What Does Multimodal Even Meme?

I’m going to take a moment and be more vulnerable than I have before on this blog. Multimodal compositions are painful. Their production (and even being sure what is and isn’t one) is very outside my comfort zone. I missed a previous post that I could have done because it also focused on multimodal things, and those sorts of things are apparently scary. The internet defines multimodality as “The use or availability of several different modes, methods, systems, etc.” (en.oxforddictionaries.com), and as you can tell by that very clear and precise definition, a lot of things are probably multimodal. But how multimodal is multimodal enough? If I use my computer to type half of this blog post, and then seamlessly transfer to typing on my phone, have I accomplished multimodality by using multiple systems, though? My computer has Word (where I’m currently typing) and my phone doesn’t, so I’d be forced to use something else to continue my composition. Maybe my notes app? Unfortunately for me, this is likely not multimodal enough. Maybe just a regular run-of-the-mill meme with a picture and some texts pasted over it is on that line of enough? That also takes my phone and many other methods than just typing words, because there’s no way I’m going to make a meme that’s as outdated as the ones https://imgflip.com/memegenerator suggests I make on their home page (though I'm sure they're very helpful in actually producing memes). No one’s seen the Philosorapter in ages (they’re extinct), and Chuck Norris hasn’t been funny since 2007 (though, I suppose there’s potential he could swing back around (that’s a roundhouse kick joke, for the uninformed)). Anyway, I’ll have to see what sort of memes are doing well today, so standby.

Okay, don’t read the next part for about 15 minutes, that’s how long I was gone. I imagine memes have real names in whatever community just loves memes, but I don’t know what those names are, so I’ll just do what I can to explain them. A few that seem to be doing okay today are Charlie Day playing his role in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia standing by a wall he has strung out a conspiracy on, the boyfriend distracted by a passerby meme, and “You vs the guy she tells you not to worry about.” I can’t stress enough here that I have no idea what I’m doing, so the following attempt at a meme that I’ll try to pass off as multimodal text should be extraordinary, as all things I produce are.

I'd like to thank twitter user @pixelatedboat for posting the meme she told me not to worry about, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia for having such an outrageous character for the internet to latch onto so I could use it later, and her, for telling me not to worry about that other meme.

What an experience. The picture really guides what the words can say, because you expect something outrageous from Pepe Silvia (I've learned recently that's the name of the Charlie Day meme) as well as having to have contrast because of "you vs what she tells you not to worry about." Appropriation is the real meat of memes, because without a TV series to take a crazy character from or previous memes having been popular and already having an established meaning On The Line, they would just be pictures. I suppose the real challenge is in the production of new memes, and I honestly don't know enough about internet culture to be able to work toward making something new that would be popular enough to be categorized as a meme, so I'm happy I was able to appropriate nearly all my work other than a single sentence from other sources.

As for amplifying learning, I don't know where this would fall. This surely invites the creator to learn more about the culture that the memes exist in. It makes me question what the memes are outside of my culture, and even if I would recognize them as funny. There may not be a lot that can be taught about ELA through this particular multimodal form, but there's certainly room for learning around it in other arenas. Promoting civic engagement is easy through memes, actually. Though what I created doesn't exactly have a call to action, a lot of memes have subtle calls and function like political artwork used to in the thing we used to call "newspapers." There's also a lot to learn about tolerances in other nations, like which memes are illegal in Russia, and what sort of liberties are being taken away from The People when those sorts of things are regulated and outlawed. Perhaps there's more to memes than I initially considered, which of course makes them less approachable.