While 2016 was a pretty rough year, some amazing memes came out of it. I mean, Evil Kermit was an absolute masterpiece, Arthur’s clenched fist personally spoke to my passive aggressive side, and every SpongeBob meme gave me life. I can’t say the same for 2017. That’s not to say that 2017 had no good memes; I’m personally a big fan of Mocking SpongeBob, the blinking guy, the distracted boyfriend, and the IT memes – the problem is, I can’t think of much else.
Sure, there are plenty of small, local memes around, but what happened to the ones that had the power to move an entire nation? Confused Mr. Krabs seemed to be everywhere I looked, and Evil Kermit was the subject of many profound conversations with friends. It seems like, for the past few months, no meme has taken over – which sucks, because, as you can probably tell, I really enjoy memes.
This is a subject which I’ve actually put a lot of thought into over the last few months (as sad as that may sound). For a while, there seemed to be new, hit memes being churned out every couple of weeks – I could barely keep up. But that seems to have stagnated now, and I’m left wondering why.
Looking back, the sudden popularity and widespread cultural acceptance of memes began around 2014 – 2015. The most far-reaching one I can remember is the classic “But That’s None of My Business” Kermit meme. I, along with many other millennials, started college this year; while younger generations may associate memes with high school or middle school, the vast majority of millennials (the latter half i.e. mid to late ’90s) associate them with college. I can’t help but wonder whether or not this is a coincidence.
Memes are generally a means by which individuals or groups can find a sense of camaraderie, belonging, or togetherness. At a time in which so many of us became displaced from our friends and homes, it’s not difficult to suggest memes provided a sense of comfort and community. From then on, memes became a permanent part of popular culture. With so many injustices occurring over the country and world, we turned to memes in order to work through our thoughts; many times, these thoughts were sarcastic or ironic, but they held a purpose.
They seemed to be a much-needed distraction from the stresses of school, anxieties about the future, and feelings of aloneness or inadequacy. But why is 2017 so different? I think everyone can agree that we need distractions now more than ever, but where are these distractions?
2017 has been a pretty terrible year, honestly. With the vast number of natural disasters, human-caused violence, and the existence of Donald Trump, we haven’t had time to breathe, let alone make memes. The world around us has become so dark and uncertain; it is no longer cathartic to meme-ify everyday events, as there is no way for us to escape our realities. How can we focus on memes when there is so much death and destruction happening everyday and breaking ‘records’ constantly? We can’t. Perhaps if 2017 decides to give us a much-needed break from its shittiness, we’ll have the inspiration necessary for new, quality memes. But, until then, we’ll have to look back on old memes with bittersweet nostalgia and hope that the future is brighter.