Internet Meme and Humour

Abstract

The analysis of humorous genres of internet communication which are the embodiment of postmodern humour is important for understanding the nature of postmodernism and modern culture in general. Due to the fact that this field is underresearched, the author sets the goal to analyse the nature of humour in internet memes within the context of modern internet communication and to find out and describe its features. The material of the study includes 500 internet memes retrieved from numerous English internet websites. The research revealed a great variety of humour types, detabooization, folklore underpinning and carnivalization. A great variety of humour types is represented in diversified humourous manifestations such as satire, irony, sarcasm and parody and is mainly caused by the discoursive features of these phenomena which are humorous basis, playful character and grotesque. Detabooization is realized in the active use of taboo words and taboo topics, as well as the violation of communicative taboos to create a humorous flavour. Folklore underpinning of humour in internet memes is traced in anonymity, creativity and reliance on collective consciousness. Due to folklore underpinning, humour in internet memes is presented in the original speech-like form with such peculiarities as colloquialization, violation of language norm, ellipsis, etc. Carnivalization ensures a special, familiar, clownish, challenging formality humour. To sum up, the revealed characteristics testify to the original and multi-faceted nature of humour in internet memes, which reflects, on the one hand, special features of internet communication and, on the other hand, genre peculiarities of internet memes.