Week Four: How Humor in Memes Communicates

This week you are asked to select three internet memes that deal with a specific media or news event that has some connection to ideas of race, religion and/or gender.  First describe the event you are exploring, how the three memes you have selected related to this event and what  specific messages about it each meme communicates.  Second, you are asked to consider and discuss the specific forms of humor the memes you have chosen use.   In chapter 6 Shifman identifies 3 forms of humor common in memes: playfulness, superiority and incongruity.  However, other types of humor may also be present such as irony or quesioning.  How does the type of humor employed shaped the messages and meanings it communicate. Please cite concrete examples from the memes that back up your claims, as well as use ideas from chapter  6 or 7 that help explain and back up your argument.