![]() Hence, wholesome memes don't have to be so insistent about their wholesomeness (e.g. Low-res animal pics are used interchangeably in ways that meme characters aren't: the animals aren't the meme the texture and general aesthetic of the images are the meme. The animals don't retain a sense of identity or persistence when they are used as memetic elements they're like assets that make up the meme in order to provide a stand-in for something cute or as a texture to give the textual content a certain vibe. This lends them to variously ironic modes of communication by all manner of users. Sometimes they develop identities and lore, but the primary usage is as emotes and reaction images for users, and the sense that the animals are stable characters with a backstory is weak (compared to LOLcats, Advice animals, and pre-ironic Doge). Using low-resolution, "front camera" images of people and animals as memetic characters became popular around 2017-2018. Sharing something that's pleasant to look at has become a really big part of memeculture, and it's great: I think that this post was prescient and accurate. Is this evolution to be expected, or just a product of circumstance? This appears to be typical of many reactions/frequently used symbols in social networks (haha, wow, angery interpretation depending on literacy of both the reacter and the viewer, winking emojis etc). ![]() In a similar way to the use of 'sad' reaccs in general, saying 'F' walks a fine line, in that a (hopefully) correct interpretation of the intent (sincere vs joke) relies on knowledge of both the material being reacted to and the demographic that is reacting. While it was generally used sarcastically in the past, it has developed into the de facto sincere expression of sympathy/sadness/mourning/respect in the memesphere. 'Press F to pay respects' was a product of poor writing in 2014's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and so was rightfully made fun of at the time. (2018) "Postironic usage of "Press F to pay respects" on social media" Also I guess it mostly makes sense as the link introduced the mainstream to the idea of memes as able to be pure/wholesome. I guess because it didn't make headlines like trash dove or pepe did. Which raises the question of /s4s/ literally starting the main-stream-ification of memes period.ĮDIT: It was subverted but apparently it was obscure enough that it didn't matter. *1st wave happened with the start of /s4s/ without a doubt, according to google trends the first spike in the search for "meme/memes" happened several months after /s4s/ was made. In a sense it was the first 2nd-wave wholesome meme*. The humor was entirely "haha what a cute amusing frog". It never got subverted like pepe or trash dove and never gained any actual meaning beyond its literal representation. By comparison the first (albeit small) jump in searches for "whole some memes" started end of June and spiked starting on July.ĭat boi was a very basic, cutesy meme that had an almost entirely positive body of work centered around it. Random Thought: Dat Boi could be considered a catalyst of the 2nd-wave "wholesome memes" trend*.ĭat boi spiked ~May 10 of last year and ended the rapid drop-off end of June. (2017) "Dat Boi was the first meme of the 2nd Wave of Wholesome Memes" ![]() There's also a lot of additional discussions in the /tpmg/ threads linked within each section from when each thread was initially created. I'll offer some commentary in the replies below, as a way to review and revisit the discussions from the past 5 years. ![]() He requested some examples of discussions around this idea, so I went and found some from /tpmg/ (our private discussion group attached to the The Philosopher's Meme). The first time we chatted on his stream, I mentioned that wholesome memes are a paradigmatic case of post-irony. Since last year, and I have met to chat about the layers of irony several times. ![]()
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