MEMES AGAINST THE MACHINE: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF

RESISTANCE AND PARODY USE IN INTERNET MEMES

AND ONLINE COMMENTS ON INSTAGRAM

A Thesis

Presented to

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The Faculty of the Department of Communication Studies

California State University, Los Angeles

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

In

Communication Studies

By

Luis Enrique Contreras Jr.

May 2021
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© 2021

Luis Enrique Contreras Jr.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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The thesis of Luis Enrique Contreras Jr. is approved.

Cynthia Wang, Committee Chair

Kamran Afary

Kevin Baaske

David Olsen, Department Chair

California State University, Los Angeles

May 2021

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 ABSTRACT

Memes Against the Machine

By

Luis Enrique Contreras Jr.

This thesis project explores how internet subcultures creatively remix, mimic, and

parody iconic, popular culture and political images to generate dialogue between

institutional powers and users on the Internet, specifically looking at the Instagram

account @justhumansof as a form of Bakhtinian (1968) carnival. A perspective of

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affordances of technology and mobile media (Baym, 2015; Schrock, 2015) is used to

understand how @justhumansof affords a platform for users to engage in the critique of
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hegemonic norms of capitalist society. Hence, this study looks at how technological

affordances of mobile media, such as the ability for users to share, comment, and widely
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disseminate memes and parodic images, allow users to participate in a broader

communication context that serves to critique systems of power. Visual rhetorical

analysis was performed on a set of six memes and textual analysis was done on their

respective comment sections. Overall findings support the notion that memes can

stimulate conversations critical of the hegemonic status quo, at least incrementally. It

appears that carnivalesque memes bring together online users in a digital space to vent

about shared experiences living under capitalism. Other findings suggest that the

carnivalesque environment on @justhumansof creates an illusion of subversion. These

findings raise interesting questions: to what degree can subversion take place on a

platform built on upholding the status quo? How much change can carnivalesque memes

truly bring? And how much of that is illusory? Apparently, it is complicated.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv

List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii

Chapter

1. Introduction .............................................................................................................1

Purpose of the Project ........................................................................................4

Scope/Delimitation ...................................................................................5

2. Literature Review....................................................................................................6

Internet Memes ..................................................................................................6

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Memes as Subversive Text .......................................................................7
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Intertextuality of Memes ...........................................................................9

Hegemony and Resistance ...............................................................................10

Carnival and Online Parody ....................................................................13

Affordances Perspective of Technology ..........................................................16

Affordances of Digital Media and the Internet .......................................16

Instagram.................................................................................................18

3. Research site and Methods....................................................................................21

Research Site ....................................................................................................21

Methods............................................................................................................23

4. Visual Rhetorical Analysis ...................................................................................29

Discussion of Visual Analysis .........................................................................48

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 5. Textual Analysis of Comments .............................................................................52

Discussion of Textual Analysis .......................................................................71

6. Overall Findings, Limitations, Future Studies and Conclusion ............................74

Overall Findings...............................................................................................74

Limitations .......................................................................................................77

Future Studies ..................................................................................................78

Conclusion .......................................................................................................80

References ..........................................................................................................................84

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

1. Figure 1. Abercrombie & Fitch Riot Squad .............................................................3

2. Figure 2. Research Site: @justhumansof Instagram Profile ..................................22

3. Figure 3. Chip in Now to the Biden-Harris Transition ..........................................33

4. Figure 4. Felix the Cat Doesn’t Make Profits for Capitalists ................................36

5. Figure 5. Is This Communism?..............................................................................39

6. Figure 6. Humanesque Lego Figure.......................................................................41

7. Figure 7. Child Labour Doesn’t Have to be Exploitation ......................................44

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8. Figure 8. He is Suffering. $29.99 ...........................................................................46
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9. Figure 9. Comment Section for “Chip in Now to Biden-Harris Transition” .........54

10. Figure 10. Comment Section for “Felix the Cat Doesn’t Make Profits” ...............57
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11. Figure 11. Comment Section for “Is This Communism?” .....................................61

12. Figure 12. Comment Section for Humanesque Lego Figure .................................65

13. Figure 13. Comment Section for “Child Labour”..................................................68

14. Figure 14. Comment Section for “He is Suffering. $29.99.” .................................71

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 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

George Orwell (1945) famously stated: “each joke is a tiny revolution …

whatever destroys dignity, and brings down the mighty from their seats, preferably with a

bump, is funny. And the bigger the fall, the bigger the joke” (p. 284). Orwell (1945), who

used elements of parody within his own works to critique authoritarianism, was aware of

the potential of parody and humor to “bring down” those in power. Additionally, Hans

