The rise of the campus meme

On April 27, the day controversial conservative speaker Ann Coulter was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley, campus sophomore Reed Lievers posted a picture of a group of police officers to UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens, the campus meme-sharing Facebook group. The caption read, “What a cappella group is this?”

A group of UCPD officers stands on Sproul Plaza during Ann Coulter's scheduled appearance April 27. Reed Lievers / Courtesy

Artists in Resonance, a campus a cappella group, poses in the same location. Reed Lievers / Courtesy

The picture shows a collection of campus police officers standing in a location often occupied by one of the many campus a cappella groups. It defused the tension created by the ongoing controversy at UC Berkeley over free speech, making light of the fact that a spot normally filled by innocuous singers was, on that day, occupied by police.

“They were seriously in the same formation that we’re in,” said Lievers, who is a member of the campus a cappella group Artists in Resonance.

The meme struck a chord, with reactions quickly numbering in the thousands. Today, it’s the 14th-most-popular post in the group (measured by the number of reactions).

Liever’s meme is a textbook inside joke: To really get it, you have to know about Ann Coulter and the history of campus activism, the complicated relationship between UCPD and the student body, the school’s abundance of a cappella groups and their preference for a very particular location near Sather Gate. In other words, you have to be a UC Berkeley student.

Yet, most members of UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens, affectionately referred to as UCBMFET, aren’t UC Berkeley students. They can’t be. There are only about 30,000 undergraduates at the school, but there are more than 100,000 members in the group.

UC Berkeley isn’t the only campus with a highly developed meme culture. Meme groups have become a mainstay of the United States’ elite universities, and at many schools, there are far more members than students. At Harvard, for example, there are almost six meme group members for every undergraduate.

The list of schools with the most popular meme pages reads like a subset of the U.S. News and World Report’s top colleges. One reason could be that storied universities have “richer material for parody,” according to John W. Du Bois, a professor of linguistics at UC Santa Barbara who teaches a class on memes.

Others say that the particular form of self-deprecating, hypercritical humor that is rewarded in these groups is especially prevalent at selective universities.

“It’s a combination of bookish nerdiness and ironic irreverence,” said Henry Curtis, a student at the University of Chicago. “The students here depend on a sense of irony.”

Shaping the conversation

Meme groups speak volumes about each school’s culture, perhaps even more than an admissions brochure could. Some prospective students join multiple pages to gauge which school would fit their personality and interests.

While there are a few topics that play well everywhere — rankings, sleep deprivation and the omnipresent STEM-humanities divide — each campus has distinctive themes.

Consider, for example, UC Berkeley’s obsession with computer science subculture, likely borne of the school’s proximity to Silicon Valley. Posts with obscure references to Dijkstra’s algorithm can rack up thousands of reactions.

Or take George Washington University, located in the nation’s capital, whose group’s posts frequently reflect events in the White House. The name of the Facebook group, “GW memes for The 10th most politically active teens,” references the school’s plunge from first to 10th place in the Princeton Review’s ranking of campuses with the most politically active students.

“I think that meme pages are really good at balancing shitting on yourself and shitting on other people,” said Joe Hall, a 2016 Harvard graduate who remains an active participant in meme culture. “Memes are really good at putting things into perspective.”

And, in the tradition of the best satire, memes can become an outlet for genuine criticism of events on campus.

At the University of Chicago, for example, the Phi Delta Gamma fraternity, commonly known as FIJI, planned a controversial construction-themed party on Cinco De Mayo. As reported by the Chicago Maroon, an open letter signed by several student organizations explained how the party's theme might perpetuate racist stereotypes. Partygoers, however, still allegedly wore construction workers’ clothing.

Backlash on the meme page was swift.

FIJI is a commonly-used name for the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and is also a brand of bottled water. Henry Curtis / Courtesy

This meme criticizes the fraternity for holding a party with attendees allegedly dressed in construction-themed clothing even after being warned of its potentially racist implications. Josh Cruz / Courtesy

After the incident, Curtis “felt pressure” to make a meme right away. He used his friend’s computer to make the water bottle meme above in 30 seconds, he said.

