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[intriguing electronic music]
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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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Voiceover: Do you glance around
sometimes
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and wonder what everyone's
looking at?
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What they're looking for?
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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By 2021, it's estimated
more people around the world
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will have smartphones than
running water.
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00:00:17,034 --> 00:00:18,931
On the face of it, we seem
distracted
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and fragmented by digital
culture,
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but are we perhaps craving
connection in new ways?
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Creating, sharing,
reacting as never before?
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As we film this, every second,
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8,000 tweets are send
into the Twittersphere,
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850 Instagram photos
are uploaded,
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and there are 68,000 Google
searches.
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In amongst the digital
traffic,
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millions of jokes, videos,
music samples, and images
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are being shared
from friend to friend
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or anonymously
on message boards.
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These are memes.
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[upbeat electronic music]
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Internet memes can often
appear frivolous,
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sometimes almost random
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and frequently uncomfortable.
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But they're being churned
out 24 hours a day,
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competing in an attention
economy
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that draws web traffic
and advertising revenue.
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The circumstances
of what it means
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to be a human being
that's connected
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in this world has completely
changed.
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I think it's exciting
and weird
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and strange and interesting.
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It is a bit scary, though.
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Voiceover: To try to grapple
with this brave new world,
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I'm going to experiment with
inventing
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and distributing some memes
myself,
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meeting anyone
from scientists...
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That would be a good meme.
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Voiceover:
And internet gurus...
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- It's posted. Yes!
- It's gone!
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Voiceover: To YouTube stars...
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Oh, that's disgusting,
actually.
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Voiceover: ..and a troll...
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Meme shared.
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- Meme shared.
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Voiceover: ..will tell me
how to get more shares.
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How do we make something
go viral? [laughs]
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To understand our world
today,
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I think we need
to decode memes,
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how they've worked and spread
in the past,
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and how they work and spread
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with dizzying speed in
the present,
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how they don't just
represent what we think
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but also shape what we think.
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[soft electronic music]
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Memes have been around a lot
longer than the internet.
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[ecstatic music]
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You can copy this at home if
you like.
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The V sign, said to have
started 600 years ago
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at the Battle of Agincourt,
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when English archers
defiantly showed the French
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the fingers they'd used to
draw longbows against them.
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It became a gesture of abuse,
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but then had a new lease of
life in the Second World War.
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[planes whirring]
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Churchill adopted
the V as a symbol
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of resistance to fascism.
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The Allies used mass
communication
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to encourage people across
occupied Europe
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to graffiti Vs for victory
as a symbol of defiance.
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["Symphony No. 5"
by Beethoven]
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When American president
Richard Nixon
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started using V for victory as
he wound up the Vietnam War,
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hippie protestors recycled
it as a symbol of peace, man.
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So up yours, victory, peace.
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A catchy cultural symbol that
caught on
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with different generations and
spread from person to person,
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mutating, changing its
meanings,
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and being passed on again.
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In today's terminology,
it's a meme.
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The intriguing questions
is, why do certain memes,
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like the V sign, become so
successful,
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subject to seemingly endless
reuse and reinterpretation,
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while most memes are just
forgotten?
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[typing]
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Today, technology
and mass literacy
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mean we produce and consume
memes as never before.
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But which internet memes are
gonna have
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the viral success of
something like the V sign?
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Luckily, someone is cataloguing
the needles
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in the internet haystack.
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[horn honking]
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Launched in 2008,
'Know Your Meme'
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is a kind of Wikipedia
of memes
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but, more than that,
a benchmark.
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When Know Your Meme
catalogues a new meme,
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it gives it official status
as a notable cultural event.
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[intriguing electronic music]
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So perhaps editor Brad Kim
can tell me
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what's going on,
and why, just why.
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Why should we take memes
seriously?
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- You don't necessarily have
to take memes seriously.
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But to be serious,
we have a daily craving
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for things that
are just so...
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dumb that it leaves you with
the feeling
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I laughed a little harder
than I should have.
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I think it's an escapism.
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Certain literary devices
that are used in memes
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are timeless.
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Non-sequiturs, for instance,
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not making sense
intentionally,
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going against logic, WTF.
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One of my favourite videos
on the internet is actually
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a five-second video of
a waffle falling over.
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The name of the video is
"Waffle Falling Over."
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The reason why I love
it is it's very compact
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in setting up all the right
jokes,
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which is you click on a video
that says
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"Waffle Falling Over,"
and you're anticipating,
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you're trying to imagine
what this is gonna be like.
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It's exactly what it is, and
you're left with this feeling
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that's kind of empty,
but it's also like,
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what else did I really expect?
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Do you have any advice
for me in making a meme?
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- Hey, this is a
people-approved idea.
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Don't try to focus
too much about
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how far it's going to go.
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Intent shows through,
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especially
if it doesn't deliver.
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Then it's the worst-case
scenario,
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which is it's the try hard,
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failing at an attempt
to make virals.
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Voiceover: I like that notion
of the meme
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as a people-approved idea,
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a unitive culture that lives
or dies
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00:06:03,724 --> 00:06:06,068
depending on whether people
share it.
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This is the key to the
internet's irresistible rise.
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It's been driven be here
today, gone tomorrow fads,
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00:06:12,931 --> 00:06:15,758
unpredictable moments when
jokes and technology collide
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and capture the imagination
of internet crowds.
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The history of memes is
littered with unlikely hits.
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Look at this.
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[upbeat electronic music]
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This is dancing baby
from 1996.
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[record scratching]
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Actually, this isn't
dancing baby from 1996,
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but you get the rough idea.
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A bit like the waffle,
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we couldn't actually
source or afford the clip,
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because this is regulated TV,
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not the unregulated internet.
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This is dancing baby from
1996,
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a short repeating clip, known
as a GIF, or is it a JIF?
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There's a whole website
devoted to the debate
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of how to pronounce it?
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10 years later, this video of
a boy biting
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his brother's finger was
watched by 766 million people.
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Similar pratfalls
and epic fails
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have become a staple of
internet culture.
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Original content started to be
created,
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which generated fads that
simultaneously existed
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in the real world and
online, for example planking,
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which exploded across
the internet after 2011.
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And remember this, the
ice bucket challenge,
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that went viral in 2014?
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Crucially, the web gave users
the tools
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to copy original work,
images, and music,
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mash it up, remix, and share,
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sometimes reaching millions
more people
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than the original work did.
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- It's a bit like when Andy
Warhol
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took mass-produced
and iconic photos
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from popular culture and
turned them into garish,
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exclusive, limited edition
prints.
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To me, Warhol's prints
aren't a million miles away
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from internet memes that
use existing content online.
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These DIY graphics,
image macros,
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pictures combined with text,
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have become so common
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that they're often simply
referred to as being memes.
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To millions of people,
this is what a meme is:
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easy to share, easy to create
or change.
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On the internet, the
boyfriend is distracted.
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Movie star Ryan Gosling says,
"Hey girl."
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And poor Harold grimaces
for a vast range of reasons.
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But why do these macros need
text when Warhol didn't?
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Back in the 1960s, the French
philosopher Roland Barthes
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offered us a way to
understand this phenomenon.
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Barthes deconstructed a pasta
advert,
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paying it the attention
usually reserved
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for an art masterpiece,
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exploring the ways in which
rich and complex meanings
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were conveyed by the deceptively
simple combination
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of words and images.
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The text, he argued, helps us
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to anchor the meaning
of the image.
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It's all a bit like
Marcel Duchamp's 1919 take
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on the singular
masterpiece, The Mona Lisa.
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00:09:05,137 --> 00:09:08,068
He took a mass-produced poster
of this one-off painting,
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added a moustache, and anchored
and relayed new meanings
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with text: L.H.O.O.Q,
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or in French,
'Elle a chaud au cul'.
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In other words, she's
got a fine posterior,
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00:09:20,689 --> 00:09:23,413
which Duchamp said
helped explain her smile.
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00:09:25,965 --> 00:09:28,482
On the internet, everybody
is doing a Duchamp,
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using pictures and text.
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The difference now
is that we own
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the means of production
and dissemination.
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Now audiences can be
reached by almost anyone
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at a previously unimaginable
speed.
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Back in Duchamp's time,
or even Warhol's,
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you needed huge amounts of
money
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and often a lot
of political influence
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to get to that tipping point.
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Just as a quick aside, with
my art historian hat on.
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Perhaps that's why we visit
museums
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in unprecedented numbers
today,
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hungry for a one-to-one
encounter
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00:10:01,724 --> 00:10:04,827
with a unique, unanchored
symbol:
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00:10:04,931 --> 00:10:09,517
Museums, like a clearing in
the forest of modern symbols.
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Thanks for indulging me there.
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Now back to the memes.
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These are arguable
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the most famous picture
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and text combos: the lolcats.
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Laugh out loud cats.
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It's simple: a picture of a
cat and a superimposed type.
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It'd be easy to dismiss them
as trivia,
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but this simple format has
spawned a complex subculture
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with its own rules and norms,
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00:10:31,827 --> 00:10:34,275
popularising new spellings and
words.
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[energetic electronic music]
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Amanda Brennan is the
meme librarian at Tumbler,
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00:10:39,862 --> 00:10:41,586
and she's a big lolcat fan,
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even though she's
actually allergic to cats.
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Lolcats were a great way
for people
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who weren't very
into computers
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to experience meme culture
for the first time.
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The format of image macros,
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where text on the bottom,
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00:10:55,724 --> 00:10:56,827
text on the top,
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00:10:56,931 --> 00:10:58,172
that really comes out
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of lolcats.
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I think it does resonate
with people wanting
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00:11:01,931 --> 00:11:05,931
to find their expressive
part of themselves
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00:11:06,034 --> 00:11:08,827
and really express themselves
in ways
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00:11:08,931 --> 00:11:10,965
that they might not be able
to do in their everyday life.
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And a lot of people identify
with cats
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00:11:13,068 --> 00:11:15,827
because they have such
strong personalities.
251
00:11:15,931 --> 00:11:18,793
A lot of meme culture is
about finding your identity,
252
00:11:18,896 --> 00:11:20,103
figuring out who you are.
253
00:11:20,206 --> 00:11:21,344
And if you can do it
254
00:11:21,448 --> 00:11:22,758
through the expressive
nature of a cat,
255
00:11:22,862 --> 00:11:24,517
whether it be through lolspeak
256
00:11:24,620 --> 00:11:26,827
or in a GIF or video,
a lot of people
257
00:11:26,931 --> 00:11:28,206
can just explore their
identity
258
00:11:28,310 --> 00:11:30,000
in a really playful way
with cats.
259
00:11:30,103 --> 00:11:31,206
- What is lolspeak?
260
00:11:31,310 --> 00:11:33,793
- Well, the LOL part is
"laugh out loud."
261
00:11:33,896 --> 00:11:36,517
And "speak" is the
structure of the language
262
00:11:36,620 --> 00:11:38,310
around a lolcat.
263
00:11:38,413 --> 00:11:40,586
Lolcats came up in a time when
people
264
00:11:40,689 --> 00:11:43,241
wanted to be way less serious
about the internet.
265
00:11:44,068 --> 00:11:45,206
The image didn't really
matter;
266
00:11:45,310 --> 00:11:49,103
it was more about the text
and learning the lexicon,
267
00:11:49,206 --> 00:11:51,793
showing that you know it,
taking these typical words
268
00:11:51,896 --> 00:11:53,931
like "eat," "human,"
and flipping them
269
00:11:54,034 --> 00:11:56,586
into something like "eated,"
very cutesy.
270
00:11:56,689 --> 00:11:57,758
It's like when you step out
271
00:11:57,862 --> 00:12:00,620
and you get into a good
book or a good movie.
272
00:12:00,724 --> 00:12:03,413
In lolspeak you're getting
into the world of lolcats
273
00:12:03,517 --> 00:12:08,103
and that kind of freedom
that lolspeak provides.
274
00:12:08,206 --> 00:12:10,689
Voiceover: Before meeting
Amanda, I made some lolcats.
275
00:12:10,793 --> 00:12:12,862
Now I'm not sure
I got them right.
276
00:12:12,965 --> 00:12:14,793
- Is this your first time
making a lolcat?
277
00:12:14,896 --> 00:12:17,241
- Yeah.
- All right. No shame.
