- Each meme that I chose does indeed relate to my topic and more importantly, my target audience. These memes all relate to basketball in a way and more specifically, Lebron James. To begin with, the first meme is basically a sign that states, “LeBronto.” This meme is probably the most popular meme and the context behind it is that Lebron James has versed the Toronto Raptors in the Playoffs countless amounts of times and he always succeeds in absolutely decimating their defense whilst single handedly always beating them. The NBA community thus made the nickname, “Lebronto” as its basically Lebron’s city since he always destroys the Toronto Raptors. The next meme consists of Lebron drinking wine and singing a song which seems normal, but it is the complete opposite as whenever Lebron sings a song and posts it on Instagram, it is clearly obvious he does not know the lyrics to any of the songs and says random words which the NBA community has taken notice and this meme is probably one of the funniest pieces of materials. Finally, the last meme that I picked and is essentially very painful is Lebron and Jr. Smith in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals as Lebron was absolutely destroying the Warriors only for Jr. Smith to not shoot before the buzzer when time was expiring and that became one of the most talked about NBA moments for years to come. This all relate to my topic and audience as they are cornerstone memes of the NBA community and they relate to the game of basketball. Lebron James is also the face of the NBA thus the memes are centered around him and he gives NBA Fans a lot to laugh about whilst also being the Greatest Player in NBA history.
- When talking about memes, it is important to mention ideals as that can tell the audience a lot. Patrick Davison, Professor, introduces this idea of ideals when he states, “ The ideal of a meme is the concept or idea conveyed.The ideal dictates the behavior, which in turn creates the manifestation (Davison, 2020).” Essentially it is the idea or what is being shown to the audience or the emotion that is being conveyed. In general, these 3 memes convey one particular ideal and that is comedy based on basketball knowledge. Essentially, if you were not familiar with the game of basketball, then you would not know what the meme would mean or why it would be significant. The meme of “Lebronto” requires knowledge that Lebron plays great in Toronto to understand and thus the ideals of each meme is that you must have some prior basketball knowledge to basically get a kick out of it. Having that knowledge also helps as the NBA community uses these images to represent a certain situation and that can help you understand how the meme relates to that particular situation.
- There are definitely different behaviors when it comes to each of the 3 memes. When it comes to Lebron singing the lyrics, it represents a goofy type of behavior that gives the NBA community something to laugh about. The Lebronto meme essentially represents a player that shows dominance against a certain team and represents absolute and utter domination through skill and power. Finally, the Lebron James and Jr.Smith meme represents just this feeling of “what are you doing,” as that is the best statement that can describe the meme itself. It is also important to note how each of these memes originated and how they spread and it is obvious where all of the NBA community lives and that is in twitter. Every single one of these memes originated on twitter and spread on twitter as Twitter is the main platform NBA memes and the community itself.
- When talking about a meme it is also important to talk about its manifestation. Davison expands upon this idea and states, “The manifestation of a meme is its observable, external phenomena. It is the set of objects created by the meme, the records of its existence. It indicates any arrangement of physical particles in time and space that are the direct result of the reality of the meme (Davison, 2020).” This essentially relates a lot to the Behavior of the meme as explained above. The manifestation of each of the memes is that it is taken out of context and using the emotion present in that meme to use in another situation. The Behavior gives the emotion and tells the NBA community essentially when the meme is suitable to use whilst the manifestation is how they use the particular meme and in this case, they use it out of context and in different situations that can be related back to the behavior of the meme thus representing the manifestation.
- Choosing specific manifestations can definitely appeal to your audience as you have to pick something that has a manifestation relating to the interests of your audience. For example, I would pick a meme that has a manifestation relating to basketball and something that can be used under a certain twitter post to express emotions or for comedic purpose. It is really important to choose both a behavior and manifestation of a meme that relates to the interest of your target audience in order to connect with your audience way better. For example, in all of the memes that I chose, they all have a behavior and manifestation that can be used under different basketball posts as they are universal in terms of relating to other situations and that would be the type of means that I would choose for my target and intended audience.
Reference List:
Davison, P. (2020). 9. The Language of Internet Memes. In New York University Press eBooks (pp. 120–134). New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814763025.003.0013
Owen. (2023). LeBron Mumbling Wrong Lyrics / LeDontKnowTheLyrics / “Yabadabadoo Old Navy.” Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lebron-mumbling-wrong-lyrics-ledontknowthelyrics-yabadabadoo-old-navy
Adam. (2023). LeBronto. Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lebronto
Matt. (2023). LeBron James’s NBA Finals Reaction. Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lebron-jamess-nba-finals-reaction
The Purple and Gold 