Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Improperly-performed Harlem Shakes (as in the meme)
IJBM: When people don't perform this properly.
First, half-minute videos only. Part of the charm of this meme is that it's only half a minute long. You have about 15 seconds to show off one isolated person (or a small number of isolated persons) doing something very strange, then video-cutting to 15 seconds of a larger number of people doing very strange things. Please don't give me 47-second videos, 1-minute-and-3-second videos, or any longer.
Second, you need to provide a stark contrast between "business as usual" and "strange shit going on". This means:
- people acting "normal" need to actually act, and not sit there bored. Incorrect: people sitting doing nothing. Correct: people apparently discussing paperwork, walking through the area, etc..
- people acting "normal" need to act, well, normal. Incorrect: person in college dorm sitting in chair in hallway reading book. Correct: person in college dorm sitting in chair in lounge reading book, or standing in hallway talking to friend.
Third, try not to transition between too stark a difference of number of people. Especially if you have a huge crowd, it just looks like a rowdy crowd at some event. Part of the humor of this meme is to be able to tell what individual people are doing. This is optimal if you start off with a room or area that already has a decent, but not crowded, number of people, and get roughly that same number of people to do strange things in the second half. For example, if you have a classroom of 20 students, try to get roughly 20 students to do both halves, rather than 10 and then 35. If you have to do a large area, try to get a lot of people into that area early on, so at least there's a rough visual comparableness.
Fourth, avoid merely trembling and/or shaking in place. Especially avoid use of sexually suggestive acts. One or two people in a crowd of fifteen or more is plenty. Anyone can air-hump or act like they have a seizure, but it's far funnier when you have people doing things that are just so totally nonsensical that you totally don't expect those behaviors at all. For example, holding someone's legs while they walk on their hands. Dangling a plastic bottle above oneself as if it were a grape. Person in a cow costume juggling boxes of tissue paper. Starfleet captain ballroom-dancing with a nun. The Demoman playing the cello. Luchadores and scuba divers wielding a Chinese New Year dragon. Please, be more creative with your incongruities.
Comments
I thought this was going to be about how the Harlem Shake meme doesn't have anything to do with the actual dance called The Harlem Shake.
As in this article.
#whitepeople
Also this is probably the most quickly-monetized meme ever. Baauer's record label monetizes literally every Harlem Shake video and rakes in the cash via views. Also, honestly there's better electronica/trap out there.
So please don't talk about the meme being "done wrong" when you have no idea what a Harlem Shake even is.
Credit due to Himanshu "Heems" Suri to linking me to that article in the first place. Still need to remove the Baauer off of my iPod. This whole situation is probably the only time I've ever felt genuinely deceived by a musician. Doesn't help that Baauer is a fucking douche.
If anyone would like me to go on at further length as to why this meme is terrible and you should feel bad, please, just say the word.
Entertaining Harlem Shakes meme examples:
#cultural appropriation
Brb, deleting all jazz and rock from my harddrive.
^^ Those are majestic.
I like this one just because I can actually see it happening exactly like that with the characters involved.
There's a difference between being influenced by something and going out of your way to act like you don't know the name of the songs you sampled for your memetic hit (you have less than a dozen songs) and then acting like a douche when people rap over your trap song that was originally supposed to have a rapper on it anyway.
(also rock music is terrible anyway and you would lose little by deleting it from your harddrive)
>2013
>ever taking anything with hashtags seriously
The moment we start using Tumblr formatting, we go full social justice or bust.
edit: nevermind. This is a sore subject for me.
@GMH: Your criteria mean Born of Osiris did theirs wrong, and they can do no wrong.
dude what
Wasn't a terribly serious statement.
Though honestly, I do find most rock music very formulaic and dull with a couple exceptions. I also think it's weird that as a fan of quite a lot of non-rock music I'm expected to be okay with it if someone says they "don't like rap" or whatever, but if I say I "don't like rock" I immediately get either "lolwat", "u trollan" or "stfu" depending on where I am at the time.
It's weird how people seem to not understand that there's a pretty large demographic that doesn't listen to rock. Like. At all.
Now, I'm going to go away for awhile. I'll see you all in a few days if not sooner.
This part I think is false.
I don't like rock either. I have a hard time distinguishing from different rock. It all sounds the same to me.
Nor was mine.
Yes, another victory for silencing tactics, long live the status...
*rumbling sounds*
Wait, what?
A CHALLENGER APPEARS!
Wait, what?
Humans universally yearn for the orgiastic moment of initiating synchronized movement (reflecting one's high status and belonging).
...Yeah, I think I'll just stick with Genesis and Gorillaz.
Okay, I have a new favorite:
I think we are all forgetting the key point is that this meme isn't funny or interesting in any way (seems to be a common trend with meme's). Who gives a shit about how some 'musician' ripped off another 'musician' (using the term very lightly here) and now changed the meaning of Harlem Shake from one idiotic dance to another one? I certainly don't.
Super Lazuli, do you even realise how arrogant you appear with your snide comments and sweeping generalisations? I doubt it.
#purplepeople
Settle down, Greggy. I get your perspective, but your tone isn't going to take us anywhere nice.
Y'know that kind of lack of respect is exactly why people get angry about this kind of thing.
I've seen a few videos of what claims to be the actual Harlem Shake, and it appears to actually have a sense of rhythm, which pretty much all of these meme performers lack.
That said, I am still amused by the meme.
^^ If you're referring to me, I've become a mod since you were last here, so it's in my interests to draw lines in the sand if I can see that things may get out of hand. I'm not trying to disrespect anyone, but mods gonna mod.
If you're not referring to me, then nevermind.
As severely overused as Slenderman (and Internet memes in general) may be, I think this is pretty funny, actually.
Slenderman can still be funny. Partially because he's originally a horror meme, so...how to put this.
Overexposure decreases how seriously you can take a meme. So while an originally funny meme would at this point be boring, Slenderman was originally a horror meme, so he's only reached the point of being funny. Give him time, and as with any comedic meme, he'll soon make the transition to being entirely boring.
I made a post in this thread but my internet died for a second and the post was lost.
I liked the Slenderman one a lot as soon as I saw it a few weeks ago. Still do.
This is my school's Harlem Shake. We didn't do a very good job IMO.
Was replying to Greg, actually. But if you're saying you want the subject dropped, consider it dropped.
Nothing personal, but yeah, it's probably for the best. Thank you.
No worries Alex I didn't intend on taking it any further just wanted to point some things out.
As for Slenderman, I wouldn't really consider him a meme as much as an urban legend (almost) at this point as there is substantial mythos that surrounds him, evidenced by the several long standing vlogs and now a couple of movies. Memes generally have a much shorter life span than slenderman has had, aside from the extremely popular ones which appear to be invincible.
It's funny when you think about it (or at least I think it is), but in the proper sense of the word (as in "unit of cultural information passed from one person to another", rather than just "Internet in-joke"), Slenderman will always be a meme.
I think the way "internet meme" is used, the term meme basically refers to a unit of cultural information that's used as a point of reference.
And in that sense, memes really don't have a standard lifespan, and urban legends are examples of memes.
Actually, this is the proper definition of the word "meme." Broad cultural ideas can be memes just as much as Internet fads and urban legends.