What Makes a Meme "Spicy"?
Bored Panda was very curious about what inspired Hewan to create the 'Meme Dealer' Instagram account in the first place. "The reason I created this page was that I really loved memes. It made me forget certain things and bring a smile on my face. I started sharing them on my Snapchat story and saw that a lot of friends loved them!" they shared with us that they realized that others related to their passion for fun memes.
At first, the account was "more a page just for friends." However, it soon took off!
"More and more people started to like and share and it’s been a hell of a ride since! All I want to do is make people laugh and make them forget about the stuff they’re dealing with. A simple meme can do soo much for someone else," the founder of @spiciest.memess opened up to us.
The community that's grown around the @spiciest.memess page is very wholesome. "I always get messages from people actually thanking me for doing this and reading those messages really makes me happy. It fuels my motivation even more to keep going," Hewan shared.
We were interested in getting the page curator's thoughts on what can help a meme stand out from all the other awesome content that's on social media. Additional effort, according to Hewan, is well worth it.
"For me, it’s important that the meme has a bold story behind it. It catches people off guard. Adding a personal touch to the caption in your post makes it more relatable and sometimes funnier than the meme itself."
Meanwhile, consistently posting new content and taking the time to interact with your followers also helps you grow your online presence. "You have to keep posting to make sure the memes get to the right people. Interacting with your followers makes them feel heard. It’s not a one-way street for them. I love to meet new people and it’s crazy to hear where people are from!" the founder told Bored Panda.
Posting spicy memes is fine, so long as you don't go overboard. The founder of the 'Meme Dealer' Instagram page shared their thoughts on how far you can go with certain memes.
"It’s very important that the memes aren’t offensive. You don’t want to hurt a person or a group of people and religions, that should never be your goal," Hewan explained that content creators have a duty to be empathetic.. "Sometimes, it comes handy to imagine yourself being the follower of a meme page and ask yourself what type of memes you would want to see."
At the time of writing, the ‘Meme Dealer’ account had 286k loyal followers on Instagram who enjoy the constant flow of spicy internet content.
There’s a lot of dark humor there, but it’s balanced out with some lighthearted comedy, too—stuff that you wouldn’t feel awkward sharing with your older relatives, for instance. Though, to be fair, dark jokes are something that people enjoy no matter their age. In short, ‘Meme Dealer’ does what it says on the tin and features memes for many people’s tastes.
According to Pennington Creative, people enjoy memes so much because they’re “the digital versions of inside jokes.” In other words, sharing and interacting with memes is a way for us to connect with other human beings. We might be too busy/overwhelmed/tired from our responsibilities to meet up with our family and friends every day, but sending them a meme is a quick way to stay in touch. It also acts as a reminder that we’re thinking of them.
Showing the world what types of internet content you like essentially declares what digital community you’re a part of. It can be as narrow or as broad as you like. For instance, you might be an active fan of one particular social media group or page. You might enjoy extremely niche humor—like memes associated with true crime podcasts. Or you might laugh at everything that’s even semi-witty. There’s no wrong way to enjoy memes.
Meanwhile, memes are also your window into pop culture. Of course, there are plenty of great ‘evergreen’ memes that someone’s bound to relate to no matter how many years pass. However, other internet content requires a bit of background knowledge to truly ‘get.’ Some images have a lot of hidden subtext that needs to be unraveled for the joke to make sense. These are memes that can help members of niche communities identify each other.
