Means of Creating Humorous Effects in Internet Memes

Dai Tszini ORCID: 0009-0000-1479-5498 postgraduate student; Department of 'Russian language. Languages of the Peoples of Russia'; St. Petersburg State University 199058, Russia, St. Petersburg, Morskaya Naberezhnaya, Building 37, Block 1, Apartment 1. st084506@student.spbu.ru

Introduction

Internet memes are a unique phenomenon of Internet culture that combines textual, visual, and audiovisual elements to convey ideas, emotions, or social commentary in a concise and expressive form.

In the digital space, Internet memes function as dynamic and replicated units that can transform and adapt depending on the context. They are considered as complex semiotic constructions based on the interaction of verbal, visual and, in some cases, auditory elements. These components form multi-layered and multi-valued meanings, giving memes a hybrid character and allowing them to integrate iconicity, indexicity and symbolism. Due to the ability of memes to switch between different types of signs and their dynamic structure, they play an important role in the formation and transformation of modern Internet discourses, becoming an integral part of network communication ^[16].

A key characteristic of Internet memes is their ability to combine various sign systems (codes) - textual, visual and auditory elements, which determines their polycode. Creolized memes, as a special kind of polycode texts, are of particular interest because they combine text and image into a single iconic structure. This integration enhances the cognitive and pragmatic impact of memes, effectively conveying complex cultural connotations and creating humorous effects ^{[7, 12, 14]}. Such features of Internet memes as implicitness and precedent require significant cognitive efforts from recipients to interpret hidden meanings, which increases audience engagement ^[7].

One of the main functions of Internet memes is entertaining and humorous. Due to their polycode, intertextuality and implicitness, they have significant comic potential, which is manifested through the active use of various stylistic techniques. Techniques such as language play, hyperbole, antithesis, and metaphor allow memes to vary the forms of humor from irony to the absurd. These tools not only create an entertaining effect, but also help to reduce emotional stress, helping the audience perceive complex topics through humor ^{[2, 8, 17]}.

The relevance of the study of the means of creating humor in Internet memes is due to the need to study the mechanisms of interaction of verbal and non-verbal elements that ensure the transmission of humor. Extralinguistic factors, such as social and cultural contexts, play a key role in shaping the comic effect. An analysis of the specifics of humor creation reveals the linguistic and semiotic nature of memes and allows for a deeper understanding of how linguistic and extralinguistic elements jointly form a comic effect, enhancing the emotional and cognitive perception of the audience.

Purpose, material and research methods

The purpose of this study is to analyze the ways and means of creating humor in creolized Internet memes. The study examined 100 randomly selected memes from Russian Internet resources.

Internet memes are considered as polycode texts within the framework of Internet discourse, which require an interdisciplinary approach to analyze their multi-layered stylistic strategies for creating a humorous effect. To identify the specifics of the means of creating humor in Internet memes, rhetorical, stylistic and cognitive approaches were applied, as well as methods of semiotic analysis, analysis of multimodal components and discursive analysis. The article presents eight representative examples of analysis demonstrating the results of the study.

Results and discussion

The main means of creating humor in these memes are wordplay (16 cases), rhetorical and stylistic techniques, including metaphor (46 cases), allegory (23 cases), hyperbole (19 cases), personification (28 cases) and allusion (14 cases), as well as logical strategies such as antithesis (22 cases) and the effect of deceived expectation (11 cases). Due to their polycode nature, most of the listed techniques go beyond the linguistic sphere, representing multimodal means that combine verbal and visual elements. Multilayered stylistic and rhetorical strategies are often observed in one meme unit. This combination helps to create a humorous effect through the manifestation of irony, satire, sarcasm and absurdity, making memes a universal tool for comic expression.

An important stylistic technique for creating humor in memes is language play. It is realized through occasional word formation, puns, homonymy, etc. A pun as a figure of speech is a popular means of creating humor in Internet memes. According to the definition, it is "a play on words based on comically playing out the sound similarity (homonymy) of words and phrases with different meanings" ^[5].

Fig.1. The "Hello, Peter" meme.

The "Hello, Peter" meme in Figure 1 is a vivid example of a pun based on the ambiguity of the address. The pun in this meme is realized by a visual and semantic game. The central element is the "double reading" of the name Peter. It simultaneously functions as the name of a famous character (Peter Parker, the alter ego of Spider-Man) and the abbreviated name of the city (St. Petersburg). On the one hand, the phrase is interpreted as a greeting addressed to the city of St. Petersburg, represented through the symbolic image of the Bronze Horseman. On the other hand, due to the visual context, which includes an image of a character from the Marvel cinematic universe, the meme refers to a scene from the movie "Spider-Man: No Way Home," where Doctor Octopus utters the same phrase. Due to this, the meme uses the polysemy inherent in the pun to create a comical effect based on a sudden change in interpretation. This kind of wordplay requires cultural and intertextual competence from the audience, as knowledge of both Russian cultural symbols and popular popular culture is necessary for a full understanding.