278
00:12:17,344 --> 00:12:18,689
It's everyone's first time
sometime.
279
00:12:18,793 --> 00:12:20,896
So this first one,
this is a great image.
280
00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:23,034
It's very stark.
It's gonna draw someone in.
281
00:12:23,137 --> 00:12:24,310
That paw's really good.
282
00:12:24,413 --> 00:12:26,448
The text, unfortunately,
is totally off.
283
00:12:26,551 --> 00:12:28,758
It definitely needs to
feel a little more cutesy.
284
00:12:28,862 --> 00:12:31,655
So I would scrap this text
285
00:12:31,758 --> 00:12:33,758
and make it something
about like a high five.
286
00:12:33,862 --> 00:12:35,793
Like, "invisible high five!"
287
00:12:35,896 --> 00:12:38,689
Or like, "I'm ready for
my high five human!"
288
00:12:38,793 --> 00:12:41,862
But spelled human with OO
instead of U.
289
00:12:43,862 --> 00:12:44,931
- So how about this one?
290
00:12:45,034 --> 00:12:46,517
We take a bit of
a political turn?
291
00:12:46,620 --> 00:12:49,689
- Politics doesn't always
really work in a cat meme.
292
00:12:49,793 --> 00:12:51,379
You want to stick with
something more wholesome,
293
00:12:51,482 --> 00:12:53,172
more positive,
294
00:12:53,275 --> 00:12:55,206
and that's really what
resonates the best.
295
00:12:55,310 --> 00:12:58,034
It would probably be a caption
about like,
296
00:12:58,137 --> 00:12:59,758
"I can be prezident instead!"
297
00:12:59,862 --> 00:13:01,206
'Cause I'm sure people on
Tumblr
298
00:13:01,310 --> 00:13:02,620
would want a cat to be
president.
299
00:13:02,724 --> 00:13:05,068
Voiceover: So we've had a go at
a meta meme.
300
00:13:05,172 --> 00:13:07,344
- I love this.
- Lolcat. You love this one?
301
00:13:07,448 --> 00:13:09,000
I do. I love meta.
302
00:13:09,103 --> 00:13:10,620
I love memes that are
making fun of other memes.
303
00:13:10,724 --> 00:13:12,344
'Cause meme culture,
when you think about it,
304
00:13:12,448 --> 00:13:13,620
is just absurd.
305
00:13:13,724 --> 00:13:16,448
It's fun and it's playful,
and so is this.
306
00:13:16,551 --> 00:13:17,965
This picture is incredible.
307
00:13:18,068 --> 00:13:20,206
This cat's face, on point.
308
00:13:20,310 --> 00:13:22,241
The language can just be...
309
00:13:22,344 --> 00:13:23,586
Cute it up a bit.
310
00:13:23,689 --> 00:13:25,034
- So have you got a
recommendation?
311
00:13:25,137 --> 00:13:27,724
- Maybe something like
"I can haz meta meme?"
312
00:13:27,827 --> 00:13:29,620
To make it even funnier,
313
00:13:29,724 --> 00:13:32,310
just really playing on
this incredible photo.
314
00:13:32,413 --> 00:13:34,068
We're gonna send the good one.
315
00:13:34,172 --> 00:13:35,137
And...
316
00:13:35,241 --> 00:13:36,310
it's posted!
- It's gone!
317
00:13:36,413 --> 00:13:38,586
- Yes!
So excited!
318
00:13:38,689 --> 00:13:41,000
- Lolcats have got pedigree.
319
00:13:41,103 --> 00:13:43,413
Cats were a popular subject
for early photography
320
00:13:43,517 --> 00:13:45,896
in the 19th century, featuring
as part
321
00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:48,310
of a craze for picture
postcards.
322
00:13:48,413 --> 00:13:52,344
In the 1870s, a Brighton
photographer, Harry Pointer,
323
00:13:52,448 --> 00:13:55,137
started photographing cats in
funny ways.
324
00:13:55,241 --> 00:13:57,931
He doubled down on the
joke with written captions.
325
00:13:58,034 --> 00:13:59,724
But he could have made a
killing
326
00:13:59,827 --> 00:14:01,275
if he'd known about lolspeak.
327
00:14:03,482 --> 00:14:05,241
Let's explore this a bit more.
328
00:14:05,344 --> 00:14:08,103
The internet is so a part of
our lives
329
00:14:08,206 --> 00:14:10,827
that the norms and behaviours
we associate with it
330
00:14:10,931 --> 00:14:14,758
beg the question,
how new is all of this?
331
00:14:14,862 --> 00:14:17,793
After all, as we've seen,
throughout human history,
332
00:14:17,896 --> 00:14:20,448
communities form, give
themselves identity,
333
00:14:20,551 --> 00:14:23,758
and accord meaning around
visual symbols.
334
00:14:23,862 --> 00:14:27,379
Very sticky symbols have
always been flexible enough
335
00:14:27,482 --> 00:14:30,965
to be interpreted in new
ways as the world changes
336
00:14:31,068 --> 00:14:32,724
and still make sense,
337
00:14:32,827 --> 00:14:35,275
sometimes over the course of
centuries.
338
00:14:35,379 --> 00:14:37,206
Take the skull and crossbones.
339
00:14:37,310 --> 00:14:40,862
We all know immediately
what it means: danger.
340
00:14:40,965 --> 00:14:44,034
But it's hugely flexible
in describing that danger.
341
00:14:44,137 --> 00:14:47,206
- You can't
trust anyone these day.
342
00:14:47,310 --> 00:14:50,413
- Or what about the Christian
cross or the Islamic crescent?
343
00:14:50,517 --> 00:14:52,931
Both are centuries old
and it's been argued
344
00:14:53,034 --> 00:14:55,172
were adopted from
even earlier cultures.
345
00:14:55,275 --> 00:14:57,620
Both were flexible enough in
their meaning
346
00:14:57,724 --> 00:14:59,758
to be valued by diverse groups
of people
347
00:14:59,862 --> 00:15:02,862
with different worldviews
at the same time.
348
00:15:02,965 --> 00:15:05,034
Like many other sticky
symbols,
349
00:15:05,137 --> 00:15:07,206
they are rallying signs.
350
00:15:07,310 --> 00:15:10,137
They help people figure
out who else is same,
351
00:15:10,241 --> 00:15:11,275
and who is other.
352
00:15:12,344 --> 00:15:13,551
Talking of which...
353
00:15:13,655 --> 00:15:15,206
[grandiose music]
354
00:15:15,310 --> 00:15:18,137
Flags are among the most
recognisable symbols
355
00:15:18,241 --> 00:15:22,379
of the modern world, used
and abused endlessly.
356
00:15:22,482 --> 00:15:25,793
Like the best memes, flags
have different meanings
357
00:15:25,896 --> 00:15:28,931
to different people
who value the symbolism
358
00:15:29,034 --> 00:15:31,275
for often radically
different reasons.
359
00:15:36,103 --> 00:15:38,620
Taking a longer view,
biologists would argue
360
00:15:38,724 --> 00:15:41,068
that our ability
to generate memes
361
00:15:41,172 --> 00:15:45,689
has been a motor of change,
so beneficial to us over time
362
00:15:45,793 --> 00:15:48,862
that our genes have adapted
to make us really good at it.
363
00:15:50,448 --> 00:15:52,172
- Do we have to go to distant
worlds
364
00:15:52,275 --> 00:15:54,172
to find other kinds of
replicator
365
00:15:54,275 --> 00:15:56,793
and other consequent kinds
of evolution?
366
00:15:56,896 --> 00:15:58,793
I think that a new kind
of replicator
367
00:15:58,896 --> 00:16:01,310
has recently emerged on this
very planet.
368
00:16:01,413 --> 00:16:03,241
It is staring us in the face.
369
00:16:03,344 --> 00:16:06,620
[relaxed hip hop music]
370
00:16:06,724 --> 00:16:09,241
Voiceover: In his 1976
book The Selfish Gene,
371
00:16:09,344 --> 00:16:11,482
the biologist Richard Dawkins
used memes
372
00:16:11,586 --> 00:16:13,241
as a way to explain how
religions,
373
00:16:13,344 --> 00:16:16,379
folk tunes, ways of making
pots, and even origami
374
00:16:16,482 --> 00:16:19,586
spread over generations,
long before the web.
375
00:16:21,103 --> 00:16:24,103
Already it is achieving
evolutionary change
376
00:16:24,206 --> 00:16:27,655
at a rate which leads the
old gene panting far behind.
377
00:16:27,758 --> 00:16:28,965
The whole point about The
Selfish Gene
378
00:16:29,068 --> 00:16:30,793
was it all about
natural selection
379
00:16:30,896 --> 00:16:32,896
at the level of genes
becoming more numerous
380
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:34,482
in the gene pool,
381
00:16:34,586 --> 00:16:36,482
more numerous in
the population.
382
00:16:36,586 --> 00:16:39,068
I wanted to make the point
at the end of the book
383
00:16:39,172 --> 00:16:41,724
that genes are not
the only possible replicator
384
00:16:41,827 --> 00:16:44,103
that could serve as a
unit of natural selection.
385
00:16:44,206 --> 00:16:45,965
So instead I use cultural
viruses.
386
00:16:46,068 --> 00:16:48,034
I actually called them mind
viruses.
387
00:16:48,137 --> 00:16:52,206
And then said I want a noun
that sounds a bit like gene,
388
00:16:52,310 --> 00:16:53,517
and so coined meme.
389
00:16:53,620 --> 00:16:56,482
My meme comes from a suitable
Greek root,
390
00:16:56,586 --> 00:16:59,965
but I want a monosyllable
that sounds a bit like gene.
391
00:17:00,068 --> 00:17:02,551
I hope my classicist
friends will forgive me
392
00:17:02,655 --> 00:17:05,827
if I abbreviate
my meme to meme.
393
00:17:05,931 --> 00:17:07,206
[heavenly music]
394
00:17:07,310 --> 00:17:08,310
Do you think that,
historically,
395
00:17:08,413 --> 00:17:09,793
there are groups of people
who've been
396
00:17:09,896 --> 00:17:12,241
very successful at generating
memes?
397
00:17:12,344 --> 00:17:13,448
- Absolutely.
398
00:17:13,551 --> 00:17:16,206
Just as Genghis Kahn was
incredibly adapt
399
00:17:16,310 --> 00:17:19,517
at propagating his genes,
almost an entire world
400
00:17:19,620 --> 00:17:21,344
is descended from
Genghis Kahn,
401
00:17:21,448 --> 00:17:24,827
there are extremely fertile
meme fountains
402
00:17:24,931 --> 00:17:26,862
who are giving off memes
all the time,
403
00:17:26,965 --> 00:17:29,482
people like Martin Luther,
Jesus.
404
00:17:29,586 --> 00:17:33,620
These are immensely
productive generators of memes
405
00:17:33,724 --> 00:17:35,000
which have spread throughout
the world
406
00:17:35,103 --> 00:17:37,758
in the same kind of way
as Genghis Kahn's genes.
407
00:17:37,862 --> 00:17:40,172
- Do you think that,
in early human history,
408
00:17:40,275 --> 00:17:42,482
our ability to transmit
cultural information
409
00:17:42,586 --> 00:17:44,379
gave us a survival advantage?
410
00:17:44,482 --> 00:17:46,482
If you take something
411
00:17:46,586 --> 00:17:48,413
like a really important
cultural invention,
412
00:17:48,517 --> 00:17:50,310
like the wheel, or fire,
413
00:17:50,413 --> 00:17:53,034
or something like that,
once that had been invented,
414
00:17:53,137 --> 00:17:54,896
it would have spread
as a meme,
415
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,482
and would certainly have
contributed
416
00:17:57,586 --> 00:18:01,034
to survival of civilisations
and individuals,
417
00:18:01,137 --> 00:18:03,241
and to the survival of
the meme itself.
418
00:18:03,344 --> 00:18:07,655
Memes are competing for brain
space or something like that.
419
00:18:07,758 --> 00:18:09,482
It's a revolutionary way of
looking at it,
420
00:18:09,586 --> 00:18:11,034
because one
naturally thinks of it
421
00:18:11,137 --> 00:18:13,551
as a competition
between people.
