Get Back to the Kitchen?

This post were not going to see one meme in particular but a stereotype that inspires hundreds of others. This stereotype is that women belong in the kitchen which leads to them doing most the housework. Most of theses memes have a picture of a women and a phrase which is sexist like the one below which says "Here's one that tried to escape from the kitchen."  A study done report in an article Journal of Family Issues says that on average women do 70 percent of housework compared to men. I find this steroytpe to also be sexist, when have the right to do anything they want to with their lives. As of this day in the United States women pursuit what ever they want, with some limitations like how they cant go out in combat. 

For a whole Tumblr dedicated to this theme visit and see the post for yourself.

These stereotypical memes have the same theme, and this stereotype has been going on for ages but with recent movements women now have equal rights. Before the majority of  women stayed home to do housework while men went out and made made ends meet.  

As women acquired equal rights they became more independent got more educated and acquired more jobs. So now women are becoming more independent, working to support themselves and even somtimes supporting their families. I know lot of responsible single moms but some people still find humor in theses post because of our history. 

Annoying Facebook Girl

Today we analyze then Annoying Facebook Girl meme, which is part of the Advice Animals Series. This meme is focused on the stereotype that teenage girls are most likely to be annoying  Facebook addicts and in this case its a white American girl as the face of this meme.

The Annoying Facebook Girl meme first appeared on a Latvian Blog named Krabjiem on January 15,2011 but the popular post didn't spike till June 2011 according to Google Insight. The identity of the picture is unknown but a post was found where she apparently talks to another friend. 

What make this meme and the above memes so funny is that most people agree they have this type of friend on Facebook and one of many similar comment said

"TheTacoMessiah7 months ago+47

This is funny,because it describes EVERY FRIGGIN’ GIRL IN HIGH SCHOOL!"

Their are more comments on the bottom of the page and none of them are negative, they are all comments , where they either ridicule her or say things something her type would do or say on Facebook. To me this stereotype isn't true, yes you get the occasionally ( and excuse my language) Facebook whores but not all teen age girls are obsessed with attention , which is one of the things they girl in the meme wants.

You Gonna Get Raped

This meme has surfaced around the internet and the creator of this has dealt with several struggles after this racist captioned associated with the man in this meme. The origin was in 1993, a photographer named Matt Kenlon was sent to cover the Mississippi River Flooding. In November 1994 the photographer met a homeless man named William Todd in the town of Biloxi, Mississippi. In 2001, the Something Awful forums began hosting a scanned version of one of the photos -- the one with the fierce, vaguely threatening stare, glowering through that intimidating hood:

The internet meme didn't go well for William Todd. The subject of the original photograph there was a thread in which the picture of the man got photoshopped into a cd in where Todd was linked to it. Todd was fired from his job and could not find another job for 6 months. He has been clean for 14 years and now works for a contractor rebuilding buildings in Biloxi.

This is a great example of how racism can go so far in society. People making jokes and deciding to create memes and associate people with a certain race can damage a person's life. Todd lost his job due to this meme he created online. People linked him to a thread about this meme even though he didn't create the album image, he created the original meme. Society has to be careful in what they post online because once it is online, it will be there forever.

Rasta Science Teacher

This meme features a class professor wearing dreadlocks and a Rasta fashion hat. A type of bait and switch joke involving intentional line break similar to Successful Black Man. The caption usuallyconsists of two parts 1.) direct reference to Reggae songs or smokers’ lingo and 2) an anti-climatic statement derailing to academic subjects in the manner of a science teacher.

The origin of this is with the tagline of “Lights his joint/ With Bunsen Burner” was uploaded on Quickmeme and was on Reddit as well on April 6,2011. The image was subsequently picked up by other hubsites like FunnyJoke, MemeBase, and Tumblr. Some of the jokes directly played stereotype of a “Rastafarian professor” while others adopted the bait-and-switch format by derailing into the voice of a science class instructor.

