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Thomas Reed Crafton
EMAC 4372
Professor Kim Knight
December 12, 2011
Internet Communities and Memes in the Viral Structure
Internet forums and online discussion have been taking place since the beginning of the
Internet age. Whether it is Reddit, 4chan, or Internet discussion of any kind, there have always
been Internet memes at work. The discussion of these memes leads to more Internet meme
creation and feeds into the viral structure, pulling the attention of people towards these
communities that propagate new memes. Discussion of memes with other Internet users
inevitably creates more memes. For example, discussing Advice Dog, its look, layout, and
organization leads to other memes, such as Philosoraptor. In order to demonstrate this, it is vital
to define terms, explain the origins of memes, how they have spread and developed, and how
Internet communities use memes to promote themselves.
In many cases, memes are merely adaptations of what is already on the Internet and are
adapted to fit a certain meme idea, but in other cases they are original in content and often
inspire other memes that mimic or take ideas from the original meme. A great example of this is
the Advice Dog meme, which may have originated on a Mario (Super Mario) fan site forum
thread by a user named “TEM” (Cheezburger Network, internet). This meme was originally a
forum post with a picture of a dog with a pinwheel rainbow background behind him. The post
was about a guide to kissing. The meme spread as a way to connect two completely unrelated
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pieces of advice together through text and image through sites like 4chan, YTMND, and
eventually MemeGenerator.
“The “Advice Dog” meme is one of the most notable memes in that it provided a springboard for
a whole host of copycats with analogous qualities” (Nigel J. Ramoz-Leslie, internet). Advice
Dog has created several popular spin-offs such as Philosoraptor, Courage Wolf, and Socially
Awkward Penguin.
The original Philosoraptor was created as a T-shirt design on LonelyDinosaur by Sam
Smith, who registered the copyright for his design on October 8th 2008 (Cheezburger Network,
internet). Philosoraptor often includes a set of philosophical statements that contradict one
another or reach odd conclusions.
This meme gained its popularity on 4chan in a section called /b/ (a random discussion section) on
February 18th, 2009 (Cheezburger Network, internet).
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The original picture of the wolf was titled, “Snarling Gray Wolf” and was taken by nature
photographer Jeff Vanuga in Montana and uploaded to Corbis Images (Cheezburger Network,
internet). The way that the Courage Wolf meme works is by stating a challenge or serious
problem at the top of the image followed by a second line that inspires the viewer to overcome it.
Similarly, Courage Wolf also gained popularity from 4chan’s /b/ section throughout late 2008
and 2009 (Cheezburger Network, internet).
The Socially Awkward Penguin meme was originally a picture of a penguin taken by
nature photographer George F. Mobley (Cheezburger Network, internet). The text displayed on
this meme reflects life’s most awkward and uncomfortable moments.
This meme also began appearing on 4chan around May 2010 (Cheezburger Network, internet).
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These 3 memes all share the same mode of transportation; they each got their following
from 4chan and internet forum websites. Advice Dog has over 300 images, Courage Wolf has
over 500 images, Philosoraptor has over 400 images, and Socially Awkward Penguin has over
400 images (Cheezburger Network, internet) and all of these memes continue to grow and
propagate. They do this however through Internet forums like Reddit and 4chan, but these
forums also inversely depend upon the popularity of these memes for Internet traffic.
So what motivates these meme creators to create these memes? Each forum has their
own motivations and there are many forums that could be discussed, but the focus will be on the
most successful Internet forums, Reddit and 4chan.
4chan supports the anonymity of its users above anything else. The site does have rules
and will take illegal content down such as child pornography. However, the site mostly has no
moral guidelines and absolutely anything can be and will be posted. It is an imageboard website,
so content can get graphic fairly quickly and this upsets many first time visitors. Despite this,
there is a sort of libertarian free marketplace ideal laid out in 4chan. Everything is open for
discussion and nothing is off limits. There is a great deal of inappropriate content on 4chan and
just as much the opposite. In spite of this, the respect that users have for 4chan is laid out in its
allowance for freedom, no matter what the cost. There will indeed be pornography, hentai,
violence, death, and other extreme and morally questionable things posted there. However, there
will also be humorous, thought-provoking, inspirational, and other intellectually satisfying
images and discussion as well. 4chan’s basic ideology is to allow these all under the guise of
freedom of speech and protection of identity through internet anonymity, and many of its users
respect 4chan and use it for that very reason. Despite the cultural implications surrounding
4chan, the site does have rules and they are as follows:
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1. “Do not upload, post, discuss, request, or link to, anything that violates local or United
States law. This will be severely punished and strictly enforced.
2. If you are under the age of 18, or it is illegal for you to view the materials contained on
this website, discontinue browsing immediately.
3. Do not post the following outside of /b/: Trolls, flames, racism, off-topic replies, uncalled
for catchphrases, macro image replies, indecipherable text (example: "lol u tk him 2da
bar|?"), anthropomorphic ("furry"), grotesque ("guro"), or loli/shota pornography.
4. The posting of personal information or calls to invasion is prohibited.
5. All boards that default to the Yotsuba B or Burichan (blue) theme are to be considered
"work safe". Violators may be temporarily banned and their posts removed.
