Commenting, seeking answers to several recurring questions about the relationship between the popular meme replicated at breakneck speed on digital social media and the legendary cartoon as the predominant art of graphic humor, was one of the exchanges held at 4th. The National Assembly on Press, Humor and Identity, held last week.
A group consisting of cartoonist Aristides Hernandez (ARES, with extensive experience in such conflicts), Ismael Lema (Director Palante) and the undersigned (representing I stopped), was responsible for such a difficult task in a forum where several Cuban speakers, professors, researchers, cinematographers, cartoonists and meme makers have already come forward and sparked a deep and fruitful discussion.
Going into details would be difficult and lengthy. Perhaps best summed up in the manner of Ares when he argues that there are undoubtedly many points of convergence and differences between the two essentially humorous genres. Best of all, they can coexist, be part of a wide spectrum of communication, without losing their identity and meaning as an artistic and media language.
If the meme is a child of caricature, or if there were cartoonists who created memes centuries ago, then apparently these are “Byzantine discussions”, fruitless disputes that do not lead to consensus, when in fact we speak the same language, so talk. .
What is really true, and it was demonstrated in such an important and professional meeting, is that memes are now an integral part of our lives. It has become a powerful thermometer of public opinion and news seeking. With simple design tools, videos, images, literature… it has a decisive impact on the audience, resulting in an effective, powerful and fast formula.
The meme is by no means free from ingenuity, despite its pronounced playful nature, which invites practitioners to join in due to its constant challenges to creativity and intelligence, even if they are of varying quality in their accounts. The meme inevitably promotes and evokes opinions, and its high communicative impact is undeniable and affects all political and socio-cultural spheres.
Do not think that all this is part of my reasoning, or that I already consider myself an expert in this old networking practice that is coming to Cuba thanks to the slow improvement (yes, improvement, believe it or not) of Internet access. with excellent connection systems.
The meme, as Giancarlo Medrano Pérez, an audiovisual producer and professor at the Faculty of Communication at the University of Havana, summed it up in a great conference that culminated in the meeting, “is the expression and synthesis of the new communication.”
As such, it is being studied in many universities and various educational centers, however, I believe that at the level of exploitation by our media platforms, it is ignored, like everything that calls for humor and irreverence, despite its already noticeable effectiveness. like a language. In this sense, the meme and the cartoon will suffer the same fate.
I have already spoken about this in other forums, and this event has shed light on the practice of many Cuban creators, who give it a distinctive stamp of our identity and culture. Let’s not miss the opportunity to be part of a socio-cultural event that transcends our borders. Just in case, I stoppedyou already have a meme!
Source: Juventud Rebelde