The "Meme" Revolution: Sweeping Across Solana in the US

Retweeted the original title: America’s “killing Matt” is becoming popular with Solana

Have you noticed? In the past week, a flurry of memecoins on Solana has given birth to a popular political culture phenomenon, with astonishing surges in value that even caught the attention of zkSync, Phantom, Messari founder Ryan Selkis, and others. Originating from political figures, it has branched into entertainment, culture, commerce, and religion. These memes often play on vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u) to create puns and variations of English words, reminiscent of the “Martian language” from the “Meme” era 15 years ago. In their artistic expression, they feature elongated necks and tilted heads, achieving a deliberately exaggerated visual effect, embodying the essence of youthful folly.

Similar styles of memecoins emerge on Solana almost daily, multiplying rapidly and often increasing in value by hundreds or thousands of times. Examples include olen mosk (Elon Musk), doland tremp (Donald Trump), jeo boden (Joe Biden), Killary Clenton (Hillary Clinton), JFK (Kennedy), berik obema (Barack Obama), whoren (Elizabeth Warren), Puten (Putin), keem (Kim Jong Un), gery gaysler (SEC Chairman Gary Gensler), LEREY (BlackRock founder Larry Fink), Benance (Binance), Chungpingzao (Changpeng Zhao), taylur and TelorSwif (Taylor Swift), YEEZUS (Adidas Yeezy shoes), Kenye East (Kanye West), sidny zwine (American actress Sydney Sweeney), juses crust (Jesus), and more. It’s noteworthy that this theme of meme has expanded from Solana to Ethereum.

So, where does the cultural and artistic style of these memecoins come from, and why has it become a consensual cultural phenomenon? Today, Foresight News will delve into this cultural phenomenon from the perspectives of memetics, political science, and history.

Sha Ma Te and the Internet Meme

“Sha Ma Te” represents an era we can no longer return to. In the era dominated by Tencent QQ, the Chinese internet’s medieval period, “Sha Ma Te,” non-mainstream, and “Martian” language were the identity and social expression of countless teenagers. It was only years later that I realized these were early forms of “internet memes.”

According to Merriam-Webster, a “meme” has two definitions: one is something amusing, especially a funny picture or video that spreads widely on social media; the other refers to an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture. Unlike current social media memes, which are often text-based images, the language (“Martian” language) and hairstyles of “Sha Ma Te” became a collective identity under the early internet’s influence. American linguist Edward Sapir once said, “There is something behind language; language cannot exist apart from culture.” The cultural meme behind “Sha Ma Te” likely reflects the youth’s self-mockery towards urban poverty and their rebellion against family and authority.

Indeed, “meme” is a concept from cultural evolutionary theory, first introduced by Oxford zoologist Richard Dawkins in “The Selfish Gene.” Why is it considered cultural evolutionary theory? Let’s look at what a “gene” is. Dawkins believed genes are the fundamental units of biological evolution, with “replicating genes” as the ancestors of life, which need “natural selection, survival of the fittest” to replicate and propagate.

In recent years, many have said, “The essence of humanity is a copy machine.” This might sound like mocking imitation and plagiarism, lacking innovation, but upon closer consideration, you’ll find it’s true. Human knowledge, from ancient times to the present, is mostly passed down verbally, generation after generation. For instance, a story you hear at dinner might become tomorrow’s conversation topic with friends.

The process of knowledge and cultural inheritance is like biological evolutionary theory: only the fittest survive and then spread widely. This is Dawkins’ definition of “meme,” which extends Darwin’s theory of biological evolution. Memes, like genes, have fidelity (variability), fecundity, and longevity. You might even notice that “meme” and “gene” sound similar.

From an evolutionary perspective, the internet and memes are a natural fit. Due to the internet’s strong dissemination capability, it transcends spatial limitations, providing memes with unprecedented spreading and propagation power. The “fittest” memes persist, while others are fleeting.

For example, religion is a form of memetics, with Islam under the Jewish lineage emphasizing the spread of doctrine, expansion of the faithful, and the feared reproduction of descendants in Europe. Understanding memetics essentially explains the phenomenon of political memecoins that temporarily took Solana by storm.

