Memes, memeiosis, and memetic drift: Cheryl’s Chichier She Shed

Abstract

In this paper, a comparison between meme cycles and joke cycles is carried out, using the tools of the General Theory of Verbal Humor and its analysis of joke cycles as consisting of intertextual and metatextual variants of the original joke. It is shown that the same tools can be applied to joke cycles and to meme cycles. The methodology is applied to a meme cycle called Cheryl’s She Shed. The analysis shows that the users start from the original video featuring Cheryl’s shed on fire, but soon the process of meme creation (memeiosis) is activated and users start generating all sorts of memes remixing various aspects of the original video and adding other ideas, such as a conspiracy theory about the source of the fire. Eventually, the drift is broad enough that intertextual memes start to appear which require a reference to another text to function, and eventually meta-memes also appear (memes that fail to deliver a meme and are funny because of the violation of expectations). In conclusion, speakers use memes to express their concerns and interests. Meme cycles are very similar to joke cycles, except for the speed of diffusion, a shorter life span, and an increased ease of manipulation of images and text.