My College Meme Wars…

It’s a funny thing, pop culture. It’s the one thing that binds generations but can divide cultures.

The core of any pop culture is the meme. If we’re gonna be all fancy pants about it I’ll tell you that a meme is defined as follows: “a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manneranalogous to the biological transmission of genes.” Riiiiiiight. In other words, a meme is a reference that is spread through society by recurrence and popularity.

When I was but a naive young teen the height of pop culture was ‘Jackass’. Man I loved that show. I loved Bam Margera. Scooter was all the rage too. My friends and I spent many a Friday night youth disco drunk on Bacardi Breezers, throwing some serious shapes on the dancefloor to ‘The Logical Song’. We also listened to a lot of Linkin Park (who I still believe to be awesome), Eminem and The Red Hot Chili Peppers (By The Way had just come out) and we thought Von Dutch trucker caps were the biz!

I was perfectly happy in my simple adolescent world of copying friends’ homework and knowing all the words to ‘It wasn’t Me’ by Shaggy (TUNE!), but, as is always the way, life was to interject. The Leaving Cert loomed and university beckoned. In the space of three months I was launched into a whole new spectrum of pop culture; college memes.

College is a place full of new discoveries for all the young country cubs like me. We come from the land of GAA and letting your dog roam free (coz c’mon, there’s plenty of land and rabbits to be chased and everyone knows he’s your dog so he’ll be alright. He’ll show up when he’s hungry and done exploring). We’re skilled at things like blocking the gaps in the road when the cattle are being moved, knowing what the weather’s going to be like tomorrow by assessing how it is today and getting people to recognise who we are by mentioning our fathers name. We’re not so adept when it comes to adapting to urban life. We come to the Big Smoke from the Serengeti and we have to deal with shit we aint never had to deal with before! Stuff like, how much does it cost to get the 13A bus from O’Connell St to the Ballymun Road?, like remembering not to walk down Talbot St with your valuables in your hand and like all the John Player Blues. No self respecting country native smokes Johnny Blues! They’re not right!

The college meme is a sub-category of this whole new young, metropolitan culture I was thrown into at 17 years old. A meme is also defined as “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” An example of one “college “meme” that I picked up in my first year of college is ‘Family Guy’. I had heard of ‘Family Guy’ before, but not in any major context. I had lived my life in a world where television consisted of seven channels. And now, Comedy Central!? Paramount!? MTV?! (my four guy roommates and I had a dedicated routine of ‘Next’ and ‘Date My Mom’ every evening on MTV. We used to bet on the outcomes. I mean, we skipped lectures for those shows. It was serious.) Of course, ‘Family Guy’ is one of the many things I picked up in my college years that stuck. We all know what it is these days. It couldn’t be more famous. So, I’m not going to focus on the ones we all know. Imma concentrate on the ones that somehow slipped into the peripherals of our knowledge… The ones we used to know so well…

RODRIGO Y GABRIELA

Rodrigo Y Gabriela actually inspired me to write this piece. It’s not really right to refer to them as a meme but sure anyways, we’re here now. Recently, I was asked about concerts I’ve been to. I realised that I went to A LOT of gigs when I was in college. I got to thinking about the good old days. The Dropkick Murphys at The Ambassador (which no longer hosts music), Velvet Revolver at The Point (which is now the O2 Arena), Iron Maiden at the RDS (which is still the good ol’ RDS), Rodrigo Y Gabriela at The Olympia. And then I remembered how awesome Rodrigo Y Gabriela were and realised that I hadn’t heard anything from them in a very long time. So I saw to it that I got them into my itunes pronto.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela, for anyone who is unfamiliar, are a Mexican guitar playing duo and they are AMAZING! They used to have a heavy metal band in Mexico and then they moved to Ireland and started busking to make a living. Their music was this incredible blend of Spanish guitar with rough heavy metal influences, executed with precision and passion and just obvious years of practice behind it.

They hastily gained a cult following and got bigger and bigger until everyone was talking about them. I went to see them in 2005 at The Olympia Theatre and it was phenomenal, the real idyll of what an intimate acoustic gig should be. 