Speier (1998) notes that humor and wit can be used to make those who are the target of

the punchline of a joke look ridiculous. In this sense, when used as a form of political

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criticism, humor and parody can serve to critique “established institutions, policies, or
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publicly recognized values” (Speier, 1998, p. 1353). One area of particular interest where

humor and parody have been deployed to critique capitalist hegemony is in the form of
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Internet memes. Accordingly, Heidi Huntington (2013) states that “memes are more than

internet humor; research shows them to function by appropriation and resistance to

dominant media messages” (p. 3). From this perspective, memes, which contain instances
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of parody and humor (Kuipers, 2005), are looked at to understand how they do more than

just offer a few laughs. Research on the role of memes and their subversive qualities

highlights some of the ways humor and parody have been used to critique hegemonic

power structures (Li, 2011; Milner, 2012; Kumar, 2015). Hence, this study looks at the

ways in which memes and parody on the Instagram account @justhumansof are used to

critique corporate, media, and political power structures within capitalist society. This

study relies on a perspective of affordances of technology and mobile media (Schrock,

2015), which looks at the ways certain technological capabilities and user intention work

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together to create a specific, desired effect (Faraj & Azad, 2012; Schrock, 2015). An

affordance perspective of technology and mobile media is used to understand how

@justhumansof affords a platform for users to engage in discourses that work to decenter

and critique norms of hegemonic capitalist society. Thus, this study looks at how

technological affordances of mobile media, such as the ability for users to share,

comment, and widely disseminate memes and parodic images, allow users to participate

in a broader communication context that serves to critique systems of power.

By posting memes, parodic images, and screen grabs of satirical news articles

@justhumansof uses humor and parody, positioned on the technological affordances of

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Instagram, to critique capitalist hegemony. @justhumansof is a site where those who
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share similar and dissimilar anxieties about capitalism can share their experiences with

others. Because Instagram has a built-in comment feature (Hu, Manikonda, and
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Kambhampati, 2014), it affords multiple users the ability to chime in with their unique

perspective or experience living in capitalist society (Li, 2011). The mere act of laughing

at a relatable or shared experience works to unify a great number of Internet users who
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alone may feel disempowered, but collectively feel a sense of community and strength in

numbers “when opposing the established political cultural and social order” (Li, 2011, p.

83).

The images and memes posted on @justhumansof are intentionally satirical,

parodic, and almost always make a comment on an absurd practice of capitalism.

@justhumansof’s biography section reads: “just humans of late capitalism,” which is a

reference to late-stage capitalism. Late-stage capitalism has been defined as “a popular

phrase that targets the inequities of modern-day capitalism. It describes the hypocrisy and

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absurdities of capitalism as it digs its own grave” (Amadeo, 2020). For example, figure 1

is a viral photo taken during the summer months of civil unrest in the US following the

police killing of George Floyd (Walters, 2020). The image depicts police in riot gear

protecting an Abercrombie & Fitch storefront from possible looting. The image is ironic

because police officers swear an oath to protect and serve citizens, but this image makes

viewers question to whom police officers are loyal. Do they protect the people, or do they

serve the establishment? One comment even draws a sarcastic parallel between this

particular moment of widespread civil unrest and the U.S. shopping holiday “Black

Friday:” “Blimey! Black Friday just gets more brutal each year” (jeffapderek).

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Figure 1. Abercrombie & Fitch Riot Squad + Comment Section

Looking at the ways Instagram users engage parodic images and memes on

@justhumansof can be useful for discovering what kinds of conversations are taking

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place surrounding issues about capitalist hegemony. Additionally, examining the ways in

which @justhumansof uses memes and parody to provide users the ability to participate

in this sort of critique is of particular interest. Therefore, this study will be guided by the

following research questions:

1. In what ways, and to what extent, does @justhumansof afford a space for parody and

memes to critique capitalism?

2. How does Instagram suppress potentially subversive memes and discourses?

Having outlined the research questions guiding this study above the following sections

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will discuss the purpose and significance of this study.

