memes

Political memes come and go, but “Thanks, Obama” has stuck around for seven years. Sean Rameswaram discusses all those videos, GIFs, and tweets with Nona Willis Aronowitz from Talking Points Memo and Barack Obama from the White House?!!

For his final episode, Sean Rameswaram traces the path of creative work he has personally posted, from blogging to sketch comedy videos to a truly ill rap posse. To close out the show, he gets the posse back together for one last song.

Special thanks to Jay Cowit for this. 

Like Sailor Moon and Ron Swanson before him, Hodor belongs to a special league of TV characters who have become memes. When Kristian Nairn received the casting call for a role in which he would only utter one word over and over, he was ambivalent. “Do I really want to do this?” he asked himself, feeling apprehensive about playing a verbally challenged giant who can only say “Hodor.” Fans of Game of Thrones can thank Nairn’s mother who, as an avid reader of George R. R. Martin’s novels, convinced him to take the part.

There’s fan art, a smartphone app, GIFs, supercuts, and even a joke in the official Google search results for “Hodor.” “That stuff really takes me to the fair,” Nairn says of his Hodor’s second life online. “I just think the character is endearing. Out of all the people in Westeros who are trying to cut each other’s throats, he’s really a pure soul – the only warm, fuzzy feeling you’re going to get.” 

Nairn is well-aware of how much power he yields as the actor behind the most beloved character on the internet’s favorite TV show — the most pirated show of all time. And he’s using this unique position to promote his other passion: house music. When Nairn isn’t shooting Game of Thrones in Ireland, he’s touring the planet spinning house. It’s a grueling schedule that has taken its toll. “I had to stop at one stage there because I was going to die. I hadn’t been home for nearly seven months.” 
Nairn is still touring regularly, but in smaller bursts. And he’s embracing the world’s bottomless enthusiasm for his other gig. His tour is titled “Rave of Thrones” and fans are encouraged to come dressed up as their favorite characters from the show. “Don’t blame me for that,” Nairn says, acknowledging the theme wasn’t his idea. “People are going to think you’re some twat,” he says. “I have this opportunity to have a supercharged DJ career. Who in their right mind is going to say, ‘No, I don’t think so.’”

Nairn has had more time to focus on music in the past few years as his character’s storyline has been put on hold by Game of Thrones’ writers. “I missed him last year. I missed the costume, even though it smells,” Nairn says, pointing out that his woolen getup reeks of death. After an episode featuring Hodor and his gang slaughtering rabbits, the wardrobe department covered his already-thick costume in rabbit carcasses. “If you look closely, you’ll see little rabbit feet and asses. There’s ears and stuff hanging off the costume. There are little faces. It lives in props and you can literally smell it before you see it.”

Hands: Hodor vs. Sean Rameswaram
(Sean Rameswaram)

Jonathan Wolff is the Michael Jordan of TV theme songs. He’s written over 40, from Will and Grace to The Hughleys. Before becoming Hollywood’s go-to theme song writer, Wolff spent a decade as a “multi-purpose utility tool for musical chores” — a studio musician, a music producer, and a recording engineer. He even taught Arnold Schwarzenegger how to act as a violinist for Stay Hungry. Eventually, Wolff started composing exclusively, which landed him a gig on the Seinfeld pilot. 

The show’s producers were having difficulty finding music that wouldn’t overpower the comedian’s opening routines. “Jerry, you’ve already given me the melody and theme,” Wolff told Seinfeld. “My job is going to be to support you and the organic nature of your voice.”  Wolff sampled his own mouth noises and slapped some funky bass over it and the rest is history. He built the theme to be manipulated — the rhythm of the mouth pops, shakers, and bass notes changed ever so slightly to fit the different monologues that opened every show. Decades later, the internet has begun to manipulate it, too:  

In the past year, the Seinfeld theme has been mashed up with songs by Limp Bizkit, Kendrick Lamar, ODB, Evanescence, and — just this week — Radiohead. Back in March, we decided to name the meme the “Jerry Roll.” Wolff never wrote lyrics for his original theme, but he couldn’t be more tickled with all the variations popping up online. “It’s like I’ve been invited to another party,” Wolff says. “It’s really quite a compliment.”  

Special thanks to Reed Dunlea, who wrote about Jonathan Wolff for Vice. AUDIO CORRECTION: Jonathan Wolff has written music for over 70 TV shows, but penned themes for only 44 of them. He retired in 2005, not 2000. 

Since mid-December, I have been taking photos of public radio personalities, producers and strangers on the street wearing a hat that that makes an obviously false claim: “I AM LAKSHMI SINGH.” At a live event last week, NPR newscaster and personal hero Lakshmi Singh finally wore the hat, admitting the meme was exactly her kind of crazy. By the end of the event, audience members departed with their own Lakshmi Singh hats, doubling the meme’s half-life.

The so-called “#lakshmeme,” a tribute to the newscaster who inspired me to pursue a career in public radio, has amassed hundreds of portraits, posted and shared on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. It even landed on the front page of Current, public media’s trade publication. 

The meme drew to its satisfying, crazy conclusion – a public radio spelling bee and piñatas were involved – live in The Greene Space on May 26 when Lakshmi talked about her career in public radio and discussed the importance of diverse voices, names, and faces in media. We were joined by current This American Life and former Snap Judgment producer Stephanie Foo and “The Whiteness Of Public Radio Voice” author and Clemson University communications professor Chenjerai Kumanyika.
 
THE LAKSHMI SINGHERS PERFORM “TUESDAY”

 THE LAKSHMI SINGHERS PERFORM “OLD RADIOS”

 THE FIRST ANNUAL PUBLIC RADIO SPELLING BEE: 

 
WATCH THE ENTIRE EVENT: