Based off of this, it might be perceived that the gay community is having a laugh at the expense of these unknowing others (trolling them, Milner might say, as their “discomfort” becomes the joke). 4 But more often than not, this doesn’t seem to be the case those who are posting this content tend to be women and not gay men.
A kind of diaspora can be traced as the meme went from being an inside joke for gay men (or, at least, viewers of gay pornography) to being a joke about being shocked by gay men and gay pornography. Although the appropriation of queer cultures by a more mainstream culture is not often problematic, might some level of homophobia be embedded in this latter instance?Īccordingly, Poe’s Law comes into play. Milner quotes the site Know Your Meme in describing Poe’s Law as the difficulty “to distinguish extremism from satire of extremism in online discussions unless the author clearly indicates his/her intent” (Milner). In this instance, we don’t know whose satire it is, and (for that matter) who ends up being the butt of the joke. One other interesting aspect regarding how this meme relates to our readings for this week can be seen in the afterlife of the original film, as it’s followed a similar trajectory as the one that Reeve traces for the website, Lifehackable.