Overused Memes and their Consequences: A Eulogy

[Jingilator 922]

Memes are an internet-wide phenomenon of entertainment that can either go the right way or the wrong way. In the case of the wrong way, some memes can quickly lose their novelty and then eventually die. I have created this speech for three memes in particular for which I’m happy they suffered their loss of quality, as one of the first one I will eulogize is considered offensive.

That meme is Ugandan Knuckles, who is based loosely on Sonic the Hedgehog character Knuckles the Echidna. In February 2017, it stemmed as a 1-second gag part of a review 2013’s Sonic Lost World by a YouTube user known as Gregzilla. Nearly a year later, in January of this year, VRChat users flooded the servers with it and spat on other users if they did not know “de way” (as they put it), which I find disgusting. “De way”, Ugandan Knuckles’ infamous quote, was taken straight out of the 2010 Ugandan film Who Killed Captain Alex?, which was originally stated as “Do you know the way?”. Polygon described the meme as problematic (who could blame them?), as it was criticized for being racially insensitive. Deviantart user “tidiestflyer”, the character’s creator, has expressed regret over the usage of his creation; he hopes it is not used to annoy VRChat users, he enjoys the game, and he does not want it to be because of the avatar that anyone’s rights are taken away. The VRChat developers responded by publishing an open letter on Medium and stated that they asked users to use the game’s built-in muting features. It is a horrible shame that such a popular character had to see his likeness used for such an offensive meme, but it’s good to see that it has lessened in recent times. Looks like the people who were obsessed with it didn’t know “de way” when the obsession began.

Speaking of recent, the second meme that I am, to my dismay, going to be discussing is Bowsette, which is similar to Ugandan Knuckles in a way (albeit much bigger and way creepier). Bowsette’s concept sparked last September, when the character “Peachette” was revealed as part of the Super Crown power-up for the Nintendo Switch port of New Super Mario Bros. U, displaying a fusion between characters Toadette and Princess Peach. Shortly after, a four-panel comic was where the character originated; the first half references the ending to the 2017 Super Mario Odyssey video game, and the second half reveals Bowser holding the Super Crown, then the final panel reveals him transformed in to a “Bowsette”. This led to speculation on how the Super Crown would work on other Super Mario characters (an example being King Boo, who would become “Booette” or “Boosette”), which I find tragically disturbing to have happened.

Typically portrayed as a goth Peach with horns, a tail, and spiked bracelets, Bowsette’s popularity would unfortunately spiral out of control very quickly, with Japanese news outlets discussed whether or not the concept on other characters infringed Nintendo’s copyright. However, Nintendo stated that “Concerning the drawings and other things uploaded to the Internet, we have no comment.” despite fan petitions to make the chacatern canon, which I think is for the best regardless. Fairy Tail creator Hiro Mashima cautioned for trend participants “to be careful not to cause trouble for copyright holders and companies that they are contracted to” when he weighed in on it. Like Nintendo, I have no comment on a trend like this that sparked from a cute power-up and concept. However, an interesting thing I discovered last September is that Bowsette was almost official. In the concept art book for Super Mario Odyssey, on of the pages showed Bowser throwing a hat of his own at Peach and possessing her, so I’m glad Nintendo ditched it when Odyssey came out, but I’m also sad that they OK’d it a year later.

My last subject is technically not a meme, but it might as well be with how unnecessarily popular it’s become. It’s Fortnite, the video game; more specifically, Fortnite: Battle Royale, which featured Marvel’s Thanos to promote Avengers: Infinity War. People may still talk about it, but I’m not sure it deserves its praise if Fortnite credits are worth getting yourself into trouble for. Anyways, Fortnite, like its inferior sibling PUBG, had drawn “inspiration” for many Ctrl-C copy-cat “Battle Royale” games in the process. Fortnite: Battle Royale’s popularity is enough of a problem for someone like me, who likes complex games with heart put into them. People would constantly ask me “hey man, you play Fortnite?” and I would constantly say no, but they would just continue to ask me anyways. One time, in my junior year, I snapped when a group I was in wouldn’t stop bugging me about when we were supposed to be working on a physics lab together. I had to step outside afterwards, and then I calmed down. But even then, they kept asking me about it, and I wanted to snap again. It just goes to show that a game like Fortnite: Battle Royale can cause social discord if it’s one of those things that people never stop talking about.

I feel the creators of the first two characters and Epic Games for seeing their work being used in the wrong way to the point that they are quickly seen as a negative influence to the newer generations. And it’s such a shame that people would seek to abuse them (especially Ugandan Knuckles) to suit these desires, and again, I’m happy to know that their popularity has mostly died down.