In addition, it is worth noting the contrast between the image of the Bronze Horseman, which is a symbol of solemn and monumental history, and the style of the modern film franchise, representing popular culture. A pun becomes a kind of mediator connecting two contexts — serious (historical and cultural) and entertaining. This creates an ironic tension that enhances the comic effect of the meme.

The visual part in this meme performs an associative function: the Bronze Horseman refers to St. Petersburg, and Doctor Octopus refers to a well-recognized memetic context. The verbal part of "Hello, Peter" functions as a "speech intervention" that connects these two layers of semantics with a pun, creating a comic effect. In this meme, text and image are in a symbiotic relationship, and their interaction creates a multimodal stylistic strategy.

In memes, accidents are often used to create humor. In linguistics, accidents are understood as individually authored words that are created for a specific context.

Fig. 2. The meme "Mytron".

The meme in Fig. 2 uses casualism to create a humorous effect, relying on unexpected associations and combinations that disrupt the usual perception of familiar words. In this case, three particles — "electron", "proton" and "neutron" — are represented by scientific terms and corresponding signs, which evokes associations with physics and strict laws of nature. At the end, the meme introduces the occasional "moitron", which is accompanied by an image of a toilet bowl. "Mytron" is created as a combination of the word "my", which implies personal affiliation, and "throne", which refers to the royal throne as a symbol of power. This combination has nothing to do with physics, but it creates an association with a toilet seat, being unexpected and comical.

This meme effectively uses casualism, creating humor through a wordplay based on homonymy. Inserting an everyday concept into the context of scientific terms leads to an unexpected and absurd combination, which causes laughter.

In Internet memes, one of the most frequently used means of conveying meaning and creating humor is metaphor. Due to the polycode and media nature of Internet memes, the metaphor is not a linguistic, but a multimodal conceptual metaphor, which is created by the combined influence of verbal and non-verbal components. According to the theory of conceptual metaphor proposed by J. According to Lakoff and M. Johnson, metaphorization is based on the process of interaction between the knowledge structures of two conceptual domains – the source domain and the target domain. As a result of metaphorical projection, well-known elements of the source domain structure a less understandable conceptual domain of the goal ^[9]. In multimodal metaphors, the target and source domains usually refer to different modalities.

Fig. 3. The meme "The most reliable alarm system".

The given example (Fig. 3) with an image of a crocodile in a car and a caption is a typical model of a multimodal metaphor in Internet memes. The source area is represented by a visual component — an image of a crocodile, and the target area is represented by the verbal text "the most reliable alarm system." The interaction of the verbal component (text) and the non-verbal component (image) creates a metaphorical projection, where the crocodile acts as a metaphor for the threat that the car alarm system warns about. This meme structures the concept of reliable protection through a familiar and easily recognizable threat image represented by a crocodile. Since car alarms are usually associated with electronic devices, the idea of a crocodile in this role looks unexpected and absurd. In this case, a multimodal metaphor helps to create a comic effect based on the absurd.

Internet memes, as a form of postmodern humor in the digital age, are also characterized by allegorical nature. An allegory is a conditional form of utterance that expresses the abstract content of a thought (concept, judgment, idea) through a visual representation (image). An allegory is an allegory in which the image used means something "other" than itself ^[15]. In the postmodern context, allegory becomes a tool for interpretation and deconstruction of meanings ^[6]. Allegory in creolized memes is usually multimodal and is visualized using images that convey subjective feelings that are difficult to express and describe in words.

4. The meme "When I try to overcome sleep in the morning."

In Fig. 4, the allegory serves to convey the feeling of heaviness and tension associated with waking up and overcoming morning drowsiness, conveyed by the image of two wrestlers. Such an abstract idea is vividly presented in the form of a judo wrestling situation, where a massive wrestler in white symbolizes "sleep", and a wrestler in blue is a person who is trying to overcome it in the morning, symbolizing sleep. Thus, the allegory makes the abstract idea more concrete and visually understandable, causing a comic effect due to the recognition of the situation.

