AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Yo guys, for my G-Communications class, I have to write a 6-8 minute informative speech. The topic I chose was the psychology and relevance of internet meme phenomena. Now see, we have to have at least four print sources, and, well...Having some trouble. Internet memes and all.

So if anyone can link me to an online article ripped from a newspaper/magazine, it'd be much appreciated :V

Memes are: lolcats, mudkipz, and (for a recent one my audience can relate to) Kanye West interruptin'.

This isn't cheating okay

Nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger

^
Well, there's half the internet. :/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene

This book is exactly about your topic, though not internet memes, just memetics in general.

Oh wow, thank you. That actually helps a lot, considering it's something I could probably pull from the library!

Go with Rickroll instead of mudkipz. Trust me, you do NOT want to explain the origin story for that one.

Yeah, I'd recommend sticking with memes that have entered popular culture. Rick'roll and lolcats being two obvious ones.

When you start getting into mudkips and stuff, you start encountering problems... like, 90% of your listeners having never heard of the meme before, and 80% of your listeners not even knowing what a mudkip is.

Actually, you could probably easily make a full speech off of just Rick'Roll and lolcats alone, and the best part about it, is that you'd be able to cover the two main types of memes. Image-macros, and viral videos/images/phrases.

Remember, 6-8 minutes is a really short time, you can't cover that much, and want to avoid things that are going to require excessive explanation.

You guys are pretty smart; I actually did this exact thing last night! I had forgotten how easily the Rickroll had assimilated into popular culture.

When it's on the Macy's Day Parade, with a cartoon network show, it's been assimilated.

I'd say use PINGAS, but I don't think it's a meme

After Crawfish finishes with that speech, this'll probably become a meme discussion thread.

In order to do those, though, Crawfish would need to CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS.

Crawfish, might be late now but this could be very useful to you. Has links to all sorts of articles and such. It's about THE GAME. I hated that one.

The Selfish Gene was a great reference. I was also able to find an article on how "Snakes on a Plane" was virally marketed. It isn't exactly a meme, but it serves to explain how things are spread, which is half of my speech.



KEKEKEKEKEKEKE

I dunno how long you have to work on the speech, but if you are still working on it...

I was thinking it might be an idea to make a portion of your speech about how memes typically start off in small social groups, but occasionally escape virally and spread like wildfire.

For example, we have a few memes in this forum, for example...However, that meme obviously will never escape this forum and spread to others.

I suspect that almost any social group will have at least 1-2 memes that are known only to that group. They are typically called inside-jokes, though I suppose the term meme has been replacing it with time. It almost seems like the word "meme" has achieved a meme-like quality.