MemeFactory at Yale

The range of guest speakers and special events I've had the privilege to see while at Yale are astounding, anywhere from children's songwriter Raffi (BANANAPHONE!!!!!) to a sociologist discussing why the popularity of zombie films has increased exponentially since the terror attacks of September 11th. But last night was something that again redefined my expectations: Memefactory, a lecture-parading-as-show about Internet Memes.

Advice Dog gives (sometimes dubious) life advice.

They describe themselves as "Internet Scientists, but only if the word scientist is in quotes, underlined, and with a couple of exclamation points with a 1 on the end." Three guys with five computers spread across three monitors give a rapid-paced show that takes the audience through 3 hours of famous memes and youtube footage crammed into a 90 minute session.

Biologist Richard Dawkins defines as meme as a unit of cultural transmission – in the general sense a meme can be any piece of information which travels between members of culture – the way the internet has co-opted it, however, memes involve funny pictures of cats and people doing silly dances.

This squirrel made national news for how it had invaded a couple's vacation photo. In something almost akin to social commentary about how something so trivial received such media attention, the internets proceeded to find more inappropriate places for the squirrel to pop up. But moreso than social commentary, they lol'd a lot. Crasher squirrel shows up at...

politically auspicious meetings,

great moments in history,

personal interviews,

and classical artworks of the western canon.

Half of it was pure entertainment- they keep you bouncing between screens with all the absurd mind candy the internet possibly has to offer, narrating it all with a razor-sharp wit juggled between the three performers. But then they also innocuously insert some social commentary in there, discussing how something as anonymous as the website 4chan has created so many broadly recognizable cultural constructs with absolute no traceability to an original creator, how businesses are increasingly capitalizing on this kind of viral trend to advertise themselves cheaply on the internet, and the real social consequences of anonymous and vicious heckling ("trolling") on the internet.

Memefactory / NYU Geddan / Get Down from Mike Rugnetta on Vimeo.

Check out a full-recording of one their live performances at NYU!

But at the same time, they don't take their work as self-proclaimed INTERNET "SCIENTISTS"!!1! too seriously, acknowledging that their job is to spend a lot of time perusing meaningless gibberish on the internet. I especially appreciated this kind of guest speaker as a break from the weightiness of academics- still learning cool stuff, but all for the lulz.

Now play me off, keyboard cat.