The audio quality was low in the original video, and the official recording never materialized, so here is a recreation of my Ignite Bloomington 3 talk on September 10, 2010, as part of The Combine (http://thecombine.org). "To Meme, or Not To Meme" extends the local tradition of poetry-ish presentations with an explorations of memes, Michael Cera, and how Godwin's Law is true.
(text)
To meme, or not to meme?
Some of you may struggle to follow this answer.
Having never baked a marblecake,
you may not know what will blend.
Meh,
I'm going to tell you anyway,
so try to keep up.
The answer to my question is a story of two guys.
One, an A/V nerd.
The other, an actor.
Both
are from Canada.
This convergence
is an opportunity
to unite the world
through meme.
Now, before there was a Web,
there were places
to exchange shared experiences
and avoid work.
Two people who radically disagree on the wisdom of income tax,
could bond over last night's little TV ditty about Sam and Diane.
Look at the water coolers.
Now, back to meme.
Memes are not about popularity.
It's not enough to go viral.
According to that secular curmudgeon Richard Dawkins,
a meme is a unit of imitation.
Mixing concepts and jumping media is an art form.
Evolution takes many forms.
Advertising and Hoaxes.
Animals and Kids.
No subject is too aloof to be mimicked
and ridiculed.
We move to the beat of memes,
Like a slow, lonely dance on the gym floor
right before Led Zeppelin starts playing.
The people who don't get it
are ringed around the room, by the wall, looking in.
The first step toward center is to understand no one is immune.
Take the Technoviking.
Chuck Norris' Chuck Norris.
With one look, he parts crowds.
Even he is immortalized as a museum piece.
A thousand versions of him, in many colors,
staring and pointing.
The Web is our water cooler now.
There are sites and careers launched to keep track
of every idea that tweets its way to a million views
--and at least one t-shirt.
We even have a conference
to put the entire Internet in one room.
Who is responsible for this meme explosion?
Some say the answer is moot.
The instigators are unknown, anonymous
people who cultivated their love of anime
into subversive activism.
When not battling the prudes, censors, and Scientologists,
they stop to smell the duckrolls
and give the world LOLcats
and rain made of chocolate.
And this guy.
A bear, cute and wide-eyed.
A tribute to Anonymous men who like children too much.
Years after its creation, an artist
--a Canadian--
noted the similarity
between this fuzzy fellow
and some new mascots from Vancouver.
He mashed up a critique of their graphic design.
It's easy for the Internet wallflowers to dismiss this
as a deviant statement.
What's the cost of meme ignorance?
Let's ask the Polish, Dutch, Germans, and Lithuanians.
All duped by Google image searches
into giving an Olympic endorsement
to pedophilia
worldwide.
This isn't the only dark side of memedom.
Side /b/ belongs to the trolls.
The Internet lulls
the weak, stupid, and arrogant
to commit the mistake
of content.
The result is an exchange
between the sensitive and the cruel.
Instead of marveling
at the early development of his technical skills,
we ridicule a kid
for inventing online dating.
I have noticed
that one man seems to be at the epicenter of these events.
It is no coincidence
that he and Michael Blount are the same age,
approximately.
He lurks in corners,
ready to make his move.
This man
--we'll call him "Michael"--
has an ominous past
that stretches back before he was born.
I share this revelation not to bring him down,
but to turn him.
To harness his considerable powers for good.
To meme the impossible meme.
To break this new ground,
I'm enlisting some help.
I'll introduce Michael to Ben.
We'll ask a ninja to tell us where the hell Matt is.
Susan will offer up some free hugs,
and we'll take a moment
to breathe in.
That's when it begins.
All the sad and angry people will stream to us,
and their frowns will turn upside down.
No longer very erotic, very violent.
We'll be on a horse.
we'll ride to Candy Mountain.
In this magical place,
no one gets tased, Bro,
and everyone leaves Britney alone.
We'll glow in the dark,
because it's better that way.
We'll dine on Mentos
with Tibetan gladiators,
and tell Leroy he isn't a moron.
Barbara Streisand will still protest, but
On this special day,
we'll finally be able to get rid of a bomb.
Then: Oh. My. God.
We'll go all the way
Until even the most evil of evil men
will bend to our will.
Even he will blend,
proving once and for all that everything,
ultimately,
ends with Hitler.
Only then,
when everyone on the planet
has a common language to share,
will they play us off.
In that moment,
Micheal will say--
That's the end of your talk, Makice!
Woot!
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6:51
8.5 - 10/26/2011 - What We Learned from Dianetics, Anonymous at SF Church of Scientologyby 309temporary175 views
wtf is this? o.O
Dakki123 1 month ago