Internet memes in general

Since Borderlands 2 came out, the bomb squad and Rorie made me curious about Internet memes. I'm not Internet-savvy guy so I went to "Know Your Memes" for about a week now and...there're some pretty funny stuffs on that site.

The question is, do you find Internet memes funny? Bomb squad and Rorie seem to think that they're lame. I want to know that whether I'm a lame person or not.

They just get overused way too much and get old real fast.

I also can't stand people saying stuff like "... like a boss" or "fail", etc. I don't mind it every now and then, but when they start saying in context that don't make sense with what it means, I just go nuts. I got too many people on facebook doing that.

r u a meme?

Borderlands 2 is a complete Bro-Op - expect to see more games incorporate memes because they are too lazy to come up with their own material. Not that comedy is essential in videogames.

I personally cringe everytime a meme is mentioned in a published work that you have to pay for. The internet has lower standards of humor because it's free of charge and spontaneous...most memes are mocked up for quick giggles...most of which are only relevant for short periods of time.

memes are for a particular specimen, they usually suffer from 'just found the internet' fever, pointless & relatively pretentious enducing jargon, if you ask me.

the worst part is, the terrible ones are the most popular.

they are really funny but I agree it's lame when used in published material, but that's probably because there's usually no joke, it's just the game pointing out the meme. Like the game is saying "hey kids, we're hip too, we know about internet memes!" Or maybe it's just that games trying to be funny is cringeworthy is general.

They are funny for about a week and then they get SO GODDAMN TIRED. Seriously, it's like the Internet can't come up with enough good humor so they have to cling to every little funny thing for as long as they can, wringing it dry of all its comedic value before the next thing comes along.

@darpa: You're definitely not a lame person for not being aware of many Internet memes. Internet memes are just nice insider-culture lingo which reinforce familiarity and a greater sense of shared experience within Internet communities.

So, don't worry, duder. Shoot that guy and root for #TeamBrad. Yo darpa, jump over dat big ass meme! Pay $775 million dollars for a new copy of Lincoln Force. That's million bucks, Batman! I'm a Wizard, and Internet memes are fucked up. No one meme should have all that power. And anime is for Peter Molyneux's balls. <>

Still can't believe that Borderlands 2 has a "took an arrow to the knee" meme. They don't make fun of it, but litterly rip it from Skyrim, as if it's still relevent! GOD DAMN IT

Memes can be funny, but they usually abused and used too much, so they get old really fast.

Also the use of memes in Borderlands 2 is bad, and not funny at all...

Memes can be funny for a week or two, but at this time they usually are painfully overused to be an adventurer like GODDAMMIT.

Can't get it out of my head now

@JerichoBlyth said:

Borderlands 2 is a complete Bro-Op - expect to see more games incorporate memes because they are too lazy to come up with their own material. Not that comedy is essential in videogames.

I personally cringe everytime a meme is mentioned in a published work that you have to pay for. The internet has lower standards of humor because it's free of charge and spontaneous...most memes are mocked up for quick giggles...most of which are only relevant for short periods of time.

My sentiments exactly (or in lazy internet meme-speak "^^ this") Jim Sterling has been saying Borderlands 2's writing is very familiar to him as lead writer and ex-Dtoider Anthony Burch. Considering he was most well known on Destructoid for his anti-bro pro-Passage rants, it's unfortunate if the writing really is that brodaisical.

Reminds me of Richard Herring saying that now one can see all the obvious jokes on twitter (e.g. when Jacko died) comedians have to be more inventive. Lazy comics and writers are more conspicuous in the internet age.

Do you guys remember when The Chappelle Show blew up real huge and for months and months people would go around yelling IM RICK JAMES BITCH for no real reason and how it wasn't funny at all? Remember how everyone wouldn't stop quoting fucking Borat and you wanted to stab them in the throat with a screwdriver or something?

That's how I feel about people spewing memes constantly.

"Memes" have gone too far. Nowadays anything that happens funny or not is a "meme".

@TruthTellah said:

@darpa: You're definitely not a lame person for not being aware of many Internet memes. Internet memes are just nice insider-culture lingo which reinforce familiarity and a greater sense of shared experience within Internet communities.

So, don't worry, duder. Shoot that guy and root for #TeamBrad. Yo darpa, jump over dat big ass meme! Pay $775 million dollars for a new copy of Lincoln Force. That's million bucks, Batman! I'm a Wizard, and Internet memes are fucked up. No one meme should have all that power. And anime is for Peter Molyneux's balls. <>

I've got a horrible feeling that the intention in the second part of your post is going to be missed by alot of people, shame really.

Sick to death of "memes." I'm so sick to death of them I don't even bother associating with people that use them as a cornerstone of their "sense of humor." On sites that allow it, I tend to block/ignore people who overuse them so I don't have to read their regurgitated bullshit.

