Falco

Anthony Falco
Professor Ristow
Digital Rhetoric
Critical Meme Analysis Final
28 April 2015
I think therefore I am. a PHILOSORAPTOR
Memes have become a popular aspect of our modern day
culture, especially when considering the increase in cyber space
participation over the past decade. They are designed to capture real
life events, material, and ideas like people, places, quotes, and music
for example and represent them uniquely. Most of the representations
produced by memes are a manipulation of the material world artifact
that they have derived from. The purpose of the manipulation is mainly
to elicit a humorous response from its designated audience. This
purpose can be achieved in a number of ways; currently the most
popular form is the image-based meme with superimposed text,
usually a popular or trending quote. The Webster dictionary defines
memes as any idea, style, behavior, or usage that spreads from
person to person within a culture. What constitutes a memes
existence is the concept and act of sharing or being relayed and
repeated throughout the culture. The trends they set through
replication define them. Although memes are generally seen only as an
act endeavoring to evoke a humorous or insignificant response they

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can contribute to the defining features of a culture and function as a
form of communication and shared language within that culture.
One of the image micro based memes that has flourished across
the realm of cyberspace over the past six years is the philosoraptor.
The meme was first officially archived on 4chan as a photo of a
dinosaur reading a book on February 18th, of 2009. What is interesting
to note is that this same image was also recognized two years prior in
2007 on YTMND (you are the man dog.com), but received minimal
attention and has not been reposted on that domain since. What
started as an original manipulated image of a raptor was transformed
into a meme over a short period time by gaining recognition and
popularity through repetition. The original raptor image was merely a
photo shopped image taken from Steven Spielbergs, 1993 Jurassic
Park film and is featured on the original 4chan post with

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a large book of the complete works of ancient philosopher Plato

inserted in between its claws.

In March of

the next year, Memegernerator.com was launched. The interface allows a user to caption

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an image with custom text, and commonly apply a watermark to the image to display
where it was created. The website basically gave the public the opportunity to edit photos
without the skills required by the
current photo editing systems at
the time. The macro series began
to develop its popularity with the
emergence of memegenerator.
This was partially because of the
accessibility of the website and

The exact origins of the meme remain

debatable but all speculations emerge
within the same time period of one year,
(2008-2009). Knowyourmeme.com
attributes Sam Smith with the creation of
the philosoraptor macro series that
premiered in 2008. Smith says the idea

also because of the growing

originated from the lonely dinosaur t-shirt

population of animal memes.

that was created and distributed in

Users started to associate the

September of that year and was registered

raptor image with humorous

for a copyright one month after in October.

utterances that usually pertained

The t-shirt became a popular icon and

to some manipulation of a riddle

featured the first version of the image

micro
in the
series. the
Thecharts
original
or philosophical quote. By July of 2011
the meme
dominated
on was
memegenerator.com by being featured in almost 38,000 instances. Its popularity gained
momentum as it spread onto dominant social media sites like, Facebook, Twitter,
Tumblir, Pintrest and Instagram.
The philosoraptor exists amongst a popular category of advice giving animals,
which contributes to its recognition. The originator of that category is the bad advice dog,
which was created in 2006. This bad advice dog has received over two million hits online
according to knowyourmeme.com and is also an image macro series created for humor.