Memes critiquing fraternities and sororities are among the most commonly posted, along with sometimes-serious, sometimes-silly commentary on administrators. Business majors are parodied as “snakes,” and the self-promoting “finance bro” is epitomized by the Goldman Sachs intern.

“Memes are a nerdy sort of thing, so they keep the people with privilege in check,” Curtis added.

A brief history of college memes

The rise of campus meme groups is a recent phenomenon. Just one year ago, UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens was practically the only college meme page in existence, with fewer than 1,000 members.

In May 2016, Chris Tril, a former Daily Cal staff member who came to resent his creation, started UCBMFET. It was, at first, a small group, promising inside jokes that were truly for insiders. But by January 2017, the number of posts was accelerating. A group started at UCLA whose growth outpaced that of UC Berkeley’s page. About March, a cadre of other universities joined the fray. The number of memes — and members — ballooned.

Sep 2016

Nov 2016

Jan 2017

Mar 2017

May 2017

Jul 2017

Sep 2017

Nov 2017

35K

Number of

posts

The pace of posts slowed as students entered summer vacation

30K

25K

About March 2017, meme groups were started at several other elite universities

20K

15K

By January 2017, the number of posts in UCLA’s group had increased sharply

10K

In October 2016, UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens was the most prominent college meme group in existence, but it had very few posts

5K

0

Sep 2016

Nov 2016

Jan 2017

Mar 2017

May 2017

Jul 2017

Sep 2017

Nov 2017

George Washington

University

35K

Number of

posts

University of Chicago

The pace of posts slowed as students entered summer vacation

Northwestern

Boston University

30K

Harvard

Dartmouth

Brown

25K

USC

About March 2017, meme groups were started at several other elite universities

Yale

University of

Pennsylvania

20K

UCLA

15K

In October 2016, UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens was the most prominent college meme group in existence, but it had very few posts

Stanford

UC Berkeley

10K

5K

0

Nov

Sep ‘16

Jan

Mar

May

July

Sep

Nov ‘17

George Washington University

35K

University of Chicago

Number of

posts

Northwestern

30K

Boston University

Harvard

Dartmouth

Brown

25K

USC

Yale

University of

Pennsylvania

20K

UCLA

15K

Stanford

UC Berkeley

10K

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0

But by then, college meme groups had started to collide with events in the outside world. In a bizarre episode Feb. 20, Martin Shkreli — the “pharma bro” recently convicted of securities fraud — posted in UCBMFET before hosting a livestream in which he shared his phone number and took calls from UC Berkeley students.

The administrators of UCBMFET temporarily changed the group’s name to “UC Shkreli Memes for Edgy Teens” and gave Shkreli moderator privileges. When asked for comment by The Daily Californian, Shkreli responded in a Facebook message, simply, “HELL NO BISH.”

In April and May, the number of posts at every campus skyrocketed, perhaps driven by finals-induced procrastination. But rather than islands of school-specific content, the groups became embroiled in what some have described as a series of “meme wars,” with posts poking fun at other schools.

Today, almost 20 percent of the members of 14 of the most popular campus groups are part of more than one, and popular memes from each group are often reposted to others.

Du Bois points to “remix culture” as a possible explanation for why memes have become important for communication both within and between campuses. There’s fierce competition to produce the best version of a particular meme (as is evident from a bevy of recent posts on UCBMFET and other groups that reference the poems of Canadian writer Rupi Kaur).

As students left campus for the summer, the frequency of posts slowed across meme groups. Although most schools still have thriving meme communities, the pace of growth has faltered in the new academic year, prompting the question: Will the college meme phenomenon persist? Or are we past peak meme?

“I think it’ll keep going. It’s slower in the summer, but there's always something to talk about,” said Karina Pauletti, a UCBMFET administrator and campus senior. “There will always be content.”

For some, college memes may be simply a part of their undergraduate experience, to be left behind with midterms and Keystone Light. But for others who claim memes as integral to their time in college, their involvement may persist beyond their commencement ceremonies.

