adminBongani Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
THIS week’s buzz on social media was Jay Z and Solange Knowles’ bust up in an elevator of the Standard Hotel in New York after the Met Gala on Monday. The whole week saw social media go haywire with fun pictures circulating poking fun at what happened to Jay Z.
Photo shopped images of the rapper appeared on various social media sites giving a satirical look at the issue with iconic scenes from movies such as Matrix being used to depict what happened in the elevator.
Video games such as Mortal Kombat had fight scenes depicting Solange about to deliver the killer blow and the words “Finish Him” at the top of the picture.
Even jailed R’n’B artiste Chris Brown was not spared as he was used as the ‘go to man’ to deal with a problematic woman such as Solange. Chris Brown infamously made headlines for beating up Rihanna two years ago.
Paralympian Oscar Pistorious who is facing murder charges for shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last year on Valentine’s Day was also used by some people with pictures of him suggesting he was on the phone with Jay Z telling him – “Look Jay at some point she’ll gotta use the bathroom.”
This creative comment culture seems to have taken the world and even Zimbabweans by storm.
These virally shared images are a confirmation of internet’s rising creative comment culture.
This trend is called an internet meme (pronounced meem) which is defined as “an idea, behaviour, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture”.
An internet meme may take the form of an image, hyperlink, video, picture, website, or hashtag and may be just a word or phrase, including an intentional misspelling.
These small movements tend to spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, or news sources. A meme can also be catchy in form of behaviour, styles, beliefs, tunes, catch-phrases, fashions, etc.; which are imitated and thus “propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain.
The internet meme uses the brain to refer to objects that one sees on the picture and relates it to something that they have watched or read about.
For these memes to make sense one has to have the same culture that can make one identify and understand the meme.
For example, everyone knows Muhammad Ali, the self proclaimed world’s greatest boxer off all time.
He fought and knocked out Sonny Liston for the crown in 1965 and there is a famous picture of Ali standing over Liston after giving him the devastating blow.
Last week South Africa had their elections which the African National Congress emphatically won by 63 percent of the national vote. With all the noise Economic Freedom Fighters’ leader Julius Malema got 6 percent of the vote.
After the election results were announced the same picture depicting Ali over Liston did the rounds but this time people had removed the heads of the boxers and replaced them with Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema.
Standing over Malema, Zuma was seen to be saying Ulokhe unenkani and Malema replied Hatshi baba.
So those who share the same culture of knowing the famous fight and following the South African elections will understand what the picture means and would share the joke with others.
In Zimbabwe, comedian Uncle Richie Zvirikumbofambasei expression has also been ‘memed’ by people as pictures are circulating showing different situations where people can use the expression in a joking way.
Talking about Uncle Richie it seems that his expression is not only a social media phenomenon but has been used in colloquial language during conversations.
Online Reporter