Title: Keystone Baptism Meme

General Information about item:

• Material and Verbal: Joke
• English
• USA

Informant Data:

• Daniela Armas was born on July 1^st, 1998.  She is a religion major in the Dartmouth class of 2020.  She is 19 years and she is from Miami Florida.  Daniela is of Cuban descent, and her background is strongly influenced by Latino Culture.  She is Catholic, and her family is strongly religious.  Daniela writes for the Jack-O-Lantern and enjoys the outdoors during the summer.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context:
  • The data was collected during a one on one interview in the hop while over lunch.  Daniela explained that in the Catholic faith children are baptized at a very young age.  This sort of initiation rite represents the child being inducted into the faith.  Daniela explained that she made the meme on her computer and how she formulated the meme using a popular meme format specific to Dartmouth (the whomst beginning).  Daniela then communicated that this meme was meant to be timely to the arriving of the freshman to Dartmouth college, and to make them feel welcome while entertaining the upper classmen.
• Cultural Context:
  • At Dartmouth College many of the students drink almost exclusively a beer called Keystone Light.  This beer is known to be cheap and tasteless, and commonly not consumed by other parts of the nation.  When new students arrive at Dartmouth many are introduced to the beer by upperclassmen, and in doing so they become “baptized” into the Dartmouth Community.

Item:

whomst ready to baptize the ’21s tomorrow? 😩

Informant’s Comments:

• Daniela was quick to note that everything associated in the process is completely voluntary and she herself had no part in it, she was merely communicating a cultural tradition at Dartmouth.

Collector’s Comments:

• I personally greatly appreciate the depth in this meme, as it is essentially a piece of folklore comparing itself to a piece of customary religious folklore.  I also appreciate the imagery associated with the meme, as the freshman are the “babies” of the school, while the upperclassmen are already established.  Finally, the meme captures the caring spirit of the upperclassmen towards the freshman.  Just as the parent cares for the child in the meme, so too does the upperclassmen of Dartmouth guide and help the new classes.

Collector’s Name: Noah Sofio

Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth. Jokes. Verbal Lore.

Title: Freshman Dorm Meme

General Information about item:

• English
• Material and Verbal: Joke
• United States

Informant data:

• Shawn Gayner is a Biology major in the Dartmouth 2020 class. She is 25 and originally from Meridian, Idaho. She is USMC veteran after serving for 5 years. She originally started making memes relating to the military while serving, and now solely makes Dartmouth memes.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context:
  • This meme and its information were collected during a one on one interview on the first floor of Berry Library at Dartmouth College. Shawn described how she made the meme on her computer and how it has spread through the Dartmouth community largely due to the Dartmouth Meme page on Facebook. This meme was intended for the Dartmouth community.

• Cultural Context:
  • The context of this particular meme reflects the fact that the informant and many people in the Dartmouth community don’t always agree with the administration on how money is spent. It does this by showing a large extravagant party held by the Board of Trustees, while also discussing the lack of dormitory options for freshman and issues of financial aid.

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Informant’s Comments:

• The informant discussed how she made this meme with the intention of bringing attention to these issues. She commented on how she feels powerless in changing the way that the administration spends money, but that by creating the meme, she could at least bring it to the attention of more people. She was not criticizing the school for no reason, she was doing it to try and make the school even better.

Collector’s Comments:

• This meme is less funny than some of the other memes we collected, but it is very relevant. It brings issues to light, but does so in a playful way that is easily spread through campus. Shawn was a perfect informant, she was able to very easily explain her idea for the meme as well as explain why it is important.

Collector’s Name: Michael Thurston

Keywords: Dartmouth. Financial Aid. Freshman.

Title: Essay 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 study room in Baker Berry Library at Dartmouth College. Emma described how she made the meme on her computer as well as how this meme has since been spread around Dartmouth’s student population by way of the meme page, text messages, and email. This meme was posted on the Dartmouth meme page and primarily circulated through Dartmouth students; however, it is not Dartmouth specific and students at other colleges would certainly be able to relate and understand the humor of the meme.
• Cultural Context:
  • The cultural context of this meme reflects Dartmouth students’ tendency to procrastinate. Oftentimes, students will put off working on an assignment for as long as possible because they don’t have the desire to complete it. Moreover, this meme also incorporates images and text from a popular Netflix TV show called “Stranger Things.” Thus, people who have seen the show might find the meme even more enjoyable than those who have not. The lines in the show that are displayed in the meme are people calling out “Will?” because they are looking for a boy named Will. This meme has cleverly changed the use of the name Will, indicating that Dartmouth students can’t find their will to work.

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Informant’s Comments:

• Emma said that this meme is particularly meaningful to her because oftentimes, no matter how hard she tries, she can’t work up the will to start on an assignment. She also notes that this tendency to procrastinate is common amongst Dartmouth students and that most people who go to Dartmouth can understand and relate to the meme on some level.

Collector’s Comments: 

• I think this is a spot-on meme. I really enjoy how it incorporates lines from a popular TV, but takes them out of context and gives them a whole new meaning that Dartmouth students understand and can relate too. Moreover, I enjoy the cleverness behind this meme.

Collector’s Name: Bryce Killian

Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth. Meme. Hanlon. Hard Alcohol.

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

Title: Rush Alternative Social Spaces Meme

General Information about Item:

• Verbal and Material: Joke
• English
• USA

Informant Data:

• Jeffrey Qiao is a student in the class of 2020 at Dartmouth College. He is originally from Irvine, California but attended boarding school in the North East during his high school years. Jeffrey is a math major, and he began making memes during his freshman year in college.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context:
  • This meme was collected during a one on one interview in Baker Berry Library at Dartmouth College. Jeffrey described how he made the meme using photoshop as well as well as how this meme has been spread throughout the Dartmouth student body by way of the meme page, text messages, and email. Because this meme is very specific to Dartmouth, it is primarily enjoyed and spread by people within the Dartmouth community.
• Cultural Context:
  • The cultural context of this meme reflects on the Moving Dartmouth Forward initiative that was implemented by President Hanlon in 2015. Part of the initiative was to build alternative social spaces for students, and many feel that this was just a veiled attempt to lessen involvement in Greek life on Dartmouth’s campus. The alternative social spaces idea has been largely unsuccessful up to this point, and Dartmouth’s social life remains centered around fraternities and sororities. So, this meme pokes fun at the alternative social spaces by suggesting that students can “rush” them, similarly to how a student might rush either a fraternity or sorority.

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Informant’s Comments:

• Jeffrey noted that he made this during rush week for Greek life houses, which is what gave him the idea. He also said that he figured since most students already view alternative social spaces as somewhat of a joke, he might as well make another joke out of it. The meme is meant to show students disregard for alternative social spaces.

Collector’s Comments: 

• I am a big proponent of this meme, as I find it rather edgy and hilarious. Moreover, every student on Dartmouth’s campus, whether they are affiliated with Greek life or not, can relate to this meme.

Collector’s Name: Bryce Killian

Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth. Meme. Hanlon. Hard Alcohol. Alternative Social Spaces.