422
00:18:13,655 --> 00:18:16,896
But just as I changed that,
in the biological world,
423
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:18,896
to competition between
genes, I suppose I'm trying
424
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:21,724
to do the same thing
at the level of memes.
425
00:18:21,827 --> 00:18:24,413
Susan Blackmore has actually
suggested
426
00:18:24,517 --> 00:18:26,896
that it has changed
the way our brains are.
427
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,965
- Once people started to
imitate each other...
428
00:18:30,068 --> 00:18:33,758
[upbeat hip-hop music]
429
00:18:33,862 --> 00:18:36,758
Then you would acquire status
by being good at imitating.
430
00:18:36,862 --> 00:18:39,103
I mean, if you were the one
who could light the fire
431
00:18:39,206 --> 00:18:41,206
or keep the fire going,
you would acquire status,
432
00:18:41,310 --> 00:18:43,758
probably better mates, and
pass on
433
00:18:43,862 --> 00:18:46,827
whatever genes you had for
that ability.
434
00:18:46,931 --> 00:18:48,655
- There's a kind of
coevolution
435
00:18:48,758 --> 00:18:50,482
between genes and memes.
436
00:18:50,586 --> 00:18:53,793
- This is my argument for
how we got such huge brains.
437
00:18:53,896 --> 00:18:54,896
- This is a big idea,
438
00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:56,103
that memes might have evolved
in parallel
439
00:18:56,206 --> 00:18:59,482
with our genes
to give humans big brains,
440
00:18:59,586 --> 00:19:00,896
big enough to make lolcats
441
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:02,137
and do planking,
442
00:19:02,241 --> 00:19:03,551
big enough today, perhaps,
443
00:19:03,655 --> 00:19:05,862
to filter out and disregard
irrelevant,
444
00:19:05,965 --> 00:19:08,344
annoying, or unhelpful memes.
445
00:19:08,448 --> 00:19:11,931
Perhaps this is why some
memes stick and others don't,
446
00:19:12,034 --> 00:19:15,068
a Darwinian
survival of the fittest.
447
00:19:15,172 --> 00:19:17,034
Creating a successful meme
448
00:19:17,137 --> 00:19:20,034
is certainly an iterative
process.
449
00:19:20,137 --> 00:19:22,517
99 out of 100 don't work.
450
00:19:22,620 --> 00:19:26,862
The meme world is red in tooth
and claw.
451
00:19:26,965 --> 00:19:28,275
- Why can't I clean the stains
452
00:19:28,379 --> 00:19:30,448
off my dental plates
with toothpaste.
453
00:19:30,551 --> 00:19:31,862
Voiceover: Nowhere
has there been
454
00:19:31,965 --> 00:19:33,724
a more exacting testing
ground for memes
455
00:19:33,827 --> 00:19:36,448
than advertising,
a daily dirty battle
456
00:19:36,551 --> 00:19:37,758
between clever meme creators
457
00:19:37,862 --> 00:19:40,551
and our limited and readily
distractible attention.
458
00:19:40,655 --> 00:19:43,103
[relaxed hip hop music]
459
00:19:43,206 --> 00:19:45,758
Robin Wight
is an advertising legend.
460
00:19:45,862 --> 00:19:47,103
He knows.
461
00:19:47,206 --> 00:19:48,758
When Richard Dawkins
invented
462
00:19:48,862 --> 00:19:52,103
the concept of memes
in the mid-'70s,
463
00:19:52,931 --> 00:19:54,724
he was explaining what ad men
464
00:19:54,827 --> 00:19:56,965
had been practising
intuitively.
465
00:19:57,068 --> 00:19:59,862
The idea of jingles, the idea
of slogans.
466
00:19:59,965 --> 00:20:02,206
People had found out by trial
and error
467
00:20:02,310 --> 00:20:04,689
that some things work better
than others.
468
00:20:04,793 --> 00:20:07,620
This was, if you like,
an evolutionary battle
469
00:20:07,724 --> 00:20:09,724
which the strongest memes won.
470
00:20:09,827 --> 00:20:11,931
You remember a jingle,
a brand,
471
00:20:12,034 --> 00:20:14,896
and a slogan even after
the brand is dead.
472
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:17,896
One we created back in '94
473
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:20,344
was "the future's bright,
the future's orange."
474
00:20:20,448 --> 00:20:23,137
That brand is now dead,
but in service,
475
00:20:23,241 --> 00:20:25,551
the ninth
best remembered slogan
476
00:20:25,655 --> 00:20:27,241
is "the future's bright,
the future's orange."
477
00:20:27,344 --> 00:20:29,413
Can you give me an
example from your career
478
00:20:29,517 --> 00:20:31,586
of something that really stuck
479
00:20:31,689 --> 00:20:33,586
and what made it sticky?
480
00:20:33,689 --> 00:20:35,586
- We were given 118 118,
481
00:20:35,689 --> 00:20:37,172
and we knew there'd be
lots of other brands,
482
00:20:37,275 --> 00:20:38,206
all starting with 118.
483
00:20:38,310 --> 00:20:39,758
How can we make ours stand out
484
00:20:39,862 --> 00:20:41,310
where we are helped
by the numbers?
485
00:20:41,413 --> 00:20:44,379
So, first of all, twinning
is an iconic concept.
486
00:20:45,310 --> 00:20:46,586
Castor and Pollux.
487
00:20:46,689 --> 00:20:47,862
Twins are already special.
488
00:20:47,965 --> 00:20:50,275
So we made our brand
characters
489
00:20:50,379 --> 00:20:52,655
echoing the 118 118.
490
00:20:52,758 --> 00:20:55,379
And then we made them
memorable.
491
00:20:55,482 --> 00:20:56,862
We put moustaches on them.
492
00:20:56,965 --> 00:20:58,310
We made them iconic.
493
00:20:58,413 --> 00:20:59,551
We made then runners.
494
00:20:59,655 --> 00:21:02,413
We used
some other mimetic tricks.
495
00:21:02,517 --> 00:21:03,827
Repetition.
496
00:21:03,931 --> 00:21:05,379
Got your number,
got your number,
497
00:21:05,482 --> 00:21:06,793
got your number,
got your number.
498
00:21:06,896 --> 00:21:08,931
Then we used Rocky,
the music of Rocky.
499
00:21:09,034 --> 00:21:12,965
We borrowed iconography,
so a lot of a message
500
00:21:13,068 --> 00:21:15,655
is adding all sorts of
layers and symbolism
501
00:21:15,758 --> 00:21:17,344
to the core brand proposition.
502
00:21:18,965 --> 00:21:20,551
Voiceover: Symbolism,
layers of meaning,
503
00:21:20,655 --> 00:21:22,241
humans-built connections.
504
00:21:22,344 --> 00:21:25,448
These are all clearly staples
of a successful meme.
505
00:21:25,551 --> 00:21:26,862
But back in the digital world,
506
00:21:26,965 --> 00:21:28,896
if we were to translate those
ingredients,
507
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:30,344
would this be the result?
508
00:21:30,448 --> 00:21:32,482
Simple, hackneyed, weird.
509
00:21:32,586 --> 00:21:34,724
Emoji are said to be used
more frequently on Twitter
510
00:21:34,827 --> 00:21:37,034
than hyphens or the numeral 5.
511
00:21:37,137 --> 00:21:40,724
Here are the eye worms of
our 21st century lives.
512
00:21:40,827 --> 00:21:42,000
- I think the official number
513
00:21:42,103 --> 00:21:44,000
is something like six
billion or so per day.
514
00:21:44,103 --> 00:21:45,310
- Six billion?
- Yes.
515
00:21:45,413 --> 00:21:46,586
- Amazing.
516
00:21:46,689 --> 00:21:50,310
[energetic electronic music]
517
00:21:50,413 --> 00:21:51,724
I'm sitting for my emoji
518
00:21:51,827 --> 00:21:55,655
by the pioneering UK emoji
designer Emma Hopkins.
519
00:21:57,965 --> 00:21:59,655
- Now, if you'll just
look to the right.
520
00:22:01,896 --> 00:22:04,275
And slightly
turn your head up.
521
00:22:10,724 --> 00:22:12,448
And give me a smile.
522
00:22:18,551 --> 00:22:19,655
OK, I think we're done,
523
00:22:19,758 --> 00:22:21,034
if you want to come
and have a look.
524
00:22:21,137 --> 00:22:22,310
- Yes, please.
525
00:22:24,586 --> 00:22:25,620
[chuckling]
526
00:22:25,724 --> 00:22:27,482
It's a Clay emoji.
527
00:22:27,586 --> 00:22:28,896
Does that really look like me?
528
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:30,517
[Emma laughing]
529
00:22:30,620 --> 00:22:32,172
- For a difference in
expression...
530
00:22:33,206 --> 00:22:34,275
- Yeah, that's much
more me.
531
00:22:34,379 --> 00:22:35,862
[Emma laughing]
532
00:22:35,965 --> 00:22:37,000
I look about 12.
533
00:22:37,827 --> 00:22:40,206
The set expands and grows
534
00:22:40,310 --> 00:22:42,620
as society calls
for a new emoji.
535
00:22:42,724 --> 00:22:44,965
Last year, an avocado emoji
was released,
536
00:22:45,068 --> 00:22:47,068
and it was because
there was such a demand.
537
00:22:47,172 --> 00:22:49,620
Like, it makes major
headline news.
538
00:22:49,724 --> 00:22:53,344
- Lovers have successfully
wooed one another with emoji.
539
00:22:53,448 --> 00:22:55,965
Recruiters for ISIS, sometimes
also known
540
00:22:56,068 --> 00:22:58,172
as Daech or Islamic State,
541
00:22:58,275 --> 00:23:00,620
have used emoji in their
promotional tweets.
542
00:23:00,724 --> 00:23:05,206
Someone even translated
Moby Dick into emoji Dick.
543
00:23:05,310 --> 00:23:07,241
- Living in such
a digital age,
544
00:23:07,344 --> 00:23:08,862
we have most of our
conversations
545
00:23:08,965 --> 00:23:11,689
over WhatsApp or
messengers or social media.
546
00:23:11,793 --> 00:23:12,793
I think it's important to add
547
00:23:12,896 --> 00:23:14,793
an emotive cue to what
we're trying to say.
548
00:23:14,896 --> 00:23:16,827
They add atmosphere to a
conversation.
549
00:23:16,931 --> 00:23:20,034
For instance, if I am
sending you a message
550
00:23:20,137 --> 00:23:23,103
and I'm trying to joke around
or I'm being sarcastic,
551
00:23:23,206 --> 00:23:25,655
you might not necessarily
understand that tone.
552
00:23:25,758 --> 00:23:28,241
But if I put a little
laughing face on the end,
553
00:23:28,344 --> 00:23:30,655
you'll be like,
"Oh, she's only joking,"
554
00:23:30,758 --> 00:23:33,000
whereas otherwise it could
be perceived as quite blunt.
555
00:23:33,103 --> 00:23:35,689
So are emojis doing the
work that body language
556
00:23:35,793 --> 00:23:37,965
and facial expression do in
conversation?
557
00:23:38,068 --> 00:23:39,655
Yes. Yeah.
558
00:23:39,758 --> 00:23:42,931
A 2015 survey by Bangor
University
559
00:23:43,034 --> 00:23:45,689
found that almost
three-quarters of participants
560
00:23:45,793 --> 00:23:49,724
aged between 18 and 25
felt more comfortable
561
00:23:49,827 --> 00:23:53,344
expressing themselves
using emoji than words.
562
00:23:53,448 --> 00:23:55,827
So what do you think
the future of emojis is?
563
00:23:55,931 --> 00:23:58,482
Samsung and Google
now have apps
564
00:23:58,586 --> 00:23:59,620
where you can create
your own emoji
565
00:23:59,724 --> 00:24:01,689
based on like a picture
of your face.
566
00:24:01,793 --> 00:24:03,137
So it will scan the image of
you.
567
00:24:03,241 --> 00:24:05,137
It will scan your hair
length and your eye colour
568
00:24:05,241 --> 00:24:07,034
and the shape of your face,
569
00:24:07,137 --> 00:24:09,379
and then that will become your
emoji.
570
00:24:09,482 --> 00:24:11,586
- This is the most massive
dissemination
571
00:24:11,689 --> 00:24:12,793
of self-portraiture in
history.
