BASIC MEMING

Like I said earlier, memes are basically like Internet in-jokes. Usually, they consist of some sort of easily repeatable phrase or easily modifiable image. Memes gain their humor from the context they're used in. Let's look at an example.

This is "Pedobear." (For the purposes of this website, I will assume that you are unfamiliar with any memes.) Pedobear is used to indicate that someone is behaving awfully like a pedophile. Pedobear the meme originates from 4chan's /b/ board, which is a forum for "random" discussion. One of the only enforced rules is that child pornography is not permitted. This is too many rules for the users of /b/, so child pornography is sometimes posted regardless. Pedobear is usually used to indicate that another post is or may likely be child pornography, and is intended to signal such a fact in a humorous and derogatory manner.

Pedobear is also sometimes photoshopped into a picture with a small child, the implication being that Pedobear is attempting to seduce the minor.

So we might imagine a conversation like this:

Clearly, the first poster is humiliated by the implication that he is a pedophile. Memes can be tools of social justice, but also a force of darkness and evil. Now that we've seen one possible application of a meme, let's look at the kinds of memes we'll talk about.

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