Hey world! 

It’s been almost a month since I’ve posted anything.  The Presidential Election has come and gone, and everyone’s main thing on their mind is Christmas!

Now, I know all of you don’t celebrate Christmas, but Christmas also means a holiday break for everyone, and who doesn’t want/need that!?

As the semester nears its end, and the year 2012 comes to a close, I’m curious to hear from everyone– what was your favorite internet meme this year, and why?

It could be something that emerged this year, or something that’s been around, but you found yourself enjoying those the most. 

Looking forward to hearing your responses!!

First off I’d like to apologize for assuming everyone had seen the Numa Numa video.  I got quite a few of you saying you’d never seen it, so I guess it wasn’t as popular as I thought, (everyone at my school had seen it back in the day.)

I got a lot of great feedback from all of you about what you considered to be the definition of a meme.  Something that I noticed is that nobody really seems to know.  There’s a lot up in the air about what is and what isn’t considered a meme, and where the origin of the word came from. Where did it come from…?

Earharmony said, “The term “meme” always reminds me of Japanese anime.”

Gablea said, “At least according to wikipedia, —https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme— ‘The word meme is a shortening (modeled on gene) of mimeme (from Ancient Greek mīmēma, “something imitated”, from mimeisthai, “to imitate”, from mimos “mime”)[4] and it was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, fashion and the technology of building arches.'”

So, just in those two comments, I’m seeing the origin potentially being from Japan, and Greece.  I decided to do a little more research myself on the origin, and it looks like Gablea (and wikipedia) were right.

“Meme: 1976.  Introduced by Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins in ‘The Selfish Gene.’  Coined by him from Gk.  sources, e.g.mimeisthai ‘to imitate,’ and intended to echo gene.”

The word was introduced in 1976.  This was about 20 years before the internet became available to everyone.  So clearly, this word is not just pertaining to funny pictures and videos on the internet.

A meme is an idea or element of social behavior passed on in a culture, especially through imitation.  So, what are some examples of memes that aren’t from the internet?

Sarah Kagrise asked me:

“This may be my age showing through, but what is a meme?”

No worries, Sarah.  Many people don’t know what memes are.  I would say rather than regarding to age, people’s knowledge of memes really depends on your hobbies and interests (and perhaps even your social life).

To be quite honest, I don’t really know how to define a meme, so I went to my best friend, the internet, to help me come up with one.  This is what I got:

From Google:

Wikipedia says: “A concept that spreads via the internet.”

and Urban Dictionary says: “An internet information generator, especially of random and contentless information.”

So, I would say that my definition of a meme (or an internet meme, to be exact), is really just something that spreads like wildfire via the internet.  There are memes that everyone knows about– many people just don’t realize that they’re a meme.

For example:

No one try to tell me that you haven’t seen this video… I know you’d be lying.  This was probably the first meme that I ever saw, (I didn’t know it was a meme until probably 6 years later though).

But really, anything that you have seen on the internet that is widely popular among people would be considered a meme.  It is a concept, like wikipedia says.  Is facebook a meme? It’s popular on the internet?  No, that’s a website.  Bad Luck Brian is a concept.  Someone decided, “let’s take this terrible picture of this nerdy-looking kid and make everyone associate terrible luck with it,” and it stuck.  Some memes are videos, some are even photos that don’t have captions.  Essentially, the possibilities for memes are endless.

Here’s the newest meme to emerge from the world wide web:

Gangham Style: by PSY– a 34-year-old rapper/singer-songwriter from Korea.  He’s actually been around since 2001, but only as of 2 weeks ago, he now has the most “liked” video on youtube.  The song has become so popular that radio stations are beginning to play it.  I hear it almost every time I get in my car, and I even heard it play throughout Great American Ball Park last week when I watched the Reds take on the Milwaukee Brewers.  “Gangham Style” has even become its own dance, (one arm positioned horizontally, while the other is up, spinning like you have a lasso in your hand).  While PSY has albums and other songs, I would consider this a meme, because it’s a single video, and without the internet and youtube, this video would have never made its way to the US. But let me know what you think– do you think Gangham Style should be considered a meme?

I want to hear your opinions!! Other internet nerds out there: did I get the definition of a meme right?

What would you change about my explanation, and how would you define a meme?

The question is a lot harder than it seems!

I think we can all agree that we’ve had a bad school picture.  One year I forgot it was picture day, and I was in a sweatshirt, and my hair was in a frizzy ponytail (that one was a keeper). It’s a fun picture to show to friends and family, so everyone can laugh and make fun of you, but you wouldn’t want anyone else to see it.

How would you feel if your picture began to make its way through the entire world wide web?  That’s what happened to a boy named Kyle, and his photo from his junior year of high school.

The photo didn’t even make it in the yearbook; his principal deemed it inappropriate, thinking he made the face on purpose, and made him take a new one. But that didn’t stop the geniuses of the “interwebz” from finding the photo, and turning it into the meme that is now known today as “Bad Luck Brian.”

Come up with anything unfortunate, anything at all.. you could make it into a Bad Luck Brian meme.  They can give us a good laugh as we sit back and smile, knowing that that isn’t us.  While the meme just emerged earlier this year, the photo was actually taken in 2007. Earlier this year Kyle did an AMA (ask me anything) session on reddit and answered everyone’s questions about being a walking meme.

In his session he revealed that he actually loved being a meme, and even got recognized by Seth Rogen while he was in New Orleans. He says that he thinks the concept of BLB is hilarious, and is happy to be a part of it.

What’s your favorite BLB meme you’ve seen? Do you have any of your own? Sometimes I feel like I could be my own bad luck meme, like “Crappy Luck Carli,” or something like that. Let me know!

One of the most recent stories to make it’s way across the world wide web is this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/world/europe/botched-restoration-of-ecce-homo-fresco-shocks-spain.html

In short, a church in Spain had a precious fresco painting of Jesus Christ.  The fresco was done by Spanish Artist Elias Garcia Martinez, and dated all the way back to the 19th Century.  It looked like this:

As the years went on, the precious fresco began deteriorating, and if something couldn’t be done soon, there would be nothing left of it.  Near it’s end this is what it looked like:

The small church located in Borja, Spain did not have the funds to get the painting professionally restored.  They were running out of ideas, when an elderly woman stepped up and volunteered to restore it herself.  Her name is Cecelia Gimenez.  She is 85 years old, and was willing to try her best to restore this locally-treasured fresco.

Gimenez worked in the church, painting away at the fresco as church goers watched her do so. When she finished the restoration, her project went from a small, local happening to a world wide phenomena. This only happened after it was released what her final restoration looked like:

The eyes are black, the nose is rectangle, and the mouth is almost completely gone. What was once called “Ecce Homo,” or “Behold the Man,” was now being called “Ecce Mono, or, “Behold the Monkey.”  It soon became a worldwide uproar, then shortly after into a worldwideweb joke. Just hours after the story was released photos were being posted that made fun of the Gimenez’s work, and the “Fresco Jesus” meme was born. 

Take note that that Elliot’s face has been replaced with the face of Gimenez. 

More can be seen at http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/the-best-of-the-internets-reaction-to-the-botched

The real question here is is this appropriate? While Gimenez did this with good intentions, and stated that she knew the restoration didn’t go well, what many people don’t understand is if she knew it looked bad, why did she keep going? Gimenez has been the laughing stock of the internet for nearly three weeks now. 

However, the newly-botched fresco has brought tourism into this small spanish town; so much so that church members had to put a barrier around the painting. Tee shirts have been made, and many people have even signed a petition to keep the painting as Gimenez made it.