Mad props! So why did Rodrigo Y Gabriela fall off my radar? Rediscovering them recently confirmed that I had good reason to appreciate them in the first place. To be fair they do have the skills to pay the bills and genuinely deserve success. I can’t recall the moment where I stopped listening to them. It most likely came around the time my trusty block of a ‘Creative Zen’ mp3 player gave up and I came over all hipster with a shiny new ipod.

Anyway, the point is, upon further inspection, Rodrigo Y Gabriela did not fall off my radar at all. In fact, I fell off theirs. As it happens the pair exceeded this little isle of ours with great success. They got a feature on MTV and did what many have tried and failed to do before them and broke the US of A. They were on Jay Leno. They were on Lopez tonight. They even performed for ‘What’s The Craic’ Barack himself! They did some of the score for ‘Pirates of The Caribbean’ and ‘Puss In Boots’ and they just released their 5^th album ‘Area 52’ in January.

So… Shame on me, I guess. Rodrigo Y Gabriela ya’ll. Word!

BEBO

In 2005 I was talked into joining Bebo by a friend of mine who went to college in Maynooth. She said it was a great way to stay in touch. I thought it was just an NUI thing and thus assumed the username, ‘DCUGirl’ to assert my allegiance to my own side. Pretty soon, the whole country and its dog was on there.

Of course, these days we have Facebook and, in comparison, it’s blatantly obvious how juvenile Bebo really was. The site allowed us to choose our own skin (mine was a Snoopy theme). You could upload photos. You had your friends all there on your profile. You could update your status, write a blog, create a poll, draw a picture or “share the luv”. You could even write a story about how you knew people you were friends with. In fairness, Bebo had a lot to offer the young and impressionable it was aimed at. But somehow, for some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on, Facebook is just better.

I will admit that I wasn’t an easy convert. I didn’t understand Facebook at first. I didn’t know what you were supposed to do on a “wall”. The concept of “poking” someone just baffled me and I kept getting notifications telling my that my cousin was sending me shots and that I should send her some back when, in fact, I never received any kind of tiny beverage. I didn’t like it. But that just was the Cancerian in me. In the end I had no choice. None of us had a choice. If social networking sites were a movie trilogy Facebook would be ‘Jurassic Park’, Bebo would be ‘The Lost World’ and MySpace would be ‘Jurassic Park III’ (you can use the ‘Look Who’s Talking’ trilogy either, if you prefer). They’re all decent enough, but you can’t argue that one is significantly better than others.

Face it. Bebo is dead. Facebook is king. Resistance is futile.

Or maybe we should just get off the internet and go get a real life…. Hahahaha!! Nah, I’m just playin’ ya’ll!

HOME AND AWAY

During my college years, my schedule was a lot busier than it is now. Horse-riding on a Monday, €3 drinks in the Old Bar on a Tuesday, Tae Kwon Do on a Wednesday, €3 drinks in Fibbers on a Thursday, rushing for the 109 back to Cavan after lectures on a Friday. But rarely were any of those things permitted to get in the way of me being in front of a television at 6.30PM every evening for ‘Home and Away’.

Now, I do realise that ‘Home and Away’ is not just a college phenomenon. It’s a nationwide phenomenon. ‘Home and Away’ has been shown on RTE since its inception in 1988. That’s a long time. My whole life, in fact. Kind of mental considering it’s like the Aussie version of ‘Fair City’. Regardless, we lapped that shit right up like shimps on a barbie.

Perhaps that’s the very reason it remained a staple throughout university. It reminded us of home (and away?). It was a constant in our otherwise changing lives. It didn’t matter that it was absolutely and completely ridiculous in its’ storylines or that the characters seemed to come and go at lightening speed. They were beautiful. Summer Bay was beautiful. Just like always. The Bay was there to make us feel at home. Just hearing the intro makes me want to go back and live in that time again.

You know we belong together… (You know the words!) You and I forever and ever! No matter where you are, you’re my guiding star. And from the very first moment I saw you, I never felt such emotion. I’m walking on air! Just to know (Just to know!) You are there! HOLD ME IN YOUR ARMS! DON’T LET ME GO! I WANT TO STAY FOREVER! CLOSER EACH DAY! HOME AND AWAY!!!

