In recent years, the rising popularity of social media has led to widespread sharing of jokes, ideas and images. Among these are memes, which led to the creation of a Facebook hub exclusively for Ohio State memes.
“A meme is the basic unit of cultural communication,” said Seth Shanley, executive member of the Buckeye Stand Up Comedy Club. “It is such a versatile subject these days. Currently, it pertains to a funny image or joke shared frequently on the internet. An example would be going all the way back to 2008 with Bad Luck Brian, to Harambe a couple years ago. It varies as time goes by.”
Shanley and fellow Buckeye Stand Up Comedy Club member Alex Lacey said they wanted to find a way to create a hub for memes for Ohio State students.
The Buckeye Stand Up Comedy Club has created a Facebook page based on Ohio State-related memes. | Credit: Courtesy of the Buckeye Standup Comedy Club
“A lot of other major colleges have a popular meme page, like University of California at Berkeley for example,” Alex Lacey, president of Buckeye Stand Up Comedy Club, said. “Their group has thousands of followers, and is widely successful. Our goal is to create a similar atmosphere for [Ohio State] students.”
By creating this online hub, Lacey said he believes the group could be a way for the campus to bond –– if they’re able to get enough attention.
“It is about unifying the campus culture,” Lacey said. “Think of how popular Yik-Yak was on campus a couple years ago. Students had all these inside jokes with each other solely based on posts from Yik-Yak. They would talk about it constantly and it was interesting seeing that phenomenon play out.”
Lacey also said if the meme group grows, it can become a self-sustaining source of Ohio State-related memes and jokes for students to come.
“We are not expecting every student to join the group,” Lacey said. “But we believe that if this gets enough attention, then we have the potential to create something special here where the group will be dedicated to memes being shared specifically about OSU and student life there.”
As of right now, the meme group is only two weeks old, but Lacey said it’s looking to find its footing.
“The main goal right now is to have people post and be active.” he said.
