Front Porch: Navigating the meme streets of social media

I have been tasked with explaining memes.

Normally, I would have written “I’ve been given the task of …” because that’s how we older folks think the word “task” should be used. We’ve been trained (properly) to use it thusly, as a noun.

A perfectly good noun, I might add, “task” has been stealthily verbing its way into our language since the 14th century. Snobby purists like me think that’s no way for a noun to transmogrify, even though its verby usage has been increasing in business writing and military circles, as well as among the trend-seeking destroyers of the English language.

But, seeking to be modern and all, I am trying to embrace the future and mention again now that I’ve been tasked with this meme thing. It hurts a little to state it that way, but … adapt or die.

As usual, I digress.

There is probably no one more ill-suited to do this than me, as I’m not much a practitioner of the art of meme-ing. But a friend asked me to. It would be a public service, she said, for those seniors who struggle with just what the heck the darn thing is. Even when we Google it, there are so many uses and permutations that it’s quite easy to get lost in it all.

So, to begin, a bit of background, starting with the word itself. Meme – pronounced “meem,” not “meemee,” as one person I know first said it – comes from the Greek word “mimema,” meaning “imitated.” It was introduced into popular culture by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene,” in which he describes a meme as “any cultural artifact that spreads quickly and uncontrollably within and across cultures,” and can be any number of things, including a belief, phrase, fashion, etc. It’s a bit of cultural information that quickly gains popularity through repetition or imitation.

Dawkins was also one of the first to compare memes to viral diseases in how they get passed around, hence the term “going viral.”

And here I thought it was a smiley face and everything that evolved from that. Yes, but also no.

It seems memes are often political in nature and, not unexpectedly, usually spread through social media. Some examples are in order here, so I offer two memes from different political camps, recent enough to be remembered by most politically conscious adults, but not so current that people will hate-meme me.

Binders Full of Women. That was a phrase, instantly to become a meme, uttered by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012 when speaking about pay equity and referencing the fact that he received those now infamous binders of job applications when he was governor of Massachusetts. The meme haunted his campaign and was used repeatedly in political attacks on his stance on women’s issues.

The Dean Scream or “I Have a Scream.” When Vermont Gov. John Dean, a Democrat, was campaigning for the presidency in 2004, at the end of a post-caucus rally, he yelled “yeah” loudly. Because of the crowd noise in the room, it was barely heard there, but the mic for the TV audience picked it up in a most amplified way. Hence was born the fodder for internet remixes, late night TV jokes and all sorts of comedic applications. It did not serve him well.

But they’re not all about politics. One of the most famous memes is Grumpy Cat, an Arizona housecat named Tardar Sauce, whose face had a decidedly and permanent grumpy expression. She first appeared in a picture online in 2012 with her usual look and a phrase superimposed describing what she was likely thinking. There have been thousands of variations. The one I remember shows the late postercat for negativity, who died in 2019, after the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday sales, stating: “How many people got trampled on Black Friday? Not enough.”

I saw one photo that showed two brothers in a chair, the older one holding a new baby, and the younger one looking decidedly grouchy. The overlaid text: “When you realize … you’re now the middle child.”

A lot of memes are funny. And there are many, many funny, sarcastic, nasty, poignant and other tidbits online that aren’t memes. Key ingredients for memehood, generally, are the rapid and spontaneous sharing of the thing and some sort of cultural context.

I’m sure there are those who could give a more complete, complex and authoritative definition. The words I offer here reflect one old lady researching the subject for another. We speak the same language, so if this doesn’t suffice, find your own peer and come up with something better.

That’s Grumpy Septuagenarian speaking, after completing her task (noun). Not quite a meme, but it will have to do.

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Stefanie Pettit can be reached at upwindsailor@comcast.net