Memes: Potentially Pessimistic Poison

• SA Engages

August 30, 2019

There are three things that all people are amongst other things: a sinner, a critic, and a comedian. I came to know the sinner part from my church background, in which one of the first verses I ever adopted into my memory called us all out for being sinners and falling short of the glorious standard set by God (Romans 3:23). The critic part stems from the common saying “opinions are like armpits: everybody has them and some of them stink worse than others”, but the comedian part is said rather tongue-in-cheek as it is something that everyone tries to be in their own particular way. Unfortunately, this does not mean everyone is good at it; just because someone writes a song does not mean it is a good song or that they are a good musician.

When presented with downtime, I tend to entertain myself with either television or movies, and without fail I wish I could do what the people I see on screen are doing. After watching an NBA game, I dream of being Giannis Antetokounmpo. Post-watching a Netflix comedy special, I fanaticize selling out Radio City Music Hall like John Mulaney. I cannot seem to go to a concert without getting caught up in visualizing myself being up there doing what some of my favorite artists do; we desire to do what we see others who we admire are doing, which is only natural.

For many who grew up in the vastly changing 2000s, Jon Stewart, former host of the 22-time Primetime Emmy award winning satirical news show “The Daily Show”, was the ideal combination of critique and comedy. His satirical style pointed out flaws in logic, execution, and philosophy all while bringing a smile to the audience’s face through laughter rooted in a plethora of comedic genres including observational, insult, and absurdist. Disregarding any political disagreements I may have with Stewart, when I see him roasting politicians without even blatantly calling them out for their hypocrisy, when I see him being a social activist through his comedic commentary, I develop a desire to do what he did on the Daily Show. I believe that many people try to do that too; people try to do what Stewart – one of the most iconic, impactful, and influential voices of the century – did so very well and satirically commented on all manners of culture. Yet, people’s sometimes lame attempt at being Jon Stewart is through memes.

Given the fact that on-campus Liberty students are required to go to Convocation Wednesday and Friday mornings, sometimes the routine of it all becomes mundane, so students have to try to find amusement to keep themselves entertained amidst the required gatherings. Memes are a convenient and often comedic way to do so. LU Memes and The Liberty Way meme account both host a tremendous following and cover everything from odd illustrations Nasser uses and videos of Jerry Falwell Jr. pelvic thrusting hundreds of pounds to frustrations with parking – which I have come to understand on a new level since moving off-campus. But with such a wide array of topics being covered, the memes made pointing out the positives in activities or functions are few and far between, looking like a small hill in the shadow of mountains of pessimism. This is little to no fault of the administrators of the pages, as they merely filter what gets posted on the page and work with what they are sent, but this makes it clear that the content they are sent is mostly on the pessimistic side, proving that students tend to find the negative(s) in things which likely do not deserve an analysis and critique.

Memes have grown in popularity just as social media has over the past decade, with some meme accounts on Instagram having over 16 million followers. In 2015, Max Roser conducted a survey called “Share of the population who think the world is getting better” and only 6% of Americans said that the world seemed to be getting better;  this is with the knowledge that technology, medicine, and many people’s circumstances have improved over the past few decades. While there certainly are things that have not improved, and maybe they have even gotten worse (including that many people do live in very unfortunate circumstances), I believe that there is a definitive connection between the world’s growing pessimism and the increased popularity of memes that tend to be hung up on the negative. I fully acknowledge that ignorance is bliss and through the usage of memes many things have been brought to light that we may not have noticed before, but we may have ran into an indulgence of pointing out the negative and not even acknowledging the presence of the positive.

There is humor to be found in the relatable nature of memes, but what I fear is that memes are changing us slowly and unbeknownst to us, corrupting us into people that cannot enjoy things anymore because we just want to make fun of it, critique it, and devour it to get a cheap laugh and maybe some social media clout. The fear is that we cannot consume and enjoy because we are choking on our pessimistic poison. Do we know how to consume food, entertainment, and every day interactions anymore without feeling the need to dilute them down to a cheap joke? Are we too far gone to ever have childlike wonder and amazement about things but still have the maturity of adults?  Can we enjoy things purely anymore?

We attempt to justify our constant pessimism by defending them as being harmless jokes, blaming our boredom as the reason we can’t help but find the negative in things, and sometimes marking it off as an attempt to socially commentate on something in society. Too often we forget that somebody put work into their craft and, in a sense, when we make fun of someone’s hard work we make fun of them. As Will Rogers once said, “Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else”. Granted, a person’s identity should not be solely resting on their work but that does not mean there is an open invite to offer only criticism and never constructive advice. If all you do is point out to the masses that there is a fire but never sound the alarm, grab a hose, or call 9-1-1, you are part of the problem, not the solution.

Social commentary is important as it puts on display parts of something or someone that need improvement, hypocrisy, and injustice that may have otherwise gone unnoticed, which is why comedic commentators like Jon Stewart are important. Yet, there is a time and a place for it and even Jon recognizes that not every subject, not every song, not every pixel on a screen requires a skinning and thrashing; “If we amplify everything we hear nothing.” Continue to make memes, be honest, point out hypocrisy but lovingly and with the hopes that things will improve, laugh at life, find humor in the happenings and idiosyncrasies of the day, but be aware and cautious about the fact that memes may be funny, but they can have the potential to turn you into a pessimist who cannot enjoy things anymore. This is all because you seek to make your own fun out of something that may have already been fun in and of itself. You are given thousands of little choices every day to either look for the small slither of light or point out and exploit the darkness surrounding you; in the words of NEEDTOBREATHE, “Be more heart and less attack”.

Sources

https://www.rd.com/advice/work-career/jon-stewart-quotes/

https://ourworldindata.org/motivation

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/will_rogers_164648?src=t_humor

https://genius.com/Needtobreathe-more-heart-less-attack-lyrics

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