The Ever-Growing Indian Meme Culture!
Let’s agree to the fact that memes make us smile and sometimes laugh out loud in depressed and negative social media times and life. Over the years it has become an integral part of our life and many users just go on to social media for their daily dose of memes and laughter.
In today’s time memes are not just a recreational graphical image or video, it’s a tool that brands love and are ready to spend money. There are meme-making apps making a business out of it. And above all, this phenomena cannot die. Because it’s based on all kinds of (mostly topical) news and events happening in and around the world.
Now I am an Indian and have been into memes watching and sometimes making for quite some time; having worked in new media companies and headed one of them; I’ve seen things and memes go viral within hours and understand how it works.
The first thing that stuns me is the resurrection of old Bollywood songs. Be it Bilal Sayed’s Aadhi Aadhi Raat better known as — Dill wale puchde ne cha, Gajendra Verma’s Tera Ghata, Om Prakash Mishra’s Aunty Ki Ghanti, J Star’s Na Na Na Na and many similar Bollywood songs that have been bought back from the dead just by the great Indian memers who sit and home and do epic shits with their mobile phones or computer.
Second, comes — Indian comedy films and comedy actors from the film Andaaz Apna Apna to the Hera Pheri or to any comic scene from a Bollywood film. Anything is a potential meme. You just need to sit and give it a naughty thought. One potential viral meme has the power to bring back viewership to that particular film and trend it on OTT apps.
Broadly speaking we see the following category of memes on the Internet.
- Political Memes — Memes involving the great Indian Politicians and their statement and activity
- Dialogue Memes — Aao Kabhi Haveli Pe
- Video/ Movie Comedy Scene Memes — video clip from comedy films
- Comic Book Memes — Comic strips converted into memes
- Direct Insult Memes — Personally targeted memes mostly on celebs/politicians or anyone
- TVC Memes — Kya Aaapke Toothpaste Mein Namak hai?, Kya Aapne Kabhi Hotel Book Kiya Hai?
- Dharmic Memes — Memes from serials like Mahabharat, Ramayan
- Dank Memes — Adult below the belt memes. I mean like Really Adult
- Miscellaneous Memes — Anything I might have missed.
Now all these categories of memes are clubbed as per the wish of the person making it which amplifies the joke and laughter and their chances to go viral. There’s a strange competition of making funnier memes amongst the meme makers. And the one with the fastest execution generally wins the virality game.
Facebook has an uncountable number of highly active meme pages that can make you laugh even at your darkest time.
It’s high time meme-making should be considered a life skill. There could be a short-term course on creating memes.
Not denying the fact that memes do not have a dark side but then Is there anything that doesn’t have a dark/negative aspect??
The best part of memes and meme creators according to me is that they do not spare anyone. Not the elite celebs, not the corrupt politicians, not the knowledge peddling self-proclaimed gurus and baba and neither any common Indian gone viral due to whatever memes.
Sometimes it could be brutal but memes are the epitome of freedom of expression.
