andimprouvaire:

do you ever share a tumblr joke with your mom only you need to like, cut the curse words and complete the sentences and by the time you do that it’s a completely different syntactical structure and possibly a separate language 

I’ve noticed that my mom is completely flummoxed by jokes that exist only in predicate—eg., “when you put a spoon under the tap and it does the thing”

like she’ll just sit there waiting for the rest of the sentence

and it’s interesting because jokes like that are generally paired with reaction pics or gifs, but now it’s not always necessary because just the structure of the sentence—like a stand-up snapshot—triggers the association, and the ambiance of universal camaraderie cultivated therein.  

but like my mom doesn’t even understand reaction images and having to explain the whole concept actually forced me to think about how memes function linguistically and culturally in the first place—“the image represents you, and your reaction.” “to the post?” “no, to the situation described by the post.”—and I think it’s actually a complex system of representation that is only able to function in the networked culture of instant symbolic formation and self-reflexivity 

idk that’s fuckin cool shit