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 5th 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!
sureitsallabitofcraic 