Purpose
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This study, which is situated within the communication subfield of media studies,
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seeks to contribute to further understanding of how cultural texts, specifically memes on

Instagram and their comment sections, appear to challenge cultural hegemony. The
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purpose of this project is to provide further insight into what Thomas Lindlof and Bryan

Taylor (2017) refer to as “resistance studies.” Lindlof and Taylor (2017) draw on

research by Fiske (1991) and Jenkins (1992) in their description of resistance studies:

“Some researchers conducted ‘resistance studies’ of subcultures whose members

creatively deconstructed media texts to serve their unique interests and who appeared to

subvert cultural hegemony” (p. 23). Precisely, this study looks at how members of

internet subcultures creatively remix, mimic, and parody iconic, popular culture and

political images to stir up a dialogue between institutional powers and people on the

Internet. Hence, the purpose of this study is to contribute new understandings to how the

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resistance of hegemony, the use of digital media/affordances, and the use of parody are at

work in memes on Instagram.

Scope/Delimitation

It is important to note that this thesis project was researched and written during

the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore memes, images, and comments selected

from the research site (@justhumansof) reflect some of the unique social, political, and

economic conditions created by the spread and impact of the COVID-19 virus, both in

the United States and globally. Memes and comments selected are exemplary

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representations that demonstrate how some social and political conditions created by

capitalism have been exacerbated or affected. Additionally, because the sample site
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contains over 1,800 posts, memes, and comments selected are limited within a timeframe

of six months. The sample set was selected from posts made between the months of
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September 2020 and January 2021. This was the timeframe in which this thesis process

was conducted, which coincidentally happened to be during the height of the 2020-21
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COVID-19 pandemic. Issues related to the pandemic are not necessarily explicitly stated,

but in some cases it is implied. These issues are discussed in subsequent chapters. In the

following chapter existing literature pertinent to this thesis project is reviewed.

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 CHAPTER 2

Literature Review

Firstly, this literature review discusses existing research on the intertextual and

subversive nature of Internet memes along with how Gramscian (1971) notions of

hegemony and counter-hegemonic resistance have been applied within the context of the

Internet and online resistance movements. Secondly, literature on symbolic acts of

resistance, specifically how Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1963) concept of carnivalesque has been

applied within the context of online parody is detailed and discussed. Thirdly, research on

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the communicative affordances perspective of technology and mobile media, specifically
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the digital media platform Instagram, is discussed.

Internet Memes
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The meaning of the word “meme” has evolved since it was first coined by

Richard Dawkins in 1976. Recently, Limor Shifman (2014) redefined Dawkins’ (1976)
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original articulation of the term. Where Dawkins (1976) defined memes as singular units

that transmit cultural information, Shifman (2014) has recontextualized that definition to

sit within the context of the Internet and online culture. Given this recontextualization,

Internet memes have been redefined as “a group of digital items sharing common

characteristics of content, form, and/or stance, which were created with awareness of

each other, and were circulated, imitated, and/or transformed via the Internet by many

users” (Shifman, 2014, p. 41). This refocusing and redefinition has brought significant

academic attention to the realm of Internet memes, especially within the field of

communication studies, as before memes were considered too ephemeral and

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unintelligible to receive scholarly attention (Wissenger, 2007). However, Shifman (2014)

has brought a renewed sense of interest to the field of digital media studies concerning

the study of Internet memes as significant socio-cultural texts.

Ryan Milner (2012) talks about Internet memes as a form of online public

discourse. Milner (2012) argues that multimodality, reappropriation, and participation are

characteristics of Internet memes that allow users to engage them as a mode for public

discourse. Memes allow Internet users to reappropriate images, text, and sounds with

relative ease to create their own message. According to Milner (2012), this is what

precisely makes memes “a quintessential participatory artifact: open, collaborative, and

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adaptable” (p.12). It is the ease of access to be able to create and share memes, along with
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their inextricable connection to online social networks, that enables Internet users to be

able to use memes to participate in online communication (Huntington, 2017). Moreover,

culture that value unique user “contributions as participation” (Bennett, Freelon, & Wells,

2010, p. 18). It is this affordance of user participation in online discourses that provides
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subversive and counter-hegemonic voices to have a place to speak and form their own

counter-discourse. The following section will discuss how memes have been viewed as

nontraditional media and a subversive form of text.

Memes as Subversive Texts

Research supports the idea that memes are products of visual media culture,

“parodying, mimicking, and recycling” elements from it (Kuipers, 2005, p. 80). In this

way, memes rely on parody, mimicry, and circulation to make critical social commentary.

Through the process of circulation, memes appropriate images and transform their

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meanings by adding a satiric or comical twist to them. Huntington (2013) states that

memes are more than forms of mere online humor. In fact, research supports the idea that

memes “function by appropriation and resistance to dominant media messages”

(Huntington, 2017, p. 3), hence suggesting that memes have the potential to do much

more than just provide quick laughs. Further research on the subversive qualities of

memes suggests that because they are a type of mainstream media operating on

mainstream social media platforms, such as Instagram, they provide “an accessible

medium for the wider public to hear alternative voices and messages” (Breheny, 2017, p.