The line between metaphor and allegory is often blurred. N. Fry notes that allegory is a "complex narrative metaphor" ^{[18, p. 73]}. Allegory in creolized memes can be considered as a detailed metaphor, where visual and textual components work closely together, complementing each other. In this case, the image of wrestlers and the text about fighting drowsiness together create a single metaphor that conveys meaning through the interaction of two sign systems. Both metaphors and allegories are actively used in memes as a means of creating humor, for example, in everyday life with epic or absurd contexts, where both structures form a comic effect.

The antithesis is widely used in Internet memes. In linguistics, an antithesis is defined as 1) "a stylistic paired figure in a text used for various purposes: expressive, pictorial, humorous, ironic, evaluative, etc."; 2) "a stylistic device for contrasting concepts, positions, images, states, hypotheses, objects, etc." ^[5]. From a stylistic point of view, the antithesis in creolized memes is used to create a vivid visual or verbal effect that helps attract the recipient's attention and enhance the emotional response. This may be the contrast between the image and the text, between different elements of the image, or between the expected and actual content of the meme.

Fig. 5. Meme "Phones in 2002 and 2020".

Figure 5 uses the antithesis as an expressive device that creates a vivid contrast between the two images and the accompanying texts. The meme is based on the popular visual template "Jock Dog and Chims", the characters of the famous cartoon joey who are they fromwhere a powerful Dog represents the superiority of the past, and a weak Chims represents its weakened version in the present. The antithesis is manifested in the contrast between the two images of phones. On the left is a muscular Dog with the Nokia logo, symbolizing the old push—button phones known for their durability and autonomy. On the right is a weakened Chims with the Apple logo, representing modern smartphones that are perceived as more fragile and dependent on constant recharging. The text enhances the contrast and helps to reveal the meaning of the images.

In this meme, one can also note the use of hyperbole (exaggeration), which is defined as "a figure of speech consisting in deliberate exaggeration, enhancing expressiveness, giving the utterance an emphatic character" ^{[3, p. 99]}. It depicts in a highly exaggerated form any properties, signs of an object or process, phenomenon (size, strength, significance, insignificance, insignificance, etc.) to enhance the impression ^{[4, p. 132]}. Statements like "I'm made of the toughest stuff in the universe" and "Don't touch me, please. Otherwise, I'll break down" is a vivid hyperbole that focuses on the high strength of Nokia phones and their durability, as opposed to the more fragile and vulnerable modern smartphones such as Apple products. This hyperbole highlights the contrast between the durability of older phone models and the fragility of modern devices.

The combination of antithesis and hyperbole enhances the expressiveness of the meme, which not only causes a comic effect, but also performs an ironic evaluative function, reflecting the perception of technological change through the prism of nostalgia and reinforcing the stereotype of the superiority of devices of the past over modern ones.

Internet memes often use allusions. From the point of view of text linguistics, allusion is understood as "the borrowing of certain elements of the pretext, according to which they are recognized in the recipient text" ^{[13, p. 128]}. Allusions often use well-known cultural or historical facts, literary quotations, as well as popular media studies. Allusion can be used to create a subtext and convey the author's intentions, as well as as a stylistic device for creating expressiveness. In the latter case, it is not intended to create a subtext, but serves to achieve stylistic effects ^[11].

Fig. 6a. The meme "Not everything is so clear, we don't know the whole truth."

Figure 6a is an example of using a popular meme phrase in combination with a historical allusion. In Russian Internet discourse, the expression "Not everything is so clear, we don't know the whole truth" has acquired an ironic connotation: it ridicules attempts to justify obvious facts, presenting them as supposedly complex and ambiguous. The image used is Ilya Repin's painting "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581." This picturesque image does not need additional decoding, since it is already fixed in cultural memory as an illustration of the tragic episode — the murder of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich by his father, Ivan the Terrible. The choice of image not only illustrates what has been said, but also sets a specific historical context.

The pragmatic meaning of the meme is created by mismatching a difficult historical scene and trying to apply to it a phrase commonly used to mitigate or justify controversial situations. Instead of questioning the authenticity of the event itself, the author of the meme uses this technique to create an ironic contrast: the tragedy, known to everyone, is absurdly presented as something requiring additional investigation. The historical allusion here not only explains the meaning of the meme, but also becomes its central mechanism, which translates the tragic plot into the realm of ironic reinterpretation.

The meme phrase "Not everything is so clear, we don't know the whole truth" is also often used in memes about animals. Memes about animals occupy a significant place in Internet culture, where the main means of creating humor is personification (personification) – "endowing animals, objects, and natural phenomena with human properties, as well as expressing abstract concepts in the image of a person" ^[5].

