- Each of these memes have something in common: they poke fun at people in the gym. Since my blog is meant for people who want to learn more about fitness, I thought it would be fun to show these popular memes relating to fitness. The first meme, do you even lift, is a saying I see on many different pictures that basically questions whether or not a person actually works out. It has become so popular that I often hear people say it in person as well. The humor from the next meme comes from the words “bros” and “swole”. There’s a popular stereotype that goes around where gym fanatics call their gym friends their “gym bros”, and when talking about their muscle, they say they are getting “swole” together, coming from the word “swollen”. The last meme is supposed to poke fun at people who do crossfit, since crossfit usually consists of mixing a lot of movements together in a way that may look funny to others. Whenever people see a movement being done wrong in the gym or a movement being done in a weird way, people might record it and upload it with the word “crossfit”.
- Patrick Davison describes the ideal of a meme as “the concept or idea conveyed”. It “dictates the behavior, which in turn creates the manifestation” (123). I think for the most part I explained what the ideals of each meme are above, as they are all meant to be funny. The first meme is seen as funny because people tend to say it to each other when one person looks like they’re trying to impress people a little too much. The second meme is also supposed to be funny because it just shows someone showing off their “gains” and asking if it looks like too much. Whenever you go to the gym, you will almost always see at least one person who has no idea how to use the machines, and this last meme is meant to be funny in that sense. People who do crossfit do a lot of crazy movements, so when people see others doing something wrong, they will just label it as “crossfit” as a joke.
- The behavior of each of these memes is similar to each other, yet not exactly the same. For the first meme, a man was making a funny face, and someone chose to take a picture of it. Someone later on added the phrase ‘do you even lift’ “to question the legitimacy of another member’s fitness expertise or weight lifting routine”. For the second meme, a guy took a picture of himself visibly flexing as hard as he possibly can. A caption was then added with the word ‘swole’ “defining the term as ebonics for the word “swollen” achieved from lifting weights at the gym”. For the third meme, someone took a video of a man performing some strange exercise in the gym and added the word “crossfit” to make fun of the way cross fitters exercise. Memes like this are made when people are seen “performing bizarre or unorthodox exercises”. These would all be examples of the behavior of a meme. Like many things nowadays, these sayings happened to go viral and as more and more people enjoyed memes with this terminology and humor, it became more popular and spread easily.
- The manifestation of each meme is the image/gif itself, along with the caption. For the first meme, you can see a man making a funny face, and there is a caption saying “Do you even lift?”. For the second meme, a man is seen posing and flexing his muscle, and a caption is seen saying “bros, does this make me look too swole?”. For the third meme, a man is doing some for of a strange exercise, so there is a caption calling it “crossfit” for fun. These are different from other possible manifestations as these all serve a purpose of being funny, while others may not.
- The manifestations I have chosen specifically appeal to my target audience because they all relate to fitness, just as my blog does. I think my audience members will find these memes funny as they all relate to what someone in fitness might actually see. Personally, I have heard these sayings many times, and I have seen people doing weird exercises in the gym, so I find these memes to be very funny.
Image sources can be found by clicking on the image itself, or can be found below.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/bodybuildingcom
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/swole-swoll
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/crossfit
Fundamentals of Lifting 