6. The quality of posts is extremely important to this community. Contributors are
encouraged to provide high-quality images and informative comments.
7. Submitting false reports or otherwise abusing the report system will result in a ban of
indeterminate length.
8. Complaining about 4chan (its policies, moderation, etc.) on the imageboards can result in
post deletion and banishment. The administrator will address your questions, comments,
complaints, and concerns via e-mail.
9. Ban evasion will result in permanent bans. No exceptions—DO NOT EVADE YOUR
BAN. Instead, wait and appeal it!
10. No spamming or flooding of any kind.
11. Advertising (all forms) is also not welcome—this includes any type of referral linking,
"offers", etc.
12. Impersonating the 4chan administrator, moderators, or janitors is strictly forbidden.
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13. The use of scrapers, bots, or other automated posting or downloading scripts is
prohibited.
14. Remember: The use of 4chan is a privilege, not a right. The 4chan staff reserves the right
to revoke access and remove content without notice.” (Christopher Poole, internet)
However, these rules are routinely broken and due to the site’s traffic, it is hard to or nearly
impossible to enforce all of them. From reading 4chan’s rules you get a sense of annoyance
towards the user base, like the rules are being imposed upon the site from an outside source. The
rules feel very basic and bare bone and do not really restrict the users freedom very much and
almost make the assumption that the rules will be broken in the description of the rules
themselves. Reddit however, has a very different take on internet forum discussion.
Reddit is essentially a web 2.0 news and discussion forum with an infinitely growing
amount of sections. Reddit does not protect their user’s anonymity like 4chan does, and has a
very strong moral overtone. Everything on Reddit must be tagged if pornographic and deleted or
moved out of sight if downvoted. Memes that have emerged from this site include charity
memes (Example: Random Acts of Pizza), Troll Quotes, and the Reddit alien. Reddit is better
known for its popularization of known memes and discussion of memes, social events, and other
topics of interest. Its karma system combined with link references to other websites allows
Reddit to encompass both a promotional role for other websites and a broader discussion-based
service for a multitude of mostly outside events. There is a list of rules on Reddit’s help section
that best encapsulates the user base of Reddit as a whole:
“Please do: Keep your submission titles factual and opinion-free. […] Moderate based on
quality, not opinion. […] Look for the original source of content, and submit that. […]
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Post to the most appropriate community possible. […] Vote. […] Please don’t: Engage
in illegal activity. Post someone’s personal information, or post links to personal
information. […] Plead for votes in the title of your submission. […] Conduct polls
using the title of your submission. […] Use the word “BREAKING” […] Send out IMs,
tweets, or any other message asking people to vote for your submission — or comply
when other people ask you. […] Ask for upvotes in exchange for gifts or prizes. […]
Mass-downvote someone else’s posts. […] Downvote opinions just because you disagree
with them. […] Downvote opinions just because they are critical of you. […] Make
comments that lack content. […] Announce your votes to the world.” (Condé Nast
Publications, internet)
These are the bolded (most important) rules listed under Reddit’s help section entitled
“Redditquette.” From reading Reddit’s rules, people generally get a sense of elitism and prestige
to the user base, as if there is some high moral standard the users are being held to. On the other
hand, some people just describe Reddit as a cleaner, filtered, tamer version of 4chan.
In order to describe the interaction between these memes and Internet discussion forums
like Reddit and 4chan, a set of terms must be defined. These memes interact within what is
called the viral structure. Viral is defined as, “an image, video, advertisement, etc., that is
circulated rapidly on the Internet” and structure is defined as “the arrangement of and relations
between the parts of elements of something complex” (Oxford University Press, internet). With
these two definitions in mind, it is easy to define the viral structure as an arrangement of images,
videos, advertisements, etc. that circulate rapidly on the Internet. This structure is most often
analyzed by views and popularity but is rarely ever taken directly to its source. To put it simply,
how are these memes created and spread?
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These memes are created by users of popular Internet forums and used as templates
throughout discussion boards and through viral videos. These easily spread throughout the viral
structure, and the propagation of these memes creates both a dependency by said Internet forums
on the memes for Internet traffic and a needed cultural relevance in the memes themselves.
Thus, an infinite feedback loop of creation and dependence emerges. Internet forum users create
meme templates like Advice Dog, and then modify them, creating traffic for these sites. This
creates a dependence upon the memes themselves for traffic. The same can also be said about
viral videos, although their templates are often less accessible to the average Internet user.
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Works Cited
Nigel J. Ramoz-Leslie. "DOIN‟ IT FOR THE LULZ: A CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS OF
INTERNET HUMOR." Whitman College. 10 May 2011. Web. 23 Nov
2011. <https://dspace.lasrworks.org/handle/10349/1039>.
Christopher Poole. 4chan. 4chan. Web. 23 Nov 2011. <http://www.4chan.org>.
Condé Nast Publications. Reddit. Reddit Inc. Web. 23 Nov 2011. <http://www.reddit.com>.
Cheezburger Network. Knowyourmeme. Cheezburger Network. Web. 23 Nov
2011. <http://www.knowyourmeme.com>.
Oxford University Press. Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Web. 23 Nov
2011. <http://english.oxforddictionaries.com/>.