#1
Post rating: +
ill make the website

because you touch yourself at night

that laughable xhosa girl

what exactly is trotskyism?

inside jokes. they're a major part of this forum's sense of humor. a staggering amount of posts consist entirely of running gags or referential jokes, many of them harking back to the days of old lf/sa. in some ways, the jokes almost tell themselves, with the only difference being the avatars to the left of them, the signatures beneath. some gifs are so perfect for a situation that there might as well be bots programmed to post them. it becomes less about humor and cleverness and almost reaches the point of bare ritual.

why is this so? whats the attraction of this kind of humor? is it prevalent in the real world and across different communities? or is it mostly an internet phenomenon and confined largely to groups of nerds?

it seems pretty obvious that this kind of humor is based at least in part on inclusiveness and a sense of community; specifically, self-selected communities based on common interests and knowledge. in a vast, anonymous, uncaring world/internet, its nice to know that there are people out there like you, people who have watched the same tv shows, listened to the same music, attended the same iso meetings, been arrested in the same protests. people whove read words youve posted and whove posted words youve read. inside jokes and intra-community referential humor serve to strengthen those bonds, acting almost like secret handshakes, symbols of shared hidden knowledge

to put it simply, sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your memes.

the necessary other side of that coin, however, is exclusiveness. the very existence of a community implies an other, an outside. people who dont have much at all in common with those in the community, people who ultimately arent really welcome. in a free and open society, exclusion is frowned upon, occasionally illegal. in an internet where identity is difficult, if even possible, to determine and anonymity is the name of the game, exclusion isnt an easy task. there can be bans, both in the physical and virtual world, but they can be foiled, and can really only be instituted by the leaders of the community. referential humor/inside jokes are tools that the average members of the community can employ to self-police, democratizing the process. ultimately, who wants to drink in a bar where everybody is incomprehensible? even dedicated trolls may eventually grow tired of it all, and in the process of learning the knowledge behind the jokes, may even be turned by the community itself

within the community, this kind of humor also serves as a way of exhibiting status and stratifying the group. people with a more encyclopedic knowledge of the community's history, who are quicker with the expected joke, have access to the appropriate .gifs, are often the "cool kids". folks who have no idea what anyone is talking about are newbies or lurkers. theyre not explicitly unwelcome, but theres an understanding that theyre supposed to sit down and shut up until theyve soaked up enough of the history of the place, gotten their finger on the pulse. only after they have more knowledge about the community will they be accepted as members

that isnt to say that this is the ultimate measure of ones status in the community. its not always the first person who posts the requisite youtube video or the one who makes the proper fuck and destroy reference who rises to the top. but it certainly helps contribute to their fame and notoriety within the group itself

this phenomenon is obviously not relegated to the internet alone. the success of family guy is enough to prove that theres something more to it than a forum phenomenon. anecdotally, i can say this exact thing happens in my irl groups of friends. but does it extend beyond the realm of the nerd? while family guy is mainstream, macfarlane is essentially a nerd who has fetishized decades of pop culture, making his references broad enough to include a vast number of people across numerous generations. my friends and i have nerdish tendencies, to put it mildly. is this kind of humor a universal aspect of all communities, or is this just a substitute for healthy, normal interpersonal communication that nerds embrace because theyre not that good at the real thing?


#2
Post rating: + 
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#3
Post rating: ~
Rhizzone actually doesn't seem to have any injokes.
#4
Post rating: +

mustang19 posted:

Rhizzone actually doesn't seem to have any injokes.

agreed - however, it is a place where saying "fail aids" is funny and acceptable

#5
Poronto
Post rating: +
this is unbelievably stupid
#6
Poronto
Post rating: +
almost as stupid as how i upset and alienated my wife's irl friends by posting LOL YOU'RE BEING PROLETARIANIZED STOP TRYING TO FIGHT IT CHECK OUT MCDONALDS.COM/CAREERS when they were trying to promote and sell stuff on Etsy to make ends meet during their unpaid internships
#7
Post rating: +

littlegreenpills posted:

almost as stupid as how i upset and alienated my wife's irl friends by posting LOL YOU'RE BEING PROLETARIANIZED STOP TRYING TO FIGHT IT CHECK OUT MCDONALDS.COM/CAREERS when they were trying to promote and sell stuff on Etsy to make ends meet during their unpaid internships



i'm lovin it

#8
political car tune
Post rating: ~
Stalin
#9
Poronto
Post rating: ~
im a very nice person irl and it breaks my heart when we can't have people over for dinner anymore because i was mean on facebook
#10
Post rating: +
the infantalised, rote nature of nerd humour, meme culture, and nerd consumerism is something i think about a lot.

the don equis beer campaign seems almost targetted perfectly at internet generation. a series of chuck norris style jokes, then the mantra "I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis,"... which of course become the image macro " I don't always X, but when I do, I Y". recent snickers ads is similarly structured. ads have for a long time relied on catchphrases & jingles but at this point people are generating millions of free advertising images FOR the compa ny. weird!
#11
Post rating: ~
tbf, making mcribs is a very noble goal. it sounds like you were trying to help your wifes friends realize their potential
#12
Post rating: ~

littlegreenpills posted:



rip

#13
Post rating: ~
its a pretty small thing to get annoyed about or try to analyse tho. i just hang out with dummies.