572
00:24:12,896 --> 00:24:14,068
- [Emma] Yeah.
573
00:24:14,172 --> 00:24:17,965
Like lolcats, emoji aren't
as new as you might think.
574
00:24:18,068 --> 00:24:19,793
The philosopher Ludwig
Wittgenstein,
575
00:24:19,896 --> 00:24:22,172
during a lecture in the 1930s,
576
00:24:22,275 --> 00:24:25,379
argued simple expression
can convey emotion
577
00:24:25,482 --> 00:24:28,758
far more articulately
than people using words.
578
00:24:28,862 --> 00:24:31,275
He sketched
three simple faces.
579
00:24:31,379 --> 00:24:34,758
He said, in fact, if we want
to be exact,
580
00:24:34,862 --> 00:24:37,931
we use a gesture or a facial
expression.
581
00:24:39,034 --> 00:24:40,586
From cats to Darwin,
582
00:24:40,689 --> 00:24:42,965
from advertising
to little pixelated faces,
583
00:24:43,068 --> 00:24:45,896
here's what I'm discovering
about why internet memes
584
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,172
snaffle our attention,
585
00:24:48,275 --> 00:24:51,931
tug at our emotions, or make
them want to pass them on.
586
00:24:52,034 --> 00:24:57,448
It begins with the blueprint
of mimetic engineering.
587
00:24:57,551 --> 00:25:01,586
[energetic electronic music]
588
00:25:01,689 --> 00:25:02,931
Voiceover: Simplicity.
589
00:25:03,034 --> 00:25:04,931
Keep it simple, stupid.
590
00:25:05,034 --> 00:25:07,379
The best memes are direct
and very simple
591
00:25:07,482 --> 00:25:09,551
with a low barrier to entry.
592
00:25:09,655 --> 00:25:11,551
Many successful image macros
and GIFs
593
00:25:11,655 --> 00:25:13,758
have got punchlines already,
594
00:25:13,862 --> 00:25:15,965
and people can easily
rework them
595
00:25:16,068 --> 00:25:19,206
by simply creating a new
and surprising feed line.
596
00:25:19,310 --> 00:25:21,310
It's the same in political
protests.
597
00:25:21,413 --> 00:25:24,448
Simple gestures that
can be easily replicated
598
00:25:24,551 --> 00:25:26,379
can be hugely powerful.
599
00:25:26,482 --> 00:25:28,137
A clenched fist symbol,
600
00:25:28,241 --> 00:25:30,965
or kneeling during
the American national anthem,
601
00:25:31,068 --> 00:25:33,448
is authentic and not approved.
602
00:25:33,551 --> 00:25:36,034
It's by the people,
for the people.
603
00:25:36,137 --> 00:25:39,827
And it's an effective, free,
repeatable symbol
604
00:25:39,931 --> 00:25:41,310
anyone can imitate.
605
00:25:41,413 --> 00:25:42,862
[glitching]
606
00:25:42,965 --> 00:25:43,896
Humour.
607
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,689
Meme humour plays with our
expectations,
608
00:25:46,793 --> 00:25:50,034
giving us what we want,
like the imagined dialogue
609
00:25:50,137 --> 00:25:52,241
between Barack Obama
and Joe Biden,
610
00:25:52,344 --> 00:25:54,000
or it plays against
expectations,
611
00:25:54,103 --> 00:25:57,275
from pratfalls to
something a little edgier.
612
00:25:57,379 --> 00:25:59,482
- Humour is the way that people
613
00:25:59,586 --> 00:26:02,965
have been talking back
to power for millennia.
614
00:26:03,068 --> 00:26:05,655
[relaxed electronic music]
615
00:26:05,758 --> 00:26:09,310
The whole point of the
court jester was to couch
616
00:26:10,517 --> 00:26:13,724
sharp critiques
in a humorous way.
617
00:26:13,827 --> 00:26:14,827
Voiceover: Insight.
618
00:26:14,931 --> 00:26:16,896
Memes don't always have to be
funny.
619
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:18,620
They can offer quite serious
620
00:26:18,724 --> 00:26:20,758
observations about human nature.
621
00:26:20,862 --> 00:26:23,689
A meme can tell us a
truth about ourselves.
622
00:26:23,793 --> 00:26:26,413
"This is fine" is a
two-panel image of a dog
623
00:26:26,517 --> 00:26:29,793
trying to reassure itself
that everything is fine,
624
00:26:29,896 --> 00:26:32,862
despite sitting in a room
that's engulfed in flames,
625
00:26:32,965 --> 00:26:36,965
playing on self-denial in the
face of a hopeless situation.
626
00:26:37,068 --> 00:26:40,620
It speaks to something deep
in the human condition.
627
00:26:40,724 --> 00:26:41,689
We copy things to other
people
628
00:26:41,793 --> 00:26:42,862
'cause we want to show off,
629
00:26:42,965 --> 00:26:45,310
'cause we want to be liked,
because we frightened.
630
00:26:46,724 --> 00:26:49,000
We just will go on
pouring stuff out there.
631
00:26:50,586 --> 00:26:52,000
The most successful
internet memes
632
00:26:52,103 --> 00:26:54,551
communicate using
visual content.
633
00:26:54,655 --> 00:26:58,379
TL;DR.
Too long; didn't read.
634
00:26:58,482 --> 00:27:01,137
That's the common response
to the sheer volume
635
00:27:01,241 --> 00:27:03,551
and complexity of material
on the internet.
636
00:27:03,655 --> 00:27:06,172
Quick and direct,
images beat text
637
00:27:06,275 --> 00:27:08,827
in the competition
for attention spans.
638
00:27:08,931 --> 00:27:13,689
Humans were a visual species
long before we started to talk
639
00:27:13,793 --> 00:27:16,310
and well before we started to
write.
640
00:27:16,413 --> 00:27:18,448
It's estimated that the
first cave paintings
641
00:27:18,551 --> 00:27:20,724
were created 40,000 years ago,
642
00:27:20,827 --> 00:27:23,310
the first writing 5,000 years
ago.
643
00:27:23,413 --> 00:27:26,103
Some visual memes echo through
history.
644
00:27:26,206 --> 00:27:29,103
Here are the precursors
of Hollywood CGI monsters
645
00:27:29,206 --> 00:27:31,103
and hard-bitten heroes.
646
00:27:31,206 --> 00:27:34,137
Pictures have a way of
resonating,
647
00:27:34,241 --> 00:27:38,068
allowing us to read between
the lines and tell a story.
648
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:40,206
Controversy and debate.
649
00:27:40,310 --> 00:27:41,482
Remember this?
650
00:27:41,586 --> 00:27:43,413
An interrupted financial
interview
651
00:27:43,517 --> 00:27:45,275
that went viral in 2017?
652
00:27:45,379 --> 00:27:48,068
It was simple, visual,
unexpectedly funny.
653
00:27:48,172 --> 00:27:50,655
But the thing that really
sent it stratospheric
654
00:27:50,758 --> 00:27:52,448
was the furious debate that
followed
655
00:27:52,551 --> 00:27:53,793
about why people
assumed the women
656
00:27:53,896 --> 00:27:57,931
snatching her children away
was a nanny, not a wife.
657
00:27:58,034 --> 00:27:59,758
- My apologies. [chuckling]
658
00:27:59,862 --> 00:28:01,517
- When there
are two opposing camps,
659
00:28:01,620 --> 00:28:06,206
there will always be a longer
trail of memes left behind.
660
00:28:07,586 --> 00:28:10,344
Voiceover: Great memes are
memes you want to share.
661
00:28:10,448 --> 00:28:12,655
They say something to
your peers, your in-group,
662
00:28:12,758 --> 00:28:15,827
about your personality and
crucially what you feel.
663
00:28:17,206 --> 00:28:20,103
Many people feel that
little says more about them
664
00:28:20,206 --> 00:28:22,206
than the videos
they choose to share.
665
00:28:22,310 --> 00:28:24,000
[energetic electronic music]
666
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:26,310
That's the theory anyway,
667
00:28:26,413 --> 00:28:28,758
for the people who call
themselves social publishers.
668
00:28:28,862 --> 00:28:30,758
These are the offices
of Lad Bible.
669
00:28:30,862 --> 00:28:32,344
One of the top three
publishers
670
00:28:32,448 --> 00:28:33,896
of viral content globally,
671
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:36,689
Lab Bible reaches a
billion people a month.
672
00:28:36,793 --> 00:28:38,206
- Elle's just put a video out.
673
00:28:38,310 --> 00:28:40,620
So, very quickly she'll
be able to ascertain
674
00:28:40,724 --> 00:28:42,827
how it's doing compared to
previous pieces of content
675
00:28:42,931 --> 00:28:44,827
we've done, and just by
looking at
676
00:28:44,931 --> 00:28:46,413
the engagement rates we've
gotten so far.
677
00:28:46,517 --> 00:28:49,068
- So, we've just put
out a video
678
00:28:49,172 --> 00:28:51,137
of a dog rolling in
the mud, basically.
679
00:28:51,241 --> 00:28:54,068
It's a submission, so one of
our audience has sent it in,
680
00:28:54,172 --> 00:28:58,068
and it's got seven shares,
25 comments.
681
00:28:58,172 --> 00:29:00,413
- So what would you be
hoping for after five minutes?
682
00:29:00,517 --> 00:29:04,413
- Usually about 200 comments,
100 shares.
683
00:29:04,517 --> 00:29:06,137
They're the main things that
we focus on.
684
00:29:06,241 --> 00:29:07,551
- And every one of
those shares
685
00:29:07,655 --> 00:29:10,137
could lead to hundreds
more shares?
686
00:29:10,241 --> 00:29:11,241
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
687
00:29:11,344 --> 00:29:12,517
- And it just goes viral
by that point, right?
688
00:29:12,620 --> 00:29:13,586
- Exactly.
689
00:29:13,689 --> 00:29:15,137
So this video should do,
after 24 hours,
690
00:29:15,241 --> 00:29:16,586
do about three million,
three and a half million?
691
00:29:16,689 --> 00:29:17,827
- Yeah, something
along those lines.
692
00:29:17,931 --> 00:29:19,413
2.5 to three mill
it should do.
693
00:29:19,517 --> 00:29:22,068
- And that's just another
day at the office.
694
00:29:22,172 --> 00:29:23,689
- Yeah, it's another good
day at the office, yeah.
695
00:29:23,793 --> 00:29:25,758
[chuckling]
696
00:29:26,827 --> 00:29:28,689
[electronic music]
697
00:29:28,793 --> 00:29:30,137
Social publishing's
very much driven
698
00:29:30,241 --> 00:29:31,931
and led by the audience.
699
00:29:32,034 --> 00:29:34,275
If they engage with your
content, if they comment,
700
00:29:34,379 --> 00:29:38,068
if they share, they click,
you know within seconds,
701
00:29:38,172 --> 00:29:39,724
and you know to do more of
that.
702
00:29:39,827 --> 00:29:43,137
So, a lot of content
online can seem really niche,
703
00:29:43,241 --> 00:29:45,482
but it actually reaches
a massive audience.
704
00:29:45,586 --> 00:29:47,793
What do you think that reveals
about us?
705
00:29:47,896 --> 00:29:50,241
I think a lot of us can
sometimes think
706
00:29:50,344 --> 00:29:52,965
that maybe individually we're
about weird
707
00:29:53,068 --> 00:29:54,655
or we might be interested in
things
708
00:29:54,758 --> 00:29:56,137
that maybe other people
aren't.
709
00:29:56,241 --> 00:29:57,758
I think the internet is
potentially
710
00:29:57,862 --> 00:29:59,413
a bit of like a lens
711
00:29:59,517 --> 00:30:00,689
for actually other
people who like
712
00:30:00,793 --> 00:30:02,206
the same weird
things that we do.
713
00:30:02,310 --> 00:30:03,862
And you want to share
that and be proud of it.
714
00:30:03,965 --> 00:30:06,137
It becomes almost like
a social badge of honour
715
00:30:06,241 --> 00:30:09,517
that you and 10 million other
people feel exactly the same.
716
00:30:09,620 --> 00:30:12,241
Some people think that
social media is quite shallow.
717
00:30:12,344 --> 00:30:13,724
Do you think that's fair?
