OUT of our darkest and most cringeworthy moments, the South African meme is born.
If not for memes – including favourites the picture of an octogenarian captioned “Victor Matfield, I dated him in high school” and a puppy praying: “Please Lord . . . Don’t let the Japanese find out about cricket” – many South African rugby fans would have cried themselves to sleep more than a week ago.
The founder of technology market research firm World Wide Worx, Arthur Goldstuck, believes memes partly unite their audiences but also provide a form of healing.
“Humour is a great healer especially after something as painful as the rugby loss,” he said, referring to South Africa’s loss to Japan. “That is definitely a classic example of humour being used to relieve the pain.”
The popularity of memes grows during sporting or political events.
“Among the most popular in South Africa were the memes about Nkandla and the fake interpreter. And then the constant will always be the Eskom meme – the most popular being just a black square captioned ‘Shot over the city at night’,” Goldstuck said.
Once a meme is out there, it appeals to everyone.
“You see people of every age group passing it on.”
But not everyone loves a good meme.
“A lot of people are offended by memes, especially if they feel they are the butt of the joke. For example, senior ANC members would not have appreciated any of the Nkandla memes.
“If you associate or empathise too closely with whoever is the butt of the joke, you are likely to be offended,” he said.
University students or young people who had just entered the workforce were most likely to be meme creators.
“Students tend to have the most time and the right attitude for coming up with witty content.”
People seldom took credit for creating a meme as they were aware offence could be taken, Goldstuck said.
-Nivashni Nair
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