edit: this is really applicable to the way capital commodifies any identifiable subculture i suppose.
#14
Post rating: +
i think it's interesting that memes have lost that "exclusive" feeling, and as a result memes are basically dead. even on SA with 100,000 members there was a common shared experience and a feeling of being "goons". but reddit is completely open and all the shitty memes that get posted from it onto facebook are just something about real life or some kind of generic joke with a picture. also not funny and i hate them.

reddit killed the internet i think
#15
Post rating: +
this is obviously TG's bid to become part of the rhizzone in-crowd

DON'T BELIEVE HIS LIES
#16
Post rating: +
when i read his op my brain adopts the same professory voice that it does forthe TLDR analytical earnestposts so I guess mission accomplished
#17
Post rating: ~

babyhueypnewton posted:

i think it's interesting that memes have lost that "exclusive" feeling, and as a result memes are basically dead

they're stronger than ever on facebook, whether it is the sea of equal signs or the dozens of image macros posted by 20-something moms that greet me every morning. maybe not so exclusive and referential there tho

#18
Post rating: ~
good point bhpn. i think the harlem shake is a good example. it exploded so fast that by the time many people had heard of it, the countermemes/parodies were already being posted. it died within a couple of weeks because it wasnt exclusive. nobody wants to like memes their parents get
#19
Post rating: ~
the revolution will not be cybermeme'd
#20
Post rating: +

TG posted:

nobody wants to like memes their parents get



the rally cry of a generation.

#21
[account deactivated]
#22
[account deactivated]
#23
Kurdt
Post rating: +
LaserJew
#24
Post rating: ~

gyrofry posted:

LaserJew


#25
hi
Post rating: +

mustang19 posted:

Rhizzone actually doesn't seem to have any injokes.



http://www.rhizzone.net/forum/post/27181/

#26
Post rating: ~

DildoMalone posted:

gyrofry posted:
LaserJew



catchphrase

#27
political car tune
Post rating: ~

gyrofry posted:

LaserJew


#28
Post rating: +
its cool how the little image macros arent even pretending to be jokes anymore, you just arbitrarily pick some template and tailor the message around it so you get John Goodman cocking a pistol and saying "am i the only one around here who could go for some pizza?" in the future all communication will be through image macros.

The really fun thing to see though will be when mountain dew and doritos co-opt that weird twitter stuff successfully. "get weird with mountain Dew using hashtag #DiaperDewDildo"
#29
Post rating: +
I'm permabanned user Lacansayer58. I became obsessed with the concept of memes, and constantly repeated phrases like "Memes represent the A-Father" and "The Big Other is derp face."
#30
Post rating: ~
Trotsky isn't a meme
#31
Post rating: ~

thirdplace posted:

babyhueypnewton posted:

i think it's interesting that memes have lost that "exclusive" feeling, and as a result memes are basically dead

they're stronger than ever on facebook, whether it is the sea of equal signs or the dozens of image macros posted by 20-something moms that greet me every morning. maybe not so exclusive and referential there tho



this is a good point. maybe the originators of meme humor (nerds) like it because of the exclusive nature, while mainstream culture necessarily strips humor of exclusion. life with family guy, the net of reference is so wide that it hardly excludes anyone

#32
Dont Mess With Sucess
Post rating: +
People want so badly to participate but most cant because they have nothing to say that adds anything to the conversation. Memers let them join in without having to produce original thoughts. This can be good, when it relieves tension after spats or allows disparate ideas to be idiomatically unified by the social consciousness, or bad when it encourages bad posters who dont have anything to ever say, to say a lot of memes all the time and derive a false sense of inclusion by that practice. I mostly hate memes but some, I love, especially "How is babby formed? how girl get pragnent"
#33
hi
Post rating: +
#34
Not Your S.H.I.E.L.D.
Post rating: +
#35
Post rating: ~
i agree with you swampmizzle, although im conflicted on whether its due to the fact that people resort to memes because theyre lazy or incapable of being original or if its more of a way of getting used to posting, and then they can move on to posting more creative stuff
#36
Dont Mess With Sucess
Post rating: ~

TG posted:

i agree with you swampmizzle, although im conflicted on whether its due to the fact that people resort to memes because theyre lazy or incapable of being original or if its more of a way of getting used to posting, and then they can move on to posting more creative stuff

Its bolth

#37
Kurdt
Post rating: ~
laconic sardonic posting ftw
#38
political car tune
Post rating: ~
#39
FLAWDA
Post rating: ~
nah, bacon
#40
Post rating: +
Memes are street jokes for the 22nd century doing something mean to it doing something that you never seen do it screams from the haters got a nice ring to it guess every super hero needs his own theme music no one man should have so much power clock ticking I just count the hours