718
00:30:13,827 --> 00:30:16,068
Voiceover: The reason I ask this
is that I've been impressed
719
00:30:16,172 --> 00:30:18,241
by their editorial meeting
earlier.
720
00:30:18,344 --> 00:30:20,586
- Next, original ideas.
721
00:30:20,689 --> 00:30:22,206
Who wants to kick us off?
Stu?
722
00:30:22,310 --> 00:30:24,034
- We have a veterans retreat,
723
00:30:24,137 --> 00:30:27,310
which has actually been opened
to victims of terrorism.
724
00:30:27,413 --> 00:30:29,655
- We haven't done anything
on Ed Gein before.
725
00:30:29,758 --> 00:30:32,000
He's the guy who's literally
inspired
726
00:30:32,103 --> 00:30:34,586
the movie Psycho, Texas
Chainsaw Massacre.
727
00:30:34,689 --> 00:30:37,379
- We could speak to a
mental health charity
728
00:30:37,482 --> 00:30:40,241
and see if there was
a rise in phone calls
729
00:30:40,344 --> 00:30:41,827
and things last week.
730
00:30:41,931 --> 00:30:44,206
- Looking into Crocs
and the material
731
00:30:44,310 --> 00:30:47,620
they're made from being found
not to be biodegradable.
732
00:30:47,724 --> 00:30:51,448
- Veganism is not
cruelty free, apparently.
733
00:30:51,551 --> 00:30:53,206
- All right, yes.
Good ideas today, guys.
734
00:30:53,310 --> 00:30:56,103
So, we'll get our hustle on
and have a good day, yeah?
735
00:30:56,206 --> 00:30:59,931
I think when we talk about
our editorial tone of voice
736
00:31:00,034 --> 00:31:03,344
or what we cover, someone
positioned it as
737
00:31:03,448 --> 00:31:05,620
you want to hang out with
someone that can be funny,
738
00:31:05,724 --> 00:31:07,827
can be serious, can have an
opinion,
739
00:31:07,931 --> 00:31:09,793
can host a conversation
740
00:31:09,896 --> 00:31:11,517
all at the same time
and kinda mix it up.
741
00:31:11,620 --> 00:31:12,827
If someone tries to
be funny all the time,
742
00:31:12,931 --> 00:31:13,965
they get annoying.
743
00:31:14,068 --> 00:31:15,448
If someone's really serious,
they're too heavy,
744
00:31:15,551 --> 00:31:17,241
and you're not gonna hang
out with them too much.
745
00:31:17,344 --> 00:31:20,034
So how do you get a video
to go viral?
746
00:31:20,137 --> 00:31:22,896
- We've done a few pieces
where we've got
747
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,137
people who you wouldn't
expect to be together.
748
00:31:25,241 --> 00:31:28,827
I think there's a piece of
Judi Dench and Lethal Bizzle.
749
00:31:28,931 --> 00:31:32,793
One's kind of a beloved
actress, one's a grime artist.
750
00:31:32,896 --> 00:31:34,172
♪ One more time, let's go!
751
00:31:34,275 --> 00:31:35,655
♪ Pow yeah
I'm Ju to the di ♪
752
00:31:35,758 --> 00:31:36,896
♪ Pow if you
don't know about me ♪
753
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:38,103
♪ Pow.
754
00:31:38,206 --> 00:31:40,137
It's just things you
wouldn't imagine to see
755
00:31:40,241 --> 00:31:42,206
in your day to day that kind
of tap into a feeling that,
756
00:31:42,310 --> 00:31:44,000
because it's so
out of the ordinary,
757
00:31:44,103 --> 00:31:45,172
you share it with your
friends, go,
758
00:31:45,275 --> 00:31:46,310
"Have you seen this?"
759
00:31:46,413 --> 00:31:47,413
♪ Pow.
760
00:31:47,517 --> 00:31:50,206
It's that, "Have you seen
this?" kind of essence
761
00:31:50,310 --> 00:31:52,310
that translates across
the internet.
762
00:31:52,413 --> 00:31:54,413
Voiceover: OK.
Time for our next meme.
763
00:31:54,517 --> 00:31:57,758
I'm going to pitch Lab Bible
an idea for a viral video.
764
00:31:57,862 --> 00:32:00,724
It'll involve another national
treasure we've just met:
765
00:32:00,827 --> 00:32:02,241
Richard Dawkins.
766
00:32:02,344 --> 00:32:06,310
Richard Dawkins invented the
notion of the meme in 1976.
767
00:32:06,413 --> 00:32:09,793
Do you think we can make a
viral film about Dawkins?
768
00:32:09,896 --> 00:32:11,241
I think one of the
really important things
769
00:32:11,344 --> 00:32:12,448
is the first 10 seconds.
770
00:32:12,551 --> 00:32:16,068
So, those 10 seconds are where
you need to capture the user.
771
00:32:16,931 --> 00:32:18,241
No, I don't know.
772
00:32:18,344 --> 00:32:19,379
It's like the headline of an
article,
773
00:32:19,482 --> 00:32:20,827
so you pick the biggest hook,
774
00:32:20,931 --> 00:32:22,068
put the best part
of the video,
775
00:32:22,172 --> 00:32:24,310
show a tiny clip of it at
the start, get 'em hooked.
776
00:32:24,413 --> 00:32:25,482
You can say that again.
777
00:32:25,586 --> 00:32:27,310
It's gotta be snappy.
778
00:32:27,413 --> 00:32:30,310
It's gotta have imagery
that they're gonna be hooked
779
00:32:30,413 --> 00:32:33,034
on watching and they're
gonna watch to the end.
780
00:32:33,137 --> 00:32:34,172
If the last clip is
something
781
00:32:34,275 --> 00:32:35,310
that you really engage with,
782
00:32:35,413 --> 00:32:36,379
then that's gonna be
the feeling
783
00:32:36,482 --> 00:32:38,827
that you carry through after
that, into your actions.
784
00:32:38,931 --> 00:32:41,310
So that's the bit that's
gonna make you share it.
785
00:32:41,413 --> 00:32:42,827
- How long do
you think it should be?
786
00:32:42,931 --> 00:32:44,344
Maybe like a minute and a
half to two minutes,
787
00:32:44,448 --> 00:32:45,758
I would say.
788
00:32:45,862 --> 00:32:47,068
- So it's like
the Charlatans said:
789
00:32:47,172 --> 00:32:48,724
always leave them wanting
more.
790
00:32:48,827 --> 00:32:49,965
- Yeah.
791
00:32:50,068 --> 00:32:52,103
[dinging]
792
00:32:52,931 --> 00:32:55,068
- So here goes.
[drumroll]
793
00:32:55,172 --> 00:32:56,206
[ding]
794
00:32:56,310 --> 00:32:58,482
- Nobody knows what the
[bleep] a meme is anymore.
795
00:32:58,586 --> 00:33:00,896
[light-hearted music]
796
00:33:08,448 --> 00:33:10,965
It should be pronounced
to rhyme with cream.
797
00:33:13,241 --> 00:33:15,448
Meme, you keep using
that word.
798
00:33:15,551 --> 00:33:19,068
I do not think it means
what you think it means.
799
00:33:19,172 --> 00:33:20,827
So that's a bad meme.
800
00:33:20,931 --> 00:33:23,689
I coined the word meme,
but now it just means
801
00:33:23,793 --> 00:33:25,896
some text over an image.
802
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:27,172
You can say that again.
803
00:33:28,413 --> 00:33:30,034
Voiceover: So we've seen how
memes evolved.
804
00:33:30,137 --> 00:33:32,310
We've found out that they
appeal to our emotions
805
00:33:32,413 --> 00:33:33,965
and help us build connections.
806
00:33:34,068 --> 00:33:36,965
Now the big question is,
what does it all mean?
807
00:33:37,068 --> 00:33:38,827
How do these global cultures
of memes
808
00:33:38,931 --> 00:33:41,137
impact on our societies
and politics,
809
00:33:41,241 --> 00:33:43,137
especially our politics?
810
00:33:43,241 --> 00:33:44,793
Perhaps the answer lies
once again
811
00:33:44,896 --> 00:33:47,310
in symbols from the past.
812
00:33:47,413 --> 00:33:50,586
Long before the internet,
before TV and radio,
813
00:33:50,689 --> 00:33:52,724
another technological change
spread a meme
814
00:33:52,827 --> 00:33:54,551
to powerful effect.
815
00:33:54,655 --> 00:33:57,275
In 1830s France,
Charles Philipon,
816
00:33:57,379 --> 00:33:59,689
a Parisian publisher of
lithographs,
817
00:33:59,793 --> 00:34:02,344
began to answer cheap, popular
prints
818
00:34:02,448 --> 00:34:06,068
that depicted King Louis
Philippe as a pear.
819
00:34:06,172 --> 00:34:09,310
The pear quickly became
a popular image
820
00:34:09,413 --> 00:34:11,482
scrawled on the walls
of Paris.
821
00:34:11,586 --> 00:34:14,344
Lithographs had amplified
the spread of a meme
822
00:34:14,448 --> 00:34:17,034
in the streets in the form of
graffiti.
823
00:34:17,137 --> 00:34:19,344
Today, the pear has its
equivalent
824
00:34:19,448 --> 00:34:22,137
in literally millions
of images and cartoons
825
00:34:22,241 --> 00:34:24,793
proliferating across
the internet.
826
00:34:24,896 --> 00:34:26,344
And graffiti and the internet
827
00:34:26,448 --> 00:34:28,379
sometimes still feed
each other,
828
00:34:28,482 --> 00:34:31,896
rather like lithographs
and graffiti of pears,
829
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:33,655
like the radio and scrawled Vs
830
00:34:33,758 --> 00:34:36,413
on walls
in Nazi-occupied Europe.
831
00:34:36,517 --> 00:34:39,724
There's always been a
potential multiplier effect
832
00:34:39,827 --> 00:34:42,379
between mass media
and the street.
833
00:34:48,241 --> 00:34:50,172
- Come close to hear your
future.
834
00:34:50,275 --> 00:34:52,379
You're really,
really pathetic.
835
00:34:52,482 --> 00:34:54,724
Do you people see this loser?
836
00:34:54,827 --> 00:34:56,137
Get him outta here!
837
00:34:56,241 --> 00:34:57,965
Voiceover: At the Design Museum
in London,
838
00:34:58,068 --> 00:35:00,413
this exhibition explores
a shift in political memes
839
00:35:00,517 --> 00:35:03,344
since the election of
Barack Obama in 2008.
840
00:35:03,448 --> 00:35:05,448
It traces how the so-called
alt-right,
841
00:35:05,551 --> 00:35:07,103
on anonymous message boards,
842
00:35:07,206 --> 00:35:09,344
took children's cartoons
like Pepe the Frog
843
00:35:09,448 --> 00:35:12,241
and turned them into symbols
of hate.
844
00:35:12,344 --> 00:35:15,344
With their directness, appeal
to tribalism and emotions,
845
00:35:15,448 --> 00:35:19,103
memes are deployed as weapons
to get a rise or reaction.
846
00:35:19,206 --> 00:35:21,586
The exhibition,
titled Hope to Nope,
847
00:35:21,689 --> 00:35:24,344
hints at how online and
offline politics and culture
848
00:35:24,448 --> 00:35:25,724
have become intertwined.
849
00:35:27,034 --> 00:35:29,793
It's almost like TV turned
politics into entertainment,
850
00:35:29,896 --> 00:35:33,172
and social media's turned it
into a virtual playground
851
00:35:33,275 --> 00:35:35,931
full of funny kids,
bullies, victims,
852
00:35:36,034 --> 00:35:39,655
using memes as their means
of attack and defence.
853
00:35:39,758 --> 00:35:41,413
These rival factions are
fighting
854
00:35:41,517 --> 00:35:43,344
what some see
as a culture war,
855
00:35:43,448 --> 00:35:45,965
raging through the
disruptions of Brexit,
856
00:35:46,068 --> 00:35:48,689
and Donald Trump's election
to the U.S. presidency.
857
00:35:50,379 --> 00:35:52,172
Digital entrepreneur
Kenyatta Cheese
858
00:35:52,275 --> 00:35:54,896
sees 2016 as the critical
turning point
859
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,275
when the internet meme
hit the mainstream.
860
00:35:57,379 --> 00:35:58,758
That was the moment.
