To Meme or Not To Meme in Comics

[dawgofdawgness]

Mmmm not really. It's kind of a turn off if one of the characters start quoting vines, even if it's in the middle of a serious scene or not. just personal taste I guess

[Kann]

Internet overuses memes all the time so most of the time I'm not impressed by them, when I see them in comics. Also some memes die pretty fast, so I'd be careful with putting them in.

[TheBryceKrispy]

Most of the time references aren't funny. References aren't jokes. References can be funny but only if its done right.

For me, most memes aren't funny and quickly become dead and tired out. I especially dislike vine memes because most of the time they don't make sense on their own. Example: What are those doesn't make sense but bad luck Brain does.Theirs a difference between parody and references.

[Raven_C]

While I appreciate some memes here and there, I do not like them in comics lol.

[Pandastrophic]

I kinda hate it, like it makes me roll my eyes as soon as I see a meme joke.
I don't mind references though to things that are a bit more timeless, the problem with memes now is that they come and go really quickly, if you write it a meme joke in your comic it might seem okay at that specific time but anyone reading your comic a month or even a week from now is gonna cringe.

Comics that are direct references of a specific era (ie, dated "LA County, CA, 2015")

I think this is kinda okay, even then they have to be really good meme jokes and not just referencing the meme. Also it has to be really clear that the comic is set it 2015 otherwise it would make me think 'Why are the authors jokes really out-dated?'

idk I'd avoid this type of humor all together mainly bc I don't want my comic to feel out dated because of them, you can create a sense of the time/year your comic is set in, in a much better way than using memes.

[joannekwan]

Yes! I think a story should be as timeless as possible, because one's biggest fans might not even see your story until next year or even later, way past the reference's expiration date.

I think if a creator must include references to the times it really ought to be in passing, rather than be the punchline of a joke.

[punkarsenic]

i feel like pop cultural stuff like that really dates a story, giving it a pretty short shelf life before that joke makes no sense to your audience. which can be fine - webcomics are a pretty transient medium i guess - but i personally wouldnt like to do it.

i also think its kind of boring reference humour, it doesnt make me laugh particularly bc theyre very well known references and pretty shallow jokes.

on the flipside if someone was tryna do like a Super Realistic Take on Teens Today id expect memes, fortnite dances, current slang - otherwise it jus wouldnt be quite accurate, would it? create the period piece for the 2010s in the 2010s and dont release it for ten years when itll be praised for its accuracy

[DiegoPalacios]

[OliviaMerteli]

Thoses kind of things ages pretty badly. How it'll be read in 1 year, 2 years, when the meme is completely over-used or forgotten? At best it falls flat, at worth it's cringeworthy.
Unless the current moment is really a big part of the story, like when the storiy is tied to real life events and the author really want to fix THAT year/moment.

[fleohr]

I only use them in my extra section, where I featured a comment and try to make a 4-koma or a single image, but I mix with other stuff to make a new joke

Not sure if I already used any in my comic itself

[silverraven0]

Some of my works are dated (kind of, the year it happened in the story), so I'll gladly put one if it's fitting in there.

[keii4ii]

I've never encountered the "what are thooooose" meme (I pretty much live under a rock) and that seems like something I might put in my writing without ever being aware. Now I'm paranoid that I might have done this, or will do this in the future...

[HGohwell]

You can definitely sneak them in (I've got a few) but I think the trick is to use references and smaller memes that people will pass over if they don't understand it and people who do understand it will go "I see what you did there". Not all memes are internet wide and you do get smaller fandom ones. Also confining them to mostly in the background or in passing rather than drawing attention to them can help. Spotting little shout outs like that lurking in the back of your favourite comics can be really nice, but if people don't get it, it's not going to date or interrupt your comic, they might not even notice it if they don't get it.

[octafg64]

I enjoy adding some internet culture into my comics, check them out and u should notice

[baasinsimple]

Well something a little meme-like isn't bad. Like a character expression looking a tad deep fried. But anything other than that just makes me cringe.

