Memes: The Phenomenon Explained

Memes! What are they? Why are they so funny? Why will I spend entire nights up looking at them?

(No judgement thank you. If any of you know your memes then you’re just as guilty as this reporter) 

Simply put, Internet memes are funny images or videos that people share with each other on the internet. And there are hundreds of different types.

One of the most common types of meme is an “Advice Animal”. Often, they’re a picture of a person or animal with a certain personality, captioned with something you’d expect to hear them say or see them do. “Advice Dog” is a cute puppy who, sadly, gives very bad advice.

Another common group of memes are called the “Rage Faces”. These memes are simply the faces that characters in “Rage Comic” strips get after facing an unusual (or even everyday) situation.

Memes can even be simple scenes from films or TV shows that people have captioned with funny lines.

Has a friend of yours done something only a scumbag would do? Websites like quickmeme.com and memegenerator.net let you create your own memes, so caption a picture of “Scumbag Steve” with whatever your friend did and have a good laugh about it!

Universities across the world have begun creating meme pages on Facebook where students can post their meme-creations and make fun of their own university or rivals.

Recently, UCL students Andrew Carpenter and Matthew Bingley decided it was time for us to “jump on the bandwagon” and made a UCL Memes page. There you can find hundreds of memes poking fun at UCL and other London universities (mostly King’s College London).

The UCL Memes page was a huge success, with thousands of visitors and hundreds of memes being posted up. In the end, memes are funny because they’re relatable. You might not know any “Good Guy Gregs”, but when a friend of yours does something kind and funny; he’ll remind you of the meme.

In the words of UCL Memes creator, Matthew Bingley, “we all need something do to in the library.”