Our parents didn’t grow up with memes, and may not really “get” them, but they’re on Facebook and can’t help being exposed to the #content-industrial complex. So it’s inevitable that Facebook parents will meme, although most will never get beyond the Garfield-and-Minions stage.
But there’s one dad who’s way beyond that: He communicates exclusively in homemade memes, and his work takes dad-jokes to a new level.
“My dad learned how to make his own ‘memes,'” writes @vinabean, “so now he ‘memes’ everything instead of posting regular Facebook statuses.”
She’s put “memes” in quotes for a reason. Her dad’s work may bear the visual markings of a meme—images with white Impact text—but it doesn’t usually deliver a punchline. Instead, he just expresses whatever he wanted to say on Facebook anyway. Check it out:
My dad learned how to make his own "memes" so now he "memes" everything instead of posting regular Facebook statuses. pic.twitter.com/lxHKiftlj2
— 👀👉🏾🐴 👀👉🏾🐴 👀👉🏾🐴 (@vinabean) October 18, 2016
He’ll comment on sports, politics, the weather… anything. It’s totally normal, except that he does it in bizarro-meme-dad format.
More "memes" created by my dad, who refuses to just use text on Facebook anymore. pic.twitter.com/ufHQTVndt1
— 👀👉🏾🐴 👀👉🏾🐴 👀👉🏾🐴 (@vinabean) October 18, 2016
It’s not that his understanding of memes transcends that of the Facebook moms who post clichéd sayings over pictures of Tweety Bird. It doesn’t, really. But what he’s doing is infinitely better and funnier because he writes his own material and picks images that actually make sense. It’s completely coherent! There’s just no reason for him to post it as a “meme.”
Ironically, the lack of viral potential in these memes is the thing that might make them viral. And if not, well, at least dad’s having fun with it.
He is so tickled with himself. He usually calls me to make sure I saw (and laughed at) them.
— 👀👉🏾🐴 👀👉🏾🐴 👀👉🏾🐴 (@vinabean) October 18, 2016