voice; Awake is difficult and no one understands

[promiselisting]

[ Huh. Here is an unusual thing. Futaba is not usually one to use voice (or anything besides text) on the network. Maybe she wants to reassure other people with her voice and to hear theirs? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that her voice is still a bit muzzy with sleep. Maybe text requires more coordination than she has right now.

Either way, she's got an important post from her sort-of-brother to follow up on. ]

So.

[ There's a long, pregnant pause. ]

How many other memes are you all familiar with? Scientific curiosity.

[ She's been getting reputations up until now. The girl who gathers information. That one who really really mistrusts the Curti Center and is not afraid to be vocally critical of it. But it's past time she showed the world here who she truly is-

a shitposter. ]

Comments

[righthandstand]

[Here's another member of the "what's a meme" crew.]

Who's the lady on the left supposed to be?

[whirluendo_of_puns]

It says right there, silly! Those spankin' hot Custom Jobs, luring our beloved fish man astray with their

[his voice drops to a hushed whisper]

"skills."

[Scandalous]

[promiselisting]

Yeah, c'mon Okuyasu, she's already labeled and everything!!

[ Someone stop this madness ]

[righthandstand]

Nah, like, I know the girl on the right is Jessie tellin' him to get rest, but why's he gotta look at a woman called "Custom Jobs" if he can just look at a sign called "Custom Jobs"?

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Huh? But then it wouldn't be the distracted boyfriend meme--

[A soft gasp]

You don't know what that is, do you? Oh, you poor, sweet, innocent soul. You're like... a meme virgin. Bless.

[righthandstand]

Don't call me a virgin...

It's some kinda shitty political cartoon, I think.

[promiselisting]

I mean there's probably some political cartoons that've ended up as memes, somewhere. Buuuuut not quite.

[ The jokes aren't funny if you have to explain them! ]

[righthandstand]

Then what's the difference besides one of 'em being complicated and hard to understand?

[He feels like he's missing out on a huge part of the joke that's hilarious to smart people and just kind of cool to idiots.]

[whirluendo_of_puns]

[Though it can't be seen without video, there's a bit of a shift on his end. Followed by clearing of throat.]

All right, gather around, boys and girls! This is Professor Toneido's Special Meme Studies 101 Introductory Lecture!

[Because as entertaining as Okuyasu's confusion is, Uendo doesn't actually want to make him feel like an idiot.]

The word "meme" was originally coined by scientists to describe how ideas spread from person to person. You know how genes are passed down and mutate through evolution, right? Memes are like that, but instead of biological traits they're about social practices and fads and the like. Some stay dominant, some die off. And then we got Internet with instant messaging and the whole concept of memes kind of... exploded.

Think of it like this: if you just tell the same joke to your buddies over and over, it gets old pretty quickly, yeah? But memes get spread around the world and keep evolving. They get changed and used in response to totally different contexts. Even if the original joke's not funny anymore, you can add a new twist to it and catch people by surprise! In a sense, you're both referring to the previous versions and doing your own thing with it at the same time, so it's like adding more and more layers on top of what came before.

Take the above illustration -- the meme came from a stock photo of a man being distracted by another woman while his girlfriend is understandably peeved. A bit of text and editing and you can apply it to just about any instance of someone being distracted, while the distinct framing of the original photo keeps the origin of the meme easily recognizable. Ergo! Every time you meme, you are effectively carrying on the legacy of your forebears through your own creative spirit!

[He's absolutely explaining all of this like a very passionate, enthusiastic teacher.]

Aaaand that is all for today! Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[promiselisting]

[ That... is the sound of Futaba clapping. There's even an appreciative whistle in there. You went to all that effort so now she doesn't have to, and did a better job than she probably would have anyway. And you even ended it on a meme. ]

[righthandstand]

[Holy shit that makes so much sense. It's so...complicated, though.]

TED...talk? That another meme? [If so, then he understands more than he thought.] But if you're from the future, then there's years and years of Internet shit I gotta learn to think they're funny.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

That's right! You catch on quick.

I don't think you need to worry. Judging by the responses to this post, you'll be picking up memes left and right in no time at all.