Category Archives: Digital

Supernintendo Chalmers

Informant is a Facebook page that posts only memes. As the page’s primary following is teens and young adults, most of their content is humor based on early 2000’s culture.

Supernintendo Chalmers

This particular post shows a Super Nintendo gaming console (1990), with a decal of Superintendent Chalmers of the popular TV show the Simpsons. The pun here is on the words ‘superindendent’ and ‘supernintendo.’ By combining the show known for its success in the 1990’s, with a 1990’s video game console , this satirical image is aimed to evoke nostalgia for people who grew up in this era.

Scooby Doom

Informant is a Facebook page that regularly posts memes. As the page’s primary following is teens and young adults, most of their content is humor based on 1990’s & 2000’s American youth culture.

Scooby Doom

This particular post shows an early a classic image of cartoon characters Scooby-Doo & Shaggy, superimposed over popular 1993 video game Doom. Scooby-Doo was popular for children growing up in the 1990’s who would eventually go on to play these early computer games. By combining the two popular 1990’s mediums of entertainment, this satirical image is aimed to evoke nostalgia for people who grew up in this era. Further, the contrast in the subject matter of Doom (a violent shooter), and Scooby Doo (a children’s cartoon) is funny.

Pokémon and the Mystery of Mew

Nationality: British
Age: 24
Occupation: Student
Residence: Berlin, Germany
Performance Date: March 17th 2016
Primary Language: English

Context

The year is 1998: Following the release of games Pokémon: Red and Blue, the new games are popular throughout the United States. However, this was not always expected, as it was a game that was released very late into the Game Boy’s life cycle during its Japanese release. Then a question arises: how did the game become so popular? The best answer perhaps comes from the elusive Pokémon that was only available through an in-game glitch – the 151st Pokémon, Mew. The informant shares one of these urban legends on how to capture the elusive Pokémon, and why it was so important in the success of the games as a whole.

Informant Information

The informant is older brother to a friend of mine, and he has played the original Pokémon games when they were released in the United States at the age of 6. While he has stopped playing the newer games, he has a first-hand, nostalgic experience on the first generation of Pokémon – the subject of this entry.

Informant: “Mew was the shit. All the kids were talking about it all the time in class! I heard that you had to use dig* next to this one truck to get it, but when I tried, no dice. That was better than this one kid, though – he was told that he had to beat the Elite Four** exactly 100 times to catch Mew… he did it and absolutely fucking nothing happened. Nothing.”

*A Pokémon move usable outside of battle
**The four trainers encountered before facing against the strongest trainer: the champion

Collector: “[laughs] Did anyone you knew at the time actually have a Mew?”

Informant: “Not anyone I personally knew, but I always heard that somebody knows a person who does – I personally think they were all lying. I don’t think anybody in that elementary school actually knew how to get a Mew. That’s probably what got them talking, you know? It was the mystery of it that was so cool.”

Analysis

The urban legends created and circulated by players on how to obtain Mew added to the mystique of the Pokémon: This added to the desire to obtain it, resulting in more urban legends, and this positive cycle resulted in the extended popularity of the Pokémon franchise. Another key reason for the popularity of these urban legends came from the lack of widespread Internet usage during the time. Since a quick search from Google was unavailable in 1996 – or any other search engine, for that matter – it was much harder to verify or dispute the urban legends since only a handful of players outside of Japan knew how to obtain Mew through an in-game bug and how those steps worked. Overall, the Pokémon franchise was able to create folklore, and therefore create a large folk following through Mew, ensuring the franchise’s success over later generations.

Gachimuchi

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 27th 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin, Japanese

Context

Gachimuchi refers to the originally Japanese style of Internet meme originating from the Japanese video streaming website Nico Nico Douga. Initially beginning with the submission of a gay pornographic wrestling video with a deceptive title circa 2008, it eventually evolved to take the form of a mash-up, where specific sound clips originating from said pornography were extensively sampled to cover existing musical pieces or create new sounds. This style of trolling later spread to nearby countries of South Korea and China, and recently Europe and the Americas through video streaming communities such as Youtube and Twitch.

As more of these videos are made through existing video samples, there is a regular cast of characters, and inside jokes have formed around many of them. Billy Herrington in particular achieved international stardom, visiting Japan and China multiple times, “thanks to the unexpected later success of his pornographic work”.

Analysis

At a fundamental level, Gachimuchi is very much a misunderstanding of homosexuality, just in the opposite direction than usual, at least in the case of Asia. Gay men are typically seen as feminine by Asian cultures at large, but the widespread popularity of Gachimuchi led to a warped view of homosexuality – although gay men were no longer seen as effeminate they became part of an internet joke on an international scale. This is definitely one of many growing pains in Asia’s struggle in achieving social justice.

On the other hand, Gachimuchi showcases the creativity of its own folk group; content creators like HIWIRE reached a point of musical refinement where their take on Gachimuchi resembles electronic dance music productions (taking influences from various genres of house) rather than poorly sampled mash-ups of gay pornography. With the resurgence in western listeners and attention, this meme has been, and will be on the rise for a while.

Yorick walks into a bar…

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: March 20th 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Joke: “Yorick walks into a bar. There is no counter”

Context

In the online video game League of Legends, five players play against another team of five players. Players choose a specific character to take into battle before the game starts, Yorick being one of them. The original meaning of this wordplay is that it is impossible to counter Yorick – at least at the time.

The Informant

The informant is my younger brother. He is an avid player of the game, playing on a daily basis. He said the joke in self-deprecation after a losing a game against a player who used Yorick. When I asked him where the joke was from, he said that he first heard the joke in game back in 2012, when Yorick was a strong character to use. He added that because the joke got very popular around the game’s community, it is still used when complaining about characters that are too strong.

Analysis

The example presented is pertinent as the joke was powerful enough to create other variants, such as:

“Jax walks into a bar. There is no counter.” (another character that was very strong at one point)

The meaning of the message is quite clear: The performer of this joke acknowledges that a certain character is too powerful through the use of witty language. Unsurprisingly, the joke is now commonly referenced throughout the community whenever something seems too strong. As a joke that has reached idiomatic levels of acceptance in its folk community, its influence is well demonstrated.