84). Albeit memes have been discussed as a type of mainstream media, they are unique in

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that they are produced and disseminated independent of traditional media gatekeepers
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(Milner, 2013). This bypassing of traditional gatekeeping indicates that memes are not

bound by the same rules of traditional media production and broadcasting. Because
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memes can operate somewhat unchecked, at least outside the governance of traditional

media gatekeeping, counter-hegemonic groups have been able to use the subversive

qualities of memes to critique and challenge hegemonic norms (Breheny, 2017).

In an analysis of the use of embodied politics by intersectional feminist meme

accounts on Instagram, Caitlin Breheny (2017) found that intersectional feminist meme

makers have been successful in using memes for “creating empathy and solidarity …

deconstructing and decentering dominant norms … and amplifying personal narratives”

(p. 71). Of significant interest to this study is the way that memes can be used in

“deconstructing and decentering dominant norms” (Breheny, 2017, p. 71). Furthermore,

research finds that memes are rhetorical texts that represent a type of discourse that can

subvert hegemonic media messages by creating new definitions and meanings via

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mimicry, remix, and parody (Huntington, 2013; Mina, 2014; Kuipers, 2005). Drawing on

these findings on how memes are used to decenter and critique hegemonic norms and

media messages, this study will seek to understand how @justhumansof uses parody and

memes to critique and rupture hegemonic practices of capitalism. Since Breheny (2017)

recognizes that “feminist, and other social justice-oriented memes, can be conceptualized

as a form of ‘culture jamming,’ a political art movement that subverts capitalist materials

to produce new oppositional messages,” (p. 57) it can be extrapolated that memes that use

parody and satire to critique practices of capitalism can be taken up as a form of culture

jamming as well to pick apart hegemonic ideals.

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Intertextuality of Memes IE
Research on the way memes function suggests that they obtain their subversive

power, in part, from the process of reproduction and intertextual reference. Zanette,
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Blikstein, and Visconti (2019) argue that memes gain their subversive potential through

circulation around the web and being modified bit-by-bit each time they are reproduced:
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Through reproduction, the original meme becomes a text of reference to be

quoted and changed along its circulation, a process known as intertextuality (the

implicit quotation of a text in another text, whose meaning becomes richer by

referencing the implicit text). (pp. 160-1)

Furthermore, research on the intertextuality of memes finds that understanding memes is

contingent upon understanding intertextual cultural references: “the intertextual nature of

memes will merge different repertoires carried by different emerging memes, thereby

requiring the audience to have a more tacit understanding of the juxtaposed images or

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frames” (Zanette, Blikstein, & Visconti, 2019, p. 165). This type of implicit experience is

key to understanding the way that memes can be critical of the establishment and remain

somewhat under the radar. Because subversive memes do not explicitly state what they

are trying to subvert, part of their meaning is contingent upon audience members’ prior

knowledge of what is being referenced. Thus, memes can allude to or imply a meaning

that is subversive or critical of the established political, social, economic order without

alerting the hegemonic watch dogs. The subversive capability of memes is due in part to

their intertextual nature, which depends on audiences’ understanding of “cultural

meanings and popular references” (Zanette, Blikstein, & Visconti, 2019, p. 158).

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Additionally, research on the intertextual nature of memes finds that “memes are
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provocateur objects … [t]his provocative function makes the meme disruptive; it contains

an unexpected, subversive element that does not conform to the stereotypes that govern
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the perception of the community of receivers” (Zanette, Blikstein, & Visconti, 2019, p.

159). Hence, their intertextual nature is one way that Internet memes can help foster

resistance of hegemonic ideals. In the following section Gramsci’s (1971) concept of

hegemony is discussed within the context of the Internet and resistance studies. The ways

others have used Gramsci’s theory of hegemony to address issues of domination and

resistance in the context of the Internet is also discussed.

Hegemony and Resistance

Antonio Gramsci’s (1971) conception of hegemony describes how the ruling

capitalist class, commonly referred to as the bourgeoisie, institutes and maintains control

over society (Anderson, 2020). According to Dana Cloud (2020), Gramsci’s (1971)

definition of hegemony captures how “ostensibly democratic societies” are ruled by a

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dominant power, not by way of force, but rather through manufactured consent (p. 835).

