Joke
Carolina Bowlby
“Coronavirus and Canvas Meme”
Internet
16 May 2020
Informant Data:
Carolina Bowlby is one of my good friends. She was born in Edina, Minnesota on September 25, 2000. She lived there for the majority of her life before attending Dartmouth College located in Hanover, New Hampshire. She is currently a student at Dartmouth and a member of their women’s ice hockey team. She has Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Vsco social media platforms. She claims that Snapchat is her favorite one to use. Carolina estimated that she spends roughly one hour on social media a day.
Contextual Data
Social Context:
Dartmouth College uses Canvas, which is an online educational tool. Carolina used Instagram to access this item. She does not remember the account name the item derived from, however, it can be determined that it was a “meme page”. A meme page is an account that provides memes as the majority of the content the page posts. A meme is applied to the folklore genre of jokes. The meme is a way to express cultural information through a photo and a short statement. One thing about these pages is that the identity of the creator is unknown, thus, no one knows where this item came from. This coronavirus meme stood out to her because she thought it was really funny. It is funny to her because it makes an association between homework/school and the coronavirus. This is also what makes this lore pleasing to her as well.
Cultural Context:
This meme is culturally applied to students; especially those who use the online platform of Canvas who have been affected by COVID-19. School is either portrayed as a positive or negative thing. Carolina doesn’t believe that only people who hate school find this joke funny. Coronavirus in this context refers to staying quarantined and staying home. The physical feature of the virus looks similar to the Canvas logo. Thus the joke is a sort of an ironic ordeal. The comment on how it “really makes you think” creates this ironic association. In March of 2020, Dartmouth College announced that due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the school would be moved to an online platform. This is upsetting for many college students who would rather be living the college experience than being at home. Globally, people were remaining quarantined to reduce the spread of the virus. Thus, the 2020 pandemic is shown to be a difficult time for many people. Coronavirus memes are a way of dealing with a situation. This meme displays referential humor, meaning that the joke is humorous by the content. I asked Carolina why she thinks this joke is artistically powerful and persuasive. She tells me that although it is a simple joke, it is persuasive because it compares two things which the 2020 “student culture” have in common. The physical looks of solidarity make it funny and persuasive. In terms of this joke becoming long-lasting tradition varies on who consumes it. Carolina thinks that this joke will eventually die off once the 2020 pandemic goes away. She claims that although the comedic aspect might fade away, this meme will serve as a reminder to those that were affected.
Item:
Celine Pietraszek
2635 White Rock Ln
Colorado Springs, CO 80904
Dartmouth College
Russian 13
Spring 2020