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Robert Lovelady
Professor Sherry Steward
ENC 4415
18 July 2014
Introduction
Memes are one of the most well-known kinds of jokes or forms of humor on
the internet, and consist of image-text combinations. They are a large part of
internet popular culture, and range in variety and frequency. In various meme
websites, one can find hundreds of stand-alone image and text combinations, or
hundreds of unique copies of the same image with a different style of text applied,
following an associated template. Many use memes not only to make jokes, but to
send a message or make a point through humor. They way memes are designed
and used can be thought of using rhetorical frameworks, in order to better
understand them as an internet phenomenon.
Memes often attempt to make a point, and while they are authorless and
disconnected from their creator when they are viewed, they still have a certain
ethos about them. Whether we are agreeing to laugh at something a meme points
out, or react to a meme that is pointing out something frustration about society, we
are being affected by its message, and we may not necessarily be concerned with
the credibility of its message nor aware of how it makes such a message. Here, I
propose to analyze how memes establish ethos, by exploring the rhetorical context
of the world wide web, the rhetorical moves made by involving humor, and how
audiences perceive credibility on the web.
Since it would be futile to attempt to analyze memes in general, due to their
vast diversity in style, appearance, and use, I will focus three examples of a specific

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type of image-text memes that are popular, which I will use as a case study to
speculate the effects of design and use on the ethos of memes. These memes will
be a specific subset of what I describe as template memes, which all feature the
same image, and have a sort of style or formula that the text must abide by. For
instance, the Imminent Ned meme follows a template of a specific image of the
Game of thrones character Ned Stark, with the caption Brace yourselves, X is
coming, where X is a phrase the creator inserts. Ultimately, through analyzing
memes as digital rhetoric, I will examine how the World Wide Web is redefining the
way we receive rhetoric in a changing online environment.

Methods
My analysis will begin with selecting three examples of a specific type of
meme, in order to qualitatively compare the variety of rhetorical moves they make
as part of the same genre of memes. These memes will be chose based on their
popularity, so that plentiful examples are available for analysis. In addition, they will
be obtained from different settings to observe how the use of the meme itself
impacted a larger online discourse.
I will apply readings from my research on online ethos and memetics to
understand what a meme does, and how it has evolved over time from a simple
concept of shared cultural ideas to what we have today as image-texts. In addition
to analyzing the setting of and the use of the three chosen memes, their design will
be analyzed as well. Features such as the font, image, length of text, and clarity of
message will be analyzed, to further explore how each meme develops ethos with
an audience.

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Format
In addition to a textual analysis, this final project will include some form of
image to aid the analysis of an example meme. I plan to take an image of a meme
used in an online discussion or form of social media, and use line, arrows, text
blocks, and other visual tools to help analyze how a meme was used in a specific
setting, what its design accomplished, and how it affected the discussion.
Alternately, I have thought about using an image of a meme before the
textual analysis that makes a believable, but not entirely factual claim or accurate
observation in order to have some affect upon the reader of this final project. As my
textual analysis proceeds, I would reference this meme periodically to draw parallels
between concepts I describe from my readings to support my arguments about
users perceptions when they encounter memes on the web. For example, if I
included a meme making a humorous observation about a politician that also
carries a subtle message about them, later on I would be able to show my reader an
example of how humor can be used to establish ethos. I might write something like
Did you find the meme on the front page funny, even if you didnt fully agree with
its perspective? According to (author name), if you laughed at it, youre already
more likely to agree with it, even if it holds a conflicting view (Discuss article by
author).
The only concerns I have for this research is that there are many factors
involved in what makes a meme rhetorical, and that I need to be able to focus on a
few key factors and make a successful argument only with them, supported by the
readings Ive done. I feel like I could research this for weeks, involving oral tradition,

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the history of comedy, memetics, Aristotelian ethos, and more; however I must
maintain a narrow scope.

Annotated Bibliography

Bell, M. (2013). What I Really Meme Is .. Internet@Schools, 20(2), 24-25.

This article starts with an unfamiliar view of internet memes, and attempts to
define them in the context of going viral in social media. Richard Dawkins is
cited here as one of the original contributors to the field of discourse on
memes, and Bell interprets the genetic context of Dawkins idea and
compares it to social media. Bell has the advantage of being able to recall
culture from the 1970s, when Dawkins article was published, and draws
some parallels between modern memes and cultural memes from that period.
Bell then compares memes to fads and popular culture to cite their success
amongst youth. Bell asserts that memes can be beneficial to the field of
education, and makes several recommendations based on examples from
schools across the country. Finally, Bell explores the creation of a modern
meme, and how electronic media plays a role in making a meme from an
image and text.
This article helps bridge the gap between Dawkins use of the term meme
to describe a cultural exchange of an idea and modern humorous image-text
memes. Bells perspective from the 1970s will help me explain the concept
of a meme and its importance on the internet as more than just an exchange
of humor. Like Bells suggestion that memes can be useful in a learning
context, this article supports the idea that memes do something, which is an

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idea I will use to establish how memes have a certain ethos. Bell interestingly
mentions that some meme generators she uses had advertisements
embedded in them, which she wanted to avoid. This indicates a subtle reason
why ethos is important for a meme, as many factors can impact the
credibility of a standalone image-text. Bells description of how a meme is
created today will be helpful to explain how cultural beliefs take form in
modern day memes.
152/155

Brzsei, Linda. (2013) Makes a Meme Instead: A Concise History of Internet Memes.
Dissertation. Utrecht University. Retrieved
from:http://www.academia.edu/3649116/Makes_a_Meme_Instead_A_Concise_
History_of_Internet_Memes
This dissertation recognizes much of the important literature in the field of
memetics and culture, and applies an academic lens through which to
understand their work in the context of digital culture and the internet.
Brzsei starts with visiting the roots of memes on the internet and exploring
the history of the first memes, and traces the development of memes for
humor and social media. While this is a difficult task to pursue, Brzsei
utilizes a variety of sources to best track the history of certain memes, and
analyzes where they originated and in what context. While Brzsei utilizes
some theories to analyze memes as a cultural phenomenon, she stays in
touch with her more culturally aware audience, and utilizes memes in her
paper, as well as witty section titles that are relevant to the ideas she
explores. Overall this serves as both a brief history of memes and the history
of their use.
This paper will be useful in explaining the origins of memes and analyzing the
specific places they first appeared in, which I can use to also trace the
development of their ethos. As technology was developed and we saw the
rise of the internet, the idea of credibility in electronic media began to change
as well, so a history of the development of this technology in the context of
memes will allow me to aim at specific examples at developing ethos in
image-text memes. While there are many sources that analyze the work of
Dawkins with regard to memetics, I often find they are not helpful because
the academic context limits the way scholar analyze memetics with regard to
the internet today. This is a more recent work, and since the author is more
familiar with the content matter, their analysis of memetics and Dawkins
ideas are more useful for my exploration of memes.
154/154

Hbler, M. T., & Bell, D. (2003). Computer-mediated humor and ethos: Exploring
threads of constitutive laughter in online communities. Computers &
Composition, 20(3), 277. doi:10.1016/S8755-4615(03)00036-7
This article by Hubler and Bell explore how online communities establish
ethos though humor by analyzing online groups and writing center email-lists.
They observe that humor is important in establishing and sustaining
discursive relationships in a workplace, and that humor plays a critical role in
negotiating different hierarchies. This idea is supported by the idea that
humor is related to structure and rhetorical processes, which are community
building practices that web users can engage in maintaining a social
structure such as a workplace. Examples are shown to demonstrate how
ethos can be built using humor, by either establishing it through positive
humor or negative humor. Hubler and Bell further explain how speakers
create group ethos, and how the humor of each individual eventually reflects
that of the group, while at the same time using a sort of humor template, and
making a unique joke their own.
This source helps draw some parallels between Dawkins work and others to
humor and modern web users. By studying a group that utilized electronic
media to spread and create humor, a sort of ethos emerged from individuals
and the group, leading to de-emphasized authority. This idea then connects
to other sources regarding the de-valuing of authorship on the web and how
notions of web ethos are changing, by providing examples in a humorous
context like memes do. The study also analyzes the influences of the
character of the speaker/ rhetor of groups, and how joking was used much
like a classical rhetorical appeal to establish those influences. Finally, this
article emphasizes computers as the primary media through which this
exchange of humor took place, describing the environment and constraints of
a mailing list and how it was used to share jokes in a work environment.
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Imminent Ned/ Brace Yourselves, X is coming. (2013). Retrieved July 14, 2013 from
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/imminent-ned-brace-yourselves-x-iscoming
Knowyourmeme.com is a well-known website whose goal is to serve as a sort
of encyclopedia for memes, documenting their origin, the origin of the source
material, and their use. All articles on knowyourmeme follow a template that
explores the origin of a meme, how and when it spread, what some examples
are, and provides a template sometimes. This particular meme, Imminent

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Ned, is from the HBO show Game of Thrones, based off of A Song of Fire and
Ice by George R.R. Martin. Knowyourmeme describes this meme as an image
macro series featuring a primary character, and explains that this type of
meme is replicated by many users by altering its text. A video link is provided
to give context to those unfamiliar with the show, and shows images detailing
the first uses of the meme, and explains its origins on Reddit. The Notable
Examples section show appropriate examples of the memes use.
I plan to use knowyourmeme for several memes I will analyze, in order to
trace the time and place of their origin. This website also provides some
statistical data on how often the meme has been used and google searched,
giving me a rough estimate of its prevalence. The type of meme is also
described here as an image macro series. While there is no official name for
this type of meme, it is the type I plan to base my analysis off of. There are
some links to other popular meme websites on this page that will probably
help me find some specific uses of this meme, so that I can talk more about
how it is used in different places on the internet. The rhetorical context- the
situation, audience, and kairos of the meme will impact its ethos, which I will
take into account when I analyze it.
153/150

Leick, James. (2011, May). What Defines a Meme? Our World is a Place Where
Information Can Behave Like Human Genes and Ideas Can Replicate, Mutate,
and Evolve. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-defines-a-meme1904778/?all
This article elaborates on Dawkins ideas on genetics and memetics, tying the
realm of ideas and science together. James elaborates on how ideas create
other ideas and how they are understood by a person to create new
meanings or understandings of a concept. He elaborates on genetics as a
metaphor for processing ideas, with replicating genes being analogous to
replicated ideas, spreading from person to person, being passed down. James
further explains Dawkins metaphor by describing that memes exist can exist
as ideas that survive between brains, traveling between people, and being
passed down in new and different forms. He cites Dawkins metaphor for
religion, which like simpler ideas- tunes, catchphrases, and images, survives
in the back of the mind and surface in the actions and ideas of a person
through their subconscious. James also describes memes as being dependent
on language for transmission, which have changed with the advent of
electronic language.

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This article interprets Dawkins work to explain how the transmission of ideas
becomes dependent on the medium it is transferred through, and how ideas
can survive from generation to generation. This article will help me explain
Dawkins concepts in addition to some other sources. It has taken several
articles with different descriptions to fully understand the concepts Dawkins
discusses, and to build my ideas on the spread of memes through social
media. Using Jamess explanation of Dawkins concepts, I can also trace the
origins of memetics as ideas spreading from mind to mind through shared
information, evolving to take place in a cultural medium, spreading ideas
through humor and other means. The way these memes spread rely on ethos,
which I an examine with the understanding that Jamess explanations
provide. James also traces the spread of some early memes on the early
internet, which gives me some background information to add to meme
history.
153/154

Marsh, C. (2006). Aristotelian Ethos and the New Orality: Implications for Media
Literacy and Media Ethics. Journal Of Mass Media Ethics, 21(4), 338-352.
doi:10.1207/s15327728jmme2104_8
This article explores ethos as a rhetorical concept taught by Aristotle, which
has changed in modern media alongside changes in oral tradition. Marsh
begins by speculating that new oral cultures feature reduced levels of critical
assessment of media messages, in contrast to classical notions of ethos
which are set in the context of oratory skills. Ethos is described as essential in
casting an oral spell over an audience, which in Greek times, relied on oral
tradition to transmit and store cultural norms. Marsh contrasts this to modern
tradition, where human intellect is utilized more to critically analyze a
message rather than store it. This is the foundation of traditional alphabetic
literacy, by which modern ethics was derived from critical thinking rather
than memorizing oral tradition. However, Marsh identifies that recent oral
cultures which use mass media are featuring reduced levels of critical
assessment of media messages, and leaves the implications of this openended.
This article is important to understand of how ethos has changed since
ancient Greece, and how it apparently is changing again with the advent of
the world wide web. Oral tradition is useful when analyzing ethos, as it
provides ways to think about the goals of an orator or rhetor, and how they
affect their message. Marsh describes that Aristotle taught rhetoric as it was
and not how it should be, claiming that ethos was merely a media construct;
an achievement of what the speaker was saying, and was not affected