861
00:35:58,862 --> 00:36:00,310
[upbeat electronic music]
862
00:36:00,413 --> 00:36:03,068
Where all of a sudden you have
U.S. presidential candidates
863
00:36:03,172 --> 00:36:06,379
talking about Pepe the Frog
being a symbol of hate.
864
00:36:08,724 --> 00:36:10,275
You have memes being turned...
865
00:36:10,379 --> 00:36:12,034
Image macros being turned into
866
00:36:12,137 --> 00:36:15,448
sort of ideological IEDs and
being spread
867
00:36:15,551 --> 00:36:16,551
in places like Facebook.
868
00:36:16,655 --> 00:36:19,482
You have a lot of people who
have never seen this before,
869
00:36:19,586 --> 00:36:21,896
who have never really truly
understood the cultures
870
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:23,586
that went along with it,
871
00:36:23,689 --> 00:36:26,689
or understood what people were
actually doing with memes,
872
00:36:26,793 --> 00:36:31,172
coming in and all of a
sudden passing judgment,
873
00:36:31,275 --> 00:36:34,620
but also having a lot of
fear around these things,
874
00:36:34,724 --> 00:36:37,241
the idea that image macros,
875
00:36:37,344 --> 00:36:40,172
that viral videos
can be taken and used
876
00:36:40,275 --> 00:36:42,379
in a different context
877
00:36:42,482 --> 00:36:44,000
in order to try to sway
opinion.
878
00:36:45,379 --> 00:36:48,068
It's been happening forever,
right?
879
00:36:48,172 --> 00:36:51,241
But here was a time where
it felt like it mattered.
880
00:36:51,344 --> 00:36:53,482
- I don't care.
I really don't.
881
00:36:53,586 --> 00:36:54,655
There's a lot of anxiety,
882
00:36:54,758 --> 00:36:56,862
especially in the
mainstream press nowadays,
883
00:36:56,965 --> 00:36:58,862
around information bubbles,
884
00:36:58,965 --> 00:37:01,344
that people just get
fed the same old thing.
885
00:37:01,448 --> 00:37:03,448
I don't think it's
a negative, though.
886
00:37:03,551 --> 00:37:05,344
I don't think it's a bug;
it's a feature.
887
00:37:05,448 --> 00:37:07,275
It's how we find commonality
888
00:37:07,379 --> 00:37:09,310
and we maintain
those connections.
889
00:37:09,413 --> 00:37:12,482
To me, the difference
between our grandparents,
890
00:37:12,586 --> 00:37:16,482
sort of in their own groups,
reading the same information,
891
00:37:16,586 --> 00:37:19,241
the effect that you
could have on the world
892
00:37:19,344 --> 00:37:22,655
was fairly limited,
where now,
893
00:37:22,758 --> 00:37:24,275
we're all nodes on a giant
network.
894
00:37:24,379 --> 00:37:26,448
It is really easy
895
00:37:26,551 --> 00:37:29,275
to get an idea
from St. Petersburg, Russia
896
00:37:29,379 --> 00:37:34,034
to the Facebook feed of
somebody in Kansas, right?
897
00:37:34,137 --> 00:37:36,551
Almost any symbol
can become a weapon
898
00:37:36,655 --> 00:37:38,862
in anyone's efforts to shape
other people's thoughts
899
00:37:38,965 --> 00:37:42,965
and feelings: just cut,
paste, and share online.
900
00:37:43,068 --> 00:37:45,724
I wonder if this is
the awkward teenage years
901
00:37:47,724 --> 00:37:50,448
of the global society, right?
902
00:37:50,551 --> 00:37:53,620
It's the time where you start
to question who you are.
903
00:37:53,724 --> 00:37:56,482
All of a sudden, you
start using these labels
904
00:37:56,586 --> 00:37:59,068
in order to not just
identify yourself
905
00:37:59,172 --> 00:38:00,862
but identify other as well.
906
00:38:00,965 --> 00:38:03,827
And so, if I'm labelling the
mainstream,
907
00:38:03,931 --> 00:38:06,379
I'm maybe gonna call them
"normies".
908
00:38:06,482 --> 00:38:08,413
Voiceover: Normie.
909
00:38:08,517 --> 00:38:11,689
- Or if I'm politically
right, but I'm not going to,
910
00:38:11,793 --> 00:38:15,965
I don't want to identify with
the 60-year-old politicians,
911
00:38:16,068 --> 00:38:18,172
maybe I call myself the
alt-right.
912
00:38:18,275 --> 00:38:19,655
Voiceover: Alt-right.
913
00:38:19,758 --> 00:38:22,758
- You have a group of people
who feel disaffected.
914
00:38:22,862 --> 00:38:27,034
You have a group of people
who, whether justified or not,
915
00:38:27,137 --> 00:38:31,517
feel as if their identity
is being challenged,
916
00:38:31,620 --> 00:38:34,137
and they're trying to
find ways to express it.
917
00:38:34,241 --> 00:38:38,137
The alt-right and the people
who are affiliated with that
918
00:38:38,241 --> 00:38:42,655
are people who have been
engaging in meme making
919
00:38:42,758 --> 00:38:45,137
and are sort of at the
heart of the culture
920
00:38:45,241 --> 00:38:49,655
that spawned meme culture,
so there is this deep level
921
00:38:49,758 --> 00:38:53,620
of digital, cultural
literacy that was happening.
922
00:38:53,724 --> 00:38:55,172
The spread of memes
923
00:38:55,275 --> 00:38:56,655
has always meant trouble
for someone.
924
00:38:56,758 --> 00:39:00,689
They're recycled to cause
outrage or to provoke debate.
925
00:39:00,793 --> 00:39:03,758
Is offence
just part of the process?
926
00:39:03,862 --> 00:39:05,862
On the internet,
these heavily ironic
927
00:39:05,965 --> 00:39:07,965
and edgy memes
are called dank.
928
00:39:08,068 --> 00:39:11,655
[upbeat electronic music]
929
00:39:14,068 --> 00:39:16,448
Voiceover: I'm meeting YouTube
comedian Tom Walker
930
00:39:16,551 --> 00:39:18,448
to explore
the boundaries of humour,
931
00:39:18,551 --> 00:39:20,655
satire, and politics
on the internet.
932
00:39:20,758 --> 00:39:22,689
Where is dankness leading us?
933
00:39:22,793 --> 00:39:25,689
- I think there is a general
anarchy to it
934
00:39:25,793 --> 00:39:29,310
by its very nature of people
just throw stuff out there
935
00:39:29,413 --> 00:39:30,862
and see what kinda happens.
936
00:39:30,965 --> 00:39:33,965
It doesn't have to go through
this filter of this sort of
937
00:39:36,172 --> 00:39:37,275
political correctness
938
00:39:37,379 --> 00:39:39,689
and commissioning editor
before it ends up
939
00:39:39,793 --> 00:39:41,965
in this very diluted manner on
television.
940
00:39:42,068 --> 00:39:44,689
So, maybe that's
what's distinctive;
941
00:39:44,793 --> 00:39:47,655
it's that it's unfiltered,
that it can be offensive,
942
00:39:47,758 --> 00:39:49,724
that it can be brilliant,
that it can be immediate,
943
00:39:49,827 --> 00:39:52,000
that it can actually just be a
bit shoddy.
944
00:39:52,103 --> 00:39:54,827
In other news, Muslims
are bad, China's bad,
945
00:39:54,931 --> 00:39:58,482
but not as bad as it used to
be, and Russia is always bad!
946
00:39:58,586 --> 00:40:00,275
Voiceover: This is Tom
Walker's comic creation,
947
00:40:00,379 --> 00:40:02,896
the irascible reporter
Jonathan Pie.
948
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:04,517
A way of sending up the news
949
00:40:04,620 --> 00:40:06,413
that has scored
millions of hits.
950
00:40:06,517 --> 00:40:08,586
- What Pie allows people to do
is they go,
951
00:40:08,689 --> 00:40:09,758
"This is what I think."
952
00:40:09,862 --> 00:40:12,758
He's venting their
frustrations about Brexit,
953
00:40:12,862 --> 00:40:16,689
about Trump, about the
Tories, to a certain extent
954
00:40:16,793 --> 00:40:19,241
about the Left
and their censoriousness
955
00:40:19,344 --> 00:40:21,620
and their snowflakiness,
if you like.
956
00:40:21,724 --> 00:40:22,793
- No, no, no, no, no!
I'm doing, no,
957
00:40:22,896 --> 00:40:24,517
I'm doing the new--
I'm doing the [bleep] news!
958
00:40:25,724 --> 00:40:27,758
Look at this piece of satire,
but this...
959
00:40:27,862 --> 00:40:30,206
He represents my brand.
960
00:40:30,310 --> 00:40:31,827
That's what makes him sticky.
961
00:40:31,931 --> 00:40:33,827
A kind of identity shortcut?
962
00:40:33,931 --> 00:40:34,965
In a way, yeah, yeah.
963
00:40:35,068 --> 00:40:36,965
This guy believes in what I
believe.
964
00:40:37,068 --> 00:40:39,034
I think, also, people thought
it was real.
965
00:40:39,137 --> 00:40:43,758
Right, look at this
British journalist losing it.
966
00:40:43,862 --> 00:40:46,862
Morning, Tim!
Morning! Howdy!
967
00:40:46,965 --> 00:40:48,275
How was Washington?
968
00:40:48,379 --> 00:40:52,310
The biggest video by far
that I've and will ever have
969
00:40:52,413 --> 00:40:55,448
is my response to Trump
winning the White House.
970
00:40:55,551 --> 00:40:56,896
- And that's on how
many now?
971
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,655
- Over all the platforms,
it's roughly 150 million.
972
00:41:00,758 --> 00:41:02,000
It's crazy.
973
00:41:02,103 --> 00:41:03,172
Hillary Clinton!
Don't get me wrong,
974
00:41:03,275 --> 00:41:04,344
I wanted Hillary to win.
975
00:41:04,448 --> 00:41:06,586
I'd personally vote for
Lucifer over Donald Trump.
976
00:41:06,689 --> 00:41:08,275
Trump! The pussy-grabbing,
wall-building,
977
00:41:08,379 --> 00:41:10,000
climate-change-denying,
978
00:41:10,103 --> 00:41:11,689
healthcare-abolishing,
tax-dodging,
979
00:41:11,793 --> 00:41:13,413
shit-spewing demagogue!
980
00:41:13,517 --> 00:41:16,000
How shit have you got
to be to lose to that?
981
00:41:16,103 --> 00:41:17,758
So why did this one do so
well?
982
00:41:17,862 --> 00:41:20,310
- It blamed everyone,
so annoyed everyone,
983
00:41:20,413 --> 00:41:21,965
so it got a discussion going.
984
00:41:22,068 --> 00:41:24,344
It's a vent.
985
00:41:24,448 --> 00:41:26,000
The reason this one
worked so well
986
00:41:26,103 --> 00:41:29,034
is because me and my co-writer
didn't think it would work.
987
00:41:30,413 --> 00:41:31,517
We decided to let go.
988
00:41:31,620 --> 00:41:35,137
We decided we'll write
what we think we believe
989
00:41:35,241 --> 00:41:37,482
rather than what we think
other people will believe.
990
00:41:37,586 --> 00:41:40,241
Intent shows through.
991
00:41:40,344 --> 00:41:41,620
Voiceover: Thanks, Brad.
992
00:41:41,724 --> 00:41:43,379
A fascinating question is
whether
993
00:41:43,482 --> 00:41:46,241
all this venting and irony can
go too far.
994
00:41:46,344 --> 00:41:47,758
Is there a too far?
995
00:41:47,862 --> 00:41:49,965
Well there is a too far,
996
00:41:50,068 --> 00:41:52,103
depending
who you're talking to.
997
00:41:52,206 --> 00:41:55,620
Offence and humour are so
closely linked.
998
00:41:55,724 --> 00:41:58,689
It's subjective.
999
00:41:58,793 --> 00:42:01,413
What makes you laugh
might not make him laugh.
1000
00:42:01,517 --> 00:42:03,137
Neither of you are wrong.
1001
00:42:03,241 --> 00:42:07,413
A real laugh,
as well as a real [groans],
1002
00:42:07,517 --> 00:42:09,586
so closely linked.
