| The Meming of Life by Dominic Pettman Perhaps you haven't heard of a "meme" but you've certainly been exposed to one, or more accurately, thousands. First introduced by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene (which, contrary to initial rumour, is not about his ex-wife) this concept has trickled down into popular-culture from the super-conducting synapses of the scientific mind, and is now the business of admen, cultural critics, cult leaders and playground pranksters. Essentially, the meme is a self-replicating self-replicator, which, like DNA, transmits itself from person to person and from culture to culture. Much like a virus, the meme spreads contagiously through society, prompting author Daniel Dennett to describe the human brain as a "meme nest," (making it sound unpleasantly like lice). The meme is thus a metaphoric microbe, nurtured like germs in our lab-like culture. | |
Dawkins' own examples of the meme include "ideas, catchphrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or building arches." Other instances over the years include Choose Life T-shirts, Magic Eye posters, Gary Larsen mugs, Baby On Board bumper-stickers, Baby I'm Bored bumper-stickers, and of course the Macarena. The most popular example, however, is the jingle or catchy tune, which passes from the child, to the mother, to the postman, to the cleaner, to the intern, to the president and back again. A couple of years ago, for instance, many of us were helpless in the face of the Barbie Girl meme. | |
| Such a hazy definition, however, begs the difference between a meme and a fad? As far as I can tell, very little, although the former seems to apply to a wider array of possibilities. This means that while yo-yos are both a meme and a fad, romantic poetry is just a meme. The abstract and flexible properties of this concept has meant that "meme" has outflanked both "vector" and "rhizome" as the postmodern theorist's jargon du jour, meaning - in a neat twist - that the meme itself is a meme. The two primary modes of meme-transmission are through language and the media. William Burroughs would argue that language itself is a virus, jumping from host to host, and coast to coast, in order perpetuate itself. Within this "meta-meme" hides the humble memes which make up everyday slang. | |
| The valley girl meme was big in the early 90s, and has enjoyed a revival thanks to movies like Clueless, prompting down-to-earth mechanics from Meyrin to cry, "that's sooo five minutes ago," "gag me with a spoon" and "whateveeerrr." The Ricki Lake meme has also added the gem, "talk to the hand." MTV must surely be one of our most active meme-portals, piping in a plague of them for the monkey-do brigade. Backwards caps, baggy pants, breakdancing, elaborate handshakes - these are all American memes which, like the Ebola virus, seem to come and go, often hiding underground only to re-emerge with sudden force. Even Jerry Seinfeld (not one to neglect the comic potential of the yadda-yadda-yadda meme) calls for a blackban on "high-fiving," the phrase "don't go there," and "air quotes." | |
| One of the most amusing memes must be what I call "the strutting rooster" meme, which has been traced back to high-level athletics events. Cocky male sprinters have recently found it necessary to pull off their lycra tops as soon as they cross the finish-line in order to give the cameras an eye-full of their finely sculpted torsos. While this is excusable with the world's most primed and buffed sportsmen, it becomes absurd when our 13 year old kids do it at little athletics. These pasty lads look more like malnourished Spanish racing turkeys than the Afro-American powerhouses they are imitating. | |
I have felt compelled to write this article, however, in response to three memes which have survived far longer than the rules of cultural biology should allow. The first is the "dancing baby" meme, which began as an admittedly cute screen-saver, spread across the world as an animated file through the Internet. This was then picked up by everything from TV commercials to Ally McBeal, and should have died on the spot as the antibiotic of overexposure kicked in. A full three years after the first baby boogy, however, and MTV has started showing a new hit-song called - you guessed it - Dancing Baby. The little nappy-shaker hasn't even learned any new steps in all that time! | |
| The second is the phrase "at the end of the day." It seems that all public figures - especially in the English cricket team - seem to be infected with this crepuscular affliction. Which day? Why is it ending? They seem to view this statement as a rhetorical super-glue which can be used to attach any other cliché which comes to hand. "Why was our batting so bad? Well, at the end of the day there's always tomorrow, eh?" | |
The third is the Full Monty meme. Now this has got to stop. Now! Yes I know that tuberculosis is coming back with a vengeance, and that all the medieval germs are morphing into superbugs, but surely our sanity depends on focusing our efforts on eradicating this good-natured pathogen. Traced back to a low-budget British comedy, this meme has spread like wild-fire through the cultural landscape. We can only pray that its recent appearance on Broadway signals the death-knell for this most stubborn of memes, so it can go and rest in peace with Kenny, Monica, peddle-pushers and all the others. |