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judgments of a speakers character before they began delivering any oration.
Marshs claim that modern media is causing unanalytical reactions by modern
audiences is compelling when considering memes largely make sensory
appeals through image and text, instead of logical ones. Marsh speculates
the fate of modern ethics, which I am interested in distinguishing as
fundamentally different than the ethos of a print-medium generation.
153/154

Vandaele, J. (2010). Narrative Humor (I): Enter Perspective. Poetics Today, 31(4),
721-785.
Vandaeles article explores narrative humor with several different studies
conducted by scholars in the field of comedy study. Vandaele poses the
question asking what narrative humor is, and uses initial assertions maintain
that comedy is a form of narrative, which forces audience members to
internall switch between intentions, beliefs, goals, emotions, and other
factors of the participants of a situated comedy. However, the differences
between comedy and narrative are what Vandaele focuses on, and claims
that comedy is reliant on incongruity, while narrative is not. With this idea
comedy is redefined involving agents, incongruity, and exploiting relations
between agents involved. Vandaele also uses this idea to critique other
studies in the field, by pointing out complications with others theories, and
by contrasting them to the established idea of metanarrative humor.
Vandaele defines narrative as more than a story, but rather discourse, which
is an important part of establishing comedy.
This article establishes some theory behind what makes comedy successful
and are the primary elements of situated comedy in narrative form. In
addition, the author analyzes the narrative humor issue from both sides,
drawing comparisons and differences between narrative and comedy as
processes involving an audience. This analysis will be useful in determining
the audiences role in a comedic situation involving a meme, and determining
how the meme establishes a narrative. Many memes are designed with
narrative in mind, ranging from 4-koma panels to lengthier multi-image
memes, and this article can compare the relationship of an agent to a
participant or audience member of a meme, or multiple audiences.
Classifying a meme as a type of narrative will be useful in order to make this
comparison, and the information provided in this article will enable me to do
that as well. This would allow me to analyze the ethos of a meme as
perceived as a narrative.
149/157

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Warnick, B. (2004) Online Ethos: Source Credibility in an Authorless Environment,

American Behavioral Scientist 48(2): 25665.
Warnicks article explores the concept of changing credibility in a web
environment, where traditional factors that affect ethos, such as authorship
and affiliation, are absent or different from the way were used to studying
them. Warnick establishes ethos in the context of ancient Greece, and
explains how moral character was valued over evidence in a trial (a common
setting for ancient oratory). Warnick draws parallels between this model of
ethos and modern web credibility, where users often gauge websites by
similar means. Warnick utilizes three studies which utilized surveys to assess
what users viewed as most important when seeking out a website. The
results reveal that users were most influences by design, usefulness of
information, relevance, and other superficial criteria. These findings support
Warnicks idea that in order to assess web credibility, we need to move away
from thinking in modernist ways, whereby we assess the value of a print
source.
This article provides more information about ethos on the web, and it details
specifically what some users find most useful in assessing the credibility of a
website. Results such as font type and use of white space were among design
factors that led people to either abandon websites or continue to use them,
rather than assessing the site authors or sponsors. This is interesting as it
indicates what users value, and my analysis of a type of meme can benefit
from applying this study to understand why messages are so reliant on
image-text combinations. This also helps create a new understanding for how
memes are assessed, as this article indicates that authorship is not important
to the average internet user. Furthermore, analyzing the average audience
member on the internet will be necessary in order to analyze how memes
establish credibility, and how they manage and meet expectations of web
users.
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