Index

CONTENTS

Introduction: Global Mutations of the Viral Image 8
Chloë Arkenbout, Jack Wilson and Daniël de Zeeuw


MEMETIC SUBJECTIVITIES AND COMMUNITIES____________________

Wojak’s lament: Excess and Voyeurism Under Platform Capitalism 18
Anthony Glyn Burton

The ‘Grotesque’ in Instagram Memes 27
Idil Galip

‘A Vaguely Erotic Mime’: Mimetic Text vs. Optical Tactility 40
Sabrina Ward-Kimola

Praise Gopod: Weird Tales and Memetic Lore on the WELL 49
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann

Audio Memes, Earworms, and Templatability:
the ‘Aural Turn’ of Memes on TikTok 58 
Crystal Abidin and Dr. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye

Memes in Kuwait as Coping Mechanism for a Lack of Infrastructure 69
Yasmeen Khaja


THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF MEMETIC PRODUCTION______

Masks, Monsters, and Memes: In Conversation with Scoobert Doobert 78
By Max Horwich

Le Meme d’Auteur, or: 89 
How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Original Content Memes
Clusterduck (Silvia Dal Dosso, Francesca Del Bono, Aria Mag and Noel Nicolaus)

Making poetry babies in an online world 101
Laurence Scherz

‘The Disturbingly Humanoid Face of the Lamb of God Has Shocked Many’: 118 
Visual Strategies in Internet Memes on the Restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece
By Martin Haßen

Ibiza Austrian Memes: 130 
Reflections on Reclaiming Political Discourse through Memes
Anahita Neghabat

Dear Mr.BoneSaw your face smells like a chicken shawarma: 143
A Clapback to Saudi Arabia’s Electronic Army
Saeeda Saeed


FROM PEAK TO POST MEME___________________________________________

Mimetic Sameness 154
Grant Bollmer

A Postdigital Angel of History? On ‘Meme Theory’ 165
Scott Wark

On the Prospect of Overcoming Meme-Culture, 176 
or, The Last Meme in History
Åke Gafvelin

Deeper and Higher: Memes as Scalar Abstraction 187
Georey Hondroudakis


MEME WARFARE________________________________________________________

Post-Truth Design Tactics in Memes in India: 198 
Decoding Malicious Design Practices in Right-Wing Meme Factories
By Aarushi Bapna and Ajitesh Lokhande

Weapons of Mass Distraction: 217 
Far-Right Culture-Jamming Tactics in Memetic Warfare
Andy King

Your Feed is a Battleground: A Field Report on Memetic Warfare in Turkey 236
Sarp Özer

It Lurks in the Deep: 248 
Memetic Terror and the Blue Whale Challenge in India
Anirban K. Baishya

SILICODEFORESTATION 261
Stephanie Boulding


MEME MAGIC: SPECTRES AND DEMONS_____________________________

An Ambiguous Utopia 269
The Trans Bears

Pepe the Frog Is Love and Peace: His Second Life in Hong Kong 289
Caspar Chan

The Contagious Other: Virality and Anxiety in Congolese Memes 338
Lesley Nicole Braun


APPENDICES_____________________________________________________________

Biographies 353

Meme Studies Research Network 361