![]() ![]() It’s an act of rest, restoration, even healing. My dad always compares reading LOTR to taking a hot bath after spending hours in the cold. “Everything is always a joke” humor may entertain, but it fails to nourish.Ĭoating everything in irony mutes the effect a work of beauty and goodness might have on us. Sincere relationships and earnest moments connect us with characters in ways constant jokes cannot. Viewers return to these shows for the relationships. There’s a reason TV shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation strike a chord with so many people (in addition to just being hilarious). ![]() But coating everything in irony mutes the effect a work of beauty and goodness might have on us. Making memes of our favorite stories is innocent so far as it goes. The masterful movies were on the verge of becoming one big joke, worthy of a thousand memes. But now, my usual response of awe, joy, and enjoyment had become colored by memes. LOTR is a remarkable cinematic achievement. Frodo’s boyish, innocent look when he sees Gandalf for the first time in Fellowship, if you know the scene, is meme-rich material, maybe rivaling Obi-Wan Kenobi’s iconic remark to General Grievous: “ Hello there!” Once you see an oft-memed scene like that, you can’t see it sincerely again. I couldn’t go 10 minutes without thinking of some clever remark I’d seen online. Every scene of The Lord of the Rings now evoked memories of the memes on my Instagram feed. But something strange happened when I rewatched the movies. I even started my own LOTR meme account on Instagram called “The Meme Havens.” Fortunately, my following hasn’t yet surpassed a dozen followers. The LOTR meme-verse became my daily humor diet for a while. What happens when we’re so addicted to irony and humor that we can’t see the world as anything other than a joke? But I’m more interested here in the subtle posture cultivated by the meme-ification of life. Nefarious examples like Pepe the Frog are obvious examples. ![]() But a meme-heavy diet also has downsides. Even the Bible and Jesus can be rendered kitsch through memes.įor most of us, memes are innocent and fun. Google “Calvinism memes,” or “Baptist memes” or. It’s not only movies and shows that are meme material. ![]()
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