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The bad advice dog is significant when considering the emergence of the philosorapter
shortly after. Advice animals were trending at the time the philosoraptor was created and
are still trending today which explains its popular existence to date. A large audience
resonates with the humor proposed by the memes because of the animal images being
promoted like the raptor. There is something about an image of a raptor in deep
philosophical thought that appeals to a large group of people. One of the reasons behind
this could be because it is extremely bizarre. Within that unrealistic nature is some
comfort for the audience. The philosoraptor is only an image of a green animal that is
superimposed by a humorous text bit (usually on top and bottom). The raptor image is
photoshopped with its claw placed underneath its chin to evoke a thinking position,
similar to common image of the thinking man statue. The animal is humanized in the
meme by the way it is portrayed. The appearance of the raptor elicits human qualities.
One of the qualities is the thinking position created by its body language; the other
quality is the philosophical text that supports this position suggesting that the animal is
literate and can construct complex thoughts. By humanizing the animal with neutral
colors and body positioning it becomes a figure that is easy to identify with.
The neutral identity created by the meme eliminates race and gender affiliations
from the messages advocated by it. That element helps for a mass group of people to
identify with the meme and not be offended. In a world where race, class, gender, and
sexuality can become and obstacle in interactions with the world, cyberspace allows one
to choose an identity that may have nothing to do with ones real life gender or race
(Nayar 14). Philosorapter is one of the options to avoid those many obstacles that have
transferred over from the material world into cyberspace. Anyone can identify with the

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raptor while excluding the material world identity they withhold. Identity plays a crucial
role in all memes especially the philosoraptor. In order to be replicated throughout a
culture they have to be identified with.
One of the reasons as to why the philosoraptor micro series based meme has
proliferated was because of the time frame it emerged in. The philosoraptor was created
during the same time period as other advice animals. The philosoraptors presence is
associated with other advice animals that emerged around the same time (2008-2009/10).
Advice animals like, the lenin cat, paranoid parrot, and business cat all emerged
within that time frame of two years. Each of these advice animals stands in their own sub
category amongst the other animals. For instance the bad advice dog only provides
terrible humorous advice for it audience where as the philosoraptor, paranoid parrot,
business cat, and lennin cat each provides insightful humorous wisdom for its audience.
Each of the animals within this category received a minimum of five hundred thousand
hits online. Each of these animals supports the identity of their audience. No one can be
offended in terms of race, class, or gender therefor they appeal to the entire public not
just a specific group or subculture. The attention these memes receive is based off of the
reactions from users. The humor elicited by these animals makes it easier for users to
react in a positive light causing the meme to be repeated and passed on to the next user in
the culture. Once the philosoraptor became a registered as a comic and harmless presence
it emerged as a meme.
The philosoraptor has clearly proliferated in cyberspace over the past few years.
With the meme gaining more recognition and repetition we must ask what this has to do
with society. With the simultaneous proliferation of the advice animal memes over the

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past five I believe we can say that animals are received well by different cybercultures.
The animals represent something that the human can not yet we can see how the
humanization of these animals has become a vehicle for a larger message. This message
is sent from users to other users and is attached to the image of an animal like the
philosraptor example. We can speculate that the animals represent an idea of identity
liberation for majority of users. The animal images endeavor to exclude race, gender, and
class from the meme. Without putting a human identity the message can be sent and
received by a diverse group of users. If the same words were to be written on a human
face they might not have been recognized because of the racial and gender relations
people would attach to the identity of the human face in the image. One of the
consequences of the philosoraptor and advice animal memes like it is that human users
can say derogatory things and feel as if the animal image justifies it. This already presents
itself all over the web with users attaching hurtful racial remarks to animal images.
The purpose of the philosoraptor is to communicate and engage the online
community through humor; it is simply for the lulz. The lulz are a term coined by the
21st century as a way for Internet users and people actively participating online to gain
attention. The lulz the philosoraptor intends on administering do not have the authority
to offend others because of its exclusion of race and gender. The creation of the lulz
originally had two intentions; one was to bash and hurt others specifically by saying
derogatory things and the other was to gain a laughing response and attention for the
creator. The philosoraptor has absolutely no intention of hurting another person or group.
It is simply intended to expose the popular trends and enlighten its cybercultural
audience. That being said most of the Internet users that participate for the lulz are

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looking to ruin someones day. Most of the time these users are referred to as cyber
bullies or trolls. This is when doing it for the lulz can absolutely have a negative affect
on society. The lulz used mainly by trolls and cyber bullies but also other users are a
ways for them to measure their own success. These people feed off of bad reactions and
pained responses from other users.