“I’m going to be posting memes from my grave,” Hall said, in reference to a meme he posted about a year after his graduation. “Or at least enjoying them until the day I die.”

Explore memes by school

We collected the 100 most popular memes from 11 campus Facebook meme groups, assembling a visual history of the dramatic development of these pages. We’ve included explanations for the more obscure jokes.

Some of the memes still left us scratching our heads, so we reached out to the staff of university publications via email to help us make sense of their schools’ inside jokes. We’ve included some of their comments below.

Harvard Memes for Elitist 1% Tweens

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A
2.5k reactions March 29, 2017

Credit: Mark Tracy

B
2.9k reactions April 28, 2017

Credit: Cynthia Chang

This post jokes that McKinsey & Company, a prestigious management consulting firm, has been some students' ultimate goal since birth.

C
2.3k reactions June 5, 2017

I'm screencapping the comments and sending them to Admissions.

Credit: Joe Hall

This meme references an infamous episode in which Harvard College rescinded offers of admission to at least 10 prospective members of its Class of 2021 after they posted offensive memes in a group chat.

UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens

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A
13k reactions March 21, 2017

Credit: Bella Chavez

A common trope on college meme pages is the self-important STEM major who criticizes every other academic discipline as inferior.

B
11k reactions April 20, 2017

Credit: Eitan Hershkovitz

On April 20, many on Berkeley's campus celebrate an unofficial “National Weed Day.” But the school is also known for its math department, and this meme brings both together, pointing out that the fraction “4/20” simplifies to “1/5.”

C
12k reactions June 23, 2017

libertarian reacts only

Credit: Jack Wang

Salaries for competitive internships at the big tech companies in the Bay Area are famously large, and this meme uses Ron Paul to drive that point home.

Yale Memes for Special Snowflake Teens

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A
1.9k reactions April 11, 2017

Credit: Alex Martiniouk

Many memes across campuses poke fun at elite universities' obsession with rankings.

B
1.5k reactions April 19, 2017

Credit: Kelsang Dolma

Man-go. Get it?

C
1.5k reactions May 3, 2017

Credit: Madeleine Lee

Silliman College is one of Yale's residential colleges, and the person depicted is Peter Salovey, the president of Yale University.

UChicago Memes for Theoretical Midwest Teens

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A
1.2k reactions June 1, 2017

Tag your favorite collective action problem

Credit: Calvin Wilder

B
1.4k reactions June 28, 2017

When a frat bro locks down that sick ass goldman internship

Credit: Gaurav Kalwani

Chad, an African country, is also a stand-in for a generic fraternity member, and internships at Goldman Sachs are notoriously high-paying.

C
1.2k reactions October 14, 2017

Apple Theta Pie hunting season is officially over

Credit: Frankie Sierra

This meme pokes fun at members of sororities who are too willing to share how much they love their houses.

Dartmouth Memes for Cold AF Teens

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A
1.2k reactions April 22, 2017

Please don't come here

Credit: Luke Cuomo

B
1.2k reactions May 14, 2017

Dartmouth is proud to have accepted the most diverse class ever

Credit: Devon Kurtz

“That is a mug basket in Foco, our dining hall, and the one different colored mug is representative of the lack of diversity Dartmouth has been dealing with,” said Melanie Kos, a blog editor at the Dartmouth. “Dartmouth overall has been a very white school.”

C
890 reactions August 18, 2017

Rural reacts only

Credit: Emma Alter

Dartmouth is, famously, located in Hanover, New Hampshire — what some students might consider the middle of nowhere.

Stanford Memes for Edgy Trees

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A
660 reactions January 27, 2017

Credit: Robel Daniel

“This is a joke on FroSoCo, a dorm that's notoriously far in the sense of being located in mostly-dead west campus and also (allegedly) removed from frosh social life,” said Fangzhou Liu, an editor at the Stanford Daily. “Dating someone from FroSoCo = long-distance relationship.”