 

The good news is that ‘Home and Away’ didn’t go anywhere. It’s still right where it should be; on RTE2 at 6.30PM every weekday evening, after ‘The Simpsons’. 24 years. God bless you Ireland and your awesome, silly ways.

CYANIDE AND HAPPINESS (ET AL)

Cyanide and Happiness is a comic strip. I can’t remember who brought it to my attention. I can’t remember why it was brought to my attention. But I do remember finding it very funny.

Cyanide and Happiness wasn’t like anything else that came before it. It was a very specific humour. One that was created by and for Generation Y. Simplistic in its presentation and dark in nature, it managed to be offensive and massively funny without being blatant. It was certainly the first time I’d ever seen an awkward silence translated into a drawing.

And today it’s still just as popular. A new strip is uploaded daily at http://www.explosm.net

Around the same time that Cyanide and Happiness was popular, another meme crept onto the spectrum: Salad Fingers. Salad Fingers was not funny. Salad Fingers was creepy as fuck. Like the infamous, ‘Two Girls One Cup’, it wasn’t something that you showed someone out of love (Not that I would ever inflict ‘Two Girls One Cup’ on anyone!). No, you showed ‘Salad Fingers’ to people to give them the creeps, just like they were given to you. ‘Salad Fingers’ spread through the student community like wildfire, making the hairs on the back of everyones’ neck stand to attention as he passed, caressing rusty things with his… *shivers*…. salad fingers…

CHUCK NORRIS

Chuck Norris doesn’t need a paragraph justifying his place on this list. The facts started appearing around 2005. They’ve been appearing ever since. Here’s some personal favourites:

• Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
• The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.
• Chuck Norris once won a game of Connect 4 in three moves.
• Chuck Norris can delete the Recycling Bin.
• Ghosts sit around the campfire telling Chuck Norris stories.
• Chuck Norris once punched a man in the soul.
• Chuck Norris does not have hair on his testicles because hair cannot grow on steel.
• Chuck Norris does not flush the toilet. He scares the shit out of it.
• Chuck Norris eats the core of an apple first.
• Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water and make it drink.
• Chuck Norris leaves messages before the beep.
• Chuck Norris counted to infinity… twice.
• The only time Chuck Norris was ever wrong was when he thought he made a mistake.

THE RICKROLL

It’s 8pm. You’re in the library, “working on an assignment” (aka: checking bebo and patrolling the web for… anything, really). It’s quiet. Others are at computers around you silently focusing on their studies. The bad-tempered woman behind the desk is stamping books and peering out over the top of her glasses, looking for anyone she can apprehend. The only sound is that of the printer in the corner, faithfully spitting out notes that will give someone a few hundred extra words on their 2,000 word essay. You see a link to something that catches your interest, I don’t know, “Top 10 Most Badass Grand Theft Auto Moments” or something of the like. “Oooh,” you think. “I am interested in finding out what  the top ten most badass Grand Theft Auto moments are.” You click on the link. 

BAM! You just been Rickroll’d! Daaaaaaamn! Now everyone’s looking at you and you can feel the eyes of the bad-tempered woman glaring at you from behind her desk. The only solution is to turn tomato red, ‘X’ out of the video as fast as possible and pretend it never happened. How could you be so foolish!? You should have known better. Stoopid Rick Astley and his sneaky ways!

 

I’m four years out of college now. My little sister is now in her first year in good ol’ DCU. And from what I can see, some things never change. They just evolve. Trolling is all the rage. ‘Know Your Meme’ refers to trolling as, “any behavior that is meant to intentionally anger or frustrate someone else.”  I can see the humour in that. Angry people are funny. Especially when they’re angry over ridiculous things. Here’s Aziz Ansari demonstrating just how amusing trolling can be: 

 

Inspired by posts on sites like ‘FailBlog’ and ‘I Can Has Cheezburger?’ as well as all those goddamned Facebook groups, the memes we see these days looks something like this: 

 

We had Rodrigo Y Gabriela, a Mexican guitar duo. Now we have The Rubberbandits, an Irish comedy hip-hop duo.

We had ‘Bebo Stunnahs’, a group of young girls, caked in make-up and doing “sexy” poses for the camera. Now we have ‘Facebook Wetsers’, which is pretty much the very same thing except with better grammar.