1003
00:42:09,689 --> 00:42:12,655
But it is an emotional
reaction that you can't hide.
1004
00:42:12,758 --> 00:42:14,206
Lots of inane comments
like "lol".
1005
00:42:14,310 --> 00:42:15,689
Voiceover: Memes can
certainly split opinion.
1006
00:42:15,793 --> 00:42:17,862
A distinctive element of our
culture today
1007
00:42:17,965 --> 00:42:20,379
often seems to be visceral
disagreement.
1008
00:42:20,482 --> 00:42:23,000
Tom defends the right to
free speech on the internet,
1009
00:42:23,103 --> 00:42:25,000
but he's been attacked
bitterly for it.
1010
00:42:25,103 --> 00:42:26,724
- It was a [bleep] joke,
you [beep].
1011
00:42:26,827 --> 00:42:28,448
You think
slightly differently to me
1012
00:42:28,551 --> 00:42:29,724
when it comes to freedom of
speech,
1013
00:42:29,827 --> 00:42:31,724
therefore you must be
alt-right,
1014
00:42:31,827 --> 00:42:33,724
therefore you must be a Nazi
apologist.
1015
00:42:33,827 --> 00:42:35,758
There's no way to win a
political debate
1016
00:42:35,862 --> 00:42:38,137
going, "You're a bigot,
la, la, la, la, la."
1017
00:42:38,241 --> 00:42:40,620
That seems to
be their modus operandi:
1018
00:42:40,724 --> 00:42:43,137
if you disagree with us,
you must be a bigot.
1019
00:42:44,068 --> 00:42:45,586
[tapping]
1020
00:42:45,689 --> 00:42:47,068
Voiceover: The world of memes
is direct.
1021
00:42:47,172 --> 00:42:48,931
It provokes emotional
responses,
1022
00:42:49,034 --> 00:42:50,827
and it can polarise;
1023
00:42:50,931 --> 00:42:52,413
a perfect environment
1024
00:42:52,517 --> 00:42:54,000
for those who like to shout
"boo" anonymously
1025
00:42:54,103 --> 00:42:55,241
and run away.
1026
00:42:55,344 --> 00:43:00,551
[startling music]
[screaming]
1027
00:43:00,655 --> 00:43:05,310
We used to think of trolls
as sad, lone individuals
1028
00:43:05,413 --> 00:43:07,620
taking out their personal
issues on the world
1029
00:43:07,724 --> 00:43:09,931
under a cloak on online
anonymity.
1030
00:43:10,827 --> 00:43:13,000
Trolls have gone mainstream.
1031
00:43:13,103 --> 00:43:16,482
Sometimes a troll is a
paid social media user
1032
00:43:16,586 --> 00:43:18,413
twisting online discussions.
1033
00:43:18,517 --> 00:43:21,724
Other times, a troll is
actually an automated bot
1034
00:43:21,827 --> 00:43:25,103
rapidly spreading invective
and disinformation online.
1035
00:43:26,137 --> 00:43:28,103
Some regimes have cottoned
onto the idea
1036
00:43:28,206 --> 00:43:30,931
of using trolls to
manipulate public information
1037
00:43:31,034 --> 00:43:33,758
and disinformation
in rival states,
1038
00:43:33,862 --> 00:43:36,758
influencing people to
support their interests.
1039
00:43:36,862 --> 00:43:40,482
- I've had email chains
smearing me.
1040
00:43:40,586 --> 00:43:43,931
I've had troll attacks
on Twitter,
1041
00:43:44,034 --> 00:43:45,965
harassment on Facebook.
1042
00:43:46,068 --> 00:43:48,206
[upbeat music]
1043
00:43:48,310 --> 00:43:50,310
Voiceover: The Finnish
journalist Jessikka Aro
1044
00:43:50,413 --> 00:43:51,931
has been investigating
the impact
1045
00:43:52,034 --> 00:43:55,413
of Russian propaganda
in Finland since 2014.
1046
00:43:55,517 --> 00:43:57,793
- A thing that the trolls and
propagandists wanted to do
1047
00:43:57,896 --> 00:43:59,965
was silence me,
to make me so scared
1048
00:44:00,068 --> 00:44:02,965
that I would stop myself of
continuing my investigations.
1049
00:44:03,068 --> 00:44:05,448
But instead of that, I did the
opposite.
1050
00:44:05,551 --> 00:44:09,620
As the months and years went
on, more and more hate speech
1051
00:44:09,724 --> 00:44:11,551
was all the time produced
about me.
1052
00:44:11,655 --> 00:44:14,034
I was being sent memes
all the time.
1053
00:44:15,137 --> 00:44:18,413
So here they are saying
that I make home visits.
1054
00:44:18,517 --> 00:44:20,758
They basically frame me
as a prostitute.
1055
00:44:20,862 --> 00:44:23,965
Here, trolls made music video.
1056
00:44:24,068 --> 00:44:28,000
[singing in a foreign
language]
1057
00:44:33,103 --> 00:44:36,034
They are framing me as some
kind of mentally ill person
1058
00:44:36,137 --> 00:44:39,000
who has made up all this
Russian troll phenomenon
1059
00:44:39,103 --> 00:44:40,758
only from my imagination.
1060
00:44:40,862 --> 00:44:43,517
Another photo manipulation,
the trolls say
1061
00:44:43,620 --> 00:44:46,034
and the neo-Nazis say
that I am restricting
1062
00:44:46,137 --> 00:44:47,793
their freedom of speech.
1063
00:44:47,896 --> 00:44:50,275
How does all this
make you feel.
1064
00:44:50,379 --> 00:44:52,965
- Well, how would you feel,
1065
00:44:53,068 --> 00:44:55,931
when you had a text message
from your dead father
1066
00:44:56,034 --> 00:44:58,517
who's observing you,
having...
1067
00:45:00,344 --> 00:45:03,206
unknown people sending you
death threats
1068
00:45:03,310 --> 00:45:06,724
because they have been just
reading trash about you
1069
00:45:06,827 --> 00:45:08,965
and believing in it?
Obviously, it's nasty.
1070
00:45:09,068 --> 00:45:12,034
The Russian information
operations are designed
1071
00:45:12,137 --> 00:45:14,724
specifically
to target my emotions,
1072
00:45:14,827 --> 00:45:17,310
to target everyone's emotions.
1073
00:45:17,413 --> 00:45:18,827
Whatever they write online,
1074
00:45:18,931 --> 00:45:21,379
I understand that
they get paid for it.
1075
00:45:21,482 --> 00:45:23,965
And I get paid for what I do,
1076
00:45:24,068 --> 00:45:25,862
so we have
these different jobs,
1077
00:45:25,965 --> 00:45:28,551
and I really feel pity
that they have such jobs.
1078
00:45:28,655 --> 00:45:32,241
Voiceover: Jessikka Aro's is
an extreme case amongst many.
1079
00:45:32,344 --> 00:45:33,793
Trolling with fake news
1080
00:45:33,896 --> 00:45:35,103
is the new currency
of politics
1081
00:45:35,206 --> 00:45:36,448
in the mimetic age.
1082
00:45:36,551 --> 00:45:39,172
- The dishonest, lying media!
1083
00:45:39,275 --> 00:45:41,413
- The sad thing is
it's effective.
1084
00:45:41,517 --> 00:45:44,206
A 2018 MIT study found
that fake news
1085
00:45:44,310 --> 00:45:47,068
can spread faster and
deeper than real news.
1086
00:45:47,172 --> 00:45:50,965
Analysing 126,000 contested
news stories
1087
00:45:51,068 --> 00:45:53,103
over 10 years on Twitter,
1088
00:45:53,206 --> 00:45:55,206
tweeted by
three million users,
1089
00:45:55,310 --> 00:45:59,931
it found hoax and rumour were
more widely shared than truth.
1090
00:46:00,034 --> 00:46:03,655
On the internet,
it would seem noise wins.
1091
00:46:03,758 --> 00:46:08,068
Then again, have we ever lived
in a time of truthful news?
1092
00:46:08,172 --> 00:46:10,137
All news is
1093
00:46:10,241 --> 00:46:12,206
just a representation
of actual events,
1094
00:46:12,310 --> 00:46:14,172
a selective take.
1095
00:46:16,758 --> 00:46:18,103
To explore this further,
1096
00:46:18,206 --> 00:46:21,137
I went to actually meet
a troll under a bridge,
1097
00:46:21,241 --> 00:46:25,931
a troll on a mission to combat
online racism and xenophobia.
1098
00:46:26,034 --> 00:46:27,551
A troll is somebody
who goes on the internet
1099
00:46:27,655 --> 00:46:29,586
just to make people upset.
1100
00:46:29,689 --> 00:46:31,620
A liberal troll is somebody
who goes on the internet
1101
00:46:31,724 --> 00:46:33,586
to make a conservative upset.
1102
00:46:33,689 --> 00:46:36,448
Christopher Blair,
aka Busta Troll,
1103
00:46:36,551 --> 00:46:38,655
is a self-proclaimed
liberal troll
1104
00:46:38,758 --> 00:46:41,103
who makes a living
publishing fake news stories
1105
00:46:41,206 --> 00:46:43,241
that might appeal to
the alt-right.
1106
00:46:43,344 --> 00:46:45,482
He puts in plausible content
out there
1107
00:46:45,586 --> 00:46:47,413
to provoke a reaction.
1108
00:46:47,517 --> 00:46:51,103
The alt-right unwittingly
steal his satirical posts,
1109
00:46:51,206 --> 00:46:54,000
sharing them online
without irony.
1110
00:46:54,862 --> 00:46:58,034
After the economy crashed
in 2008,
1111
00:46:59,172 --> 00:47:03,034
I was left with a family
of four, without a job,
1112
00:47:03,137 --> 00:47:05,689
after working construction
for 20-some-odd years.
1113
00:47:06,862 --> 00:47:10,724
I was angry.
Angry at my government.
1114
00:47:10,827 --> 00:47:12,724
So I took the anger, I went to
Facebook,
1115
00:47:12,827 --> 00:47:16,275
and I started a page, and
I started to make memes,
1116
00:47:16,379 --> 00:47:20,965
liberal memes,
supporting liberal causes.
1117
00:47:21,068 --> 00:47:23,724
And the conservative trolls
started to come to my page.
1118
00:47:23,827 --> 00:47:25,034
They started attacking me.
1119
00:47:25,137 --> 00:47:28,827
So I had to create a persona
to fight off the trolls,
1120
00:47:28,931 --> 00:47:31,310
which is where I came up
with Busta Troll.
1121
00:47:31,413 --> 00:47:35,137
We market our page at
conservatives
1122
00:47:35,241 --> 00:47:37,620
in the are of 60 years old
and better.
1123
00:47:37,724 --> 00:47:39,586
They are extremely biased,
1124
00:47:39,689 --> 00:47:41,482
they are
extremely uneducated.
1125
00:47:41,586 --> 00:47:43,137
And what we do, we pull
them into the comments,
1126
00:47:43,241 --> 00:47:44,827
because these are some
of the worst racists
1127
00:47:44,931 --> 00:47:46,137
and xenophobes on Facebook.
1128
00:47:46,241 --> 00:47:48,068
They comment racist things.
1129
00:47:48,172 --> 00:47:51,103
The trolls that are patrolling
the page report them.
1130
00:47:51,206 --> 00:47:52,793
They get their little Facebook
timeouts.
1131
00:47:52,896 --> 00:47:54,103
It may seem trivial,
1132
00:47:54,206 --> 00:47:56,655
but when you do that
30, 40, 50 times
1133
00:47:56,758 --> 00:47:58,620
sometimes
in a day or a week,
1134
00:47:58,724 --> 00:48:00,689
you're eliminating a lot
of hate from Facebook.
1135
00:48:00,793 --> 00:48:03,172
So that's one of the
reasons we do what we do.
1136
00:48:03,275 --> 00:48:05,103
- Can you show me a recent
example
1137
00:48:05,206 --> 00:48:06,931
of the kind of thing
you've done?
1138
00:48:07,034 --> 00:48:08,172
- Yeah,
this is a great one here.
1139
00:48:08,275 --> 00:48:10,482
Illinois state senator
introduced legislation
1140
00:48:10,586 --> 00:48:13,172
that would give Wakandan
refugees a sanctuary city
1141
00:48:13,275 --> 00:48:16,000
of Chicago a monthly income
of $2,000.
