Rage

Rage faces or rage comics are images created in Paintbrush that depict particular facial expressions. In general, Paintbrush edited images are considered to be amateurish compared to images crafted using professional editing software such as Photoshop. Thus, "rage" imagery is considered to be synonymous to amateurism in terms of visual aesthetics and its origins. The result is of course, is that it conveys the message that anyone is able to contribute to the community by easily creating memes. However, the popularity of rage expressions extends beyond its simplicity; original memes can develop into a number of metamemes. Each is represented by the core image as its central concept but portrays a different emotion of behaviour.

This comic originated on the 4chan forums as the "FFFUUUU rage guy" and as the name suggests, the image was mostly about circumstances that led to anger or frustration. While most "rage" faces are not used to express rage, the name has been used due to their rage guy origins. Among the most notable rage faces are: "Rage Guy", "Troll Face", "Forever Alone Guy" and "Y U No Guy". The concept begun to spread rapidly when Reddit launched a sub-platform allowing users to submit their own rage creations. As a result of its popularity, templates were developed allowing users to create memes featuring rage faces with better ease. These faces are not only characters and are also representations of emotional states, to portray particular messages. The significance of rage memes is that they are mostly utilised to talk about everyday issues as opposed to being generated as a result of movie premiers, historical sporting moments, international incidents, and so on.

 

The rage style has continued to evolve by incorporating well known cultural figures into the design scheme. To date, there have been several rage style memes using the faces of U.S president Barack Obama, actor Jackie Chan and basketball player Yao Ming.

 

Most of the stories portrayed in rage memes are everyday tales, so therefore it can be argued that they serve as a way to seek connection with others by talking about issues and situations concerning everyday life through memes. Compared to written texts, macro images adds the notion of visual interaction and  people are invited to co-create and to think about what message it is trying to convey. Although the specific example of a roughly sketched image might seem outlandish, rage comics and internet memes in general, as the online world’s cultural artefact helps to illuminate how people express values and share interests, which then leads to the enablement of critical judgment within web-memberships and in some cases, the creation of activism movements.

I thought dinosaurs were extinct?

From lolcats to rickrolling and from rage comics to memes, online gimmicks have become increasingly prominent in contemporary culture and with advances in digital media; websites such as knowyourmemes.com have become popular interactive communities for net users. Consequently, viral images in the form of memes have evolved into a genre with its own established culture and characteristics.

Clay Shirky (2010) argues that technology and the prominence of online communities enabled by convergent social media have led humanity into a golden era. The barriers between producer and audience have been drastically lowered and people are now capable of shifting from their traditional roles as passive consumers to active cultural producers (Shirky 2010, 18 - 20). Quality is essentially secondary because it is not created by professionals; therefore it is not expected to portray the aesthetics of a professionally produced work. Memes may appear to be silly on the surface but they are still creative and invoke thinking by people who access them and this can only be made possible by freely experimenting and sharing within online communities. Shirky further adds that, the new digital era will continue to evolve as more individuals realise they are no longer dictated to by cultural industries and can now congregate to use media tools in creating their own culture.

Furthermore, as a form of resistance against cultural industries, many memes attempt to twist the meanings of original works or professional crafted star images. One particular trait of this culture is that there appear to be no boundary when it comes to the creation of memes. While it is common for memes to mock the source texts, the straight forwardness of memes can be of vicious and vulgar nature. For instance, the Anthony Davis memes shared in the previous posts of this blog demonstrate that memes are seemingly created with a "no holds barred- everything-goes" mindset. A good majority of Anthony Davis related memes mocks his facial features. Memes related to multiple time NBA all-star and 2008 Olympic gold medallist Chris Bosh, appropriate the same tone.

 

 

 

 

 

 



This free production model enabled by convergence and anonymity has fostered many values such as increasing diversity, forming consensus, creating identity and expressing ideas. By no means, are memes considered high-end art but they are certainly becoming a staple in mass culture. As Shirky (2010) argues, in reference to 4chan, they are extremely protective of their rights to free speech and strongly promote information sharing and user anonymity.  While memes were first assembled as a celebration of internet culture, it has gradually become an influential form of expression due to the ability for users to mass create. The straight forwardness of the content, made by ordinary individuals perhaps can reveal traits of consumption and production within society itself, such as the relentless pursuit for instant entertainment, regardless of the potential ramifications that it may bring.





Shirky then concludes that though they first assembled
to celebrate their Internet culture, they then became more civically active because
of their ability to create (Shirky, TED). In 2008, users manifested 4chan’s political
aspirations into the democratic hacker-activist network, “Anonymous,” which takes
its name from the forum’s membership because it only wields its collective power
when there is majority consensus, similar to how a meme only gains strength through
numbers and connection. Although it has no sole leader and instead functions like
the hive mind in 4chan, it has protested against the Church of Scientology, supported
Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange, and harshly criticized illegal online corporate
actions.

Lebron's fault

Some may argue that internet memes are nothing more than a waste of time, however, their widespread adoption by net users is an indication of how online mass collaboration can lead to textual productions that generates a diversity of widely shared and newly formed meanings. Undoubtedly, one element of understanding this cultural phenomenon is that, part of the humour in many internet memes lies in mocking the source text. Indeed, the purpose to amuse and entertain is one of the key goals for 4chan, the popular online community many credit as the birthplace of memes (Walker 2010; Douglas 2008). 4chan's goal is to be "annoying on the internet", according to Oli, a 4chan member of over 5 years (Liu 2011, 1). Certainly, with actions such as viral campaigns to send Justin Bieber on a North Korean tour and hacking former U.S presidential hopeful Sarah Palin's e-mail, corresponds with Oli's comments. "Doing it for the lulz" is how Oli sums up why 4chan members communicate in such vigilant manner (Liu 2011, 2). To translate the internet jargon, "Doing it for the lulz" means "Doing it for the lol" (lol stands for "laugh out loud"). So essentially, the actions of 4chan are for comedic purposes. It is perhaps with truism that, with such intent, communities like 4chan and activities practiced by its members can be considered as "time wasters", especially to those who are less informed about online culture.

According to Shiftman (2007), the interactivity of the internet allows users to participate in the joke telling process, which is not that different to the traditional oral condition of joke telling, but still may significantly alter the experience of reading a humorous text. For example the "Lebron's fault" is an example of collective authorship that offers a culturally enriching media experience, that is not driven by money but creativity and personal enjoyment, at the expense of celebrate stars and unsavoury situations associated with them. The meme stems from an interview with Lebron James, regarding a comment he made about another player on Twitter. When asked if he would apologise for the comment, he insisted he would not, citing that he was sick of being blamed by fans and the media for incidents that was not his fault. To date, there are over 5000 fan comments on the EPSN article that covered the story: http://espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/story/_/id/7556817/miami-heat-lebron-james-apologize-kendrick-perkins-tired-blame-game

Many respondents to the article took his comments and blamed random things on him, such as, the declining economy, the bad weather or the fall of mankind. The article was published in February 2012 and it is still active with new fan comments being posted at the time of writing. With the comments, also came the memes mocking James.

Memes are funny and for the most part, they are silly in nature. But the proliferation of this phenomenon reflects contemporary culture's desire to be active participants in the media production process. As media continue evolve, so will the prominence of user-created content and the various themes, ideals and beliefs that comes with it. Such circumstances provide for a situation where producers and administrators alike must find ways to understand the traits of contemporary fandom.