Wait until you realize that repetitive, iterative nature isn't just memes, it's actually just humans. Is the scientific method any different, or is it also repetitive and iterative?
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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Unpopular Opinion
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Wait until you realize that my post is about the quality of the medium used to convey that language.
It's like the same 10 songs getting covered repeatedly by the least creative artists in the world
Quality and originality are not the same thing. They're not even related. I can make original things that are horrible and reposts that are excellent.
They're just completely independent factors from each other.
The analogy here is that you'd be sick to death of hearing the same melody on repeat (pretty sure that's a torture tactic?), not that originality makes something high quality
That's already happening. Every song is just iterating on things before it that worked. They're barely original. Actual original styles are usually termed "experimental" and most normal people do not like or listen to them.
It's just easier to notice this basic nature of human art with memes first, because you have a constantly scrolling huge sample size to look at objectively, so it jumps out really fast.
But painting, music, sculpture, film, science, politics, parenting and romantic relationships are all functioning similarly. It's not memes. It's humans.
You are either giving memes way too much credit or musicians not enough...using the same chord progression is not at all the same thing as template memes. Maybe I shouldn't have used song covers as an example because there's way more room for expression and artistic evolution.
Let me try again with architecture...memes are like cookie cutter neighborhood developments. The house in the corner impresses you but walking down the block you see that every house is identical except for the flag out front. Are you still in awe by the 10th house?
You're simply not noticing where those seemingly new ideas were pulled from. Sure, you have that cookie cutter development, and then that one super unique house. But is anything about that house actually unique, or does it just stand out from its immediate surroundings? Could you find other houses in other, faraway parts of Earth maybe, where the features of this "unique" house were copied from?
Music (trained) and architecture (untrained) are two of my biggest hobbies, I am definitely noticing where the ideas came from. Claiming that popular music is equally homogenous leads me to believe you're not very attentive to that stuff so the accusation feels hollow
You're still giving memes too much credit. They aren't inspired by established jokes...they ARE the established joke. They're adding a pencil mark to the Mona Lisa, it's not like Warhol iterating on a soup can. Like my example... it's just changing the flag out front and calling the house new
Art is the amalgamation of several existing ideas...Memes are come from ONE joke and 99% of it is unchanged.
I see what you're saying, but it seems to me like an arbitrary line in the sand, where a certain amount of copying other influences is fine, but more than that becomes something else. I don't see any clear reasoning for why a line in the sand should exist there and not elsewhere.
There's no line in the sand, really. I don't have any "hard rules" on the subject, I just don't see the appeal.
How many times can you hear the same joke before you stop laughing?
Personally? Quite a few times, but I have an appreciation for meme culture specifically, and have spent a long time observing it and trying to understand. The answer to that question will mostly depend on how old the person you are asking is, I imagine.
It comes down to that old line that "there's nothing new under the sun". This is false, of course, but it communicates an important idea nonetheless.
Oh man, if you find a community with funny, original memes, please, do share because I 100% agree with you...
I think most original memes are too niche to have a full subreddit of them but honestly I think that's a good thing
It could possibly work as a community where only the moderators could post and all the submission would be driven through them, crediting the original author?
If you made the community I would join lol
It would require some good meme makers to be interested too - I'm not one unfortunately :(
Humans bond over shared experiences and silly humor is one of them. It's no different from sharing pictures of our pets or talking about our favorite hobbies/tv shows. If your tired of junk food consume something different for a little while. I'm finding that I have participated in more unique communities here on Lemmy than I ever did on Reddit.
It's not like those things in the slightest and I feel like you missed my point
I don't mind memes in general but assuming you the template memes like the Wojak clip art that people use to assemble something unfunny in a rush... I can get behind your point absolutely
I am 100% referring to templates, not memes as a whole. Think of any template - not just wojack - that you see posted to every sub. Like the ones I noted in my post. They've been done to death
I don't like the abuse of meme, but well in today society is like don't like the air, whatever
You can think of it as advanced emoticons. Text doesn't give context, tone, inflection, and of course the need for the occasional "/S" all get covered by a commonly understood reference to covey the poster's point they're looking to make.
I don't think of them like that because they're rarely used IN the conversation, they're standalone "content"
And your example doesn't apply to the majority of them. I don't see how a shitty edit of a meme does a better job conveying "this thing is bad" than just saying "this thing is bad."