We had ‘Home and Away’ and we still have ‘Home any Away’ (LIKEABOSS!).

We had ‘Cyanide and Happiness’, a comic depicting dark humour and offensive situations. Now we have ‘Rage Comic’, a comic that depicts normal shit with a sudden mad face thrown in.

We had ‘Chuck Norris Facts’, a meme stating incredible facts about the man. Now we have ‘Fuck Yeah! Ryan Gosling’, a site that depicted things that Ry Goz would say to you if you were his girlfriend, usually beginning with, “Hey Girl,”.

We had RickRolling and sure, poor Rick Astley’s been paying the rent off the back of it since!

The world of pop culture and the societal memes that come with it is fluid. Ever changing. It would be impossible to keep up with them all (and a bit sad, probably). Mark my words that if you remember Rick Rolling, someone three years younger than you likely would not. That’s the way of the ipod generation. It all happens in the blink of an eye. The key to staying down with tha kidz is the same one for keeping on top of the housework; little and often. Get yourself online every now and again, have your little sister show you videos on youtube. You’ll be a’ight.

Chuuuuuuuch!

 

 

 

 

Things Wot Make Facebook Shit…

Facebook. You’re on it. I’m on it. Zach Braff is on it. My Mom is on it. Your old penpal is on it. My friend’s cat is on it. Everyone’s heckin’ on it. In fact, I only know one guy who isn’t on it and no-one ever shuts up about it. They want to know why he doesn’t have one, will he ever have one, why doesn’t he want one, does he not wish he had one, blahdy blah blah.

See, the thing about facebook is that once you sign up, you have to commit. It changes you. Facebook is, for many, the be all and end all. It becomes consuming. You manically check your facebook every 10 minutes ‘coz God forbid you miss something! I like to think (ignorantly) that I’m not as bad as some. For example, I don’t know exactly how many “friends” I have, nor do I really care. I don’t update my status very often and I don’t play Farmtown or Cafe… parlour(?) or Gardens of Dread or any of that aul’ shite. I mostly try to resist the pull. My real life aint no circus but I don’t want to be that chick that lives her entire life on a website ‘coz she has no actual life.

Plus, facebook is flawed by nature. Here’s my beef with facebook.

That One Person That’s All Up In Your Shit

We all have that person on our friends list. Like, yeah I know you (probably from school) but I don’t really know you at the same time. You can’t remember the last time you actually saw them in person, nor do you have any intention of seeing them in person in the near future. You don’t even have their phone number. And yet they’re all over you. Liking everything you do, every photo you post, every witty update you type, poking the shit out of you, leaving irrelevant comments smack bang in the middle of conversations you’re having with actual friends and thus bringing ’em to an abrupt halt (Do you continue on with your conversation in your next comment? Or do you say something about the irrelevant comment? What’s the etiquette?!). They play Mafia Wars and have their Daily Horoscope posted on their page. And they just wont go away! You never return the favour. You hope that maybe they’ll see that you never like anything they post or reply to the irrelevant comments and they’ll get the hint. But it never happens. They continue to be all up in your grill and all up in everybody else’s grill aswell. But I’ve realised (just since starting to type this post just now) that it’s actually kind of sad. There’s a melancholic air of desperation about all the activity. My LFF (Lonely Facebook Friend) just seems desperate to be liked. An LFF is often that person that never got their momentum in life. They didn’t go to college or travel. Maybe they married young or had kids. They settled in their hometown and probably don’t get out much. And so all the liking and poking and game requesting actually translates as “FRIEND!!! PLEASE BE MY FRIEND!!!” So now I’ve come over all empathetic. Daaaaaaaamn! I started with the full intention to rant about the LFF. God love them really. That’s not to say you should run off and send them a DM inviting them into your world or anything, let’s not be hasty here. They’re still a dose that you don’t need. But maybe just, I dunno, next time they comment on your photo saying something like, “Looks gr8! I was there 2 once!”, just validate them with a wee, “cool!”

