Memes, memes everywhere!

By Corwin Brown and Zach Champion

If you were blisfully unaware of memes, Facebook is about to destroy that for you.

If you’ve ever been on Reddit, Memebase, Imgur, Tumblr, 4Chan (oh God…), 9Gag, or a multitude of other (lesser) websites, you’ve seen memes. Specifically the Advice Animals. Even if you take few forays outside the Facebook/Twitter-sphere, you have probably wondered why one friend posted a picture of a velociraptor pondering to the wall of another friend. Well, my sweet, innocent angel-face, you’re about to find out!

Success Kid is successful.

Welcome to the wonderful world of memes, brought to you by the University of Iowa Memes. A wonderful concept that will probably be bastardized into the ground in a few weeks, memes are the internet’s main reason why people shout at their computers: “Oh my God, that’s me!”

Now, these memes are specialized for your University of Iowa specific pleasure. From Insanity Wolf to Sudden Clarity Clarence, every iconic web character has had its chance to chime in on the issues that matter to Hawkeyes. The page has seen sharp-witted commentary on Burge’s “cuisine,” downtown Iowa City’s penchant for vomit and citations, social incompetence of freshmen, and every lecture’s dreaded scumbag with a loud phone.

Some meme aficionados have taken to innovation. Scumbag Sally Mason now has her own template, so Iowa’s fearless leader can finally lay claim to Internet significance (negative presence still counts).

Even those (very, very few) who couldn’t give half a shit about memes, though, will have no choice in the matter. They’re already involved. Within two hours of the page’s creation, it skyrocketed to nearly 2000 likes and over 200 photos. For a U of I student, it became impossible to differentiate between the page’s Wall and their own newsfeed. The sharing, liking, posting, and commenting had run rampant.

It’s not often that such a phenomenon takes off running with such fury and so little impetus. All it took was a little Facebook post from sophomore journalism student, Matt Starns, and a page recommendation for the madness to ignite. Students are now meme-ing like they’ve never memed before, and the internet can rest satisfied for the evening.

And wake up for ALL THE Skryim!

Unfortunately, the bloated, pun-laden entity that is the meme realm is always doomed to develop indigestion once a new frontier is braved. This page, like all other meme headquarters, will have to suffer through countless posts that are simply doing it wrong (as the internet would say). Its golden era may very well decay by the end of the week, at which point it will be bogged down with dozens of posters trying too hard to be funny and relatable. The art of a quick pun is an elusive one.