Forums / Discussion / Meme Research

Hello all! I'm a graduate student who is writing his thesis on memes. Long story short, I'm arguing that memes can be used in English classrooms as teaching tools for templates, style, tone, etc. Anyway, for one part of my research, I'm looking for memes that are persuasive at their core. Ones like Advice Mallard which persuade people to action. I don't mean one example of a whole meme (like one Insanity Wolf that persuades, Insanity Wolf as a whole meme/genre is not persuasive); rather, I mean memes that are intrinsically persuasive by genre. I've considered some /fit/ memes, as they encourage people to action and Advice Mallard as well. Do you guys and gals have other thoughts on memes that are typically all persuasive (and not just commentary)? Thank you for the help!

So just to be clear, are you looking for ones that are presented as advices or persuasions regardless of their validity (ex: Courage Wolf will tell you to do things that you probably shouldn't, Did You Know images facts are absurd), or are you looking for examples that easily convince people into action because they're held to be true or useful in life (ex: Lifehack or )?

Either way, this seems like an interesting research topic.

Talking about persuasion and Advice Dog isn't mentioned before Insanity Wolf? Oh well…

I know I've said this before, but are you going to mention anything about memes being a new means of evolving human language?

Ideally, I'd rather have ones that move people to action because of validity. Though I am thinking of using Courage Wolf because of the ones which are motivational. Did You Know might have something there, the PacMan example certainly makes people move, lol. What I'm doing with this part of the chapter is this: using Aristotle's claim of rhetoric being, at its core, persuasive, I am proving that memes can be considered rhetorical because they often persuade people to action (whether large scale political/social action or something as small as putting your finger in your ear for the PacMan sound). So, some Courage Wolfs work here, but again, I'd rather find ones that are more advice/persuasive across the board. Thanks for the comment. I think it's a cool bit of research myself!

(I don't know how to/if you can multi-quote on here so:
"Talking about persuasion and Advice Dog isn’t mentioned before Insanity Wolf? Oh well…
I know I’ve said this before, but are you going to mention anything about memes being a new means of evolving human language?"

I hit on the topic of a newer form of human language a bit in one chapter, but it is not the bulk of my argument. However, if you're into a bit of eccentric reading, Marshall McLuhan's The Global Village is a wonderful argument of how technology would affect the way humans interacted. :)

Thank you for the replies so far everyone! Currently I'm playing around with using Advice Dog, Courage Wolf, and Actual Advice Mallard.

Any other thoughts?