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Marble Pedestal: Niche meme pages

These weird little communities allow you to meld fun and knowledge in the same place

If you’re anything like me, you spend way too much time trying to derive joy out of funny internet jokes. Your Facebook timeline is filled to the brim with nearly incomprehensible posts made by pages with nonsensical names, making you live in perpetual fear of what others would think if they knew this is how you spend your time online.

I won’t deny that the number of oddly specific meme pages I follow would make any sane person swiftly and silently remove me from their circle of friends. But there’s a magic to these pages, a magic that truly holds benefits for those who unlock its secrets.

If you’re a university student, you’re likely to have come across a few relatable pages tied to your area of study, such as “Mechanically Engineered Memes for High Tensile Teens,” “Sigmund Freud’s Dank Meme Stash,” “Elite Chat Chemistry Memes,” or “I found it on Jstor,” among others. If you haven’t, and you’re a little scared that these exist, that’s fine, because I’m about to tell you why these pages are more appealing than horrifying, and what sick, internet-addicted people like me get out of them.

First, there are social benefits. Such pages let you easily tag friends in the comments section of posts, allowing you to share Nietzsche memes only with the people you know who will understand and appreciate your weirdly obsessive love for dead German philosophers. This serves as an excellent substitute to alienating your friends and family with humor they don’t understand. If I’m being honest, keeping my niche jokes online is probably three-quarters of the reason my mom still talks to me.

Many meme pages also have corresponding groups, where more communal discussion and posting about a specific topic take place. In such communities, you can find validation for the amazing statistics meme you made earlier when you should’ve been studying, or laugh together with online pals about standard deviations (do they joke about that kind of stuff? Clearly I know very few stats majors). Often you can ask serious intellectual questions about the topic and get eager responses in return. While these admittedly are a mixed bag of sarcasm and sincerity, they more often than not can help you learn more about the topic. Overall, you get a nice mix of jokes and knowledge, both helping you in small ways to understand what you’re studying in greater detail.

These benefits just scratch the surface of the proverbial meme page iceberg. If you want to know more about what they can provide you, seek them out. Like two pages, three pages, 25 pages, join their corresponding groups, flood your timeline with sweet, sweet, specialized goodness. Go beyond the discipline-related pages and delve into pages like “Chair Memes” or “Special meme fresh.” It’s through this that you’ll come to understand and love this wonderful form of meme magic.

Andrew McWhinney

Andrew McWhinney is a fifth-year English and political science combined honors student, as well as The Gateway's 2019-20 Editor-in-Chief. He was previously The Gateway's 2018-19 Opinion Editor. An aspiring journalist with too many opinions, he's a big fan of political theory, hip-hop, and being alive.

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