Meme Analysis
The origin, key elements, and life cycle of memes
"Tardar Sauce" the Grumpy Cat, 2012.
Memes have become an essential form of communication in today’s modern society. This form of communication binds different cultural and subcultural groups together. According to PBS, Richard Dawkins describes memes essentially, as a “cultural gene” because of the way they spread and replicate “from brain to brain” (2020).
Let’s explore what memes are and their key elements. We also examine the meme “Hitler Reacts to Amazon Prime’s Prices”. To understand what makes this meme a cultural gene, we break down the meme’s origin, life cycle, text and images, humor, variations in its family tree, and cultural influences from a positive and negative point of view. Most importantly, we examine the controversies across the life cycle as well as positive and negative cultural influences.
What are Memes?
Genes and memes functionality. By Memetics, 2016.
According to Kara Rogers, with Britannica Encyclopedia, A meme is an element of cultural information spread by imitation. “The term meme (from the Greek mimema, meaning “imitated”) was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his work The Selfish Genes” (2024). Over the years we have seen memes become what connects cultural groups across the world in both negative and positive aspects. While exploring Hitler Reacts to Amazon Prime’s Prices, we will learn that when memes are more controversial, the popularity rates flow up and down in a sharper form.
Key Elements in Memes
We have learned that memes are composed of intertextual and intercultural key elements expressed through concurrent, complementary, or divergent characteristics found in the form of videos or images. When a meme has concurrence, the text conveys the same message as the image. If there is no concurrence, then we find divergence which is when the text creates a different position from the image. In other cases, the image and text complement each other in that they are both a little similar and different from each other. We will focus on the concurrence between the video and text for the meme we discuss below.
Hitler Reacts to Amazon Prime’s Prices
The meme Hitler Reacts to Amazon Prime’s Prices (see video below this paragraph), contains a scene originating from the 2004 movie Downfall, depicting the life of Adolf Hitler. In this scene, the actor playing the role of Hitler is having a calm discussion with his subordinates, before being informed by another subordinate of something that enrages him. In this variation, the subtitles are written to make us think Hitler is reacting to the increase in prices for Amazon Prime.
This meme and other variations refer to any marketing news that impacts a wide number of consumers. Whether this is referencing Amazon Prime prices, playing Xbox video games, or Kanye West ranting about Apple, the scene has become different memes for those who want to express an exaggerated reaction to technological or economic changes in today’s realm of consumers, that some might find trivial compared to other more serious news.
Controversies in the Life Cycle
This particular meme’s life cycle began on YouTube regarding a flight simulator. However, according to CBS, after spreading across the internet the original meme was removed from YouTube and several other sites. PBS reiterated the head of the film Martin Moszkowicz said the Constantin Films company in Munich “had been fighting copyright infringement for years. Jewish organizations have also complained about the tastefulness of the clips, he said.” (2010). However, it is almost impossible to erase a meme from the internet if at least one social group has found it appealing in any form.
Since a channel called Recombu reposted the YouTube video 10 years ago, it has accumulated 162,000 views. The amount of views is not as alarming considering it has been 10 years since it was posted. There are a few comments posted in April, 2024 (See Illustration 1). This means the video meme has not completely died down.
According to Google Trends, this meme peaked in popularity in 2009, sharply decreasing by 2010 (See illustration below). The blue line represents those who view and search the specific meme by name. The red line is Hitler finds out, and the red line covers reactions. The blue line remains low across the graph because most viewers do not search the meme by a specific name. Most of them resemble the red line, which covers those who search about Hitler and happen to find the parody. The yellow line representing the amount of reactions is also very low, which means that viewers are not sharing what they see. We speculate that this can represent most viewers' disapproval for the use of Hitler. While many find it funny. Most of them do not feel comfortable sharing.
Google Trend Chart of the meme Hitler Reacts to Amazon Prime’s Prices
Because of its controversy, the meme roughly crashed after public disapproval, as many viewed the meme, they might not have felt comfortable sharing the meme with friends and family. Because sharing the meme is important to maintain popularity, one can speculate that this is why the popularity decreased sharply. Among those who did not share the memes, we can find the ones who found it distasteful, and those who found it amusing and thought their friends and family would be offended.
Text and Image
The image depicts Hitler being enraged while the fictitious text shows an entire rant about Amazon Prime Prices. While the text is not the exact translation of what Hitler is saying, the interplay between the text and the image is concurrent because it reinforces the idea that Hitler is enraged. The entire rant displays a level of rage that fits with the scene, as well as Prime customers’ disapproval of the price change. The concurrence of text and scenes humors those who find it amusing. Witnessing Hitler growing angry over mundane things is what they find amusing.
According to Google Trends’ breakdown by region, the variations became most popular in the USA and Canada. We suspect this popularity was due to those who do not speak German but can read English. Not being distracted by the German language from the original video, while being completely focused on the English subtitles and Hitler’s rage allowed the viewers to connect better with its humor.
