Category Archives: Digital

The Chad Meme

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student/Gemini
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/10/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Bella Estrada, a senior studying History at the University of Southern California, who hails from Los Angeles, California, provided four pieces of folklore for this collection.

The interview was run, amidst dinner and drinks, at the University of Southern California located Greenleaf, a popular post-class bar for many students at the prestigious institution.

Folk Performance: The Chad Meme.

Folk Type: Meme.

Story: I think this is more college vernacular, but there’s a proverb that goes “don’t be such a Chad.” and a Chad is essentially the manifestation of douchebag traits like, I don’t know, just being a douche.

Background Information: The Chad Meme became incredibly popular around USC through the local meme page: USC Memes for Spoiled Pre-Teens. The page, more often than not, targets the highly active Greek Life community at the university. the term “Chad” refers a typical frat boy.

Bella likes this term because, as a feminist, she finds Greek Life deplorable. She learned the term from the meme page.

Context of Performance: The context of Bella’s rehashing of the tale was done after our “Forms of Folklore” class taught by Tok Thompson because the both of us had a folklore collection project due.

Thoughts: The term seems to be a reaction against the exclusivity and elitism associated with Greek Life. Those who are outside of it feel marginalized, at times, and battle against that feeling with humor.

 

Profanity House

Nationality: USA
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Warren, NJ
Performance Date: 4/10/17
Primary Language: English

The following exchange was between myself and my friend Amy. Amy is from New Jersey. We attended middle school and high school together.

“Have you ever had any strange experiences with technology, like your laptop or phone, that you think may have been linked to paranormal activity?”

“I went to one of those profanity houses and there was one that was boarded up because a ghost supposedly lives there. It was super cold inside and gave me a weird feeling. I went in June I believe, so it was super hot outside but cold in the house. After I got home my phone didn’t work. The picture would fade down my phone into white gradually, and on the occasion I could actually open my phone, it would open apps and type randomly without me doing anything but holding the phone.”

“When you say the picture would fade down your phone into white, do you mean you would try to look at a picture you took and your screen would just go white?”

“Like the whole screen would fade to white. It would start at the top as the picture and about a fourth of the way down just fade into a white screen.”

“Do you remember where the profanity house was? Did you go with other people?”

“It was in New Jersey somewhere. I was with my sister Lisa, Cody and Louie.”

“How long were you there?”

“We were only outside the house for maybe 5 minutes max.”

“Wow. Thank you so much!”

 

Amy has never had any previous problems with her phone. She suspects the ghost that supposedly lives in the house has a way of disrupting technology, therefore explaining why her phone went blank.

The Toaster Era

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: May 3 2017
Primary Language: English

This entry was given to the interviewer through digital means. The interviewer asked the informant, Sahit, about any superstitions in the NBA he knows because of Sahit’s die-hard obsession to the sport. He replied with a comment about the “winningness” of the Golden State Warriors.

 

 

“I can’t think of any pregame superstitions or anything like that, but there is this thing that recently came up about a toaster that Klay [Thompson] signed. Some guy on Reddit went to a Klay autograph signing but instead of a shirt or a basketball, he had Klay sign his official Warriors-branded toaster. This kinda became a meme in itself because Klay was just so dumbfounded about signing the toaster that there are pictures of the awkward pause right before he signed it. But, since then, the Warriors are undefeated. This is now known as the Toaster Era and the Warriors are 20-0 in the Toaster Era.”

 

The interviewer had heard about the “Toaster Era” but didn’t know what it was attributed to in the first place. More than anything, this whole thing seems like a passing meme about the Warriors’ insane ability to win against any team in the NBA. I really doubt that the Warriors are undefeated solely due to the toaster, but it is nevertheless entertaining to think of this superstition as a reason for their repeated victories.

 

The Godfather of the NBA

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: May 3 2017
Primary Language: English

This entry was given to the interviewer through digital means. The interviewer asked the informant, Sahit, about any superstitions in the NBA he knows because of Sahit’s die-hard obsession to the sport. He replied with a postseason ritual that he knows Lebron James does.

 

“So every year that Lebron makes it to the playoffs, which is really often, he has a series of requirements that he forces himself to meet in order to get him into that killer mindset. And it all involves the Godfather movies. Lebron watches the entire franchise end to end and he must be alone as he does it. After that, he’ll read a physical copy of the original book while he works out and prepares to be in playoff shape. He’ll also start to treat his team dynamic in similar ways to the dynamics presented in the movie. It’s all some pretty intense stuff.”


The interviewer keeps up with the NBA himself but didn’t know about this admittedly arcane postseason ritual Lebron goes through. He also finds it a little hard to believe that Lebron does this every time he makes it past the regular season because it tends to happen every year recently. Regardless, it is entertaining to know that even NBA stars are subject to some superstitions about their game.

Linsanity

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: May 3 2017
Primary Language: English

This entry was given to the interviewer through digital means. The interviewer asked the informant, Sahit, about any legendary stories in the NBA he knows because of Sahit’s die-hard obsession to the sport. He replied with a certain player’s meteoric rise in the NBA, an era called Linsanity, named for Jeremy Lin

 

“Linsanity started off as a pretty mundane thing in the NBA. One of the more athletic players, Jeremy Lin was rising through the ranks in early 2012 when players like Kobe Bryant were in their prime and no one had heard of Jeremy Lin before this. Players in the NBA do get better, but no one ever did it as fast as Lin did, until his performance against the Lakers with Kobe at his prime. Just a year before this he was considered a poor player, and even a month before he was seen as a bench player, at best. The day of the Lakers game, it was fair to say that no one expected him to put up even 20 points, let alone 38 points. He even forced Kobe to play for longer than he intended to and still outscored him. This was the pinnacle of Linsanity”


The interviewer thought this story was interesting, but he heard a different spin on the Linsanity era. As far as he had known, the reason for the large amounts of attention Lin was getting was due to a minority’s increased prevalence in the league. He can definitely appreciate just how the era of Linsanity must have felt to his fans and NBA viewers. Lin was in the league knocking on the doors of the greats, having been dismissed completely just so quickly beforehand.