How the Memes Communicate to the Reader

How the Memes Communicate to the Reader

Repackaging: The three Memes that I have chosen to focus on this week all engage in repackaging. Limor Shifman in his book, Memes In Digital Culture, states, "In oral communication, people become aware of memes through their senses, process them in their minds, and then 'repackage' them in order to pass them along to others." (19)

All the Memes that I have chosen today, directly quote the movie that they originally appeared in, they are then repackaged to include @HoodJesusYo's caption that is now a part of the Meme.

For example:

  Here we see Sam the Onion Man, from Holes the movie. In the movie he repeatedly says, "I can fix that."@HoodJesusYo has chosen to change the meme and add "U: I'm really broken" "Jesus:". This addition to the Meme makes Sam the Onion Man appear as a Jesus figure by saying he can fix what is broken, and that is, "U." This Meme also exemplifies the Communicative Function of emotive. The person who is looking at this Meme is meant to recognize that they are broken, an emotion that Christians often feel because of their belief that they are born sinners, this emotion quickly turns into  hope when they see that Jesus, depicted as Sam the Onion Man, can in fact "Fix that."

This Meme depicts the Joker from the Dark Knight Rises. The joker states, "Do I really look like a guy with a plan?" He states this when talking to Harvey Denton when he is in the hospital due to a serious injury that the Joker's people caused. In this Meme, the intended purpose is that the joker would be a reflection of the reader. That the Christian does not have a good plan, because they believe the only good plan that exists is from God. The Christian reader would read this Meme and would experience the Communicative Function of emotive because the reader feels hope in Jesus because he has a plan, and they are reminded of this in a silly and humorous way.

This is another scene from Holes the movie. Shown is "X-Ray" on the right, and "Caveman" on the left. In this Meme the use of the Communicative Function, Metalingual comes into play. According to Shifman Metalingual is used, "To establish mutual agreement on the code (for example, a definition)." The code that is shown is when @HoodJesusYo mentions an "accountability partner." In the Christian culture, an accountability partner is someone who you are supposed to be completely honest, and vulnerable with who knows everything about you. You meet with this person weekly, and together you reach goals of becoming more like Jesus Christ by holding each other to what this goal is. If you did not understand this code, you would not understand the full purpose of the Meme.

Memes From Television and Movies Used for Ministry

My sample: The memes I have chosen are from the past six months, and are all related to television or movies from popular culture that @HoodJesusYo uses for ministry. I have provided screenshots to all of the Memes I will be using and the Twitter account, @HoodJesusYo's twitter, where I collected all of the memes is linked below. The reason I chose these examples was because I felt that these memes specifically related to the popular culture audience. I thought it was interesting, because all of these memes are secular and none of them are originally about religion at all. @HoodJesusYo spins these secular memes for an evangelical purpose. The general population could find these Memes funny, but @HoodJesusYo has chosen to use them in a religious way by using the captions that he has.

@HoodJesusYo actually has a blog that explains the entire story of how the account began. According to HoodJesusYo.tumblr.com in the article "Who is @HoodJesusYo?" the creators state that they are from College Station, Texas and it all started out as a few roommates who wanted to make a cool Twitter account.  The roommates all "Love Jesus," and wanted to make an account that they could contribute to in a way that they would all feel passionate about and know enough about, therefore @HoodJesusYo was born.

"The best messages we get are the ones when people say anything along the lines of, 'wow I needed to hear this,' 'Hood Jesus is actually really speaking to me,' 'Thank you.'"

-Creators of @HoodJesusYo

This being said, the mission that the creators have make the Memes that they use are all for the purpose of glorifying their Savior, Jesus Christ, and not to belittle Christianity, but to uplift it. They want to reach an audience, of over 300K people, with the purpose of encouragement. This makes them unique because so often Memes are meant to make fun of in a malicious way, religions or the topic which they are speaking on.

The examples that I would like to give are the first three below. Two of which were posted on my original blog post, but I would like to go more in depth:

To the right is Meme of Steve Carell where he is staring as Michael Scott in The Office. This Tweet states "Readin tha King James Version like," then with the caption of "I understand nothing." To understand this Meme, one has to understand the idea of the King James Version. The King James Version of the Bible was finished in 1611, and therefor the language is hard to read and interpret. The newer age Bibles including NIV, ESV, NLT, and other versions are easier for the reader to understand in modern day language. The other side aspect of this Meme is the understanding of the show the Office, and if one watches the show they understand the humor that Michael Scott has. That is what makes this Meme funny and uplifting for those who are Christians and read the Bible.

To the Left is a Meme that I previously used in the blogpost before, to give an example of what kind of Tweets @HoodJesusYo puts out. Shown here is a picture of Dobby the House Elf from the book series of Harry Potter. Harry Potter is huge in todays culture, and has sold a massive amount of books and has become a movie franchise. @HoodJesusYo mentions Satan who in Christianity is considered "The Enemy," of God and people. Christians believe they belong to God, and not Satan. So to understand both Harry Potter, and the Christian belief of belonging to God and not Satan, this Meme makes sense and is funny to the Christian that would be following @HoodJesusYo.

Above is another that was on the previous blog. This example is from Napoleon Dynamite the movie. Here the character is talking about a girlfriend he met online. Christians believe that Jesus Christ, who was fully son and fully God, came down to earth to die on a cross and raise again three days later. In doing so, they believe that Christ paid for their sins, or the bad things they have done. So this Meme makes sense to the Christian audience and is funny, because of this context that Christ died for their sins so "I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious," is comical because of their belief in Jesus and what he has done.

To find these Memes, visit https://twitter.com/HoodJesusYo.

@HoodJesusYo a Ministry with Memes

Hood Jesus is a Twitter account with more than 313,000 followers. The twitter account is one from the perspective of “Jesus,” but that uses unique verbiage that encourages laughter. The Twitter bio says, “Official HoodJesusYo account. A unique ministry tryin to spread tha Gospel to all my fam on they grind.” The account has over 3,300 tweets, and almost every tweet has a meme attached, as seen below. 

The reason I find this Twitter account interesting is because the memes tend to be uplifting and encouraging to those of the Christian faith. That means that these Tweets are being followed by Christians who leave the Tweet feeling positive.

 The account, as the bio says, is a ministry which is attempting to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While memes often lean towards negativity, and actually making fun of the faith in question, this account is one where people go to find uplifting, funny, and encouraging memes that will be positive to their faith.

 My hope in studying this Twitter account is to see how the memes uplift and encourage people of the Christian faith. 

Below is an example of @HoodJesusYo using the Twitter account as a ministry in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Meme form.

The Twitter account uses humor to elicit feelings of positivity and laughter. The account also references pop culture, such as the Napoleon Dynamite reference above, and the Harry Potter reference below. This way the followers understand the concept more personally.

I am excited to explore this topic with you!! If you want to check out more @HoodJesusYo's Twitter account, click Here.