According to a study done by Galia Hirsch, in Hitler’s Out of Dope, this meme has been used to provide a sort of relief for people. Galia Hirsh notes how Hitler is a symbol of evil and seeing him rant undermines his status, providing a form of levity (2019). The text about Prime’s prices isolated from the image or vice versa, would not be considered humorous unless these are humorous when combined.
Variations
Galia Hirsh also notes how “the fictitious translations respect the visual aspect” of the original meme, not having the translation disagree with what one sees (2019). The differences lie in the time frame of the meme. The topics may be different and entire sections of the meme can be edited out to create shorter variations. As long as the general outline is kept, many things within that outline can be changed.
All of these variations are similar in a divergent aspect because they have Hitler as a mouthpiece expressing dissatisfaction and frustration, and the subtitles from all variations express disapproval of changes in digital or physical products and services, reflective of the original news and consumers' disapproval. Variations of the meme can have Hitler raging about having his Xbox account banned, movie tickets being sold out, or the subprime mortgage crisis. Please see the three variations in video form below this paragraph.
This meme and other variations refer to any marketing news that impacts a wide number of consumers. Whether this is referencing Amazon Prime prices, playing Xbox video games, or Kanye West ranting about Apple, the scene has become different memes for those who want to express an exaggerated reaction to technological or economic changes in today’s realm of consumers, that some might find trivial compared to other more serious news. This is because the variations always discuss changes in memberships, accounts, and other digital products or services. These issues might be considered trivial by others who prioritize bigger issues like global warming, world hunger, or human trafficking. So the meme is a parody of those who exaggerate in reacting to these more trivial changes.
Positive Cultural Influence
The meme has had a global influence. This is particularly due to the companies associated with the original meme and its variations. Amazon is a global company delivering across all continents, Xbox and Apple are also electronics used by consumers across all continents. These are the elements that unite those who favor the meme, these elements are part of what makes this meme and its variations a cultural gene linking people and consumers across the world.
The meme can establish a social bond by bringing together consumers from different countries who do not agree with Amazon Prime prices going up, or by bringing together those who see the sarcasm in the video that can be portrayed as a presentation of people’s over-reaction to Prime prices going up is an exaggeration. The meme and its variations can also bring together those with gallows humor, which describes people who laugh at horrendous, sad, or even deadly events. In the case of this meme, maybe some people have found its controversial aspect hilarious, or the disrespect towards Hitler who was not a good leader.
Negative Cultural Influence
On the other hand, we have groups who do not favor this meme due to its correlation to Hitler and the genocide of the Jewish population. This is why, though the video has 162,000 views, it only has 1,800 likes. Many who did not like the video did not find it funny. They found it offensive. Others probably found it funny, but still think is offensive and would not like or share the meme for the sake of standing in support of the offended.
The meme can establish a social bond by uniting those who disagree with the propagation of this meme because it is offensive to the Jewish community. The meme sheds light on those who support dark humor without regard for how offensive it is to a specific group, creating a social divide between groups. This meme can also be favored by some of those who have had predetermined issues with the Jewish community, which could be their way of expressing a lack of support.
Conclusion
Memes’ origins, compositions, variations, and life cycles are cultural DNAs that can express many characteristics of different modern social groups. From what one can observe in Hitler Reacts to Amazon Prime’s Prices, the concurrent and humorous meme can continue to spread among certain groups, especially when it shows controversial topics. However, like a family tree, the meme can die out if it becomes disapproving to most.
This meme was used as a way to communicate people’s frustration with Amazon, yet the meme is controversial because Hitler is involved in something that is meant to spread laughter. This controversy has contributed to its popularity rate and it has created many social bonds that are for and against this meme. Either way, its influence has grown and many variations of the meme have arisen. With this meme integrating itself into our culture, one can say that its variations have formed a family tree that has not stopped growing.
Works Cited
CBS News. “Hitler ‘Downfall’ Parodies Removed from YouTube.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 21 Apr. 2010, www.cbsnews.com/news/hitler-downfall-parodies-removed-from-youtube/.
“Gallows humor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gallows%20humor. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Hirsch, Galia. “Hitler’s Out of Dope: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Humorous Memes.” Bar-Ilan University, Elsevier, Aug. 2019, cris.biu.ac.il/en/publications/hitlers-out-of-dope-a-cross-cultural-examination-of-humorous-meme.
Hitler Rants Parodies. “Hitler Gets Banned from Xbox Live.” YouTube, YouTube, 2 May 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=lreKS6DGBMM.
Independent Lens in Beyond the Films. “From Kilroy to Pepe: A Brief History of Memes.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 9 Oct. 2020, www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/from-kilroy-to-pepe-a-brief-history-of-memes/.
“Intercultural.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intercultural. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
“Intertextuality.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intertextuality. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Jamnospam. “Real Estate Downfall.” YouTube, YouTube, 4 Nov. 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNmcf4Y3lGM.
Recombu. “Hitler Reacts to Amazon Prime’s Price Change.” YouTube, YouTube, 4 Mar. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrykxldHKqE.
Rogers, Kara. "meme". Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Jan. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/meme. Accessed 18 April 2024.