“Caring About Politics Starts with a Meme”

“Caring about politics starts with a meme” epitomizes the past decade of American politics becoming part of the entertainment spectrum in image-driven society.

On March 5th last week, the U.S. experienced its quadrennial Super Tuesday, the day of presidential primaries when the most states hold their elections and caucuses, a critical indicator of the potential presidential nominees for both parties. In the realm of political memecoins, “tremp” and “boden” were among the first to appear, representing Donald Trump and Joe Biden, respectively, the most competitive presidential candidates for the Republican and Democratic parties in 2024. As of March 11th, Trump led the Republican primary with 1075 votes, not yet reaching the 1215 vote threshold; Biden led the Democratic side with 1866 votes, also short of the 1969 vote threshold.

(Real-time tracking:Politic）

Why do we see memecoins featuring political figures? The root lies in the “meme-ification of American politics” (The New Yorker). This trend traces back to 2015-2016 and Pepe the Frog, predating the crypto-native PEPE. Created by Matt Furie in 2005 in the comic “Boy’s Club,” Pepe became an internet meme by 2008 and a variety of reaction images by 2014. However, starting in 2015, Pepe began symbolizing the alt-right, with groups like the Nazis, KKK, and white supremacists utilizing Pepe. During the 2016 U.S. election, Pepe memes became associated with the presidential race, with the alt-right, a mainstream conservative movement in the U.S. advocating for white supremacy, supporting Trump, and opposing immigration and multiculturalism.

In October 2015, Trump retweeted an alt-right version of Pepe as Trump with the caption “You can’t Stump the Trump” to express his political stance.

By mid-September, as Pepe hit the headlines, Hillary Clinton suggested most of Trump’s supporters were “deplorables,” hinting at racist and sexist undertones. Trump’s son then shared a “The Expendables” movie poster meme on Instagram, tagging Pepe, Trump, and other conservatives as “deplorables.”

Soon after, Clinton’s team released “Donald Trump, Pepe the Frog, and White Supremacists: An Explanation” (now deleted), claiming “Pepe is more sinister than you might realize.” Thus, Pepe became a symbol of white supremacy in the U.S. consensus. In 2020, when Biden faced Trump, 78-year-old Biden was depicted by conservatives as “aged,” “elderly,” “slow,” and “weak,” creating an impression that “Biden is too old to serve as president,” despite Trump being only four years younger. The key difference is that Biden represents moderate whites advocating for “calm politics,” while the alt-right worldview is filled with binary oppositions: black vs. white, male vs. female, racial divisions.

In “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind,” the unconscious emergence in groups is primarily due to individuals within the group easily falling into metaphysical binary oppositions, simplifying the world. This is why binary computers have surpassed ternary ones, as understanding the world in binary oppositions is simpler and more effective. Binary does, in fact, constitute part of the world and explains certain phenomena.

Moreover, in the era of social media, content with clear, extreme views has more viral potential. The choice doesn’t matter as much as the internet providing a space for emotional release, thus easily creating widespread internet memes.

The story of memes like Pepe with the U.S. presidential election was born this way. However, memes are essentially a form of comics, and political cartoons have been part of American culture since the late 19th century, significantly impacting elections, including supporting Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, and Cleveland, and satirizing the losers. The “battle of the elephant and donkey,” symbols of the U.S. two-party system, were also creations of Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly in 1874 and 1877.

Image source: Helen Kampion, The Donkey and Elephant, The White House.

In the internet age, political cartoons have evolved into memes. Regardless of the format, they simplify complex politics into symbols that satisfy the public’s curiosity and taste for ugliness, turning dense, serious national politics and leadership into entertainment through sharp, mocking, satirical, defamatory, and humorous political commentary. This is a feature of American democracy, engaging the entire nation in politics, though it has increasingly divided American society.

Returning to our discussion on Solana memes, let’s look at “tremp,” which has seen a nearly thousand-fold increase since February 28th, with a current market value of around 29 million USD.

The “tremp” meme features a blond middle-aged man full of vigor, with the slogan “mek memes gret agen.”

