the art of meme-making

The Meme Maker

this article was written back when i was a bored medical student - i still have no idea what this page is useful for

Becoming a Meme-Maker is playing the role of a strategic decision-maker. You have the opportunity to build a shared cultural experience amongst members across different areas of life and for this to become known everywhere - becoming ‘viral.’ In a process similar to memes, genes undergo rounds of high-fidelity replication. That through these rounds of evolution, they have maintained their core layer of function. Memes in this case have maintained this function of satirical humour.

1 Identify a Movement

What’s changed in the market or environment or world you are locally living in. Is it a topical issue that everyone is aware of? Is it an area that people are happy or unhappy about? Is it an issue that people feel uncomfortable talking about?

In 2017 whilst studying for my Master’s Degree at the University of Cambridge. I built a meme page for my college called the ‘Last Days of Girton College’s Wolfson Court.’ There was no real humour with the title - it just a sense of impending fatality that our accomodation was going to be leased back to St John’s. In other words, the college just didn’t feel like the rent was worth it anymore. The entire college student population knew about it, all the students knew the day was coming. All we needed was a classy glass of Girton port before the ship goes down.

“Girton College’s Wolfson Court will be sadly leased out to another Cambridge College. Our Last Days here shall now be immortalised through Dench and Fire Memes. Benedictus benedicat.”

2 Originality in Presentation

As with any gene or meme that exists, these are entities are just copied from generation to generation. Memes are framed or contextualised in different ways. In others, just slap on a couple of captions like this:

3 Backpocket a Few Ideas

Its quite easy to start to roll a few ideas once you see enough inspiration. Social media is aghast with memes nowadays. Start to think of a series and a delivery schedule. One a day is reasonable and then you can keep your audience hooked knowing after work, there will be something in my feed to lighten my mood.

I actually made my meme page whilst in programming class on my Master’s Degree at Cambridge University. Often, the ‘best’ ideas come to you when you least expect them.

4 Collaborate

The bigger and more active the meme-page, the more influence that page has on whether people actively go to see that page or just wait until its in their feed. We know the big fish meme pages. Message them and quite often it will be another bored college student stuck in their bedroom excited to find someone else in the same situation.

I messaged Memebridge (Cambridge’s Biggest Meme page as of 2020) with my small-scale Cambridge College accomodation-specific page. They were excited to advertise what we do. And overnight, we had mass clicks.

5 Don’t be Afraid of the Competition

People that make meme pages likely won’t likely have considered all the steps above to make a successful meme page or more likely, have put as much thought and time into their page. Equally, competition is a great way to drum-up a friendly rivalry:

6 An Ending

Meme movements might not lass forever. In nature, genes are selectively taken out of the population once their function is not required for survival. Meme pages aren’t long-term money-making vehicles that you can rely upon to make a rent repayment. Equally, no one wants to see their cherished meme-page become dreary, resentful or worse still, just inactive overnight. So planning a last meme could help everyone bring closure to the movement.