1142
00:48:16,103 --> 00:48:18,793
Of course,
Wakanda is the fake country
1143
00:48:18,896 --> 00:48:20,724
in the new Black Panther
movie.
1144
00:48:20,827 --> 00:48:22,448
It's an absolutely ridiculous
story
1145
00:48:23,344 --> 00:48:25,068
that was shared
almost 400 times
1146
00:48:25,172 --> 00:48:27,344
by people who don't care
that it's ridiculous;
1147
00:48:27,448 --> 00:48:29,965
it confirms their bias
that they hate refugees
1148
00:48:30,068 --> 00:48:31,275
and so on and so forth.
1149
00:48:31,379 --> 00:48:33,344
This is probably the greatest,
1150
00:48:33,448 --> 00:48:35,137
our greatest meme of all time.
1151
00:48:35,241 --> 00:48:37,137
Sharia law must be stopped.
1152
00:48:37,241 --> 00:48:39,724
If you mention Sharia law,
these people go crazy.
1153
00:48:39,827 --> 00:48:41,758
Under Governor Brown,
students in California
1154
00:48:41,862 --> 00:48:45,241
are now required to learn
Arabic numerals.
1155
00:48:45,344 --> 00:48:47,103
That's right,
zero through nine.
1156
00:48:47,206 --> 00:48:49,448
Comment one to 10 how
much this angers you.
1157
00:48:49,551 --> 00:48:51,689
Oh, the irony.
1158
00:48:51,793 --> 00:48:54,206
You can see
all the angry reacts
1159
00:48:54,310 --> 00:48:58,620
from all the 36,000 people
who think their poor children
1160
00:48:58,724 --> 00:49:01,862
are gonna have to learn how
to right zero through nine.
1161
00:49:01,965 --> 00:49:03,655
36,000 shares.
1162
00:49:03,758 --> 00:49:04,724
11,000 comments.
1163
00:49:04,827 --> 00:49:06,551
Lookit:
"I'm so angry about Sharia
1164
00:49:06,655 --> 00:49:08,344
"and all of their habits.
1165
00:49:08,448 --> 00:49:11,827
"You come to my country you
obey my countries laws."
1166
00:49:11,931 --> 00:49:15,172
3.6 thousand people hit
the love react on that,
1167
00:49:15,275 --> 00:49:16,827
because they agree with this
woman.
1168
00:49:16,931 --> 00:49:21,206
It's amazing how absolutely
uneducated people can be
1169
00:49:21,310 --> 00:49:23,068
over something so simple.
1170
00:49:23,172 --> 00:49:24,586
And this isn't something
that you couldn't Google
1171
00:49:24,689 --> 00:49:25,758
in five seconds.
1172
00:49:25,862 --> 00:49:26,862
- Your site's a satire,
1173
00:49:26,965 --> 00:49:29,275
but your critics say
that they're fake news.
1174
00:49:29,379 --> 00:49:32,896
- It's funny, 'cause I get
emails from reporters
1175
00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:36,137
all the time wanting
my sources. [chuckles]
1176
00:49:36,241 --> 00:49:39,068
And I tell them, my source is
in my head.
1177
00:49:39,172 --> 00:49:40,517
You are fact
checking fiction.
1178
00:49:40,620 --> 00:49:42,310
This is satire;
I made it up.
1179
00:49:42,413 --> 00:49:45,482
So when over 100,000 people
share one of your parodies,
1180
00:49:45,586 --> 00:49:48,000
how does it make you
feel about human nature?
1181
00:49:48,103 --> 00:49:50,000
It makes me sad.
1182
00:49:50,103 --> 00:49:51,620
That there can be so many
people
1183
00:49:51,724 --> 00:49:54,448
that would be so willing
to just believe something
1184
00:49:54,551 --> 00:49:57,241
and send it along so easily.
1185
00:49:57,344 --> 00:50:00,206
The one bit of solace
that I get out of that is
1186
00:50:00,310 --> 00:50:01,689
it doesn't last long.
1187
00:50:01,793 --> 00:50:03,689
People believe them,
and then they get told
1188
00:50:03,793 --> 00:50:06,655
by reasonable people who
say no, this is not real.
1189
00:50:06,758 --> 00:50:08,620
My reason for hope
doesn't come from my page;
1190
00:50:08,724 --> 00:50:10,137
it comes from my kid.
1191
00:50:10,241 --> 00:50:12,034
I've got a 16-year-old
daughter
1192
00:50:12,137 --> 00:50:14,103
who lobbied me to take her
1193
00:50:14,206 --> 00:50:15,896
to March for Your Lives in
Washington.
1194
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:19,862
So my reason for hope lies
with the younger generation.
1195
00:50:19,965 --> 00:50:21,793
- So, Chris, we've been trying
to cook up
1196
00:50:21,896 --> 00:50:25,275
some memes of our own, see
whether we can get a response.
1197
00:50:25,379 --> 00:50:26,379
Do you want to have a look?
1198
00:50:26,482 --> 00:50:27,689
- Sure.
1199
00:50:27,793 --> 00:50:29,172
- So here's our first
one.
1200
00:50:29,275 --> 00:50:31,103
What do you make of that?
Is it gonna go viral?
1201
00:50:31,206 --> 00:50:32,620
- Feminazis are running
British TV.
1202
00:50:32,724 --> 00:50:33,793
God bless America.
1203
00:50:33,896 --> 00:50:36,586
That's wonderful.
I love that.
1204
00:50:36,689 --> 00:50:38,068
The problem that you're gonna
have is,
1205
00:50:38,172 --> 00:50:39,379
see all this stuff here?
1206
00:50:39,482 --> 00:50:43,517
These are words, syllables,
and they mean things.
1207
00:50:43,620 --> 00:50:48,103
This is what we call TL;DR.
Too long; didn't read.
1208
00:50:48,206 --> 00:50:51,103
Your average American liberal
will read 200 to 300 words.
1209
00:50:51,206 --> 00:50:53,137
Your average American
conservative
1210
00:50:53,241 --> 00:50:55,103
will read
six to eight syllables.
1211
00:50:55,206 --> 00:50:56,862
- So we keep the headline
and...
1212
00:50:56,965 --> 00:50:58,000
- You keep the headline,
1213
00:50:58,103 --> 00:50:59,862
you put a picture of a cat
wearing an American flag,
1214
00:50:59,965 --> 00:51:00,965
and you're good to go.
1215
00:51:01,068 --> 00:51:03,241
- OK. So, second time,
lookie.
1216
00:51:03,344 --> 00:51:04,344
- Sure.
1217
00:51:04,448 --> 00:51:05,655
- This one's a bit more
visual.
1218
00:51:05,758 --> 00:51:07,068
- OK.
Oh, that's much better.
1219
00:51:07,172 --> 00:51:08,827
British PC madness.
1220
00:51:08,931 --> 00:51:11,241
BBC bosses enforce Ramadan
dress code.
1221
00:51:11,344 --> 00:51:13,689
Welcome to Britainistan.
They're gonna love that.
1222
00:51:13,793 --> 00:51:14,931
Ooh boy, you know?
1223
00:51:15,034 --> 00:51:17,103
What you've done here is
you've taken 16 syllables
1224
00:51:17,206 --> 00:51:18,482
and you've put them together
in a way
1225
00:51:18,586 --> 00:51:22,413
that really will appeal
to your average...
1226
00:51:23,827 --> 00:51:25,103
ignorant American.
1227
00:51:25,206 --> 00:51:26,689
So it's powerful imagery.
1228
00:51:26,793 --> 00:51:28,413
You've got a woman in a hijab.
1229
00:51:28,517 --> 00:51:31,344
You've got a reference
to Muslims.
1230
00:51:31,448 --> 00:51:34,241
The fact that it's British
and BBC may...
1231
00:51:35,413 --> 00:51:37,241
decrease the amount that
this could go viral,
1232
00:51:37,344 --> 00:51:40,586
but that absolutely could
work, without a doubt.
1233
00:51:40,689 --> 00:51:41,827
- That would be a good meme.
1234
00:51:41,931 --> 00:51:43,068
- So we put it out there and
see
1235
00:51:43,172 --> 00:51:44,206
whether people pick up on it?
1236
00:51:44,310 --> 00:51:46,758
Sure. We can.
I'd be happy to.
1237
00:51:46,862 --> 00:51:50,931
You'll know within the first
10, maybe 15 minutes, tops,
1238
00:51:51,034 --> 00:51:53,172
if you've got something
that's gonna go places.
1239
00:51:53,275 --> 00:51:54,517
I mean, this looks like a
great meme,
1240
00:51:54,620 --> 00:51:56,034
but it could get zero shares.
1241
00:51:56,137 --> 00:51:57,206
So you're out there now.
1242
00:51:57,310 --> 00:52:00,586
Your meme has been presented
to about 400,000 people.
1243
00:52:00,689 --> 00:52:02,931
- Meme shared.
- Meme shared.
1244
00:52:03,034 --> 00:52:04,655
Voiceover: As Busta thought,
the British angle
1245
00:52:04,758 --> 00:52:06,241
meant that our Britainistan
meme
1246
00:52:06,344 --> 00:52:08,344
didn't do so well across the
Atlantic.
1247
00:52:08,448 --> 00:52:11,137
But Busta then re-versioned
it for an American audience,
1248
00:52:11,241 --> 00:52:12,413
and it got traction.
1249
00:52:12,517 --> 00:52:14,689
And as a quick roundup
for full disclosure,
1250
00:52:14,793 --> 00:52:16,965
our Richard Dawkins video
got...
1251
00:52:17,068 --> 00:52:21,724
on Lab Bible, and our
lolcat got five like.
1252
00:52:21,827 --> 00:52:23,517
So that's a bad meme.
1253
00:52:23,620 --> 00:52:26,310
Voiceover: Well, I'm more of
a dog person anyway.
1254
00:52:26,413 --> 00:52:28,896
- In the long term, I have
a lot of faith in people.
1255
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:31,068
I have a lot of faith in us.
We learn.
1256
00:52:31,172 --> 00:52:33,586
Billions of people
on the planet
1257
00:52:33,689 --> 00:52:35,413
choosing to watch this
and not that,
1258
00:52:35,517 --> 00:52:37,310
or to pass on this
and not pass on that,
1259
00:52:37,413 --> 00:52:39,275
or to take that and go,
"I'll do a little quirk,"
1260
00:52:39,379 --> 00:52:40,551
and pass that on.
1261
00:52:40,655 --> 00:52:44,172
So, here is the most amazing,
new,
1262
00:52:44,275 --> 00:52:48,137
evolutionary explosion of
creativity.
1263
00:52:49,689 --> 00:52:52,172
Memes come and go in
a culture so sped up
1264
00:52:52,275 --> 00:52:55,241
as to sometimes seem almost
meaningless.
1265
00:52:55,344 --> 00:52:56,896
But that production and
reception are
1266
00:52:57,000 --> 00:52:59,896
and always have been
a window into popular culture
1267
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:01,965
as it really is:
1268
00:53:02,068 --> 00:53:05,482
impulsive, derisive,
bawdy, contested,
1269
00:53:05,586 --> 00:53:09,310
sceptical of experts and of
authority.
1270
00:53:09,413 --> 00:53:11,931
Memes are also testimony
to human inventiveness
1271
00:53:12,034 --> 00:53:14,206
and playfulness.
1272
00:53:14,310 --> 00:53:17,793
At their best, memes are
about engaging people,
1273
00:53:17,896 --> 00:53:20,620
about our senses of belonging.
1274
00:53:20,724 --> 00:53:23,344
They're little packets
of digital information
1275
00:53:23,448 --> 00:53:25,379
flying around.
1276
00:53:25,482 --> 00:53:27,655
But also deeply human.
1277
00:53:29,172 --> 00:53:32,172
["Never Gonna Give you Up"
By Rick Astley]
1278
00:53:47,517 --> 00:53:51,655
♪ We're no strangers
to love ♪
1279
00:53:51,758 --> 00:53:54,551
♪ You know the rules
and so do I... ♪
1280
00:53:54,655 --> 00:53:57,655
Captions edited by Ai-Media
ai-media.tv
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