Presupposition

After talking about “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community” by James Porter, I realized how much prior knowledge and context is involved in interpreting texts. Previously written books influence ones written today, and this process is unlikely to change for years to come. Similarly, this pattern is evident through more than just books, it shows up in all different types of media. TV shows, movies, songs, and videos are just a few forms of entertainment that operate under the principle of presupposition. However, I think one of the best ways to show this, as shown by our class on Friday, is through memes. Memes work almost entirely on the basis that other people looking at them understand where they come from in order for them to be funny. Obviously breaking down a joke is the worst way to keep it funny, but it’s still pretty interesting to understand how a meme might become so popular. I thought that the meme I posted on the blog was a good example of this because it composed of many different layers of prior understanding that a viewer would have to understand in order to get the joke in the first place. The template of the meme is from an episode of Spongebob where he shows Patrick a number of examples of something to prove him wrong. Because Spongebob is such a widely known tv show, the meme appeals to a pretty large audience. Next, each of the pictures under the caption is deliberately chosen to make the viewer think of a particular sound, with each one being a reference to something else. The first picture is also from Spongebob, and it shows Mr. Krabs walking, which has a very specific sound from the show. The next one is from Phineas and Ferb, another kids cartoon, where every time that building is shown, someone sings “Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated”. The picture after is the EA logo, which in most video games made by that company has a very distinct announcer’s voice saying “EA Sports, it’s in the game”. After that is a picture of the Windows XP logo, which when the logo is shown on an older windows computer it would play a pretty recognizable jingle. The final picture is of the THX logo, and when it would play before movies, it would always have an increasingly loud sound for a few seconds. All of these pictures in the meme require prior knowledge for them to be understood and the punchline to be found funny. Most memes don’t have this many layers to still provide entertainment, but I never thought that they could have any sort of deeper complexity besides them being short videos or images. The concept of presupposition is a key element in humor, and many other genres of media as well. To some extent, it’s similar to how everything is a remix and new works draw on past influences whenever they are released.