Do Memes Ruin Movies?
The following movie is… a meme.
Tell me more about how films are made. One does not simply talk about movies. That escalated quickly.
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| I don't even have a degree in film, yet here I am. |
A meme is “a virally-transmitted cultural symbol or social idea.” Memes are images taken from photos, current events, and media and used to make fun of someone’s behaviors/actions. Each of the statements above are based off of popular memes that come from films. When a scene from a film is taken and used as a meme, does this change the audience’s feelings when watching the original scene in its original context?
Yes, it does. Memes cause a fundamental change in how we view movies. For example, look at serious films and how the mood is changed due to sharing memes. In The Shining, Jack has fallen into madness in the Overlook Hotel and has convinced himself that his family needs to be “corrected” (killed). Jack chases his wife through the hotel and into their lodgings with an ax. While Jack is swinging the ax in an attempt to kill his wife and child, Wendy (Jack’s wife) rushes to the bathroom and barricades the door to evade him. Jack breaks through some of the door with the ax, pokes his head through the small opening, and menacingly says “Here’s Johnny!”. The next shot shows Wendy screaming at the ax continuing to break through the door while she holds onto a knife. This image has been shared online with different text over-top it for years and is used as a joke to send to friends about anything from Jehovah's witnesses to Bill Cosby’s trial.
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| The original stills from The Shining. |
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| An example of the same scene used as a meme. |
Having this meme spread around makes the scene from the film less impact. This part of the movie is horrific and tense, but this tension and terror is lessened due to the popular imagery being used as something funny to share with friends. Memes have made serious scenes in film weaker by making them funny to see rather than pivotal emotional moments. When people see Jack Nicholson’s character break through the door, they will feel the urge to laugh rather than feel fear.
There is also the meme of the Babadook from the movie The Babadook being gay. The Babadook is a horrific creature that was born from a storybook within the film. There was a theory that Netflix had accidentally categorized The Babadook under the "Gay/Lesbian" film category instead of the "Horror" genre. While this is a popular theory, the "'Gay Babadook' was born when a somewhat ironic post to Tumblr in October [2017] went viral: 'Whenever someone says the Babadook isn’t openly gay it’s like?? Did you even watch the movie??'"
While this may be a humorous meme that a random Tumblr user created, this post does have an impact on how the audience now sees The Babadook. The Babadook’s character becomes less frightening after someone has seen the gay Babadook meme. The ridiculousness of the meme negates the terrifying character, resulting in a movie that has less impact.
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| Who would have imagined that this character would become an icon in LGBT+ culture? |
What do you guys think? Do you think that memes change the way we see films or that it has no effect?
I'll leave you with one final image: our gay queen, The Babadook.
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| May he reign forever... |
Hold in your laughter and put your phone away, the show’s about to begin.
Michelle, I definitely think that memes have an impact on how we view movies. I knew immediately that your comment “One does not simply talk about movies” was from the Lord of the Rings. While I like the Lord of the Rings books and movies, constantly seeing memes about the series influences how I watch the movies now. For instance, whenever I see the Lord of the Rings’ scene where the meme line "One does not simply talk about movies" originated from, I start thinking about funny memes and suddenly the movie seems less serious. But I think that with movies like Anchorman, memes with lines like “That escalated quickly” don’t influence how we view the movie. Because memes are meant to be humorous, taking memes from comedy movies doesn’t impact our perception as much compared to taking memes from more serious or scary movies (like your example from The Shining). I also think that seeing memes about a movie can make you less likely to watch that movie. I’ve never seen The Shining, but I feel like I already know all the major plot points because there are so many pop culture references and memes from The Shining.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even think about how memes could ruin the plot of the movie for someone! Especially since memes take popular imagery from film, it would definitely spoil major points of the movie for people who haven't seen it before. I also considered what memes do for comedies and I honestly think they make comedies less funny. It's like when someone replays a joke over and over again, it becomes so repetitive that no one laughs at it anymore. When I watch Anchorman, I don't even break a smile during "Wow, That escalated quickly" because I've seen that meme so many times.
DeleteWhen the Babadook first started being used as an LGBT+ symbol, I didn't know that it was from a scary movie. I hate scary movies, as addressed on your last blog post, but I'm not sure if The Babadook would scare me as much as it would have if the Babadook had not become an LGBT+ icon.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite memes are Harry Potter memes. In this case, they don't ruin the movie for me. I think they don't ruin the movies for me, though, because I have such a great love for the Harry Potter franchise. It's been ten years since the last book came out, and 6 years since the last movie, but I still realize things that JK Rowling did with her characters or the plot. We know she wrote the ending fairly early in the Harry Potter writing process, and as you read the series, you realize how genius she truly was. I don't think anything could ruin the franchise for me. Not even the stupid memes about them. If anything, they add to my Harry Potter experience, and I am grateful for them.
I think it is very interesting to look at the influence memes have on our view of movies. A good example for me is The Office. Although it is a movie, the same principal still applies. Before I watched the TV show, I had seen so many memes (where did that word come from, anyway??) of Micheal Scott that some of the humor of popular scenes was lost on me, because I had already seen it somewhere else. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on GIFs made from movie clips. GIFs can potentially be edited as well, so do you think these are something film-viewers need to worry about in the future?
ReplyDeleteI think gifs can also play a part in how we see movies. Gifs and memes surprisingly have a lot in common! Gifs and memes are both shared as reactions to others words and actions, one is a moving image (gifs) and the other is usually stagnant (memes). Gifs are something that could potentially ruin movies in the future because it's playing a scene on loop and that in and of itself can overplay a scene and leave the viewer unfazed by the scene when played in its original context. I think gifs are becoming more popular, especially since more social media sites are allowing the formatting for them on their apps and sites, and we will be seeing more reaction gifs shared and more movies spoiled in the process.
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