In creolized memes, personification is multimodal, consisting of verbal and visual components. One of the typical forms of implementation is endowing animals with text strings. Consider the following example:

Fig. 6b. The meme "Not everything is so clear, we don't know the whole truth."

Figure 6b is a photo of a cat in front of a bitten-off piece of ham, accompanied by the meme phrase "Not everything is so clear, we don't know the whole truth." It is obvious that the cat ate the ham herself, but the text creates the effect of her "justification", which enhances the comic effect. Personification is realized here through a textual replica, which gives the animal a human ability to rationalize and justify itself. This combination of verbal and visual components forms a classic multimodal comic situation, causing the audience to laugh due to the recognizability of the behavioral model.

The next element of an Internet meme that creates a humorous subtext of an Internet meme is the effect of deceived expectation. The deceived expectation effect is a widely used literary technique based on violating the reader's assumptions and premonitions ^[10]. It helps to create unexpected plot twists when the "expected" development of events becomes unexpected, introducing an element of surprise into the text and stimulating reflection ^[1]. This effect is widespread in literary works, but it is also actively used in Internet memes. S. V. Kanashina analyzes in detail the functions of the deceived expectation effect in Internet memes: it creates a comic effect, causes intrigue, strengthens oppositions and forms paradoxes. These functions attract attention, enhance the comic effect and enhance the memorability of the meme ^[8].

Fig. 7. The meme "Shut up, now he's talking...".

Figure 7 shows a meme using the viral visual-text template "Shut up, now he's talking...". This template assumes the presence of an authority figure who interrupts the conversation to say something important. Its roots go back to a scene from the movie Kingdom of Heaven, where the phrase is pronounced in a solemn and ceremonial setting, emphasizing the importance of the speaker. In this meme, this template retains its external structure, but the semantic component undergoes an unexpected transformation. The initial phrase "Keep quiet, military commander" supports a serious and military context, creating an expectation for the viewer of a weighty statement related to military analytics. However, the next line — "War Thunder specialist speaks" — dramatically changes the tone. Instead of a supposed military expert, we are talking about a person whose authority is based not on real combat experience, but on knowledge from a video game.

This use of the deceived expectation effect is enhanced by a combination of visual image and text. The character's solemn pose and the general formal style of the opening line create an illusion of importance, which is then undermined by an unexpected ending. This makes the meme not only comical, but also satirical — it hints at the phenomenon when players with knowledge from simulations discuss real military events with the confidence of professionals.

Conclusion

Based on the above, it can be noted that one of the important characteristics of Internet memes is intertextuality, which is manifested through the use of recognizable visual and textual patterns. Memes are always based on previous experiences, knowledge, and texts that already exist in the public consciousness. Memes actively rely on precedent phenomena such as cultural, social or historical codes, creating associative links that ensure their wide recognition and emotional impact.

The means of creating humor in Internet memes include lexico-semantic, pictorial (tropes) and expressive (stylistic figures) techniques. Lexico-semantic ones include puns, accidents, and homonymy based on ambiguity and phonetic similarity. Visual means such as metaphor, allegory, hyperbole, and personification form imaginative juxtapositions and associative connections, enhancing comic perception. Allusion occupies a special place, as it not only creates allegorical images, but also requires the audience to cognitively recognize cultural codes, which makes it an important mechanism of intertextuality. Expressive techniques include antithesis, the effect of deceived expectation and bringing their content to the point of absurdity — in this way they organize the comic structure of the utterance, enhance semantic contrasts and form paradoxical situations.

The polycode nature of Internet memes determines the multimodality of rhetorical and stylistic means used to create humor. They go beyond the framework of traditional linguistics, as a significant part of the comic effect is formed at the junction of text, image and context. A visual series can not only enhance the semantic effects of a text, but also be interpreted through it, gaining new semantic shades. In turn, linguistic elements complement the image and are able to guide its perception, rethink the visual context. Within a single meme unit, several techniques can be combined, functioning at different levels, which forms a multi-layered stylistic structure. This overlap of expressive and pictorial strategies enhances the expressivity of the meme, increases its interpretative potential and expands its impact on the audience.

Thus, Internet memes represent a unique unit of Internet discourse that combines verbal and non-verbal components. Their rhetorical and stylistic layering combined with a polycode structure provides a high degree of semantic saturation. Internet memes can rely on intertextual connections, game elements, and visual images to create different levels of perception. Due to these characteristics, they become a powerful tool for humorous online communication, combining irony, satire and absurdity.