The playful politics of memes

This special issue emphasizes memes as an avenue for researching vernacular expressions of the political. Memes disrupt and reimagine politics in humorous ways. Spreading across platforms, they confirm, contest and challenge political power and hierarchies. In this introduction, we contend that playfulness connects the humorous and the political in memes. While memes may be created to disrupt, challenge, and reimagine politics in a humorous way, we argue for a critical examination of how they playfully demarcate and move frontiers between 'us' and 'them' in the political. Memes constitute a playful activity that follows a shared set of rules and gives a (shared) voice, which may create togetherness and political identities but also increase polarization. As their template travels, memes continue to appropriate new political contexts and to (re)negotiate frontiers in the political.

Automated summary

This special issue focuses on memes as a way to study vernacular political expressions, emphasizing how memes disrupt and reimagine politics in humorous ways. Memes constitute a playful activity that may create unity and political identities but also contribute to polarization by renegotiating boundaries in politics. As memes continue to adapt to new political contexts, they play a significant role in reshaping and challenging political norms.