In searching for an explanation to why Marx’s prediction of a socialist revolution never

came about, Gramsci (1971) posited that the ruling capitalist class was able to maintain

their domination of the economic system in Europe because they developed “a

hegemonic culture that made the working class identify with and accept capitalist values”

(Li, p. 71). Cultural hegemony, as described by Gramsci (1971), functions below the

level of consciousness: it is a manipulation of the culture of a society by the ruling

capitalist class, which is internalized and accepted to be natural by the subjugated class

(Bullock, Stallybrass, & Trombley, 1977). According to Li (2011), hegemony in the

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Gramscian (1971) sense can be understood as the normalization and naturalization of
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power by the dominant class through a combination of coercive forces and consent.

Therefore, according to Gramsci (1971) capitalism was successful in establishing itself as

but by creating a cultural hegemony the working class willingly, but unwittingly,

accepted capitalist values and norms to be their own.

However, research (Li, 2011) indicates that hegemony is not as invisible or

overpowering as it was once thought of, but rather can be challenged and critiqued in

spaces afforded by new communication media (Milner, 2012; Baym, 2015; Li, 2011).

According to Cloud (2020), this type of challenge to hegemonic power afforded by new

communication media is in line with Gramsci’s (1971) articulation on the role of

everyday people in forming resistance to capitalist hegemony: “[Gramsci] observed and

theorized how ordinary people engage discourse in the course of struggle to displace

common sense ideologies and organize systematic opposition to capitalist rule" (p. 835).

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The way that Gramsci (1971) urges everyday people to utilize discourse to organize

counter-hegemonic movements is tied to what Barbara Babcock (1978) calls “symbolic

inversion.” Babcock (1978) used the term symbolic inversion to refer to “any act of

expressive behavior which inverts, contradicts, abrogates, or in some fashion presents an

alternative to commonly held cultural codes, values and norms be there linguistic, literary

or artistic, religious, social and political (p. 14). Additionally, Hongmei Li (2011) states:

“the hegemonic authority is challenged at critical moments when ‘masks of consent’ are

broken, leading to the exposure of the violent nature of the authority” (pp. 71-2). At the

nexus of hegemonic resistance and symbolic inversion lies the concept of the

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carnivalesque which is expanded on in the next section. In what is described as
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carnivalesque, parody, humor, and critical laughter are used as a means of symbolic

inversion to resist hegemonic norms.

Carnivalesque Resistance

The concept of carnival comes from the work of literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin
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(1963). Carnivalesque is a literary style that inverts systems of power and creates spaces

for equality and emancipation (Stallybrass & White, 1986). According to Bakhtin (1968),

carnival is a time and place where anything goes. Law and social order are suspended in

favor of the creation of an atmosphere where liberation, indulgence, and equality are

celebrated (Bakhtin, 1968). Carnival is an event where the lines between imagination and

reality are blurred. This blurring of boundaries and subversion of power structures allow

human relations to be reenvisioned. Hierarchies are leveled and people from all classes of

society are encouraged to dance together and indulge in the many pleasures of life

(Robinson, 2011). In essence, during carnival people are free to do whatever and be

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 whomever they please: a peasant can become a king, and a king a prostitute. It is a

moment in time where debauchery, excess and grotesqueness are celebrated with

purpose. It is a collective move to temporarily suspend the seriousness and regulations of

society so that people can experience a moment of utopia where all can be equal and free.

Bakhtin (1968) argued that carnival’s transgressive ideals manifest beyond

literature and visual representations of life into life itself. Carnival exists in moments

where collective action mobilizes laughter, parody, satire, and grotesquery to upset the

established order (Bakhtin, 1968). Peter Stallybrass and Allon White (1986) extend

Bakhtin’s (1968) concept of carnival to a framework that is “a mode of understanding, a

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positivity, a cultural analytic” (293). For Stallybrass and White (1986), carnival is an
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epistemology by which the powerless in society can feel like they are, even if only

momentarily, on the same level as those in power. According to Stallybrass and White
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(1986), carnival is “one instance of a generalized economy of transgression [and] the

recoding of high/low relations across the whole social structure” (p. 300). How carnival

has manifested on the Internet is discussed next.

Carnival and Online Parody

Corporate entities are working to suppress critical laughter and parody on the

Internet (Theall, 1999). The potential negative impact of visual parody and critical

commentary can have on the public image of brands and labels has ruffled the feathers of

the corporate elite. Companies, such as Playboy Magazine, have fought to eliminate

copyright fair use laws so that public criticism could not be made against their brand

name and corporate image. Legal moves like this illustrate that corporations are aware of

the potential for parody, satire, and humor to be a detriment to their bottom line. Hence,

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