Supporting the Current Thing
Disparagement Humor and Otherness Through Internet Memes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21878/compolitica.2023.13.1.663Keywords:
Memes, Humor depreciativo, Politicamente corretoAbstract
This paper analyzes the meme “I Support the Current Thing” (ISTCT), exploring its origins, meanings, and uses. Seen as just a joke, the meme ends up dehumanizing social media users who do not share the same ideological worldviews as those who use it as a form of disparagement humor. Based on psychoanalytic and humor studies, this paper uses critical visual analysis to investigate images collected by an Instagram API. The analysis shows that the meme’s dehumanizing and cynical aspects contribute to the normalization of prejudices by those who hold opposing political views from those sharing it. It also reveals that the meme is constructed following the structure of a joke, masking ideological perspectives through humor.
References
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ROSE, Gillian. Visual methodologies. London: Sage, 2016.
SHIFMAN, Limor. Humor in the age of digital reproduction: continuity and change in internet-based comic texts. International Journal of Communication, Los Angeles, v. 1, p. 187-207, 2007. DOI: 1932-8036/20070187.
SHIFMAN, Limor. Memes. In: PETERS, Benjamin (ed.). Digital keywords. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. p. 197-205.
SHIFMAN, Limor. Memes in digital culture. Cambridge: MIT Press Essential Knowledge, 2014a.
SHIFMAN, Limor. The cultural logic of photo-based meme genres. Journal of Visual Culture, London, v. 13, n. 3, p. 340-358, 2014b. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412914546577.
SOMMERLAD, Joe. What is an NPC? The liberal-bashing meme sweeping social media ahead of the US midterms. Independent, [s. l.], 17 out. 2018. Disponível em: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/npc-meme-right-wing-trolls-liberals-donald-trump-twitter-insults-republicans-a8588036.html. Acesso em: 4 ago. 2022.
WIGGINS, Bradley. The discursive power of memes in digital culture. New York: Routledge, 2019.
ŽIŽEK, Slavoj. The sublime object of ideology. London: Verso, 2008.
BILLIG, Michael. Laughter and ridicule. London: Sage, 2005.
BÖRZSEI, Linda. Makes a meme instead: a concise history of internet memes. New Media Studies Magazine, [s. l.], v. 7, p. 1-29, 2013.
BRISTOW, Daniel. Unconscious. In: BUTLER, Rex (ed.). The Žižek Dictionary. London: Routledge, 2015. p. 254-258.
BURNHAM, Clint. Does the internet have an unconscious? Slavoj Žižek and Digital Culture. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
CHAGAS, Viktor. Da memética aos estudos sobre memes: uma revisão da literatura concernente ao campo nas últimas cinco décadas (1976 – 2019). In: CHAGAS, Viktor. A cultura dos memes. Salvador: EDUFBA, 2020. p. 23-78.
CHRISTENSEN, Henrik Serup. Political activities on the internet: slacktivism or political participation by other means? First Monday, [s. l.], v. 16, n. 2, 2011. Disponível em: http://firstmonday.org/article/view/3336/2767. Acesso em: 4 ago. 2022.
D’ANASTASIO, Cecilia. How the ‘NPC’ meme tries to dehumanize ‘SJWs’. Kotaku, [s. l.], 5 out. 2018. Disponível em: https://kotaku.com/how-the-npc-meme-tries-to-dehumanize-sjws-1829552261. Acesso em: 4 ago. 2022.
DAFAURE, Maxime. The “great meme war”: the alt-right and its multifarious enemies. Angles, [s. l.], v. 10, p. 1-28, 2020.
DAWKINS, Richard. The selfish gene. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2006.
FIELITZ, Maik; AHMED, Reem. It's not funny anymore: far-right extremists' use of humour. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2021.
FORD, Thomas. The social consequences of disparagement humor: introduction and overview. Humor, [s. l.], v. 28, n. 2, p. 163-169, 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2015-0016.
FORD, Thomas. Humor and prejudice. In: ATTARDO, Salvatore (ed.). Encyclopedia of humor studies. London: Sage, 2014. p. 594-596.
