Title: Where is Dartmouth Meme
General Information about Item:
- Verbal and Material: Joke
- English
- USA
Informant Data:
- Emma Alter is a student in the class of 2020 at Dartmouth College. She is majoring in English modified with Philosophy with a minor in Spanish. Emma is originally from Chicago, and she began making memes last year. However, she has been viewing and sharing memes on Tumblr since she was in fifth grade.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context:
- This meme and its information were collected during a one on one interview in a stairwell in Baker Berry Library. Emma shared with me how this meme has been very popular and has spread not only throughout Dartmouth students but also onto other college campuses that are familiar with Dartmouth’s isolated location. This meme has been one of the most popular memes ever on the Dartmouth meme page.
- Cultural Context:
- The cultural context of this meme reflects the isolated location of Dartmouth College. Moreover, many people know that Dartmouth is very isolated, but they still do not really know where Dartmouth is. The meme also incorporates Paris Hilton, who is a well-known figure in pop culture. Paris is known for not being very smart, and this meme makes light of how she might describe the location of Dartmouth by taking a quote from one of her TV shows and tying it into Dartmouth’s location. This meme is especially humorous, because Dartmouth really is located between a few mountains with trees everywhere.
Item:
Informant’s Comments:
- Emma said that she saw a meme on the internet that had a similar format with the same quote from Paris Hilton, and she felt as if she could really relate to that quote by going to Dartmouth. So, as often happens with memes, she took the meme and altered the joke to fit into the social context of Dartmouth and ended up with a very successful and popular meme. Emma also noted that while she is making fun of Dartmouth’s isolated location, she does enjoy it.
Collector’s Comments:
- Emma was very excited to talk about this meme because it has been so popular amongst the student body. In my opinion, this is a great meme because it is very funny and shows how different internet memes can be changed as they are passed from group to group, which is exactly what happened with this meme.
Collector’s Name: Bryce Killian
Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth. Meme. Isolated. Trees. Mountains