Post-Irony Is Not What It Seems

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Друг: The Rise and Fall of Russian Memes

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Which one are you out of your friends? Truck freak, Crazy ass, The fighter, or maybe друг? Using the Russian word meaning "friend", друг is especially dear to the inhabitants of that cold country, including me, so I could not pass by this meme, as it is a weighty reason of introducing the Russian memes, their features and problems. When a meme from the west comes to Russia, it is the norm, but a leak of our meme abroad is a whole event that happens once in a blue moon. This is the first time when a Russian meme has transcended the boundaries of the so-called "mass memes", and in the case of Russia, such memes mock stereotypes, communism, and hypertrophied soviet culture. Although this meme does not belong to the realm of surreal memes, it technically has certain similarities, and is pretty abstract. Paradoxically, the first Russian meme of such an orientation was originally created abroad, and not even by a Russian person. Друг was made by a Twitter user @korol
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The Loss Ratio and Minimalist Memes

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Loss has become one of the most abstract, universal, minimalistic, and long-lived memes for many years. It is remarkable by that it is a symbol meme which image is incredibly easy to remember and represent. Simple, even strict forms make it elementary and brilliant as well. Having a whole story about a human misfortune under a memorable image, it has been gaining fame and "dying" for innumerable times, then becoming popular, then leaving underground again. It is worth thinking about, but this meme exists since 2008. During its ten-year history, the Loss has traveled an incredibly long journey, from a simple joke to an abstract meme and even a new golden ratio. To understand the whole essence of the Loss, it is necessary to dive deeper into the history of its origin. Initially, it was just a reflection of the life situation of Tim Buckley, whose girlfriend had a miscarriage. After this, Buckley drew the legendary 4 frames, but the comic triggered rather an ambiguous reac
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