I feel like internet humor has only gotten worse over the years. The lowest common denominator has shifted from stoned college nerds and neckbeards to high school freshmen, and it's showing. Jokes have always existed, of course, but the meme has suffered as a construct. I remember back when most good memes (or fads, if you were the YTMND type) had a degree of depth to them and generally fixed context and meaning - justifying the use of the term meme in the original sense, as a genetic unit of culture. They were, in that way, almost an oral history of any given website's culture. This was especially valuable in the days before wikis or vast websites like tumblr, reddit, and quickmeme. This format of meme still exists, but it's just rarer and less popular because it is inherently inaccessible without a degree of familiarity. That's why the old 4chan rule of Lurk More was such a big force in that site's culture. SE++ still has a few really good ones, like Ain't no cure for baby dick, Langly thumbs up, and Sendkeithamessage.jpg. The last few years have shifted the popular definition of meme to a more vulgar term for serial image macros and rageface comics. Maybe it has something to do with the recent merging of internet culture into real life, which started up a couple years ago and has only gotten more intense as the average internet user and the average person come closer and closer to being the same thing. I guess web 2.0 was more successful than I anticipated.
But this is all hung over rambling at 1the morning from a phone keyboard so don't mind me.
I feel like internet humor has only gotten worse over the years. The lowest common denominator has shifted from stoned college nerds and neckbeards to high school freshmen, and it's showing.
I feel like internet humor has only gotten worse over the years. The lowest common denominator has shifted from stoned college nerds and neckbeards to high school freshmen, and it's showing. Jokes have always existed, of course, but the meme has suffered as a construct. I remember back when most good memes (or fads, if you were the YTMND type) had a degree of depth to them and generally fixed context and meaning - justifying the use of the term meme in the original sense, as a genetic unit of culture. They were, in that way, almost an oral history of any given website's culture. This was especially valuable in the days before wikis or vast websites like tumblr, reddit, and quickmeme. This format of meme still exists, but it's just rarer and less popular because it is inherently inaccessible without a degree of familiarity. That's why the old 4chan rule of Lurk More was such a big force in that site's culture. SE++ still has a few really good ones, like Ain't no cure for baby dick, Langly thumbs up, and Sendkeithamessage.jpg. The last few years have shifted the popular definition of meme to a more vulgar term for serial image macros and rageface comics. Maybe it has something to do with the recent merging of internet culture into real life, which started up a couple years ago and has only gotten more intense as the average internet user and the average person come closer and closer to being the same thing. I guess web 2.0 was more successful than I anticipated.
But this is all hung over rambling at 1the morning from a phone keyboard so don't mind me.
Meme hipster right here.
But seriously, I feel almost exactly the same way. Can't really comment about the SE++ stuff, because I haven't lurked around here for long enough, but you're bang on about the rest.
I feel like internet humor has only gotten worse over the years. The lowest common denominator has shifted from stoned college nerds and neckbeards to high school freshmen, and it's showing.
I need a new mousepad. I have the huge heavy duty alienware mousepad that came with my tower but the texture on parts of it has been worn down to a polished finish and my mouse doesn't pick up as well on those spots.
I feel like internet humor has only gotten worse over the years. The lowest common denominator has shifted from stoned college nerds and neckbeards to high school freshmen, and it's showing. Jokes have always existed, of course, but the meme has suffered as a construct. I remember back when most good memes (or fads, if you were the YTMND type) had a degree of depth to them and generally fixed context and meaning - justifying the use of the term meme in the original sense, as a genetic unit of culture. They were, in that way, almost an oral history of any given website's culture. This was especially valuable in the days before wikis or vast websites like tumblr, reddit, and quickmeme. This format of meme still exists, but it's just rarer and less popular because it is inherently inaccessible without a degree of familiarity. That's why the old 4chan rule of Lurk More was such a big force in that site's culture. SE++ still has a few really good ones, like Ain't no cure for baby dick, Langly thumbs up, and Sendkeithamessage.jpg. The last few years have shifted the popular definition of meme to a more vulgar term for serial image macros and rageface comics. Maybe it has something to do with the recent merging of internet culture into real life, which started up a couple years ago and has only gotten more intense as the average internet user and the average person come closer and closer to being the same thing. I guess web 2.0 was more successful than I anticipated.
But this is all hung over rambling at 1the morning from a phone keyboard so don't mind me.
Newer ones like the deus ex ones (i.e. Yeah, Rip; I never asked for this; etc) I still find inherently funny
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
You are looking at the past through a rose tinted monitor if you think it is
we have a winna!
seriously, the memes were just as dumb a decade ago
it's just that now you've heard and seen them all so many times that you understand how dumb they are
and your grandmother who just figured out how to use AOL is just discovering dancing baby for the first time and that's really the only reason she still finds it funny
not because she's dumber than you
not because she's so old
but because this shit is still new to her
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
I know, right?
My ex sister-in-law ate that shit up
fortunately she doesn't have my email anymore or I'd probably still get forwards of stuff she finds hilarious
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BeastehTHAT WOULD NOTKILL DRACULARegistered Userregular
i miss geocities/angelfire
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
Actually, that's the other thing that really bugs me: the use of the word meme to describe shitty image macros and one-liners.
The original definition, as per Richard Dawkins (though my favorite discussion on meme theory is still Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, which was actually written a couple years before the coining of the term), is one of the coolest words ever because it covers the idea that cultural ideas are transferred and evolved, which covers language and religion, along with things like Bart Simpson t-shirts and Kilroy Was Here, not to mention the cornucopia of shit that is the internet. The more vulgar definition didn't really catch on outside of 4chan until really only about two or three years ago.
