Internet humor or "millennial humor" as it's sometimes called, Is a strange tangle of the absurd and seemingly nonsensical, that can be difficult to understand to an outsider. To better understand it we must look to Canadian philosopher Marshal McLuhan. Marshal McLuhan coined the term "the medium is the message " in his 1964 book Understanding media. The way McLuhan explains this concept is the example of something like a light bulb, a light bulb does not have content in the way that a newspaper has articles or a television has programs, yet it is a medium that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to create spaces during night time that would otherwise be enveloped by darkness.McLuhan applies this theory to film saying that, "the world of sequence and connections into the world of creative configuration and structure."[3] And Therefore,the message of the movie medium is this transition from "lineal connections" to"configurations." But there is something I believe this theory applies to much better and something much more applicable to Internet Humor. Memes, if we apply this maxim too memes we can come to better understand them and demystify them to some degree.If we think about memes with this maxim in mind we can place memes onto a spectrum ranging from memes with a direct message to memes with out a direct message.Where on the spectrum a meme belongs can be discerned on a case by case bases. To aid in this there are a few features that can be used to discern where on the spectrum a meme belongs . The main difference between the two ends of the spectrum is specificity. A meme with a specific message that communicates a specific idea or specific broad feeling or experience, is most likely near the direct message meme end of the spectrum. Memes on the far end of the direct message meme spectrum are often used similarly to a political cartoon in that they promote a specific ideology or set of beliefs.On the other end of the spectrum are memes with seemingly no clear message. But how do these to categories help us to unravel Internet humor?By setting up the broadness of the medium we can ask a question, what makes these memes both funny.While traditional humor is often derived form common experiences or truths, memes are different. While some memes do use this source of comedy not all do. Then where do they gain their comedic value from? Many articles from publications such s the Washington post and the Guardian, have posited that Internet humor often relies on the absurd as a source of comedy. I too agree with this, In a different sense. I argue the absurdity of the content of the meme is not the source of comedy. But the absurdity of the medium. The ability for anyone to anonymously share a meme and for it to spread and evolve via the internet is absurd. The best example of this is the E meme. The meme has no message it's merely a hodge-podge of photo shopped parts with a meaning less message of only singular letter. The humor of E comes from the absurdity of it being meme. In essence the humor comes from the medium. The only difference between the comedy of many memes and say for example stand up, is the medium in which they are presented.Many meme in fact use the same references too common experiences and or truths that traditional comedy uses, but they are distinct due to the absurdity of their medium and the often fleeting nature of said medium.Therefor we can conclude that internet humor is not best understood by studying its content, but rather its medium.