FORD, Thomas et al. Diminished self-concept and social exclusion: disparagement humor from the Target's perspective. Self and Identity, [s. l.], v. 19, n. 6, p. 1-21, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2019.1653960.
FORD, Thomas et al. Disparagement humor and prejudice: contemporary theory and research. Humor, [s. l.], v. 28, n. 2, p. 171-186, 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2015-0017.
FREUD, Sigmund. Humor. In: STRACHEY, James (ed.). The future of an illusion civilization and its discontents and other works. London: The Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1961 [1927]. p. 159-166. (The Standard Edition of The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, v. XXI.)
FREUD, Sigmund. September 11, 1899. In: MASSON, Jeffrey Moussaieff (ed.). The complete letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985 [1955]. p. 340-401.
FREUD, Sigmund. The interpretation of dreams. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
FREUD, Sigmund. Wit and its relation to the unconscious. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916.
KNAPP, Ivan. Meme-work: psychoanalysis and the alt-right. 2021. Tese (Doutorado em Psicologia) – University College London, London, 2021.
LEE, Yu-Hao; HSIEH, Gary. Does slacktivism hurt activism? The effect of moral balancing and consistency on online activism. In: SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON COMPUTER-HUMAN INTERACTION (SIGCHI), 2013, Paris. Proceedings […]. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 2013. p. 811-820.
LEWIS, Helen. The Joke's on us. The Atlantic, [s. l.], 30 set. 2020. Disponível em: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/09/how-memes-lulz-and-ironic-bigotry-won-internet/616427/. Acesso em: 4 ago. 2022.
MOSS, Jordan; O'CONNOR, Peter. Political correctness and the alt-right: the development of extreme political attitudes. PLoS ONE, [s. l.], v. 15, n. 10, p. 1-22, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239259.
ORING, Elliott. What Freud actually said about jokes. In: ORING, Elliott. Joking asides: the theory, analysis, and aesthetics of humor. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2016. p. 3-15.
PROOIJEN, Jan-Willem van. The psychology of political polarization. New York: Routledge, 2021.
READ, Max. What is “The Current Thing”? Slate, New York, 9 maio 2022. Disponível em: https://slate.com/technology/2022/05/current-thing-meme-twitter-elon-musk-marc-andreessen.html. Acesso em: 4 ago. 2022.
ROOSE, Kevin. What is NPC, the pro-Trump internet's new favorite insult? The New York Times, New York, 16 out. 2018. Disponível em: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/us/politics/npc-twitter-ban.html. Acesso em: 4 ago. 2022.
ROSE, Gillian. Visual methodologies. London: Sage, 2016.
SHIFMAN, Limor. Humor in the age of digital reproduction: continuity and change in internet-based comic texts. International Journal of Communication, Los Angeles, v. 1, p. 187-207, 2007. DOI: 1932-8036/20070187.
SHIFMAN, Limor. Memes. In: PETERS, Benjamin (ed.). Digital keywords. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. p. 197-205.
SHIFMAN, Limor. Memes in digital culture. Cambridge: MIT Press Essential Knowledge, 2014a.
SHIFMAN, Limor. The cultural logic of photo-based meme genres. Journal of Visual Culture, London, v. 13, n. 3, p. 340-358, 2014b. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412914546577.
SOMMERLAD, Joe. What is an NPC? The liberal-bashing meme sweeping social media ahead of the US midterms. Independent, [s. l.], 17 out. 2018. Disponível em: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/npc-meme-right-wing-trolls-liberals-donald-trump-twitter-insults-republicans-a8588036.html. Acesso em: 4 ago. 2022.
WIGGINS, Bradley. The discursive power of memes in digital culture. New York: Routledge, 2019.
ŽIŽEK, Slavoj. The sublime object of ideology. London: Verso, 2008.
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Published
2023-11-30
How to Cite
Costa, T. (2023). Supporting the Current Thing: Disparagement Humor and Otherness Through Internet Memes. Compolítica, 13(1), 57–76. https://doi.org/10.21878/compolitica.2023.13.1.663
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