It’s all meme, meme, meme...
May the Forth be with you
In honour of today’s date, I thought I would talk about memes. Those little nuggets of shared understanding that are, in many ways, the social ‘glue’ that bind us together (or split us apart - take your pick). I am, of course, referring to today being the 4th of May - or ‘Star Wars day’, when those who know greet each other with ‘May the Fourth be With You’ [pauses for laugh. Tumbleweed. OK, move on].
Do they bind us together? Or do they simply serve to set one group apart from another - by creating a language or understanding that excludes those ‘not in the know’?
OK, buckle in and let’s explore.
Have you heard the phrase ‘Has it happened yet?’ If you know what that means, you’re unlikely to be a Trump supporter. Those who are aware of this meme exchange knowing glances and sigh ‘Has it happened yet?’ with weary irony. Those outside this particular bubble have absolutely no idea what we’re talking about.
Then there’s ‘LOL’ - laugh out loud. Simple enough, right? Except I’ve heard stories of older generations thinking it means ‘lots of love’, leading to spectacularly inappropriate text messages. ‘So sorry to hear about your grandmother passing away. LOL.’ The sender thinks they’re being sympathetic. The recipient thinks they’re a psychopath. It’s a perfect example of how memes and internet shorthand create barriers between those who understand the code and those who don’t.
And the opportunities for misunderstanding don’t stop there. Imagine the confusion when someone sends ‘RIP’ (rest in peace) and Great Aunt Mabel thinks it means ‘reply if possible’ and cheerfully responds with holiday photos. Or when ‘BRB’ (be right back) is interpreted as ‘bring red balloon’ and someone shows up to a serious business meeting clutching party decorations.
Then there are the memes that flare up on social media, spreading like wildfire and leaving the unaware stranded like shipwreck survivors clinging to wreckage while everyone else sails past in their boats of shared understanding. One day everyone’s posting photos of themselves as a teenager versus now. The next day it’s AI-generated images of themselves as medieval knights. The day after that it’s... something else entirely. If you miss the initial wave, you’re left scrolling through your feed thinking ‘what the hell is going on?’ while everyone else is in on the joke.
There’s also the generational divide in meme understanding. Millennials have their own set of references - Harambe the gorilla, ‘Damn Daniel’, ‘But that’s none of my business’ Kermit the Frog. Gen Z has completely different ones - ‘no thoughts, head empty’, ‘it’s giving...’, ‘understood the assignment’. And Boomers? We’re just standing to the side wondering what happened to simple, straightforward communication.
Sports memes are another tribal marker. Reference ‘It’s Coming Home’ and you’ve identified yourself as an England football supporter with a touching faith in your team’s ability despite decades of evidence to the contrary. Mention ‘Hand of God’ and you’re either celebrating Maradona’s genius or still bitter about blatant cheating, depending which side of the Argentina-England divide you fall.
Even emojis have become a minefield of potential misunderstanding. The aubergine emoji doesn’t mean a vegetable. The peach emoji isn’t about fruit. And if someone sends you a string of seemingly random emojis, they’re either trying to communicate something in code or they’ve had a stroke. It’s genuinely hard to tell.
Literary and film references function as memes too. Quote ‘Winter is coming’ and you’ve identified yourself as a Game of Thrones fan. Say ‘So it goes’ and you’re signalling knowledge of Vonnegut. Reference ‘the cake is a lie’ and you’ve outed yourself as a Portal player. These aren’t just quotes - they’re tribal identifiers, ways of finding your people in the vast wilderness of humanity.
The problem is that memes have a shelf life. What’s hilarious today is cringe-worthy tomorrow. Try making a ‘Chuck Norris facts’ joke now and you’ll be met with blank stares from anyone under 30. Reference ‘All your base are belong to us’ and you’ve just announced that you’re old enough to remember the early internet. Use ‘I can has cheezburger’ speak and you might as well be communicating in hieroglyphics.
So do memes bind us together? Yes, if you’re part of the in-group. They create instant connection, shared laughter, a sense of belonging. But they also create division. They separate the informed from the uninformed, the young from the old, the online from the offline. They’re a secret handshake that only works if both parties know the grip.
And for those of us trying to navigate this ever-changing landscape of references, in-jokes, and coded communication? We’re just doing our best not to accidentally tell someone ‘lots of love’ when their cat dies.
May the Fourth be with you.
Even if you have no idea what that means.
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Jonathan is a publisher at Winter & Drew Publishing.
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