate online activism.

“Web 1.0 was invented to allow physicists to share research papers. Web 2.0 was created to allow people to share pictures of cute cats.”

And as An Xiao Mina echoes:

“But with Chinese Political Memes, the cute cats are the activist message.”

Bringing up issues of pawky propaganda and the steady erasure of the silly versus serious debate.

Just like pages such as ‘Savarna Fat Cat’ on Facebook that re-establish the notion of cats being viewed as anthropomorphic and reminiscent of individuals in our lived realities.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/SavarnaFatCat/

The media at large has attempted to give cats a bad name, right from 19th-century French writers who labeled them as destructive and dangerous, also romanticizing their nature and drawing parallels with ‘unfaithful women’.

“Most of them felt ambivalent toward their love objects and found a perfect image in the cat, because it is highly attractive, but also equipped with weapons and incapable of requiting warm human devotion. When these writers loved cats, as did Baudelaire, the parallel with human mistresses was even stronger. The woman he loved, Jeanne Duval, was catlike is her gracefulness, her occasional cruelty, and her passive acceptance of his devotion, without understanding or responding to him. His poem ‘The Cat’ describes his passion for her, as well as his perception of her coldness, in terms of his sensual response to a cat.”

– The Cat and the Human Imagination: Feline Images from Bast to Garfield, Katharine M. Rogers

We don’t perceive cats as ‘bad’ but writers did use them as a metaphor for the dangers of femininity. Ever seen a black cat and walked the other way? Thankfully, the inanity of it eludes most.

If there’s anything that the presence of cats in politics and diplomacy has taught us, it’s that they make for an irresistible second watch. A good point of reference (and an incredibly weighty piece of intel) to strengthen our case would be Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office.

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/460563499368314914/

A final addition to this elaborate retelling of cats making headlines, ‘Cats Against Brexit’ was a hashtag that began to trend on Twitter in March of last year and articles on ‘Doraemon’ the cartoon cat, being enlisted to promote Japanese culture overseas were published.

Additionally, here are a few articles on other animal species that this article hasn’t obsessed over:

A comforting article on how our sense of humour is capable of benefitting the eco-system: http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news%2C82188%2Ccould-memes-help-save-endangered-species.html

An in-depth study on whether or not animals share memes or meme equivalents of their own: http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/1999/vol3/reader_sm&laland_kn.html

A piece on the capitalization of animal memes with the use of intelligent marketing tactics: https://www.freelancer.com/community/articles/most-memorable-times-when-animal-memes-rocked-the-marketing-industry

A backstory on the Harambe memes: https://www.vox.com/2016/8/17/12457468/harambe-meme-social-commentary-explained

A vital article on how cats as a cultural phenomenon, are being taken seriously and an art exhibit on the same: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/arts/design/how-cats-took-over-the-internet-at-the-museum-of-the-moving-image.html

References:

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, Gretchen McCulloch

Memes to Movements: How the World’s Most Viral Media is Changing Social Protest and Power, An Xiao Mina

The Cat and the Human Imagination: Feline Images from Bast to Garfield, Katharine M. Rogers

The Selfish Gene: Richard Dawkins

The “Kitty Cat Dance”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaA_cs4WZHM&list=PLFuAdnBuxxvXCQ-z-kLas5sQwPSoSgu3o&index=1

Ann Xiao Mina: https://cyber.harvard.edu/story/2019-01/xiao-mina-memes-movements

Understanding Web 2.0: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/web-1-0-web-2-0-and-web-3-0-with-their-difference/

Make-believe: regional identities in digital memes

godrej — Wed, 27 May 2020 06:35:52 +0000

by Prateek Gupta

“I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.”
― Jeanette Winterson

In contrast to the popular use, the term meme was first used by biologist Richard Dawkins to refer to ideas, practices and beliefs which spread from person to person through imitation or copying. Here, it could refer to fashion styles, catch phrases and even concepts like God. Dawkins also noted that memes which help each other replicate bundle together to form a memeplex, for example, regional identity which is constituted by multiple practices and beliefs which are shared amidst the group members. Since the regional identity of a group is also based on difference from other groups, gatekeeping, i.e, the activity of controlling and usually limiting entry, also becomes an essential part of it. This can lead to staunch ideas about who does or does not deserve to be part of the group and resources shared by it. Something which remains an inflaming subject even today.