The meme below displays both of the description above. As you can see the man having dreadlocks and is dark skin, apparently from Jaimican descent and associating them with smoking or a type of dug reference than turning it into a joke by adding an academic line that switches the top line of the racist assumption. For example “20 PER GRAM IS THE RATIO ON THIS SOLUTION” At first glance the 20 per gram can be associated with drugs because the man on the meme is black, but adding the academic bottom line switches it to a funny meme. 

Irrational Black Woman

     

     Irrational Black Woman is another meme based off the AdviceAnimal series featuring an African American woman wearing a nice business suit. The joke within the text of these memes come from stereotypes of irrational expectations set by African American women in popular films and TV shows, especially  those regarding romance, sex, and interaction with males.

     Know Your Meme, being one of the biggest sources of memes historical information, claims that the original photo is of the Miss Black USA Executive Director of Pageant Relations Karen Lyew, found on the Miss Black USAonline website. On Saturday October 22, 2011, the first image macro was posted on the Team Pervert (explicit) Tumblr blog and featured the caption “Complain about down low brothas / wants to have sex with Anderson Cooper.” On October 25th, threads related to the meme popped up on the Lipstick Alley and Black Hair Media web forums, which led to a discussion over the appropriateness of the joke and whether it promotes negative stereotypes associated with black women. The single topic Tumblr was subsequently created on October 26th. A compilation of derivatives was posted to the Divine African Queens blog the following day. TheMeme Generator page has received a total of 173 submissions as of November 9th, 2011. Derivatives are often posted on Tumblr under the #irrational black woman tag.

     Many people know the common stereotypes associated with black women being domineering girlfriends or spouses, which makes this meme so funny to its viewers. This joke about stereotypical African-American women has been said by many people and comedians many ways and for many years. Many comedians besides this one have poked fun at the typical African-American woman stereotype like Chris Rock, Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx, as well as in popular films and TV sitcoms.

     

     

Impossibru!

     This popular meme is a reaction image based on a still shot of an Asian man showing us a bizarre expression and a caption reading “impossibru,” which is typically interpreted as the English equivalent of the word “impossible” (Japanese: インポシブルimposhiburu). Both the image and the phrase are typically used to express someone’s surprise or shock across various forums and image board sites, like 4chan, and is similar with the Rape Face expression meme.

     According to Know Your Meme, the man shown in the original photograph is Ayumu Kato, a Japanese comedian, who became one of many celebrity victims in the popular hidden-camera prank show Panic Face King. In the episode, Kato is introduced to a group of businessmen (played by hired actors) under the premise of a business meeting. But as they begin their conversation, the three businessmen suddenly get shot down in front of him and a man wearing body armor enters the room to fire at the “snipers” outside. Kato falls to the floor in panic and moments later, another man enters the room with a gun, puts it to his head and informs him that he’d been punked by the TV show.

     Since its creation around 2010, this meme has been featured on many blogs, image boards, and forms, including FunnyJunk, I Can Has Cheezburger, FAILblog, and 4chang. There are also groups that have been made on Facebook that only talk about the “Impossibru” meme.

     As with most reaction based memes, this is used primarily as a reply to someone or something that someone is surprised, in fear, or in disbelief. This meme is also commonly photoshopped onto other peoples, animals, and cartoon character faces. 

That's Racist!- Origin

"That's Racist!" is the famous saying that a little African American boy shouts out in a famous GIF animation and picture  meme, which is placed after a racist statement. This meme started off as a  GIF  clip from a T.V show called  Wonder Showzen which aired only for two years on MTV2.

The phrase is at 1:44.

According to Google insights this famous meme rose in 2005 and started peaking in 2011. This meme also surprisingly  inspired a now mainstream  rap group called  "Das Rasist" apparently the main rapper loved the show and the phrase gave him the spark to start the group.

Himanshu Suri stated in an interview.

I think being minorities at a liberal arts college and that type of environment had an impact on both the way we view race and our sense of humor, which people often use as a tool to deal with race. I always felt like Wonder Showzen was a television show that captured that type of thing perfectly. When I saw the little kid yelling "THAT'S RACIST" it blew my mind. And then it became a game ... to take all the seriousness out of making legitimate commentary on race, because that can get very annoying. So when something veering on racially insensitive would pop off in a commercial on television or something it would be like, who could yell "That's Racist" first. And then we thought it would be a cool name. Das EFX may have been an inspiration.

