Meme Madness: Memes make it to ASU after going viral online

If it hasn't invaded your Facebook stream yet, it will.

An Internet meme base was launched last Tuesday on Facebook targeting students' and the administration's funny bone.  

Run by two anonymous ASU students, "A-State Memebase" found popularity between students and faculty members alike by tallying up 438 "likes" in less than one week.

The word "meme" comes from the word "imitate".

Coined by British biologist R. Dawkins in 1976, the word is described as a cultural element or behavior that is transmitted to one individual to the other by repetition.

Fast-forward 36 years and, the word has become affiliated with images of cats and babies, videos, twitter hash tags and bad college jokes.

Its popularity was brought back via social networks such as 4chan, Tumblr and now Facebook.

This "meme madness" on Facebook has been reported in colleges all around the country according to an article by Steve Kolowich titled "Campus-themed Internet memes go viral" in USA Today.

The two students running the page work hand in hand: an admin and a moderator who wished to remain anonymous.

When asked why, the admin said, "It's more fun that way. It's not about one person or one student doing this. It's something shared among all students."

The admin continued. "We are not trying to make the administration mad, but there are things that have turned into a joke. They think it's beneficial for the school, but they don't know how many people are laughing about it."

Before starting the page, the admin did the research on other college meme pages.

They found out that other schools like U of A, UALR, and FIU have already launched a school meme page, which only enticed them to start one for ASU.

"I found out that the first meme page was FIU, so I thought how many other Sun Belt Conference meme pages are there... we have to be the Sun Belt Champions in everything, including memes. We must get all of the likes," the admin said.

The page was created early Wednesday morning.

In the next 24 hours, the number of likes on Facebook rose up to a 100.

"It's been overwhelming a little bit; we have all these lives in our hands that we control all of their LOLs."

The pages' rules are simple: don't target any individuals, keep comments clean and have fun.

The memes shared on the page poke fun at what students have to deal with on everyday bases.

Some poke fun of the "Parking Nazis", tuition rising, the Acansa dinning hall and even the ASU Herald.

Travis Bealer, a sophomore English major of Jonesboro said he very much enjoys the memes.

"I think the memes are very, very funny. I think it's very clever how some of it targets ASU's flaws and things they should fix but in a very funny light... not to be confused with Arizona State of course," Bealer said.

Bealer said his favorite memes are the ones that poke fun at ASU parking.

"We are doing it to connect people. We all think these things, why not share them? Know that you are not alone in thinking these things," the admin said.

The admin said the purpose of the page is to lift up school spirits said the admin. The page is in no way trying to start a riot. The admin added it's all in fun and games.

The moderator of the page said that watching this page grow for the past week is incredible.

The moderator continued by saying that the difficult part of creating a funny meme is to understand what each meme represented.

"We had a few wrong memes submitted but that didn't stop us from laughing at the joke," the moderator said.

Anyone is welcome to submit and share their thoughts about everything that's being shared on the page.

Websites like knowyourmeme.com and memegenerator.net will give you the head start to creating a funny meme.

"A-State Memebase" can be visited on www.facebook.com/pages/A-State-Memebase.