The slides from my 15 minute presentation for Metaphwoar! 2011, part of Internet Week Europe.

1. Advice Memes 101
-or-
Internet culture is not as new or
strange as it may seem

2. What is an Advice
Meme?

3. Internet meme /ˈɪntərˌnɛt mim /
noun.
A piece of often-entertaining
cultural currency that spreads
rapidly through social networks
and media platforms.

5. Image Macro /ˈɪmɪdʒˈmækroʊ/
noun
A picture* captioned for humorous
effect
*Generally on the Internet, and usually in Impact outline font

7. = LOLCAT

8. • Single cropped
image
• Color wheel
background
• Impact font
• Setup on top,
punchline on
bottom

10. So what do Advice
Memes and TV
Sitcom Characters
have in common?

11. TROPES
“Devices and conventions that content
creators can reasonably rely on as being
present in the audience members' minds
and expectations”*
(Not clichés, closer to stereotypes)
*According to TVTropes.com

12. Foul Bachelor Frog

13. Foul Bachelor Frog
=

15. Foul Bachelor Frog

16. Socially Awkward Penguin

17. Socially Awkward Penguin
=

19. Socially Awkward Penguin

20. Philosoraptor

21. Philosoraptor
=

23. Philosoraptor

24. Courage Wolf

25. Courage Wolf
=

27. Courage Wolf

28. Other Examples
=
=

29. Other Examples
=
=

30. So...

31. TL;DR
The extreme nature of community practices
on /b/ can obscure the underlying role these
behaviours play to the casual observer. We
see our role as partly one of translating these
practices into terms familiar to scholars.
(Bernstein et al., 2011)

32. Thanks!