Some of the funniest images you’ll find online have very little to no context. Most of these are memes where the text and visuals don’t necessarily connect with each other, and that’s okay. In fact, it is much more appreciated.
Check out these posts from the Emotional Club Instagram account to see what we mean. You will likely understand the underlying message within the first few seconds without much deciphering. It may be why the page has such a huge audience, with 1 million followers and counting.
Scroll through, enjoy some quick laughs, and don’t forget to upvote the ones you relate to most.
This post may include affiliate links.
Memes, in particular, don’t need context to go viral. But to garner widespread attention, they must transcend cultural boundaries and be relatable to anyone online. Popular creator Saint Hoax, who has 3.4 million followers on Instagram, describes memes as “editorial cartoons for the internet age.”
“The power of a meme lies in its transmissibility and unique knack for being cross-cultural,” Saint Hoax told The New York Times in a 2022 interview.
As mentioned earlier, you only need a few seconds to understand and appreciate a meme. These perfectly crafted images provide instant levity and serve as palate cleansers in social media timelines filled with divisiveness and toxicity.
“In a world where you are scrolling through news feeds for hours a day, the meme format catches your eye,” former Buzzfeed deputy social media director and Zillow Gone Wild founder Samir Mezhari said in the same NYT interview.
However, out-of-context photos have downsides. Cognitive psychologist and Vanderbilt University professor Lisa Fazio says they are “very common sources of misinformation.”
In her article published on PBS, Fazio explained how images, in general, make it easy to imagine an event happening and quickly retrieve information from memory. However, this is also the case with information that isn’t true, leading to the spread of falsehoods.
Indeed, people have used memes to worsen the fake news plague. Some became a tool to spread conflicting information during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are ways to help prevent the spread of falsehoods.
One way is to consider possible emotional manipulation, since memes rely on strong reactions. University of Bristol senior associate Emily Godwin urges doing a deep evaluation.
“Before clicking ‘share,’ reflect on whether you’re being manipulated emotionally into spreading an idea you wouldn’t openly support,” Godwin wrote in an article for The Conversation.
For our readers out there, which of these memes did you find most relatable? What do you think drew you in? Share your insights in the comment boxes below!
"Slaps=exceptionally good or awesome" as I'm sure 100% of you could have worked out from the context!
FAIL. First. Attempt. In. Learning. We're not failing, Pandas, we're learning.
Two of my favorite things- cake and shrimp. Yet it's not doing it for me now that I've actually seen it!
Multitasking and working well under pressure, a double threat
Are these holes also big enough to fit an Opossum? I'll bring snacks.
My disappointment in the punctuation of this meme is high. I spent way too long trying to figure out how an expectation can be "yet."
We have this hanging up beside the water cooler in my office.
The old term for bottle blonde "süicide blonde" (dyed by her own hand)
OMG thought the same thing! And yet, not one Opossum. I'm offended.
Load More Replies...These were funny, and anyone who says otherwise is stupid and wrong. I'm taking no questions.
OMG thought the same thing! And yet, not one Opossum. I'm offended.
Load More Replies...These were funny, and anyone who says otherwise is stupid and wrong. I'm taking no questions.