B
890 reactions April 24, 2017

when u didn't do the reading but still tryna cop the discussion points

Credit: Robel Daniel

C
820 reactions August 9, 2017

Credit: Daniel Alber

“Stanford is a bubble, no one ventures off campus, only excited new admits who haven't come here yet believe the lie about going to San Francisco,” Liu said.

Official Unofficial Penn Squirrel Catching Club

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A
2.0k reactions April 19, 2017

Credit: Allen Zhu

B
2.0k reactions May 9, 2017

Looking forward to summer and three months of emotional stabil-

Credit: Gabriel Soliman

CITsender is a campus service that automatically sends students a text message when their final grades have been posted, according to Dan Spinelli, the executive editor of the Daily Pennsylvanian.

C
3.1k reactions August 23, 2017

when you're about to start senior year at penn so harvard resends you your rejection email from three years ago to make sure you know your place

Credit: Djorn Patel

UCLA Memes for Sick AF Tweens

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A
5.1k reactions May 4, 2017

Heart reax only plez

Credit: Jonathan Gross

“This meme is referencing the infamous 'can I ask you a question' guy that often hangs around Bruinwalk and Bruin Plaza. The area is known for having lots of student organizations flyer and lots of people pestering for signatures for petitions,” said Claire Hubert, the blog editor at the Daily Bruin. “The guy in the bottom picture is particularly persistent when it comes to asking for signatures or donations. The joke is that if you make eye contact with him, he'll literally talk to you for 20 minutes straight.”

B
3.8k reactions June 12, 2017

Credit: Arnav Barbaad

UCLA has three 10-week quarters, so this meme jokes that studying really only happens during one week each term.

C
4.6k reactions September 13, 2017

Credit: Christopher Montano

This year, UCLA topped UC Berkeley in the U.S. News and World Report and Times Higher Education college rankings.

Northwestern Memes for Networking Teens

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A
1.5k reactions May 24, 2017

Credit: Charlie Collar

“That message continually pops up in your Northwestern email inbox as NU Syllabus relentlessly tries to get NU students to purchase a yearbook,” said Aidan Markey, the digital managing editor of the Daily Northwestern.

B
1.1k reactions June 5, 2017

Northwestern kids on Sheridan be like

Credit: Mark Berger

“Sheridan Road is the busiest road on campus, and probably the busiest in Evanston," Markey said. "If you're walking to class on Sheridan, it's pretty much a guarantee you'll see someone you know."

C
1.8k reactions June 11, 2017

Forget all the other college rankings. This is the one I am most proud of.

Credit: Nathaniel Hoopes

GW memes for The 10th most politically active teens

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A
1.8k reactions June 8, 2017

lecture capture reacts only

Credit: Claire Cantrell

This is a reference to former FBI director James Comey's hearing, in which he said he hoped there were recordings of his conversations with President Donald Trump.

B
2.0k reactions June 22, 2017

The Republicans released their new healthcare bill today and it's worse than we ever could have imagined

Credit: Robert Connors

Students with less-than-favorable reviews of GW's student health center might liken it to the Republican health care proposal.

C
2.0k reactions August 25, 2017

Sometimes our similarities are greater than our differences

Credit: Robert Connors

BU Memes for Normy Teens

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A
2.2k reactions May 2, 2017

Credit: Mackenzie Starnes

Mugar Memorial Library is “not the most aesthetic space,” said Carina Imbornone, a staff writer at the Daily Free Press.

B
2.0k reactions May 22, 2017

Historical photo of youth lining up for local homeless shelter during the Great Depression - 1929

Credit: Joe Ward

“Students who work at BU over the summer and stay on campus have to endure the MOST awful move out/move in process which is pictured here,” Imbornone said. “It’s truly the worst.”

C
2.5k reactions August 16, 2017

Nurse: you've been in a coma for 3 months Me: I can't wait to have lunch at the GSU with my best friend and BU student Nick Fuentes

Credit: Leon R. Clark

“Nick Fuentes is an 'alt-right' talk show host and former student here,” Imbornone said. “He was a white supremacist and not liked at all. Most people are happy to have him gone.”