MEh-MEs...Or... Memes-You-Never-Really-'Got'-Or-Found-Funny/Enjoyable-Because--Reasons:

[Tanis]

Any memes out there you either missed, didn't 'get', found stupid, or other reasons?


Me?
Arrow To The Knee:
I didn't find it funny, even though it was the first TES game since TES2 that I actually played during its release window.
I found the 'arrow to the knee' thing to me rather, boring, bit of flavor dialogue in-game and never understood how it took off.
-Seriously, it's boring as can be, even compared to 'CURVED SWORDS'.

Cake Is A Lie:
I only played the first Portal thanks buying the 'The Orange Box' used, so I completely missed the 'relevant' window.
By the time I 'got' it, the meme had more dust on it than a hippies six shooter.
-And any mention of it seemed to get you called a 'troll' or necro.

I Quit:
I had to google what is was called, but it turns out the whole 'I'm going to quit my job in a funny/giant asshole/quirky way' is actually considered a meme.
Seriously? You write a mean letter as you quit, and think it's a GOOD idea to post it online?
-My parents always told me: never burn bridges that you may need to cross back one day!
THIS is where the future 'would you like fries with that' lifers make their start.

 

[Queen Michael]

The Harlem Shake
It's not humorous. Or if it is, it fails. It doesn't seem to have any real purpose. It's famous for being famous.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Speedruns. I never understood the appeal. I mean they're mostly just exploitations of glitches that warp you to the end credits, or a glitch that sees the final boss unable to shoot through a specific two pixel section and you just camp there.
And the knowledge that for every recorded successful speed run, some guy did 100+ failed ones is the icing on that boredom cake.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Meduka Meguca / Being meguca is suffering.

I'm a huge Madoka Magica fan, but I can't say I ever found this funny nor did I ever understood why anyone would. It's just stupid, and not a funny kind of stupid.

 

[PlayerDos]

Speedruns. I never understood the appeal. I mean they're mostly just exploitations of glitches that warp you to the end credits, or a glitch that sees the final boss unable to shoot through a specific two pixel section and you just camp there.
And the knowledge that for every recorded successful speed run, some guy did 100+ failed ones is the icing on that boredom cake.

Speedrunning isn't a meme.

OT: Mostly any meme recreated in real life.

 

[TakerFoxx]

From the touhou fandom: the whole Yuyuko eats Mystia thing (because it's mean) and the yukkuri thing (because it's gross).

 

[Recusant]

Is it cheating if I say all of them? I've never understood this idea that making a reference to a shared cultural background or experience is somehow supposed to be witty or noteworthy or, well, worth doing for its own sake at all, really. The only reasonable explanation I can find for it is that some time ago, some... culture creator, let's call them, heard the old chestnut "the pun is the lowest form of humor", and took it as a challenge. It's nothing more than a shorthanded way of saying "Hey, remember this?" and, for some reason, expecting (usually) a laugh.

What I find especially obnoxious is the presumption that a shared experience is, in fact, shared- or, rather, the side effects of said presumption. For months, I heard people spouting that "arrow in the knee" line (and sometimes jokes, but a joke, even a bad one, is at least a joke, and to them, this criticism doesn't apply) with no real context or explanation, and then scowling at me when I didn't smile back. Everyone else did, and I just assumed that they all bore a grudge against one of the few people known (if Marco Polo's informant is to be believed) to have died from an arrow to the knee; namely Genghis Khan. It wasn't until I lost my patience and snapped "and how many times have you started the largest empire humanity has ever seen?" that I was even told it had anything to do with Skyrim, which I had played without ever hearing it.

I suppose this is just part of a general trend towards greater abbreviation for the age of texting, and I'm just an old dinosaur pointing out to people that 'crap' isn't an adjective; that 'pressure' isn't a verb; that 'invite', 'reveal' and 'fail' aren't nouns; and that dictionaries are, in fact, real. But as annoying as I find it, this fad is just a fad; it too will pass.

 

[Thaluikhain]

A lot of the MLP stuff about friendship and love, after hordes of MLP fans were outraged that they'd not be making fun of the handicapped in the show anymore.

 

[Twintix]

From the touhou fandom: the whole Yuyuko eats Mystia thing (because it's mean) and the yukkuri thing (because it's gross).

Can I just add that I dislike pretty much all Touhou memes? They're spammed everywhere, always out of context, and the worst part is that people decide to use these memes and base their entire headcanon around them. And then they get upset when the characters are, not, in fact, walking meme personifications.

The one I dislike the most, though, is this one:

"CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!"

I hate this one. People spam it in every single Touhou video with Chen in it. There's no context, it's not funny, it was never funny, why do people insist that it is?

The Touhou fandom produces many great things, but the memes are not one of those things.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Dolan

I just....what's even up with it? What's it even about? Why does it exist? How did it ever came into existence?! It baffles my mind.

The Harlem Shake
It's not humorous. Or if it is, it fails. It doesn't seem to have any real purpose. It's famous for being famous.

I must say I loved the British Royal Family doing it though, if only for the sheer weirdness of it. Seeing the oldest living monarch flail around with a bright pink boa is just the absurd what-the-fuck moment you sometimes need. It makes the world a brighter place.

 

[NotEvenOnce]

The Harlem Shake
It's not humorous. Or if it is, it fails. It doesn't seem to have any real purpose. It's famous for being famous.

