The Meme Textbook Part 2: The Language of the Internet | Page 24

a month, except in rare cases like “Harambe” or
“Pepe” which lasted much longer. (Fig. 54) Fig.
55 shows a distinction between popular ‘dank’
and ‘normie’ memes in 2016. This is part of the
larger internet culture, where ‘dank,’ a word
often associated with marijuana, means good in
an ironic or meta way, and ‘normie’ is in refer-
ence to ‘mainstream’ memes or those popular on
social media sites like Facebook. Dank memes
have been integral to meme culture since 2014.
Dank is often associated with ‘gnome child’
which is a chracter in Runescape, a popular
internet game from the early 2000s. (Fig. 28)
pose. The meme in April, now called “Estonian
Dwarf ” was not a meme when this calendar was
created. However, since the “Meme Calendar”
became popular, internet users decided to make
it a meme anyway. The image is from a Simpsons
episode where a dwarf impersonates Lisa
Simpson. However, its popularity was shortlived,
as the unadulterated culture of the internet con-
tinued with the natural generation of memes.
This format was also applied to the progres-
sion of meme formats and comedic sensibil-
ities of the internet over time. Fig. 52 is an
example of a meme that illustrates the meme
formats that were popular in specific years. By
using a static image, the meme is able to ana-
lyze the changes in memes over time, both in
their visual style and their comedic focus. Fig.
57 is an example of the “Meme Timeline” for-
mat being appropriated to explain the transi-
tions of internet humor using single memes.
Each is iconic in its year and each distills the
humor of the internet. There is a clear pro-
gression towards more abstract and ridicu-
lous imagery in the attempt to illicit humor.
Not surprisingly, memes have come from this
format as well. In early 2017, a ‘leaked ‘“Meme
Calendar” was released, where the future months
were filled in with seemingly random imag-
ery. (Fig. 56) January is reference to “Salt Bae”
which was video of a man dramatically adding
salt to a dish. February is “Roll Safe” which is
an image accompanied with advice about how
to avoid a negative situation by never taking the
chance such as ‘you can’t get fired if you don’t
have a job.’ March is “How Italian People Do
Things” which was a meme of people doing nor-
mal activities but with their hand in the ‘Italian’
24 | Part Two: The Language of the Internet
fig. 55