The rise of the internet brought with itself the promise of a make-believe world and the global phenomenon of digital memes. As customizable and reproducible artifacts, digital memes are a form of participatory culture i.e, culture produced through participation by you. Even though seemingly commonplace, memes can provide us insight into how ‘everyday’ media texts relate to wider social realities. Memes can be used to understand online identities and communities as they act not just as a communication currency but also artifacts which bring together individuals with similar interests.

The term local or regional memes, as the name suggests, can be used to refer to the rich reservoir of memes which are specific/limited to a particular region. The term region is quite vague and can be used to denote something as small as a town to something as wide as a country. The limit of circulation of regional memes is not due to poor content or form of meme but rather due to limitation of the cultural knowledge needed to understand it. Even though one might understand the technical skills and aesthetics of meme creation something more is needed. This is called subcultural literacy, which refers not only to the technical literacy needed to make and understand the meme form, but also the ability to ‘read and write’ in the social language accepted by subcultural insiders. This subcultural identity is based on shared ideas and taste. For example, to understand this meme, one doesn’t only need to know how to read bangla but also the subcultural relation and history between Marlboro cigarettes and the community.

Source: https://m.facebook.com/TMJMemes/photos/a.1806454222902807/2295184264029798/?type=3&source=54&ref=page_internal
Translation: The caption of the ghost reads: This is the opportunity, I have got a funny idea/ a great time to trick people

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-7ChN_gnp0/

Similarly, one needs to understand the specific stereotypes prevalent in Mumbai subculture, along with the lingo and cityspace to understand the second meme, even if one understands English as a medium along with the spongebob reference, to understand the meme.

Memes also act as a tool for self representation and identity formation on online platforms. But this representation is factored by cultural capital. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieau gave the concept of cultural capital which encompasses the advantages of a knowledge of culture and the social implications of cultural taste. “Recognizing and understanding cultural items, references, and codes, along with the ability to implement them independently, generate respect and status from those in one’s social surroundings. Knowing culture in this sense is a form of distinction, in both meanings of the word: setting oneself apart and serving as a mark of honor.” So even though memes, through their relative simplicity, democratize online self-expression, the process in reality is biased towards the privileged who can amass cultural capital and create content relatable towards privileged circles. So, we see the coalescing and splitting of internet communities around shared interests and understanding. Thus, one probably is not as free on the internet as one would like to believe.

Also, memes borrow inspiration from established cultural codes and contexts. And with the intention of imbibing most relatable values, memes can recreate the prejudices and marginalizations of the ‘real’ world.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/Bihari-memes-for-Maharashtrian-teens-305104860126578/

Source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=286076465137267&story_fbid=881588985586009

Source: https://www.facebook.com/Bihari-memes-for-Maharashtrian-teens-305104860126578/

These memes communicate the message not just to ‘in-the-know’ groups, but also to people they alienate, thus signalling towards a shared subcultural knowledge between these two groups as well. For most working middle-class Indians the effort to sustain an idea of normalcy in recent times is somewhat a similar pursuit, trying to sustain faith in systems that discriminates against certain populations. The thought of recent happenings marked by loss of life and liberty being framed as “the normal” by the privileged apolitical seems absurd at best. Similar codes are shared between the immigrants as they confront the history and reality of hostility they face, articulated in the form of stereotyping and dehumanization. All of these huge discourses of identity are created, shared and lived in a single meme. Thus, regional memes can sometimes in excessively overt and sometimes covert ways reassert who is the undeserving. These memes are mere reiterations of already set social dynamics, but with the possibility of a little mutation with each repetition.

Glum as it might seem, but the same meme can also through slightest variation open a world of new readings and discourses. Memes can steer people towards ideologies and communities whose values they don’t share initially. Intentionality or will can prove to help people navigate unknown ideological spaces outside the limits of their identities. Memes do maintain boundaries but can also transcend them in other ways, just like the people who share them, and therein lies their potential.

REFERENCES

Anastasia Denisova. Internet Memes and Society: Social, Cultural, and Political Contexts.

Asaf Nissenbaum and Limor Shifman. “Internet memes as contested cultural capital: The case of 4chan’s/b/board.” New Media & Society

Bihari memes for Maharashtrian Teens https://www.facebook.com/Bihari-memes-for-Maharashtrian-teens-305104860126578/

Limor Shifman. Memes in Digital Culture.

Ryan M. Milner. The world made meme: Discourse and identity in participatory media.

Thakurmar Jhuli Memes https://www.facebook.com/pg/TMJMemes/posts/?ref=page_internal

Townie Trash @southbombaymemes https://instagram.com/southbombaymemes?igshid=3fmqtlv9675h