I often talk about Oklahoma with my friends and acquaintances. Not because I am particularly fond of the state (haha) but largely because it is what I know. When I arrived in Spokane, I did not experience culture shock per se but I did start to notice the subtle differences between the lifestyle I had grown accustomed to and what I now had to adapt to. This collection of memes is meant to be a critique of the exclusivity of dank1 My definition of dank as relating to memes is a meme that is popular in its circles, one could describe it an “accurate” (in an ironic sense of the term) representation of what the meme is portraying, and that I enjoy it. meme culture, an exploration of Oklahoma life and values, and exemplify the role of origin in memes.
Where Are You From?
When people ask me where I am from I have to mentally prepare myself for what now has become to me, an infuriating reaction. They usually respond with something very generic and possibly masking their true feelings about Oklahoma. They don’t know how to judge me anymore because what if I am a Trump supporter? What if I lived on a farm? I am now somewhat of an enigma and they tend to mask this mystery with a simple “Oh! that’s pretty far!”
What I want to explain to these people is that I came from the exception to the rule. Norman is a very blue city; it is a college town; I am very liberal. So that is why I created this meme because I have met other Oklahomans and while sometimes they do fall into that stereotype, I don’t.
Goodbye Tornado Alley!
Probably the most iconic difference between living in Spokane vs Oklahoma is the weather. Weather also plays a big part in Oklahoma meme culture.
Tornadoes pose a serious threat to safety in Oklahoma and yet Oklahomans continue to live their day to day lives because they have to. Even more specifically memed in Oklahoma is Moore which is continually bombarded by tornadoes to the point where people are confused why Moore keeps rebuilding itself. This joke might not carry outside of Oklahoma but within Oklahoma meme circles, Moore is an easy target of any tornado joke.
However, as soon as it snows ¼ of an inch in Oklahoma, everything is shut down. School is canceled and businesses close because even though Oklahomans are extensively prepared for tornadoes, Oklahomans fail to address snow as a real issue. Coming to Spokane, I knew I would encounter a good amount of snow but I think what I’ll miss the most about Oklahoma weather are the snow days that Spokane is very prepared for and Oklahoma is not.
Politics
When I curated this selection of memes I knew that the majority of them would not make sense to people who are not familiar with the Oklahoma lifestyle. This speaks to the exclusivity of memes. Often to “get” a meme, one must know a lot of background information for them to be funny. Oklahoma politics is one aspect of Oklahoma culture where maybe someone who is politically savvy could understand these memes without being from Oklahoma. These are just two examples that I felt encompassed some of the current political issues while also doing the work that memes do which I would say is to undermine the very thing that they are promoting.
In both these examples, the text or the image itself if making a jab at Oklahoma politics. Marry Fallin is the butt of many political jokes and while she is no longer the current governor, I think her legacy will continue to be mocked in meme culture. On the same note, with the teacher strike last year, it is very apparent to Oklahoma liberals that the education budget is not fine but the meme on the left says this in very few words. Which is also an example of the visual argumentation component that many memes inherently possess.
Oklahoma Originals
Something that was important for me in the making of this portfolio was that some of the memes would have originated from Oklahoma even if they were not a direct critique of the culture. The “ain’t nobody got time for that” meme was very popular, at least in Oklahoma. Another example “I pulled up to a red light and looked to my left boy sings unwritten” was actually a guy from my high school who was videoed and the video went viral.
Looking at the origin of some of these memes and seeing the Oklahoma context be completely erased exemplifies some of the re-mixability of memes. Often, the news channel logo was cropped out in the viral form of “ain’t nobody got time for that.” The re-mixability of “I pulled up to a red light and looked to my left boy sings unwritten” is a little harder to see happening but people found a way. The Fast and furious version of this only leaves us with the face of the original boy with no context of where he was originally driving. If you look in the side view mirror of the car at this point in the video you can clearly see where this car is waiting on Main St. Norman OK.
New Home
Like some of these memes, I too have left Oklahoma. I didn’t expect anything much different other than the weather but coming to terms with the fact that my lazy Saturdays would not be interrupted by tornado sirens was a nice realization.
Probably the hardest part about leaving any place is the difference in food. My heart is continually broken when I find out there is only unsweet tea and I do miss my supersaturated sweet tea.
Location is not everything when it comes to memes but it maybe gives the initial context of the joke. Without the original version of the meme, later iterations would not have any basis and the message behind many memes would be inherently weaker.
Furthermore, location helps to band people together and generate an audience for these memes to go viral. These Oklahoma memes are just one example of how location contributes to virality and exclusivity while at the same time, often being lost from the meme altogether. This exploration of Oklahoma memes does in fact exhibit dankness (see footnotes) because dank is a subjective term that if we try to quantify what it means, it loses some aspects of itself. I think these memes are dank and so they are. Together, they have a strong sense of unity and I think, describe a lot of what Oklahoma has to offer in terms of memes.
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