This was too much fun. A lot of the memes about Channing Tatum are the expected "I'm too sexy for my pants" jokes. One thing I noticed, which I thought was great, is that memes are inserted so far into our culture that the necessary background knowledge to understand them is already considered common knowledge. The main topic for Channing right now seems to be on his latest movie "Magic Mike". Here are some of what I found.
FAN ART
Fan art on Channing Tatum was a little bit more limited, I noticed. Also, its focus seemed to be more on montage and templates--simply inserting text into a photograph. The level of technological skill needed for this doesn't seem to very high, which may be be an indicator of the fan audience here...haha. The purpose of these seem to be pure entertainment but I don't think that devalues them. It demonstrates this sliver of our culture today, which sadly is an indicator of a large portion of society today.
No way I could ever be a Channing Tatum. I thought the Channing America was a good representation of Fan Art, looks like they took a pic and then composited it with America stuff. It is true that memes are widely understood by most because they are already mostly understood in our culture, I never noticed that before. Good observation. Now we all know what Stephanie will be dreaming about tonight :) I like your post and I think our group is having fun and is actually learning stuff from stuff I wouldn't have thought we could learn anything from.
ReplyDeleteI'll say it again- I like the focus on "simple", culturally popular topics. I think for all of this new stuff we're learning, and the advanced concepts we're attempting to understand and apply, having some things to work with that don't require a lot of research or background study is VERY helpful. something you said that made me think: within our culture "the background knowledge necessary to understand [the memes and fan art] is already considered common knowledge." Now, i know it's obvious, but, there don't seem to be any memes or fan art that explain why they are clever or funny. the audience is expected to be clever enough and "in the loop" enough already- and if you don't get it- it's almost like you're left out. hence- part of the appeal and another (sad) indicator of our culture. Yes, a meme's existence is culturally relevant and interesting to study, and some of them are awesome- but it does start to get old, and many are just stupid. but they won't stop because creators have not yet gotten over the satisfaction that is gained when they think they have created something clever that only an esoteric audience will understand (am i using that word right? esoteric?) and THAT makes them feel powerful. likewise, the understanding viewer of said meme also feels powerful and special for getting the joke. it's kind of pathetic, but so it is.
ReplyDeleteYes yes yes yes yes. Okay...let me go on a bit of a culture rant here. I LOVE CULTURE!!! I do! And I'm all about portraying culture for what it is....not for what we want people to see it as. I mean, sure....our culture has all kinds of positive things...ya! Buuuut....we CANNOT deny the fact that Channing Tatum, Robert (watchamacallit twillight guy), vampire diaries brothers, etc.. are a HUGE part of our culture! They make up like 60% of the memes on Facebook. Is it shallow, yes! Is it pathetic, YES! But it's our culture....so I'm gonna say I'm glad I picked this topic. It's gonna be interesting to try to unravel some layers of culture from its most shallow and common ends! :D
ReplyDeletei totally feel you steph. i hope you haven't gotten the impression that i think your topic is silly- cuz i love it. and you're absolutely right. TOTALLY relevant in our culture.
DeleteOh, I didn't get that impression at all!! I was reinforcing what you said! :)
DeleteHe's so dreamy!
ReplyDeleteHaha, but there were a couple of times that I literally LOL'd at some of these memes.