Abstract
Abstract The analysis undertaken in the article focuses on a group of memes selected from the database which drew on culture-specific references. Specifically, they embrace the memories of socialist times and call on references to comic films and easily recognized characters in order to bring out the re-discovered absurdity of the current COVID-19 situation. This material seems ideal to revisit Raskin’s early notion of sophistication, which was broadly argued to derive from intertextuality as well complexity of references that function as sources of humor. In all the examples discussed we can observe the intertextual and metatextual elements, multiple levels and shifts in points of view and attitudes as well as the mutual relations of verbal to visual within the meme cycles. In order to identify specific mechanisms of sophisticated humor, we attempt to identify the visual or verbal triggers of overlap of the two worlds in question, and discuss comic mechanisms of sophistication, including attributions of desire, belief and intention (purpose) to characters or the narrator as commentators on events or situations.
Highlights
The analysis undertaken in the article focuses on a group of memes selected from the database which drew on culture-specific references
This material seems ideal to revisit Raskin’s early notion of sophistication, which was broadly argued to derive from intertextuality as well complexity of references that function as sources of humor
Apart from three intertextual references and two genres as well as two characters, the sophisticated joke is based on attribution of belief perhaps to Sigmund, but certainly to the narrator, who regrets that Odette is not available sexually
Summary
Internet memes have been of interest to many humor scholars (Davison 2009; Wiggins and Bret Bowers 2015). Successful memes, as Knobel and Lankshear (2008: 6) define them, may be considered sophisticated too as they include one or more of the following characteristics: (1) some element of humor (absurd, parodying, geeky, etc.); (2) a rich kind of intertextuality, such as wry crossreferences to different popular culture events, icons, or phenomena; and/or (3) anomalous juxtapositions, usually of images (Laineste and Voolaid 2016: 32). Successful memes, as Knobel and Lankshear (2008: 6) define them, may be considered sophisticated too as they include one or more of the following characteristics: (1) some element of humor (absurd, parodying, geeky, etc.); (2) a rich kind of intertextuality, such as wry crossreferences to different popular culture events, icons, or phenomena; and/or (3) anomalous juxtapositions, usually of images (Laineste and Voolaid 2016: 32). Participating with the content, e.g. by sharing, liking, and emulating existing humorous artefacts, constitutes a novel form of intertextuality in the digital age (Tsakona and Chovanec 2020: 15), but still its functions tend to be similar. “Intertextuality may have a self-enhancing motive and effect, especially when intertextual connections are established with prestigious or culturally-significant prior texts. Intertextuality may have a self-aggrandising effect” (Tsakona and Chovanec 2020: 16)
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