Kids And Youths

I’m a firm believer in sheltering kids from growing up too quick. I’m a grown up but boy would I love to be a kid again. For some reason it’s sunny in all of my childhood memories. They all revolve around playing outside on the swings, or swimming in the lake, riding my bike with my best friend. Looking back, being a kid is probably the best time that life is ever gonna give you, when your worries are less, “should I use my wages for food or petrol?” and more “How can I make this bath even more bubbly?” But when you’re a kid you don’t appreciate being a kid. You want to be older. That’s why that half counts when it comes to kids ages. A five year old is never just five. They’re five and a half! It’s a bleak time for childhood these days. I’m seeing kids of eight or seven, even, with mobile phones. But like, iphones. Blackberries. I asked a little boy recently what he was getting from Santa. He told me he had asked for an iphone. I asked him who he was going to text and ring if he got an iphone. He smiled, looked at his feet and told me that it was for the “good games.” Thing is, this kid probably got his iphone from Santa too. And that is just bad parenting. If that was my kid, at seven years old, he’d get a bike and he’d damn well appreciate it! A bloody iphone… Um, what? Sorry, lost my train of thought in a fit of mental rage at the thought of that child having an iphone… Yeah! So,  now I’m also seeing kids arriving on facebook! This is wrong for sooooo many reasons:

1. The obvious – You know… Don’t make me say it. The web is a dangerous place for a child. It’s not like the real world where there’s people to protect you. The internet is crawling with bad people and kids are too vulnerable for that shit.
2. Kids on facebook make me feel like I have to censor myself. I use etiquette in my job. I go to work and I behave like a grown-up and use my indoor voice. Facebook is where I come when I want to give out about something ridiculous like “fucking cyclists cycling in the middle of the fucking road when I’m trying to fucking drive!” ‘Cept most of the time these days I find myself editing my posts because, Gosh, I couldn’t be using that kind of language when I know there’s young people on my friends list. So it’s either, don’t post it at all or phrase it like, “Gee whizz, I sure wish all those cyclists on the road would be more careful and stay close to the ditch! I’d sure hate to cause anyone any harm! Safety first! Wear your helmet! Don’t do drugs!”
3. Kids clog up the news feed! Not that there’s every anything majorly pressing showing up on my newsfeed. But with the influx of young people on facebook I’m seeing more and more, “So and so is looking for fairy wings in Castleville. Send some and you’ll get some. Shake off the dust first! That stuff gets everywhere!” And when the kids are online your newsfeed can be bursting with this dung! “So and so achieved level 10 in Cafe World!” 15 posts in a row! The words might be different but it’s all the same to me! I DON’T CARE!!! You’re so annoying! Go away!
4. “ir 1 ov mii bff ur abit mad but ur a legend=p”… What? What is that? Is that words? Is that English? Like, ya’ll probably think I’m making this shit up but that right there, that’s an actual post that I’ve copied and pasted.  I think it means, “You’re one of my best friends forever. You’re a bit mad but you’re a legend. Sticky out tongue face.” See, I’m down with tha kidz! Seriously though, get the fuck away from me with that kind of godawful typing. I’m a jaaaaarnalist, dontcha know?! I have very little tolerance for that kind of thing. I won’t even join a group, no matter how funny, if there’s bad spelling and/or punctuation. DiIs Izzz NaH BeBo nemur guyzzzz! Yaaaaay 4 GrOwNuPz n Faceboooooook!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 xxxxxxxxx
5. My 13-year-old cousin is on facebook and recently added me. Of course I accepted. He’s my little cousin after all. Yeah, I regretted that decision almost immediately. He’s all about the “Like dis post nd Ill rate ur looks outta 100.”, “Lyk dis 4 ugly/good lukin/ alri / beautt.”, “Lyk if u tink I hate u.” And all his 13-year-old friends lyk d posts and he probably mails them and tells them all der gud lukin. And I get closer and closer to committing the ultimate in modern scorn, UNFRIENDING !!!!! This is not what facebook is for yo! Do it over your iphones or something!

