Even though the solar eclipse was well over a month ago, I know that everyone still remembers most of the memes that became a part of the occasion. The one that I have chosen to analyze this week capitalized not just on the opportunity of the solar eclipse but also on the popularity of this particular meme template.
Most of the time, civic artifacts (especially advertisements) use kairos to give a sense of timeliness and urgency to their message. This meme has timeliness for sure in the fact that it was created and became popular right around the time of the solar eclipse. It is common for memes to be produced in waves when a major event occurs in society, for example all of the memes about the onslaught of hurricanes from the past two weeks. Similarly, this meme was created and posted alongside so many others that were technically sending the same message. However, this specific one became more popular and more relevant because it used the topic of the eclipse and the current popularity of that meme template.
To clarify, many memes are just different words posted onto a recurring picture. The picture itself conveys the message of the meme, and can be reused with different topics or ideas. This specific one that I have chosen to analyze is a couple walking down the street where the guy is checking out another girl and his girlfriends is not happy about it. This template is successful because the situation is very obvious and doesn’t need words to explain it, and the situation of one person lusting over something they shouldn’t can be applicable to other topics.
Here are some other great examples using this meme template:
In the specific example of the solar eclipse version this meme is incredibly successful because it was so relatable. If you think back to a month ago in the days leading up to the big eclipse I’m sure you were all informed about the serious dangers of looking directly at the sun during the event. News broadcasts were warning us, social media was warning us, and obviously your parents made sure to call just to tell you not to look at the sun (duh). But despite everything telling you these dangers there was still the allure of the sight of a solar eclipse, right? And this meme capitalizes on those rebellious, dumb thoughts of “what if I just look at it”. You become the dude in the meme by cheating on the scientific facts that you should be faithful to and lusting after the alluring sight of the solar eclipse.
This meme is extremely successful at capitalizing on the timeliness of now (when it was created a month ago) because it employs multiple factors to increase its relevance and popularity.
Cam, I think your analysis of this meme and the eclipse was spot-on; not only did you focus on the content of the meme but you brought your readers’ attention to the meme itself and its function in our world. This is sort of a “the sum is greater than its parts” situation. There were other forms of this meme at this time, and there were other memes about the eclipse, but none of them have gained as much popularity or remained as relevant as this one. If there was a Venn diagram of memes and solar eclipse-related media, this would be in the center. It capitalizes both on the relevance of the vehicle as well as the popularity of the content. In that same vein of logic, I wonder how things may have been different if a different meme had been popular in August. It was simply a coincidence that the meme and the eclipse were important at the same time. If we were to look at other popular 2017 memes, how might the internet have been different if the man-sassily-sprinkling-salt meme had still been at its peak? Would kairos have happened even then? What would have been the communicated understanding through that meme?