As you see in the picture below the "That's Racist" meme is used on other pictures that are presumed racists, thus the meme can not work with out another picture. The effect this meme has is that it points out the obvious just like little kids do. People already see some sort of racism on the picture and the "That's Racist" just confirms it.

High Expectations Asian aka Tiger Mom

The High Expectations Asian series continues with Tiger Mom, also known as Amy Chua who is know for her book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" and her article "Why Asian mothers are superior". This meme is very familiar to High Expectations Asian Dad which I discuss earlier it has a image of Amy Chua and people insert witty lines mostly related to strict Asian parents. This meme has more of a background to it because of Amy's popularity with the media around January 20th, 2011 according to Google Insight . Her article "Why Asian mothers are superior" speaks about her life with her children, her ruthless way of parenting in order to get the most out of her children, she expects nothing less than perfect, with her" I tried" isn't enough. The humor this meme brings comes from the  common stereotype that all Asian parents are strict.

Tiger mom wraps up the High Expectations Asian series were,well the title says its all both parents have High Expectations towards their offspring's. When this meme was released it caused a minor impact with the Asian community since she was so "played out" even Angry Asian Man tweeted about it saying how its old news.

Lastly Do you think Asian parents are strict? Like Ray William Johnson says "Leave a comment on the comment section beloooooow".

Ordinary Muslim Man Origin

Above is the original photo uploaded on iStock photo by the photographer Aman Khan which then was taken into creating a meme commonly known as "Original Muslim Man" The man in the photo is said to believe to be a fifty year old Pashtum Muslim. This photo has now evolved into a meme that is being generated my internet users with any caption they want to write on it. The captions can go so far that it can be borderline too offensive and racist for Pakistani Muslims such as mocking the 9/11 incident by mentioning destroying the towers as the meme below. Jokes about epidemic disasters are not funny considering the families lost in the disaster. This also gives a false representation of Pakistani Muslims and their hats and linking them to be a terrorist is a stereotype in which society views it as acceptable. There has to be a point in which society draws the line in displaying humor with stereotypes about an ethnicity and when it goes too far and becomes racist. People however have no sense of character and pride in their own ethnicity that they accept and agree with the stereotypical joke such as this "Original Muslim Man" meme associating Pakistani Muslims being very Anti-American with the captions written on the meme. This stereotype is seen today in the airports. Most of the time, people who wear the Muslim hats are put to the side after going through the metal detectors for further inspection in the airports in fear of having another disaster as 9/11 again. It is racist towards them and unfair for having a general stereotype of being a terrorist just because of a disaster that was associated with their ethnicity. There are Pakistani people who are not Muslim and don't follow their appreciation of killing themselves for their religion to find paradise and doing an action that is giving praise. 

You Raff You Ruse

The “I Raff I Ruse?” memes are a branch off of the “You X You Lose” memes, where “X” can be anything like laugh, Rage, Fap, Cry, etc. Which are a part of the Online Forum Game series. This meme first appeared on 4chan during the summer of 2007, according to Google Insight. These “I Raff I Ruse?” memes were usually posted in “You Laugh You Lose” threads. This is where someone starts by posting a picture, and if you laugh, you lose and must post another picture you think is funny to make others laugh. Sometimes people make specific rules or themes to make it trickier for the poster. The goal of this is to create a huge thread with many funny pictures mostly followed by people saying that they lost. The “I Raff I Ruse?” memes are usually posted first, or throughout thread to show people the rules, or remind people of the rules in a comical way.

