‘When You Try to Tell People about Climate Change, and They Start Making Memes about You’: The Meaning-Making in Greta Thunberg Internet Memes

Abstract

This article discusses humorous memes dedicated to climate change activist Greta Thunberg. The analysis of the 264 memes illustrates that Thunberg’s environmental agenda is not central among the memes’ topics. Many memes use the catchy phrases in Thunberg’s speeches, recontextualizing them to achieve humorous effects. While some memes aim at ridiculing Thunberg personally, others use her image metaphorically. Memes abound in intertextual references, drawing parallels between Thunberg and characters of films, cartoons, and other internet memes. By embracing textual and visual aspects of Greta Thunberg memes, and the context of their creation, the article reflects on the interrelation between the content of memes and the social facts that inspired them. The focus is on the discrepancy between the original ideas of celebrities and the meanings reflected in celebrity memes. The analysis demonstrates that celebrity memes can bear various degrees of connection to the ideas of the people that they feature.