Actually, that's the other thing that really bugs me: the use of the word meme to describe shitty image macros and one-liners.
The original definition, as per Richard Dawkins (though my favorite discussion on meme theory is still Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, which was actually written a couple years before the coining of the term), is one of the coolest words ever because it covers the idea that cultural ideas are transferred and evolved, which covers language and religion, along with things like Bart Simpson t-shirts and Kilroy Was Here, not to mention the cornucopia of shit that is the internet. The more vulgar definition didn't really catch on outside of 4chan until really only about two or three years ago.
the term meme was used all over the place to describe stupid cat macros way before 2009/2010
Actually, that's the other thing that really bugs me: the use of the word meme to describe shitty image macros and one-liners.
The original definition, as per Richard Dawkins (though my favorite discussion on meme theory is still Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, which was actually written a couple years before the coining of the term), is one of the coolest words ever because it covers the idea that cultural ideas are transferred and evolved, which covers language and religion, along with things like Bart Simpson t-shirts and Kilroy Was Here, not to mention the cornucopia of shit that is the internet. The more vulgar definition didn't really catch on outside of 4chan until really only about two or three years ago.
the term meme was used all over the place to describe stupid cat macros way before 2009/2010
Meh, my general point remains. Internet history kinda blurs together for me, to the point where I actually forgot lolcats were five fucking years ago already. And lolcats were (besides ORLY/YARLY) kinda the first phase of popular image macros to follow the current archetype of "take picture, plug shit in, profit" that everyone got in on and made their own versions of.
Posts
no thanks.
I feel like internet humor has only gotten worse over the years. The lowest common denominator has shifted from stoned college nerds and neckbeards to high school freshmen, and it's showing. Jokes have always existed, of course, but the meme has suffered as a construct. I remember back when most good memes (or fads, if you were the YTMND type) had a degree of depth to them and generally fixed context and meaning - justifying the use of the term meme in the original sense, as a genetic unit of culture. They were, in that way, almost an oral history of any given website's culture. This was especially valuable in the days before wikis or vast websites like tumblr, reddit, and quickmeme. This format of meme still exists, but it's just rarer and less popular because it is inherently inaccessible without a degree of familiarity. That's why the old 4chan rule of Lurk More was such a big force in that site's culture. SE++ still has a few really good ones, like Ain't no cure for baby dick, Langly thumbs up, and Sendkeithamessage.jpg. The last few years have shifted the popular definition of meme to a more vulgar term for serial image macros and rageface comics. Maybe it has something to do with the recent merging of internet culture into real life, which started up a couple years ago and has only gotten more intense as the average internet user and the average person come closer and closer to being the same thing. I guess web 2.0 was more successful than I anticipated.
But this is all hung over rambling at 1the morning from a phone keyboard so don't mind me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
Those are all pretty recent and the funny one isn't SE++ specific (ain't no cure for baby dick is a 3 Word Phrase thing)
Older SE++ memes would be like... even Megatokyo, Nads is missing, Cronyx, etc
Meme hipster right here.
But seriously, I feel almost exactly the same way. Can't really comment about the SE++ stuff, because I haven't lurked around here for long enough, but you're bang on about the rest.
Same here.
I was playing some League recently and someone was going "move, ziggs" so I said "FOR GREAT JUSTICE."
Nobody got it and I was sad.
Business as usual...
Sad day.
(it was really dirty)
oh hey this continues kotaku's trend of consistently contributing less than nothing
Kids these days
I need a new mousepad. I have the huge heavy duty alienware mousepad that came with my tower but the texture on parts of it has been worn down to a polished finish and my mouse doesn't pick up as well on those spots.
I dread the day it gets dropped and breaks.
You are looking at the past through a rose tinted monitor if you think it is
and we liked it
Yes, this is the first one I can think of.
Newer ones like the deus ex ones (i.e. Yeah, Rip; I never asked for this; etc) I still find inherently funny
"good meme"
surely you guys remember the outrageously large number of stupid osama bin laden flash videos that were like 10% of the internet from 2002-2005
we have a winna!
seriously, the memes were just as dumb a decade ago
it's just that now you've heard and seen them all so many times that you understand how dumb they are
and your grandmother who just figured out how to use AOL is just discovering dancing baby for the first time and that's really the only reason she still finds it funny
not because she's dumber than you
not because she's so old
but because this shit is still new to her
My ex sister-in-law ate that shit up
fortunately she doesn't have my email anymore or I'd probably still get forwards of stuff she finds hilarious
http://wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/content.php?theme=1&url=http://forums.penny-arcade.com/categories/social-entropy-
wait wheres the shitty midi of 'i'm blue' by eiffel 65
it's like a thanksgiving turkey
Just needs to be permanent and we're set
The original definition, as per Richard Dawkins (though my favorite discussion on meme theory is still Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, which was actually written a couple years before the coining of the term), is one of the coolest words ever because it covers the idea that cultural ideas are transferred and evolved, which covers language and religion, along with things like Bart Simpson t-shirts and Kilroy Was Here, not to mention the cornucopia of shit that is the internet. The more vulgar definition didn't really catch on outside of 4chan until really only about two or three years ago.
the term meme was used all over the place to describe stupid cat macros way before 2009/2010
Meh, my general point remains. Internet history kinda blurs together for me, to the point where I actually forgot lolcats were five fucking years ago already. And lolcats were (besides ORLY/YARLY) kinda the first phase of popular image macros to follow the current archetype of "take picture, plug shit in, profit" that everyone got in on and made their own versions of.
Coran Attack!