To counterbalance war and polarisation, we need a joyful sense of community, and that’s what the meme culture inspired by Käärijän offers us, writes meme researcher Särmä.
It has long been said that the single culture is a thing of the past. No longer does everyone watch the same TV programmes on the same two or three channels at the same time, and social media algorithms have forever fragmented our attention by creating our own individual content streams.
One might think that memes – those funny and transformable images and videos circulating on the internet – would be likely to increase the individual fragmentation of culture. However, I would argue that memes are a major producer of unified culture in the 2020s and that it was precisely because of their potential for memes that Wrappers restored unified culture with a bang.
On the meme front, the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag was repeated in solidarity with the suffering of Ukrainians. The meme-like combination of colours was seen on tights, ties, many clothing combinations, the borders of profile pictures on social media, various images of nature, for example sunflowers against a blue sky.
After the anxiety caused by the corona years and the war, it has been wonderful to wake up to this late spring when Finland’s Eurovision candidate Käärijä has achieved enormous popularity, and this is what I claim: partly thanks to its versatile meme potential.
Their own versions of the song have been made by e.g. The Moon Whisperers,.
My hometown Tampere painted Tammerkoski and Hämeenkatu green in honor of the semi-final. Social media was also filled on Tuesday evening with pictures of various green foods and drinks.
In turn, green sleeves and potty hairstyles have inspired countless individuals to make photo manipulations of their pets, to dress in some kind of variation, or at least to add green to their outfit with clothes or jewelry.
Although memes are mostly innocent fun in this context, when memes are made of phenomena, one should not forget to check the facts and criticize the sources. For example, the BBC accidentally interviewed a fan they thought was the Wrapper live on air.
*Saara Särmä*
*The author is a meme researcher who sincerely excitedly hopes for Käärijä’s Eurovisa win and next year’s visas to Tampere.*
*The column can be discussed on 13.5. until 23:00.*
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