I also employ the same treatment toward people that endlessly quote The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, Invader Zim, etc.

@PollySMPS: you must be the life of parties

@Freshbandito: If said parties involve unoriginal chucklefucks standing around spouting regurgitated lines, often without any kind of context and expecting a laugh, then they're not exactly parties I wanna be at anyway. I'm not wasting my time on boring people.

@Freshbandito said:

@TruthTellah said:

@darpa: You're definitely not a lame person for not being aware of many Internet memes. Internet memes are just nice insider-culture lingo which reinforce familiarity and a greater sense of shared experience within Internet communities.

So, don't worry, duder. Shoot that guy and root for #TeamBrad. Yo darpa, jump over dat big ass meme! Pay $775 million dollars for a new copy of Lincoln Force. That's million bucks, Batman! I'm a Wizard, and Internet memes are fucked up. No one meme should have all that power. And anime is for Peter Molyneux's balls. <>

I've got a horrible feeling that the intention in the second part of your post is going to be missed by alot of people, shame really.

I love what he did...passive agressive at its best.

Hey guys, I'd just like to point out that I'm a wizard and this thread is fucked up. The amount of memes on Giant Bomb alone, well let's just say if I had a dollar for every one I've seen, that's a million bucks. I have a fondness of memes when they are done right, but anything to do with Anime and I just turn off, because anime's for jerks. Don't you get annoy when published work like Borderlands 2 basically over-saturates memes? Well, I think when Carbon Neutral Games finally release Lincoln Force, that will be like Borderlands 2, but done right.

<>

@PollySMPS: haha alright then, it's just reading your post makes you seem like the kind of person that people don't invite to any party because he stands there judging everyone elses jokes, icebreakers and witty banter. But hey it may not actually be like that, maybe you just worded your post to make it seem that way.

I'm 12, and what is this.

Borderlands 2 seems like satire to me, like its laughing at internet culture, violence in media, and over sexualized 13 year olds.

@PollySMPS said:

@Freshbandito: If said parties involve unoriginal chucklefucks standing around spouting regurgitated lines, often without any kind of context and expecting a laugh, then they're not exactly parties I wanna be at anyway. I'm not wasting my time on boring people.

Chucklefucks? Oh man, I really really like that. I'm going to use that from now on. Yep, totally have to use it.

@insane_shadowblade85: Problem is now you can't use it, see someone else said it so you using it makes you unoriginal and part of the issue! how very dare you!

I don't like when I don't understand something. It's like being semi-fluent in a foreign language. You're not quite there, and some things are just hazy because you haven't learned everything yet. Hearing a meme I dunno about is like that for me. Just a hazy feeling of not understanding, and I don't like it.

@Freshbandito said:

@insane_shadowblade85: Problem is now you can't use it, see someone else said it so you using it makes you unoriginal and part of the issue! how very dare you!

I...but...the thing is...

It's so good though ;_;

99% of memes are unfunny, in my opinion.

Yes, memes get old really fast, and a lot of them were never funny in the first place.

@Dagbiker said:

Borderlands 2 seems like satire to me, like its laughing at internet culture, violence in media, and over sexualized 13 year olds.

I disagree, I think they're just throwing it all in there to appeal to people. Gearbox gave us Duke Nukem Forever, including its unique capture the flag mode, and the whole girlfriend mode/people who suck at games thing. There was nothing satirical about the arrow in the knee line in Borderlands 2, it's just there for people with an undeveloped sense of humour to say 'lol I remember that from the internet'.

I like memes, but only when they're used spontaneously. I think they're the worst thing ever when used out of the context of a internet forum or a poorly-made jpeg. Is that weird?

Depends on the meme, also I imagine they're substantially less funny in reality than they are on the intertubes but I've never really been around people that spout internet memes. There's quite a few that I'm still fond of and quite a few that irk me substantially. A game being referential to the internet isn't exactly a bad thing, but it sort of depends what jokes they pick. However one could argue the fact that GB is irritated about it is the whole point of putting said memes in the game.

@abdo said:

Yes, memes get old really fast, and a lot of them were never funny in the first place.

@Dagbiker said:

Borderlands 2 seems like satire to me, like its laughing at internet culture, violence in media, and over sexualized 13 year olds.

I disagree, I think they're just throwing it all in there to appeal to people. Gearbox gave us Duke Nukem Forever, including its unique capture the flag mode, and the whole girlfriend mode/people who suck at games thing. There was nothing satirical about the arrow in the knee line in Borderlands 2, it's just there for people with an undeveloped sense of humour to say 'lol I remember that from the internet'.

I have a lot of problems with Gearbox and DNF, but whatever problems I have, Gearbox did not create DNF. They just marketed it, and sold it (which was kind of crappy). I think its kind of crappy to blast a game company for exposing a new audience to gaming when it doesn't take away from the game. I would agree if it was just that single "arrow to the knee" line. but it isnt, the pure amount is so over whelming, that, at least for me, it has to be satire, or at least done ironically.

