A new visual language

The programme explores the popularity and meaning of internet memes, from LOL cats to emoji, pratfall videos to ‘dank’ alt right satire.
Playfully fusing the conventions of a BBC 4 documentary with a throwaway YouTube video style, the film examines the rise and rise of this new visual language and asks what makes a few memes so successful.

"How hard can it possibly be to go viral?,” asks Professor Clay?

To explore this question, Richard, Professor of Digital Cultures at Newcastle University, experiments with devising and releasing his own memes, applying what he finds out in interviews with meme creators and influencers. These include Tom Walker, the comedian who plays YouTube sensation Jonathan Pie; Amanda Brennan, meme ‘librarian’ at Tumblr; Richard Dawkins, who coined the word ‘meme’; Christopher Blair, a self-proclaimed ‘liberal’ troll and Sam Oakley from an online video company that reaches a billion people a month.

Powerful and provocative

To explore this question, Richard, Professor of Digital Cultures in Newcastle University's School of Arts and Cultures, experiments with devising and releasing his own memes, applying what he finds out in interviews with meme creators and influencers. These include Tom Walker, the comedian who plays YouTube sensation Jonathan Pie; Amanda Brennan, meme ‘librarian’ at Tumblr; Richard Dawkins, who coined the word ‘meme’; Christopher Blair, a self-proclaimed ‘liberal’ troll and Sam Oakley from an online video company that reaches a billion people a month.

Referencing the work of artists and critics such as Roland Barthes, Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamps, and comparing and contrasting internet fads with historic memes such as the Christian cross and the V-sign, Professor Clay argues internet memes should be celebrated as the latest incarnation of a rich culture of symbols running through human history. He builds a powerful and provocative thesis through the film that memes don’t just reflect what we think, they have also shaped how we think.

He says: “The way I look it is, my parents’ generation invented the internet. My generation learned how to use it and the next generation are finding ways to make it truly useful.”

How To Go Viral: The Art Of The Meme With Richard Clay will be broadcast at 9pm on Wednesday 20 March on BBC4. 

On the same day, BBC4 Channel Editor Cassian Harrison will be giving a public lecture in Newcastle University’s Boiler House. In Sofa Glue: Seven ways to make telly that sticks he will offer his eclectic take on what makes TV that really works and explain why public service broadcasting is still important. The talk takes place from 5pm in the University’s Boiler House and is free and open to all.

Press release adapted with thanks from the BBC