Meditation: On The Best Meme I've Ever Seen

By today's standards, I'm pretty much "off-the-grid".

I don't live in a van in the woods and wear tin foil around my head to stop the government from controlling my thoughts or anything like that. I just mean I don't have any of the Big 3. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I also don't have any of the Other 3. TikTok, Snapchat and BeReal.

In fact, I'm willing to bet that I've got that wrong. TikTok is probably a Big one now. Feel free to get in touch and correct me. You'll just have to do it by carrier pigeon or smoke signal.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't generally engage with the pulp cult torrent of content.

This sometimes leads to awkward moments in conversation with someone when they reference a particular trending item on social media and I say "Oh, no, I haven't seen that." And that is the end of the conversation. In those scenarios, I'm somehow left feeling like I'm the monster and not the person that just tried to force a moment from their virtual phone-screen avatar life into a real-life human encounter in the hope that it would serve as an adequate substitute for actual communication.

(At this point, you're perfectly within your rights to picture me as a grumpy old man in a cardigan and slippers writing this furiously on an old typewriter.)

This also means that when someone sends me a meme as a message that it suddenly takes on greater significance and gets my full attention.

This happened recently and I was so consumed by the thing that I decided I should try to present my full, comprehensive case here. So, here it is:

The Best Meme I've Ever Seen

We'll call this work of art "Heck Em" for convenience's sake. (Yes, I said work of art)

First off, there's no denying the astronomical level of cuteness and comedy in the picture itself. The concern and confusion in the older Pug contrasted with the insouciant nature of the pup in its absurd supine position. If you looked at that image and didn't think to yourself either A) 'that's cute' or B) 'that's funny' then you're a sociopath who deserves no presents this Christmas.

Secondly, the dialogue is - potentially - the greatest I've ever read. When discussing this concept with people in a face-to-face conversation, it's always at this point that they start to look at me as if I could be the kind of guy that wears tin foil on his head. Please, hear me out...

Great dialogue should always be built on the strong objectives of fully-formed characters and delivered in as few words as possible whilst providing the richest subtext and an engaging level of tension or conflict.

In this meme, we have clear and strong objectives. Pug wants to wake up Puggerino - his super-objective may be to get Puggerino to stop wasting time and do something meaningful with his life. Perhaps in a way in which Pug was never able? Puggerino wants to stay in bed. He seems to have reached something akin to a breaking point in his life and his refusal to get up for work suggests a new defiance and rebellion. This is exemplified in the succinct closing statement: "heck em".

The tension and conflict are obvious to all and, in the exchange, we learn a lot about the characters and their complexities. Pug's opening line is confrontational and accusatory. Puggerino doesn't even open his eyes or move his head to address Pug. This isn't the first time they've voiced their differences and the short, sharp, unguarded sentences suggest an intimacy and a shared past that allow them to side-step politeness and pleasantries. Their grammar is poor and this suggests their level of class and education. We might well assume Puggerino works in some form of manual labour. The plural "em" in his line "heck em" suggests an entire factory or farm labour force with formidable, unfeeling bosses. There's a creeping fear in Pug's reminder that Puggerino has to go to work which might lead us to believe he is older and exists in a time of life whereby the opportunity for second chances and do-overs are fewer and further between. Puggerino is wearied and defeated by his current life situation and the "snooze" signals the beginnings of protestation and a pushing-back against the status quo. In him, we find echoes of a young Karl Marx.

There's a whole story being told here in just four lines. No fluff, no artifice or exposition, no nonsense.

Overall, the piece has the feel of the finest passages of Steinbeck and the quotability of Wilde or Austen.

The last words have become a personal mantra for me and - because it's the only way I can share images that I find interesting to random members of the global community without being on social media - I've had the meme printed on a t-shirt.

When the world gets you down, just channel your inner Puggerino and "heck em".