Cool kids bring dank memes into the election campaign but only for a nanosecond

PARTY GAMES: You have to move fast in the world of social media. No sooner had discussion of “dank memes” started than the cool kids acted to shut it down.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is no stranger to using social media int he campaign. Pic: Lyndon Mechielsen

YOU clearly have to move fast in the world of social media. No sooner had a discussion of “dank memes” in this election campaign started than the cool kids acted to shut the whole thing down.

Every election has a development in communications and for 2016 it may be dank memes – if the digital world hasn’t already moved on.

Using the “Know your Memes” website as our guide – yes, there is such a place – we discovered that the word “dank” has its origins in referring to the particular qualities of a batch of marijuana.

Really dank marijuana is something of very high quality – a usage that led dank to also mean “cool”.

When it comes to applying it to a meme – which is a virally transmitted cultural symbol or social idea that moves quickly and represents an idea – is an ironic expression used to mock online viral media and in-jokes.

These are intentionally bizarre or have exhausted their comedic value to the point of being trite or cliché.

So in this election these symbols are posted on the internet, usually using platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and are supposed to make people laugh at the subject.

So far the biggest propagators of these memes have been Labor-aligned groups and unions, targeting either the Coalition or the Greens.

A meme featuring Malcolm Turnbull sitting in piles of gold bars with expensive boats and cars in the background is regarded as a trite attack on his rich-guy image.

The meme space is, by its very nature and place in the digital world, a fast-moving and constantly changing thing, which is why as soon as we mentioned it on national TV on Sunday morning the cool kids were swift to lower the internet drawbridge.

“Every election throws up something new and this one has brought something called a ‘dank meme’,” we said on the ABC’s Insiders yesterday.

From cool HQ, Mark Di Stefano’s Australian BuzzFeed couch in Canberra, the word was: “Alright. Shut it all down.”

Another passenger on the cool bus accused us of spoiling it for everyone by exposing dank memes and thereby ruining the cool factor.

We’re confident someone will find something to replace dank memes in the digital world but we are very grateful this election has shone a light on the dank meme and introduced us to the “Know your Meme” website.

Originally published as Cool kids bring dank memes into the election campaign but only for a nanosecond