“Tremp” memes political demands of Trump’s presidency campaign:

1. He is the billionaire president on Solana.
2. His job is to make more and more money.
3. He aims to destroy Joe Biden.
4. He wants to unite the memes on Solana.
5. Finally, cast your vote for Trump in 2024!

Conversely, Biden’s “boden” meme, perhaps self-mockery by his supporters, expresses support for Biden and campaigns for him through memecoins.

“Boden” launched on March 4th, with its value also skyrocketing over 1000 times in the past week, currently valued at around 40 million USD.

In essence, “tremp” and “boden” are political symbols of this period, results of the meme-ification of American politics. For instance, Ryan Selkis, founder and CEO of Messari, tweeted that “tremp” had surpassed “boden” in market value, prompting crypto wallet Phantom to inquire in the comments if Ryan voted for “boden.”

Driven by the U.S. presidential primaries, memecoins featuring global political figures such as Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Kim Jong Un, Kennedy, Warren, Putin, and even Hitler have appeared on the Solana stage. Meanwhile, these memes have spread from political figures to business, entertainment, culture, religion, and criminals.

Overall, Solana’s Trump and Biden-themed memes inherently carry an entertainment nature, but memes derived from “tremp” and “boden” have stripped away the political elements, leaning more towards “entertainment to death.” Most lack solid fundamentals, often experiencing dramatic rises and falls. However, as memes, they have succeeded.

Back to 2012: The Rise of Miswritten Spider-Man: The Explosion of Spoderman

Where did the incorrectly spelled Trump and Biden themed memecoins come from? This is a question many have pondered. It seems the cartoonish figure with a crooked head, serving as the prototype, is Spoderman. According to the Know Your Meme website, Spoderman is a misspelling of Spider-Man, first appearing on FunnyJunk on March 29, 2012, as a Microsoft Paint image. It represents an ugly version of Spider-Man, posted by user vilfederation, which garnered over 770 likes and 64,000 views in five years.

Initially, people shared the Spoderman image and commented on it, including deliberate misspellings of Spider-Man, with Mary Jane and Green Goblin rewritten as mari jene and grn gublyn, respectively.

On March 30, Spoderman appeared in a Dolan comic, also published on FunnyJunk:

On April 12, a YouTuber named Dolan Duk uploaded “The Uncle Dolan Show Episode 1,” featuring Dolan and Gooby encountering Spoderman.

On July 23, the Spodermen channel debuted on YouTube, now boasting 317,000 subscribers, with the last video posted in 2018. The first video, “Spoderman Theme Song,” amassed over 680,000 views in five years.

On September 10, 2016, Behind The Meme shared “What is spoderman? Explaining the Spider-Man meme history” on YouTube, accumulating over 1.25 million views.

Evidently, the Spoderman meme has long been a widely recognized internet phenomenon. Visiting the Spoderman YouTube channel reveals the meme’s association with American politics and presidential elections around 14 years ago.

Having covered Spoderman’s history, let’s return to the memecoins themed after tremp and boden. If research holds, their origin lies in Spoderman, given its significant internet influence over the past decade.

On January 24, 2024, the Spodermen-themed meme coin Spoody launched on Solana, peaking at nearly 100 times its initial value, with a current market cap of $2.3 million. Notably, on March 5, Spoody announced it had acquired the rights to Spodermen from the original creator’s estate.

References:

Shan Xin Xin: “The Spread Characteristics of Internet Popular Language from the Perspective of Linguistic Memes,” Modern Language, October 2022;

The Paper: “The Birth of Trump Memes: When Political Figures Become Entertainment Stars,” September 2016;

BBC: “Pepe the Frog meme branded a ‘hate symbol’,” 28 Sep. 2016.

NFT Now: Political Memecoin Mania Sweeps Solana With Biden and Trump-Themed Coins, March 7, 2024.

Disclaimer:

1. This article is reposted from foresightnews, originally titled “The ‘Sha Ma Te’ Phenomenon Sweeping Across Solana in the US,” copyright belongs to the original author [Ananda Banerjee]. If there are any objections to this repost, please contact the Gate Learn team, and the team will handle it promptly according to relevant procedures.

2. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article represent the author’s personal views and do not constitute any investment advice.

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