[dawgofdawgness]

Oh wait, this reminds me of the time I watched Black Panther in theaters, and there was a moment when one of the characters yelled WHAT ARE THOOOOOSE?? And there was an audible groan from the audience lol.
I think you can add memes and vines or whatever if you establish from the start what kind of audience your story is going to appeal to, but if it’s a wider range of people (like for example a LOT of people watch Marvel movies regardless of age) it’s best not to Include memes that won’t make any sense 7 years later

[skicoak]

You know.... I'm a little conflicted.

Having done period pieces, I know it's the slang/fads of the period that we use as a shorthand to define that era. It's like using those specific dated things in your favor.

Then I can also understand not using memes in stories set in the modern age to avoid "dating" ... but the minute they pull out a cell phone you can practically timestamp the scene based on the model/type. My Wife Unit was watching some Lifetime movie, while I was drawing, and nothing about the film seemed dated until a fashionista pulled a brick sized flip phone out of her purse. Technology can be just as dating, I guess is my point.

[Jenny-Toons]

I think I'll have to be on the opposite end of this thread and agree that memes can be used in comics.

Just not in the way that we're all thinking.

So far, mostly everyone who's answered looked at it from the angle of "what if it's not relevant -- people won't pick up on it"

But...how about we use that to our advantage, thereby having it define a character? I mean, there are still comics who have people quote slang and jokes from the 1920s. There are also comics who use cassette tapes and record players, and there are readers who legit don't know what those things are.

Those things have come and gone out of mainstream style, and memes are no different.

It's one thing to try and use memes as the overall humor of the comic.

But it's an entirely different thing if one or two characters are using it for their personal brand of humor. Because everyone has a different taste of humor, and memes are no different.

So if a character is using memes for their humor, it's something different. You can get a sense of who this character is and how they think. You can also play on the reactions of the other characters AND your readers.

If you have characters who roll their eyes or are confused by Character A's meme humor, your readers can get certain reactions towards Character A:

"This guy's super late. That's so 20XX"
"What the hell is she doing? Is she in another dimension?"
"Eyyy, I remember that meme! They got good style!"

So I still feel memes can be used in a comic, regardless of how relevant they are. Even if people don't know that exact meme, the thing is to not focus on actual joke. It's to focus on the deliverance of it AND the reaction to it.

[Samuraiflame]

ty Jenny for calling my meme-making existence valid

I dropped a meme as a bonus in my comic and it got the best reader reaction out of probably anything I've ever done. I don't care who cringes in 2020, they can deal with it. (⌐■_■)

[shazzbaa]

I'm gonna have to be the odd one out and say I kind of enjoy a reference if it's clever? Like "the cake is a lie" or "over 9000" is not a punchline in and of itself, but someone making that reference or comment when it fits in can be funny to me. It's especially good if it's not a punchline -- just an additional joke that you can miss if you're not paying attention, but that won't seem out of place if you don't get it.

There's the question of WHAT IF ITS NOT TIMELESS but man, I did my journal comic like..... 10 years ago, and I'm really not thinking about it now, and nobody's really talking about it anymore? I'm not sitting here wishing it would last forever, I'm more like "dang time to move on and make new things." If someone reads it and goes "wow this is like, from 2008" thEN THAT MAKES SENSE, ITS ABOUT MY LIFE IN 2008.

Some stuff isn't trying to be timeless, it's a reaction to right now, and I think that's just as valid a form of humour that's sometimes also really funny or fun!

For RW, which is a fantasy story, I don't want to insert a meme into a place it doesn't make sense -- like, where would these characters get "over 9000" from? I've made references to pop culture a couple of times, but it's sorta off-hand, so when the reference stops being meaningful, it won't feel like you're missing anything.
Other than that, I mostly keep meme jokes or references to things in alt text, or filename jokes, or bonus comics and vote incentives -- silly extra things that don't make it weird for the characters to be using jokes that don't make sense.

Memes can absolutely be used badly, but like, so can anything. Just deploying a meme or reference isn't automatically a funny joke, but it can be part of a joke.