Those of you unfortunate enough to be subject to my musings on Twitter may already know that, for a couple of years now, I’ve had the uneasy feeling that the fine folks at Buzzfeed may occasionally do as much harm as good. The site, which gathers memes, funny tumblrs, strange photos and the culture that surrounds them, is often funny and informative. But occasionally, simmering underneath, there is an uncomfortable current of smugness and elitism.
The picture above sorta’ crystallised things for me*. It seems to mark out how at least part of ‘meme culture’ ostensibly about the ironic critique of difference – but ultimately displays that ironic critique contains its own politics; you do, after all, have to be in on the joke. Or, in a sense, you have to be hailed by the joke as the right kind of person – if you get it, you are of those who judge culture. If you don’t, you are the object of entertainment for those who do. So it feels vaguely fun and okay when it’s Tea Partiers who are ridiculed – but when you see something like a racial-cultural hierarchy underpinning the humour, suddenly the whole thing starts to feel a bit insidious and icky.
If Buzzfeed is a site that collects much of this new subcultural undercurrent, then maybe it’s a good place to look for how meme culture deals with the difference of culture and class. And when you take a look at the examples, it doesn’t feel very promising. Differing linguistic systems are met with the ‘English, do you speak it motherfucker?’ response. People of Walmart is classism at its very finest. A picture of a young Muslim girl with a mohawk-esque hijab probably shouldn’t seem as incongruous as it was made out to be. And Stuff White People Like was just one long exercise in back-patting, the conversation surrounding it seemingly oblivious to the privilege that enabled the ironic distance of the site’s readers.
I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, but just haven’t had the energy and haven’t done it any justice here. Thankfully though, rather than listen to me ramble on, you have the beautiful prose of Matthew Battles instead – which is really why I’m writing this. After attending ROFLcon II, he collected his thoughts on the web culture conference and, among other things, he too speaks of the uneasy treatment of difference in ‘meme culture’. I like that he’s careful not to condemn – and helpfully points out that, “when we laugh together at a funny accent or a tone-deaf singer or a baby biting his big brother, we’re having and sharing fun. And it’s a good thing, too!”. Still – it’s worth keeping in mind the dynamics of the the kind of audience that ‘ROFLing’ creates: it is, after all, culturally homogeneous and has to be in order for it to find things funny. Anyway, if for some reason you don’t already have HILOBROW in your feed, Battles’ piece is well worth the few minutes it would take to read.
*Anyone who has grown up in an immigrant household – or is surrounded by friends who have – knows that the rice and lentils (or whatever) you have most days is just ‘food’, and the hamburgers, pizza, french fries et al. are ‘English food’ or ‘Canadian food’ or whatever country you happen to be living in. The irony of pizza and ‘french’ fries being ‘Canadian’ food is irrelevant. The point is – only someone hermetically sealed in privileged white American culture would find this strange or unusual.
