Anna Gospodarek

February 28th, 2022

English 101 Tuesday- Thursday, 9:30 am-10:45 am

University of Wisconsin, Whitewater

“Mutal Agreement”

Picture this, you’ve just finished reading one of your new favorite books and you’re

excited to talk about it. Naturally, you turn to the internet to see what other people think. Among

the usual discussion posts and rants, there are memes scattered along. One of them catches your

eye. It’s simple in every sense of the word, a plain black and white drawing with two figures

standing next to each other. One stands calmly and stares straight ahead, a slightly bored look on

their face. The words “has no energy” are scrawled under it. Next to the gloomy figure is another

figure, but the drawing is slightly blurred. Despite this, the expression on the drawing's face is

clear; overwhelming excitement. Underneath this drawing, the words “has too much energy” are

written. The names of your two favorite fictional characters are slapped over the drawing's faces

and you think about it for a moment. You laugh “ That’s so true!”Despite the simplicity of the

drawing, it got a multi-step thought process across in just under a few seconds and made you

react emotionally to a stick drawing. Impressive right? Memes are generally like this, conveying

a point that draws out a reaction of some kind and makes you feel like you’re part of this inside

joke. The simple drawing and straightforward message make it easy to approach and interact

with the meme and make it less intimidating to alter it for your use and continue the joke.
 If you’ve ever read a book or written anything on the internet before, this meme will

sound familiar to you. This was, after all, its initial purpose. To be related to characters from

media, whether a book series, a tv show, or a movie, it was a way for fans to interact more with

the material and make jokes with other fans. This meme uses Logos and Ethos to promote

engagement. The meme first uses Logos, logic, by making a person think about what they’re

seeing critically and come to a conclusion about whether they agree with what the meme is

saying or not. By allowing the viewer to reason with what they’ve seen they could create a

version that they agree with, or spark a debate about the topic itself. Ethos was also used in this

meme. Because it’s a template, which is a meme that’s specifically made for further meaning to

be added to it, it becomes very versatile. People can be more creative with the meme, and choose

to assign characters to have a certain “energy” or they can go further than that and begin to edit

the meme in its entirety. Doing this pushes the meme beyond its original use and opens it up for

more people to start using it. It starts as a meme geared towards writers or readers on the internet

and by editing it, opened it up to a wider audience, so anyone can choose to use it if they think

it’s fitting for the topic they are discussing.

The simplicity of the meme makes it easier to engage with since it looks handmade, rather than

just being a picture of a person with a sentence crudely edited on the bottom. Because of that

visual appeal, it catches your eye faster than another meme might. The image isn’t colorful, but

the drawing is neat and clean. Oftentimes, people are attracted to digital drawings more than

traditional drawings because the linework is usually darker, more eyecatching, and tends to look

more professional. People like looking at stuff that looks like it was done with care, and you can

tell that effort was put into the meme by how the “has too much energy” figure is blurred
slightly. This suggests that it was edited at least a little. So whoever made this did so with an

intention behind it and cared about making sure their point was made. Despite the care that goes

into making sure the point is interpreted in a similar way among anyone who sees it, the meaning

of the meme can still change depending on the edits that are made to it.

Being an avid reader myself, I’ve been familiar with this meme for a long time, and have

used it several times before. Personally, the reason I’ve always been drawn to it, rather than

using other memes is because of how flexible it can be. You can put whoever you want into the

meme, and there are so many variations of the meme, that all have the same general template and

the same general idea behind the meme. I think it sticks with so many people is because of the

fact that it’s straightforward. It makes it easy to understand and you can use it right away. It also

helps that it’s funny on its own and that you don’t need to add your interpretation to it for it to

resonate with people. You could be someone that has never seen it before, and even if you edited

a character's face over the drawing but left the text there, it would still be funny.

The straightforwardness of this meme makes it easy to connect with and use. From the

drawing itself to the meaning that people choose to give it adds to its appeal and makes it a

popular choice among readers and writers on the internet. It also promotes people to engage with

the material and make their own memes, of similar design and create an even broader usage of

memes similar to it. Just because a meme was designed for a specific audience doesn’t mean that

it has to be limited to it. Because of how straightforward the drawing is, anyone could see it,

understand it and use it without needing much context from other sources. This allows anyone to
use it and reinforces that the internet isn’t exclusive for any certain type of person, but for

everyone.