Well I dont think it was ever meant to be funny. It was just a weird, par for the course Filthy Frank shock humour video that ended in less than 30 seconds. Im sure the only reason its popular is because anyone can make one, and its essentially just a "funny button" anyone can press for instant laughs... Like what Recusant said:

Is it cheating if I say all of them? I've never understood this idea that making a reference to a shared cultural background or experience is somehow supposed to be witty or noteworthy or, well, worth doing for its own sake at all, really. The only reasonable explanation I can find for it is that some time ago, some... culture creator, let's call them, heard the old chestnut "the pun is the lowest form of humor", and took it as a challenge. It's nothing more than a shorthanded way of saying "Hey, remember this?" and, for some reason, expecting (usually) a laugh.

It's pretty much the same phenomenon as Bazinga. Its not a joke, there is no clever set up, or misdirection. There was, but not any more... Its just boiled down to an instant laugh in a can; and the laugh track, the huge viewing audience, and the popularity of the catch phrase tell people its funny. Humor is social, so they laugh along too. It stops being about the meme or the joke itself, and just the habit of laughing because of it. Its easy to recycle and any one can feel clever or up to date throwing around and it just snowballs from there.

OT: Doge speak really gets on my nerves when I hear people do it in person.

 

[zumbledum]

found stupid

every single one of them, the inane parroting of the same "joke" to a tedious banal repetition just shows a crippling lack of imagination vocabulary and independent thought. i mean why do it?

 

[Pinkamena]

Dolan

I just....what's even up with it? What's it even about? Why does it exist? How did it ever came into existence?! It baffles my mind.

Cowbanag pls

It's stylistic shittyness. Ever read Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff? Same thing.

Spoiler

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Speedruns. I never understood the appeal. I mean they're mostly just exploitations of glitches that warp you to the end credits, or a glitch that sees the final boss unable to shoot through a specific two pixel section and you just camp there.
And the knowledge that for every recorded successful speed run, some guy did 100+ failed ones is the icing on that boredom cake.

I don't understand, what do speedruns have to do with memes? Am I missing something?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Speedruns. I never understood the appeal. I mean they're mostly just exploitations of glitches that warp you to the end credits, or a glitch that sees the final boss unable to shoot through a specific two pixel section and you just camp there.
And the knowledge that for every recorded successful speed run, some guy did 100+ failed ones is the icing on that boredom cake.

I don't understand, what do speedruns have to do with memes? Am I missing something?

Yeah, second that, they are just a form of virtual racing, aren't they?

A popular one, which makes it a meme, I guess, but not in the context that is being discussed.

 

[Trooper924]

As a brony, I tend to get tired of most MLP memes pretty quickly due to other bronys' tendancy to beat a dead horse to death (no pun intended). Especially some of the older one--Fluttershy is a tree, Scootaloo is a tree, Pinkie Pie has murderous alternate personality, "20 percent cooler" etc. Though, as older memes, their use has mercifully declined, but if you really want make me foam at the mouth, just say one of them or reference it unironically in a fan fic.

 

[Lieju]

I suppose this is just part of a general trend towards greater abbreviation for the age of texting, and I'm just an old dinosaur pointing out to people that 'crap' isn't an adjective; that 'pressure' isn't a verb; that 'invite', 'reveal' and 'fail' aren't nouns; and that dictionaries are, in fact, real. But as annoying as I find it, this fad is just a fad; it too will pass.

But memes have always been around, the only thing that has changed is that the Internet makes it easier to spread them around.
There has always been things like these, what else are things like sayings or rituals than memes?
A quick 'yes, we are a part of the same cultural background' has always been a thing.

In the small village I grew up in there were a lot of these, and I get the feeling they were very much used to show how you were a 'real' villager, born and grown up there, and not one of these new summer inhabitants...

Thus references to people who I guess lived there generations ago? To this day I do not know who the hell 'Musu' was, apart from apparently a career criminal? Or why the appropriate response to being amused is calling yourself a priest. Or why offering bread to snakes is a joke.

 

[McElroy]

As a brony, I tend to get tired of most MLP memes pretty quickly due to other bronys' tendancy to beat a dead horse to death (no pun intended). Especially some of the older one--Fluttershy is a tree, Scootaloo is a tree, Pinkie Pie has murderous alternate personality, "20 percent cooler" etc. Though, as older memes, their use has mercifully declined, but if you really want make me foam at the mouth, just say one of them or reference it unironically in a fan fic.

I think we should settle on all ponies being 20% cooler trees with murderous alternate personalities.

Shitty memes, shitty memes... Well, I really dislike 9Gag in general, which is why I never go there. My wow such good meme filter does its job. It's the outlined, white, ALL-CAPS Impact that's become so grating.

 

[visiblenoise]

I'm struggling to think of one that I really like. Most are just good for one chuckle, and from there they start to get annoying.

 

[Yopaz]

What I find especially obnoxious is the presumption that a shared experience is, in fact, shared- or, rather, the side effects of said presumption. For months, I heard people spouting that "arrow in the knee" line (and sometimes jokes, but a joke, even a bad one, is at least a joke, and to them, this criticism doesn't apply) with no real context or explanation, and then scowling at me when I didn't smile back. Everyone else did, and I just assumed that they all bore a grudge against one of the few people known (if Marco Polo's informant is to be believed) to have died from an arrow to the knee; namely Genghis Khan. It wasn't until I lost my patience and snapped "and how many times have you started the largest empire humanity has ever seen?" that I was even told it had anything to do with Skyrim, which I had played without ever hearing it.

Hit the nail squarely on the head here. A joke is about the context, the build-up and timing, not just the punchline. Another thing is that a joke, even a good joke is best the first time you hear it. If you end up being told the same joke 5 times over the span of a week you won't find it as funny as you did the first time. A meme on the other hand is just the punchline, sometimes it's just a sentence taken out of its context that wasn't even fun in its original context.

If I were to pick one it would have to be "Arrow to the knee" though. Because of the popularity of Skyrim it was all over for a long time and I didn't find it funny the first time.