Tagging

If the photo needs to be tagged, I’ll tag it myself. There’s nothing worse than logging into facebook after a heavy night and seeing 10 notifications telling you you’ve been tagged in so and so’s album. You go and check out the album and there’s 10 photos of you in which you look like you’ve just been released from a mental hospital, gurning horrifically, hugging strangers who, at the time, you thought looked like that guy from that movie, or straddling something in a provocative/sloppy manner. When a photo is tagged, it shows up on your profile! Tagged photos are one of the first things people see when they go to stalk your page. My best friend and I have a policy in which neither of us can post pictures of the other without prior screening and permission. It works out real nice. Tagging someone other than yourself of facebook is just not cool. Sure, you can untag, but you never know who’ll have seen it before you have a chance to get it. And that one, nasty, embarrassing photo that your friend posted because she liked how she looked in could be the difference between you staying fun or never drinking again.

Friend Requests

Maybe I’m alone here (I doubt it) but when I log into my account and see I have a friend request my heart skips a beat. Mostly because friend requests are rarely from anyone you need to be friends with. Unless you’ve just joined facebook, the odds are that you’re already friends with all the people you need to be friends with. I mean your real life friends, your cousins, your brothers and sisters, and the throng of other acquaintances that you pick up over the course of your journey through life. So, after three years on facebook, who is that friend request going to be from? Here’s a rundown of some of the people that I’ve had pending requests from for a long time now:

 – Friend of little sister whom I’ve never heard of or met.

– Guy who was three years behind me in school that I’ve never spoken to ever.

– Teenager who lives in an estate in the town I’m from whom, again, I’ve never spoken to ever.

– Boyfriend of a girl I went to school with

– Little brother of a guy I went to school with

– Newspaper I used to work for that closed down two years ago

– Hairy American guy that I’ve never heard of, met, or have any mutual friends with

You get the gist. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not like, “Pah! I don’t need friends! I’m far too popular as it is!” I’m not remotely popular. In fact, I’m kind of the opposite. I’m like a hermit really. But, just, what’s the purpose of adding me? We don’t know each other. I could add you but we both know that we’re never going to interact. I’m not going to like your updates and you’re not going to like mine. Is it just pure nosiness? You want to see what I’m up to? Or you just want to build friends so it looks like you’re super cool and popular? And then, if you ignore a request, you run the risk of getting confronted for it. That happened to me! In a pub last Christmas! This guy that I only know to see, never spoke to him in my life, requested me. I thought, “I don’t know you. Imma leave that request alone.” He came up to me in the pub wanting to know why I ignored him!!! I stumbled through an excuse about how I’m never on facebook and my laptop had fallen down the toilet and then the dog ate it or something and ended up swearing that I’d add him the next day. Damnit Janet I don’t need to be facing consequences for a false reality! If someone ignores your request, assume it’s either because they don’t like you or they don’t know you and then leave it alone, forget it, move on with your life.

It Keeps Changing

Facebook doesn’t do a sudden, all out change and be done with it. No, Facebook does it in a slow, subtle, mindfuck kind of way. They changed the wall. Then they changed the news feed. Now my newsfeed shows highlighted stories and not chronologically arranged stories as I would prefer. Chat changed. I still don’t understand new chat. Then they moved the pokes. But then they moved the pokes back. Now the pokes sporadically move from the left to the right of my screen seemingly off their own accord. Now this whole new timeline thing is coming in. I’ll not be able to cope with it, that’s for sure. Mark Zuckerberg’s just getting a bit too big for his boots. You’re not the new Steve Jobs, Mark. You don’t constantly have to change it and update it and modernise it and generally, fuck it all up! Leave facebook alone! We’re used to it! We came from bebo and we learned how to use your site and now you keep making us have to figure it out all over again. Stop it! M Zucks has obvs never heard the saying, “If it aint broke, don’t fix it.”

Look, I realise that I must sound like a cranky old lady, giving out about kids today and not being able to keep up with all this modern technology and way back when I was a girl we used to have to walk fifteen miles barefoot in the snow to go to school and all that. To be honest, I feel like a cranky old lady. ‘Cept I’m a cranky young lady. But I’m not all about hatin’. I do think Facebook is brilliant. It’s the primary way I keep in contact with friends and family that I can’t see very often. It’s a great place to interact with buddies and generally act the goon. But I’m just sayin’, for all its brilliance, Facebook has just an abundance of shitisms (I know it’s a word because I just used it in a sentence). In between bouts of being obsessed with it I also have bouts of abhorring it, vowing to delete my profile and get a real life. It’s probably not ever going to happen. I mean, c’mon, everyone is on Facebook.