The misunderstood humor of political memes

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

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🗓️ 2 August 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

From the attempted assassination of former President Trump, to President Biden dropping out of the election, and VP Kamala Harris stepping up... The news these past few weeks has been buck wild. And the energy online is similarly unhinged. But what do most people get wrong when they try to interpret the latest explosion of political memes? And what do these posts actually say about how people are processing major events? And are there consequences to just posting through it? Host Brittany Luse is joined by Tatum Hunter, consumer tech reporter at The Washington Post, and Kyle Chayka, staff writer at The New Yorker, to discuss what meaning could possibly be gleaned from the meme madness.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial.
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0:17.1	Hello hello. I'm Brittany Loose and you're listening to It's been a minute from NPR, a show about
0:26.0	what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. This week we're connecting the dots between coconuts,s, and Presidents.
0:42.8	I know, I know, how are all these things connected?
0:46.4	Well, we're going to find out with Tatum Hunter,
0:48.3	consumer tech reporter at the Washington Post,
0:51.1	and Kyle Chaca, staff writer at the New Yorker.
0:53.6	Tatum, Kyle, welcome to it's been a minute.
0:55.9	Thank you.
0:56.9	Thanks for having me.
0:57.9	Oh my pleasure, my pleasure.
0:59.1	Okay. So with everything going on this year, have you been posting through it?
1:03.7	I've been posting a lot, unfortunately.
1:06.0	I think my most infamous post personally so far has been complaining that my farmers market trip was disrupted by the news that
1:15.8	Joe Biden was dropping out.
1:18.6	I have been posting through it on the Close Friends, which is a small collection of the girlies other writers and people I have
1:28.3	a crush on sometimes all three you're low-key posting through it I'm low-key posting through it. I'm low-key posting through it. It's good to be honest here. This is a circle of trust. Just us and the thousands and thousands of people who are listening right now. But I mean, memes have been a big talking point and the presidential
1:45.4	race these last few weeks. There's coconuts a couch, the Charlie X CX
1:49.6	album Brat which my 68 year old mom is now trying to listen to. And I want to get into the political
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