These memes always have a picture of a stereotypical Asian man or woman. The most popular ones have the man or woman on some type of phone. The spelling of the words Laugh and Lose go hand in hand with the picture that the text is over. The words are spelled to phonetically portray a stereotypical Asian accent. The way the words are spelled wouldn’t be as funny if they did not have the picture, and the picture would not make as much sense if the words were not spelled the way they are, which makes the way the text is spelled and who is in the picture the most important parts of this meme. Commonly, the person in the meme will look confused and the text will usually be a question. A reason that Asians are always used in this meme is that stereotypically they are angry or upset when they don’t understand or that they don’t understand jokes, but this stereotype could be made for any foreign race. A middle eastern would be just as confused and not understand why if he laughs he loses, as an Asian man would.

There are also some other types of “I Raff I Ruse” memes, but they don’t stick to the typical Asian picture behind the text, although they spell the text the same. The phonetic spelling of the words don’t make sense with someone in the picture that isn’t Asian, but the pictures are usually just as funny.

Successful Black Man - Analysis

Though the "Successful Black Man" meme might be funny to you, it is still a joke about racial stereotypes. The most interesting aspect of this internet meme, and many others, is that the fact that these memes don’t trigger as much of a negative response as they would if someone were to just say the joke to another person. When racist jokes are said verbally to one another, they come off harsh and are on the verge of almost not being funny. When we say racist jokes verbally to one another we take the risk that the other person won’t think we are in fact really being racist, or that they think we really feel a certain way about a certain race, and even risk someone else around us hearing the conversation and thinking we are racist. The fact that more people think racist memes are hilarious than rude can only be explained by how people are kept more anonymous when speaking on the internet, and therefore do not care what people think about them.

An interesting aspect of this specific meme is how it combines upper class Caucasian stereotypes with African American ones. Though the title is "Successful Black Man" this meme could be offensive to others that aren’t African American.

 In this example the top line, “I beat my wife”,  is a typical African American stereotype while the bottom “at chess”, is an activity associated with what we assume to be something successful people do. This meme not only pokes fun at African Americans but at anyone who plays chess.

                A common problem with racial jokes when said verbally, are who is saying them. If an Asian man is telling someone a racist joke about Asians, it’s perfectly acceptable, but if a Caucasian man tells a racist joke about Asians, another Asian man may not be okay with what he said. If someone online posts a meme that is racist towards a race that is not his own, it is not as scrutinized among his peers as much as if he were to have said a joke about it, verbally. Of course if the person who says it, remains anonymous then we will never know what race he is, but even if it is posted on a social network like Facebook, and the person’s name is next to the picture they posted, it is still not as frowned upon.

Analyzing Ordinary Muslim Man

The Ordinary Muslim originally had a background of the first image above and the popular caption associated with that meme is "I am the bomb at making falafels" Then people started using the background image such as the second picture and started generating new captions which then gained popularity on the Internet. When you search on google and type ordinary muslim, the ordinary muslim man meme is one of the suggestions on the search. 9gag.com is one of the sites in where you can see different captions of this meme.

The Ordinary Muslim Man, as previously stated has different opinions on the generated meme. For example below the comment from below from knowyourmeme displays the mixed reaction on it complaining on how it's racist towards Muslims and is a general portrayal of them then describes it as funny. The person then goes on with writing something about putting down Americans which he made a generalization of Americans eating Big Macs.

However, this other person below that commented finds it humorous and is a Muslim as well. He is appreciating the generalization and this displays how society views racism as socially acceptable. People of the own ethnicity accepting the racist comment is just encourages people to continue generalizing an ethnicity for doing certain actions in which they all don't do. People can take it as a joke but Muslims can find it offensive but also funny. By the description of the meme being funny, it only encourages more people to bash on Pakistani Muslims by writing more Anti-American jokes.

This generated meme is racist yet funny to me as well. It's a mixed reaction towards this meme because if it was your ethnicity being made of the people laughing at this meme may be offended depending on the person's view of the captioned meme. It all comes down to a person's value, character and respect of people from a different ethnic background. Just as the saying, "Treat others how you want to be treated."

High Expectations Asian Father

This internet meme is one of the oldest and most popular Asian meme created. This meme was created by two guys named Chris and Bryant on a tumbler post in 2010. But what is it that makes this particular meme so popular? For certain I know it isn't his appearance what makes this meme so funny, its that its a major stereotype that has been around the world for quite some time, that Asian parents have high expectations and in this case its a father. Based upon theses stereotypes this meme has statements were the father demands the best from his offspring's, like becoming a doctor, getting into a ivy league university, and getting the maximum scores on all exams.

