Humour as an inward exploration of horrific truths in a way we can easily digest, understand and somewhat enjoy, it makes sense; and fleshes out the millennial stereotype of being serial distractionists when it comes to serious issues. ‘The baby-boomers focused on external fulfilment through having families and buying houses, but clearly that didn’t work,’ he states, referring to the notoriously fertile generation born in the years following the second world war. ‘Then generation X tried to rebel against this, but really they were just doing the same thing.’ Generation X supposedly being the people born between the mid 1960s to late 1980s, although there are no set dates; the generational timeline becomes far more fluid post-boomer. ‘I think millennials were the first to turn inside and focus on building themselves and their own mythology as opposed to basing their lives around external aspects, like buying a house or having children. This is why we are seen as absurd or narcissistic.’ Mirroring the idea outlined by the Washington Post that ‘traditional sources of meaning, such as religion and family formation, are less relevant to the lives of young people than they were to our parents.’ ‘My sense of humour is indeed a way of processing feelings but it is also very social,’ adds the hilarious and somewhat novice memer, named @Cumepant, who posts an assaulting jumble of random images found in the crevices of Reddit with absurd text edited - ‘Have a question? Ask the meat baby’ edited over a photograph of mince meat shaped like an infant, is a notable example. Whatever wisdom meat baby has to offer, it’s helped Cumepant gain a following of 7K followers since the account started in April 2017. ‘I think millennial humour is a great thing because it can connect people in ways society hasn’t ever seen before.’ Over the past few years communities of meme accounts have grown from everywhere between North America and Australia. These connections have grown remarkably from the internet into real life friendship, with multiple meme exhibitions being held over the past few years; ‘What do you meme?’ which was held in London in August 2016, which then went stateside By Any Memes Necessary, held in Los Angeles, California in February 2017. The practise has been continued with Bottom Text held in Atlanta, Georgia on May 24th 2018, where multiple accounts including HelpimtrappedinsideofaTV gathered for art, performance and partying. Memes are not anarchic by definition. I believe it’s just a whole big inside joke,’ adds Canadian memer, @Scrombled.memes, the self proclaimed ‘Only Garfield Page’ which has 29.3K followers; a savant of subverting Simpsons, violent Pingu and something called a ‘Gay Bomb’ which if you don’t comment ‘I’m gay’ beneath in 30 minutes will explode and make everyone gay, apparently. ‘Since we have a short span of attention, humour cannot stay the same. It keeps evolving, or even devolving,’ Scrombled theorises, in an age where there are new technological advancements - which are directly marketed to our generation - being released on a daily basis, who can blame us for having a short attention span. ‘We have seen every other kind of humour and we are bored of it all. The reason we find this kind of humour funny is that it’s always new and unexpected, we can’t predict it.’ “The old people will just have to catch up. We are like 7 layers deep in irony.” ‘The old people will just have to catch up. We are like 7 layers deep in irony.’ 7 layer, supposedly being a point of no return. Perhaps we’re in this flux of funny to such a degree that we have no other choice but to just take everything at face value and just enjoy the glimmers of humour it grants us. Whether coming from a place of community, sadness or unadulterated absurdity; memes continue to be a phenomenon which no one has actually fully explained. But, maybe that’s what makes memes so enjoyable but infused with the palpable feeling of unease; their beauty lies in the self sufficiency. Memes exist by being taken at face value without question, something of an advancement within ‘weird’ millennial humour. When memes are taken apart they become even more obscure and harder to contextualise within a blizzard of social attitudes, politics and religious denial. If it gives you enjoyment that should be all that matters. And besides, with some meme accounts with followers nearing a million, this tirade of absurd hilarity shows no signs of stopping.
A selection of Memes from @boyswhocancook, @cumeplant, @bret_jett_,@4ironblocks1pumpkinhead
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