“Ridiculous,” senior Sheena Patel said as she finished watching the newly famed “Homeboy” video on YouTube. Comedic? Check. Bizarre? Check. Extremely stereotypical? Check.
Take the “Homeboy” video for example, just a plain news report about a serious crime in Lincoln Park. One man’s local news interview spawned a wave of not only copycats, but songs that are now available on iTunes.
16 million people, now the video is a viral hit and an Internet meme. As Patel and her classmate Kiersten Brown watch the YouTube hit, they are unconsciously involving themselves with a host of millions who have seen the original and its many remixes.
Is this culture shock or just Internet entertainment?
Think of human genes and the way they are passed on from one human body to another. Likewise, memes are passed throughout society from one person to another. Bluntly, meme comes from the word memory. Many YouTube videos can be considered internet memes, the “Homeboy” video being one.
“It’s so dumb that it’s funny,” Brown said after viewing the original “Homeboy” video and its iTunes remix. Millions of people have watched this meme for reasons of stupidity and hilarity. The large number under the YouTube video may even surprise viewers, but they are even adding to that number.
Students and adults alike will be able to say that they have allowed themselves to be a part of the spread of these culture sensations.
The “Homeboy” video is not alone in a long string of videos becoming memes on the web. “The unicorn, the wall cats, I think their amusing, their just stuff to look at,” junior Scott Novak said about the different memes popular among students.
Images are also transferred into memes, such as a picture of actor Michael Cera prancing over a bench. The picture has been photo-shopped a ridiculous amount of times. Images and videos, remixed and copycatted to become memes of their own.
“I think that they are funny and creative but it’s a weird way to spend your time,” junior Elisa Rehak said.
There are even websites devoted to the creation of personal memes such as http://knowyourmeme.com/. Memes have the ability to create fandom. Their memorable creativeness sticks to the mind, wanted or unwanted.
A meme is more than just a video it’s a cultural virus.
John Carroll’s students have the privilege of having laptops which just add to the spread of memes. Once in a while students may be seen hovering over one laptop watching a video that started off with just one of them viewing it, now they’re all are laughing.
Is this history in the making or just a wave of current entertainment? Neither Patel nor Brown considers themselves an avid YouTube watcher.
“We don’t sit around watching them but we share them,” Brown said.
This generation is still on the fence about considering Internet memes as a principle part of their culture. The next generation that was born with a cell phone in one hand and a MacBook in the other might as well be a generation of memes.
Eva Bialobrzeski can be reached for comment at [email protected].