Deconstructing the Cowbell Meme
Raise your hand if you know the reference to this meme? As part of our exploration of memes as cultural currency with the Making Learning Connected MOOC, I decided to use this particular meme and deconstruct it a bit. And I decided to do it in comic form.
Check out how Google Trends followed the “more cowbell” concept over time:
And also, where the phrase has cache, globally (almost entirely in the United States):
If you want to know more about memes, then you should check out the site — Know your Meme — which provides context for original references and tracks the history of particular memes. Plus, it’s a fascinating history lesson into the digital age of popular culture references, for good and for bad (many memes have racist or mean origins.)
This is just a sampling of the hundreds of variations of this meme at this one site. You can see all sorts of references to businesses, inside jokes, friends and more.
Over at Meme Generator, you can even set up a Meme Generator, so if you truly want more cowbell, then go make a meme!
Peace (in the meme),
Kevin