Me, a regular 9gagger see the High Expectations Asian Father meme hit the trending and hot  pages on 9gag.com all the time. High Expectations Asian Father doesnt cause  any noticeable rages on the comments sections but their always that one person.

As you can see from the comment some people do get concerned, not everyone is passive with the stereotypes.
The stereotype that Asians parents are  Helicopter parents is a common misconception, they only want whats best for their children. They bring the way of parenting to the   to the United States so they prosper. Not all Asian parents are strict and that's just obvious.
 . High Expectations Asian Father memes thrive throughout the internet for a few more follow the link below, enjoy.
http://9gag.com/search?query=asain+father

Ordinary Muslim Man

The Ordinary Muslim Man features a smiling man wearing a Muslim taqiyah hat. They are with captions usually with an initial statement that can be perceived as anti-American, followed by phrase which makes the statement acceptable. The photo originated from iStockPhoto where it was posted in March of 2007 by Pakistani photographer Aman Khan. On January 7^th, 2011 the “Heck Yeah Ordinary Muslim Guy” Tumblr was created and Chris Menning posted a compilation of Ordinary Muslim Man images on October 21^st, 2011. Derivatives can be found on Quickmeme, Meme Generator, and Tumblr under the tag #ordinary muslim man. 

The person who posted the photo was Pakistani photographer Aman Khan. Their religion is mainly Muslim in their country and the creator of the "Heck Yeah Ordinary Muslim Guy" Tumblr is a Muslim girl. The meme uses stereotypes of Pakistani people associating them with a Muslim taqiyah hat and putting Anti-American phrases on the top line may discourage and enrage readers before the even read the bottom line because of the way that ethnicity is portrayed on the Internet. Web surfers may find it humorous and others may find it very offensive depending on their interpretation of the meme. There are several captions that are associated with this template picture meme, but some that are generated go too far with the humor. Below is a generated meme captioned “I did 9-11 a favor by calling the non-emergency line” Creating a joke of a disaster of that magnitude with families lost is not only offensive but generalizes all Muslims and Pakistani of creating the disasters in America. Society generalizes Pakistani being associated with Muslim religion and their actions therefore are seen as terrorists. Society assumes people wearing a Muslim taqiyah hat are terrorists but they’re just following the tradition of their religion. Not all Pakistani are terrorists, but because of the 9-11 disaster they are seen to be associated with them.

Successful Black Man - How it Started

This is one of the many "Successful Black Man" memes that have been circulating the internet lately. This meme follows the typical patterns of the Advice Animals series, with a top and bottom line. Within this series the top line usually sets up the punch line that is said at the bottom. The main feature of the "Successful Black Man" meme is that it utilizes the point at which the sentence is broken, to make the top line say a stereotypical phrase that is associated with young Africa-American men. The bottom line then continues that sentence by completely changing the negative stereotype to a phrase or action associated with a “Successful Black Man.”

According to an e-mail sent from the creator of the series, he first came up with the idea while talking about reverse-discrimination issues at work. He searched Google images for the perfect picture to go along with this. He then cropped it, put a couple witty lines on the picture, and tried it out as a reply to a couple of threads on 4chan.org, where it gained great popularity. 4chan.org is a website where anybody can post a picture followed by text, and users can comment on the posts. The website is divided into a few dozen sections, with the random section, also known as /b/, (the random section in 4chan.org is known to have many graphic images and vulgar remarks, so view that link at your own risk) being the most common place of appearance for this meme. He then decided to upload his idea to memegenerator.net because he was getting tired of having to redo the whole picture every time he wanted to use it for a reply on a thread. Memegenerator.net is a website where users can upload their own pictures they choose to a background and add a couple lines of simple text to form their own custom memes. Once on memegenerator.net the “Successful Black Man” spiked in popularity through 2011.