Summary

The author reflects on their personal collection of memes, which serves as a humorous and sometimes dark reflection of their personality and a means to connect with others who share their sense of humor.

Abstract

The article delves into the author's decade-long habit of collecting memes, which are interspersed with personal photos and represent a chaotic yet endearing aspect of their life. These memes, often dark in humor, are saved to elicit laughter and are shared with like-minded individuals. The author explains that memes function as a modern form of communication, conveying complex emotions and ideas succinctly in a text-dominated world. The concept of memes, originally defined by Richard Dawkins, has evolved to encompass a wide range of viral content shared across the internet. The author treasures memes for their ability to encapsulate a wealth of information and context, and they take pleasure in sharing them with friends to maintain connections or to express thoughts without needing many words. The memes also serve as a litmus test for compatibility in new friendships, particularly those with an appreciation for dark humor.

Opinions

The author believes that memes are a significant part of their identity and a way to express love and friendship.
Memes are seen as a modern tool for communication, filling in the emotional nuances that text alone cannot convey.
The author values the evolutionary nature of memes, acknowledging their ability to spread and adapt across different communities.
There is an emphasis on the importance of having a similar sense of humor, particularly an appreciation for dark humor, in forming close bonds with others.
The author finds personal joy and a coping mechanism in the absurdity of memes, which reflects their view of the increasingly ridiculous world.
Sharing memes is a way for the author to non-verbally say, "I'm thinking of you," and to reinforce friendships with a shared understanding of humor.

My Meme Collection is a Disturbing Window into my Soul

But it also means that I love you

It’s weird to look back through my collection of jokes and memes from the last decade because they’re mixed in with touching pictures of my kids, family trips to the park, sunsets, and campfires.

I’ve been saving memes for years. Sometimes I make my own, but it’s hard to compete with the volume of hilarity already out there. People ask me why I save so many memes, and the only answer I have is that I’m saving them to make someone laugh. Except, I have no system. No organization. Kind of like the rest of my life, all my things are mixed in with all my other things, and will likely never be seen again.

Humans now communicate through text more than verbally. Life is constantly pulling us in 17 different directions. We don’t have time to convey all the emotions and inflections that would have previously been made visible through an in-person conversation.

Instead, we send a few words in a text. A great way to give the recipient some more context is using a visual aid like a picture, or in my case, a meme.

The original term “meme” was coined by Richard Dawkins in his work The Selfish Gene, way back in 1976. The term has evolved greatly since then, but at its root, a meme is an idea that can be transmitted. The Wikipedia definition is “a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms.”

In short, it’s a way to convey a mountain of information with a bit of context. It’s a way to say a whole lot of words in a brief message, and it adds a bit of context.

Interestingly, memes spread in much the same way as infectious diseases. They propagate in a viral pattern, “infecting” individuals as they travel. Once a meme has been transferred to enough people, its continued spread is inevitable. People change the memes and they evolve, moving from community to community, adapting to new cultural meanings and connotations.

In the 33 seconds of research I did for this article, it turns out there’s really no way to track them. Between social media, screen captures, and evolutions, they’re free to roam on the internet.

For me, they’re mostly jokes. But they’re almost always jokes I think will make someone laugh. Many times it’s a specific person with a particularly dark sense of humor. Those are my people.

There’s nothing obscene in my collection — well, not terribly — but there is a ton of dark humor. A few months ago, I handed my phone to my father-in-law to show him some pictures of his grandchildren doing something cute. He proceeded to scroll casually past the pictures of his grandchildren and stumbled upon this meme:

He didn’t say anything, but his eyes got big and he started wheezing. He kept looking at it, snickering, then looking away again. The more he looked at it the harder he laughed. Through tears of laughter, he looked at me and said, “Jesus Christ! You’re scum! You are such scum!” We laughed for an hour.

Sometimes I save a meme because it makes me laugh, but more often than not it’s because I think of someone else and think it will make them laugh.

When I make a new friend, which isn’t often, as soon as I feel like it’s safe I start peppering them with memes. Not randomly, but where they fit naturally in conversation.

This is where my head is. I’m just waiting to deploy my dank army.

There are also times when I want them to know I’m thinking of them, but don’t have a lot to say. That’s when I send a random disaster.

When you start getting these dank memes from me, you know we’re friends. I know they’re pretty fucked up, so I only send them to people that have the same fucked up sense of humor.

Like this:

Several years ago I worked with someone who didn’t get sarcasm. He didn’t understand dark humor. I’d make some offhanded comment, and he’d just stare at me like I was crazy.

I already know I’m crazy, but that comment was money.

That’s when I realized I could never be friends with anyone who doesn’t glean the vast majority of their sense of humor from dreadful, irreverent humor.

When a meme hits me in the feels — even the dankest of feels — I’m usually thinking of a particular person or situation where I’m going to use it. And I know I’m not alone because of the phenomenon of memes about memes:

Plenty of posts on the internet list related memes, and I love those too. Lists of memes work in the same way verbal comedy works. A single meme on its own is only kind of funny. But when they start cascading, that’s when the real fun begins. It’s why they always use a warm-up comic. Dank memes just keep getting funnier until my wife kicks me out of bed.

I know this is some terribly dark stuff, but it makes me laugh. The older I get, the more ridiculous and absurd the world seems to be. Laughing is a coping mechanism, and nowhere near the most unhealthy one.

Just know that if I’m sending you this kind of nonsense regularly, I trust you with the darkest, weirdest parts of me.