Some can be funny but the whole meme thing has been beaten to death.

I was sick of them by the time I had to look up what a "meme" was actually defined as.

It's a fad that will pass and be soon forgotten.

Looking forward to this.

@Dagbiker said:

@abdo said:

Yes, memes get old really fast, and a lot of them were never funny in the first place.

@Dagbiker said:

Borderlands 2 seems like satire to me, like its laughing at internet culture, violence in media, and over sexualized 13 year olds.

I disagree, I think they're just throwing it all in there to appeal to people. Gearbox gave us Duke Nukem Forever, including its unique capture the flag mode, and the whole girlfriend mode/people who suck at games thing. There was nothing satirical about the arrow in the knee line in Borderlands 2, it's just there for people with an undeveloped sense of humour to say 'lol I remember that from the internet'.

I have a lot of problems with Gearbox and DNF, but whatever problems I have, Gearbox did not create DNF. They just marketed it, and sold it (which was kind of crappy). I think its kind of crappy to blast a game company for exposing a new audience to gaming when it doesn't take away from the game. I would agree if it was just that single "arrow to the knee" line. but it isnt, the pure amount is so over whelming, that, at least for me, it has to be satire, or at least done ironically.

That was my impression also.

I find a lot of the humor in B2 that others dislike to be totally tolerable if viewed as satire.

Almost all of the humor in the game has been able to get at least a grin from me. I guess i just like to like things.

Memes in general are totally fine, as someone said earlier they're just internet wide in-jokes. In jokes dont last forever and some people dont seem to realize what they are and try to make memes for the sake of making a meme, but the ones that aren't forced are often quite entertaining.

to me it's less about the meme and more about the quality of each individual joke. the thing with memes is that as they get more popular, so too does their quality decay. there's plenty of stinkers in every category but it's usually the case that the core joke is fairly decent and can be exploited to be hilarious (for like 2 seconds)

Memes. They suck, and I hate them all.

I only use memes ironically in a self-deprecating way.

If I ever see someone post a rageface I make it my life mission to set them on fire.

I should mention that I do find it amusing to hear "Never Gonna Give You Up" on the radio; sort of makes you wonder who the DJ is trolling, not to mention the song is fantastic; meme aside.

I don't go around spouting them, ever, but I have never had any problem with them.

Memes often start off as a funny joke that then gets repeated ad nauseum to the point where the they become unfunny. You see this even on giantbomb, the staff will say something funny and the community will run it to the ground in a couple days. They can be a fun injoke and funny when used effectively. Just repeating the joke without any context is not humorous.

I'm internet savvy. Real internet savvy. (Be jealous)

And I frequent sites where the memes live.

So by the time everyone else gets a hold of them, they're already old and cringe-inducing.

@JerichoBlyth said:

Borderlands 2 is a complete Bro-Op - expect to see more games incorporate memes because they are too lazy to come up with their own material. Not that comedy is essential in videogames.

I personally cringe everytime a meme is mentioned in a published work that you have to pay for. The internet has lower standards of humor because it's free of charge and spontaneous...most memes are mocked up for quick giggles...most of which are only relevant for short periods of time.

Yeah this is generally how I see memes. I do laugh at them on occasion, but most of the time I find them to be lazy. Good way of putting it.

In Borderlands 2, a lot of it comes off as lazy.

I'm internet savvy. Real internet savvy. (Be jealous)

And I frequent sites where the memes live.

So by the time everyone else gets a hold of them, they're already old and cringe-inducing.

I don't like repeated jokes which memes are.

I enjoy memes at firat, but they get old fast.

@TruthTellah said:

@darpa: You're definitely not a lame person for not being aware of many Internet memes. Internet memes are just nice insider-culture lingo which reinforce familiarity and a greater sense of shared experience within Internet communities.

So, don't worry, duder. Shoot that guy and root for #TeamBrad. Yo darpa, jump over dat big ass meme! Pay $775 million dollars for a new copy of Lincoln Force. That's million bucks, Batman! I'm a Wizard, and Internet memes are fucked up. No one meme should have all that power. And anime is for Peter Molyneux's balls. <>

Followed.

You guys need some context if you think meme theory started on the Internet. The only thing that's changed is we communicate way faster and democratically than ever before. It used to take two months to drive good SNL bits and characters into the ground; it takes 72 hours to play out a meme. You can crusty and grouchy about it or you can (imagine this) continue living life.

*looks around*

Ok I'll be the one to say it.

I used to think memes were funny, but then I took an arrow to the knee

@Sesiras said:

I don't go around spouting them, ever, but I have never had any problem with them.

Yup I don't mind them, if people seriously have a problem with them they care too much about the meme itself like even more than the guy who says it.