Meme Me!

When you google the word ‘Meme’, it first shows you the definition of a meme: “an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations.” As dictionaries usually tend to do, this is a very concise but brief summary of what a meme is supposed to be. We get to know that it can be either an image, video or even just a piece of text. That it is funny and thus spread rapidly all over the internet. What it fails to explain is the cultural significance that memes have gained all over the world in the last decade. To understand this; first, we need to know how memes came to be.

 

The first most famous meme can be traced back to the dancing baby video, known as “Baby Cha-Cha”. And next came the famous rage comics made popular through platforms like Reddit. These introduced some iconic characters like the Trollface, Why you know, and Forever alone guy.

 

Although these memes were popular for only a couple of years, they set the trend for the popularity of the most famous and easy-to-understand meme format, ‘image macro’ memes. These usually include an image and some block text. These are used to express emotions that are easily relatable by the viewer and thus shared abundantly in a similar context. Other memes could be harder to understand. They use images from vague movies or television series that have been off-air for years. To make sense of a meme and to further use it in the right context, you need to know its origin and the message that it is trying to convey. If you are using it for yourself, in personal conversations with friends or family, it is easy to understand a meme from where the image originated and the general reference in which it is currently being used. But if you need more information to maybe keep your children away from harmful content or even create a meme yourself, there are useful resources like Know Your Meme and You Should Have Seen This. These can be very helpful to know which are the current most trending memes and how to use them in the right context.

The trend of memes started in the early 2000s, but it entered a new era with the rise of social media. With Reddit, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and instant messaging apps, there became a platform for unlimited creation and sharing of memes. Memes from one corner of the world became famous all over the internet and people made their own additions and improvements too. Usually, memes are made to be funny, or to convey basic emotions of anger, frustration, triumph, and many more; in a manner in which nearly everyone is able to relate to them. Over the years, there have been so many famous memes that it’s impossible to keep track of them all now. Whether it be ‘All your bases belong to us’ or LOLcats, Gangnam style, or Doge, which even got a cryptocurrency named after it; such is the popularity of memes.

And this popularity is no wonder in the times of the internet. When people are overworked, working even on weekends to meet deadlines, or stressed all the time due to constant social and professional pressures, this lifestyle has led to a want for fast-paced entertainment options. People are scrolling constantly through various social media platforms in their spare time and are looking for ways to distract their minds from day-to-day woes and worries. Memes provide the best solution as they convey so much emotion in so few words or images, and are to the point. Everyone is not a wordsmith, so memes give voice to people who can’t precisely convey their emotions. And that might be the crux of the popularity of the meme culture in recent times. (Link)

 

How To Create A Meme

Even as recently as five years ago, it was quite tough to make your own memes. Forgive the pun but really, one does not simply create a meme. Though it has been made a lot easier with many resources made available for free at a very low cost to everyone over the internet. You can use websites like Adobe, and Canva, or dedicated meme generators like ImgFlip or Kapwing’s Meme Maker. Before even starting to set out to create a meme, you need to do detailed research into recent trends, popularity, etc. Then you need to formulate and arrange your content accordingly and finally, you are ready to make your own meme. Here is a step-by-by guide for how to create your own meme:

1. Grow a funny bone: This is the most obvious and basic requirement if you ever want to create memes that are funny and eventually get viral. Try to develop a sense of humor that is based on quick thinking and funny retorts. You don’t have to be eloquent or possess a vast vocabulary, as memes entail conveying emotions with the least amount of words.

2. Research the trends: You should start the process by looking at the memes that are already out there. The memes in the image macro format can be found on every social media platform, while video memes are also gaining more popularity every day. Content creators are using short video memes to create comedic reactions in their content and make it more relevant to the viewers. Memes in image forms are used everywhere from marketing to social media campaigns to personal WhatsApp group chats. These can be created on the platform itself with the help of inbuilt editors and photo galleries. This has made it easy for every other user to make and share their own memes without spending any time or money on them.

So, you need to study all this immeasurable amount of content to pick out the most relevant ones. Resources like Know Your Meme, which provide vast content at your disposal are the best way to do your research. This will also help you to decide whether you want to create images or videos, or both. They will also tell you what not to do, as you can see if your ideas have already been turned into a meme. Spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit to know which topics are trending. Entertainment is usually a safe bet and you can also find out from people’s reactions which ones are getting the most laughs and feel most relatable.

Once this is done, you can decide on one specific topic to start with. Try to play to your strengths. If you are interested in sports but try to work with entertainment topics, then you won’t be able to get into the right mindset. Look at the most trending events, popular personalities, and hot topics of discussion over social media in your chosen media and tap into the funny aspects of it.

3. Organize your content: Once your research is done, you will need material according to your desired content. Here you will have to decide if you want to create and utilize your own content or use the existing content on the web. You can get images and video clips from different platforms or specific sources like Imgur’s Meme generator. Make sure to keep your content short and to the point, as people are scrolling their screens every second and are not interested in lengthy reads or spending 10 minutes on one video. And last but not the least, the relevance of the image/video with the emotion that you are trying to convey is crucial, otherwise, people won’t understand your meme and it will fall flat. It’s not a good joke if it has to be explained, right?

4. Choose the right tools: To create a nice meme, it is always a good idea to invest some time in finding and learning to use the appropriate tools. The most used is Photoshop, which helps you perform a wide range of edits. You can also choose from different video editors and meme generators to improve your own clips or edit text on images.

5. Create the meme: Finally, we have reached the last step of actually creating the meme. You can make a rough sketch of your idea on paper first or directly use the image editors to create the meme. Every meme-generating platform operates in quite a similar manner. You have to create an account, then drag your image in the box provided, edit it as required, and save it with a proper title. Download the final meme created and you can now upload and share it on any platform.

While adding text to your memes, you have to be vigilant about grammar and proper sentence formation. As this is a very short format, mistakes in language and punctuation can create drastic changes in the end result. One comma in the wrong place, one wrong verb form, or even the placement of a hyphen can change the whole meaning of a sentence.