this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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Star Wars Memes

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Hello there. Somehow, Star Wars memes have returned. It's not a trap, this is where the fun begins.

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Other universes to visit:

!lotrmemes@midwest.social

!tenforward@lemmy.world

Separatist systems:

!prequelmemes@lemmy.world

Oh hey some real SW content for a change (perhaps):

!star_wars@lemmy.world

!starwars@lemmy.ml

!starwarstelevision@lemmy.world

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IMPORTANT

Please do not post the "good friend" or similar copypasta

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Our galactic citizens have requested more specific rules, so here are a few.

The general idea is, if you're looking here for rules, you're probably someone who doesn't need to have them spelled out. You're fine. But anyway:

  1. This is a community for Star Wars memes. This means typically screenshots of Star Wars media with some text or context that's meant to be funny and/or thoughtful. All SW media is welcome: movies, games, comic books, fanart... Other kinds of content, like video links or meta memes (about this community, or Lemmy), are fine as well, just keep it on topic.

  2. We are all friends here, and love (sometimes love to hate) Star Wars. Be nice to each other.

  3. As fans of fictional media, we can be passionate. If you very strongly disagree with something or someone, take a deep breath before reacting. Anger leads to the dark side!

  4. Everything in Star Wars has happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far away, and it's a rich universe of millions of words and millions of years of history. So current Earthly matters really shouldn't concern us here. In other words, leave politics, philosophies and convictions behind the door. This applies even if it's about something related to Star Wars.

  5. Original content is preferred. Reposts are fine, just please limit to a maximum of 3 per day, per citizen. It is recommended, but not required, to mark original memes as (OC) and reposts as (repost).

  6. Local mods are the Jedi council. They may take actions that are necessary to maintain peace and stability of the Republic, even beyond the rules outlined here. Follow their guidance.

  7. Regular rules of the Lemmy.world instance apply.

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[–] ReadyUser31@lemmy.world 194 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Interestingly, these used to be called 'jokes' before memes existed.

[–] TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee 53 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's like calling every photo of you a fucking selfie. It's only a selfie if you did it yourself of yourself. The end.

And yeah, I'm with you. Now every funny picture is a meme. No, it's just a funny picture.

Now get off my lawn!

[–] Sunforged@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You got my meme response now you get my academic reply.

A meme is a remix of an existing idea/joke/image. Unless you are creating something new whole cloth it could be considered a meme. Even though the term hadn't been coined, what Mark was doing with 3/4 of those autographs was altering the context of the card image, thus he did create memes.

Now get off my lawn.

[–] Rodeo@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Actually the term was coined all the way back in the 70s, by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene.

It means a cultural gene. It's a piece of culture that is so pervasive it can be said to be a part of the genetic code of the society. Examples are the smiley face, tic tac toe or other simple common games, that S thing we all drew as kids, etc.

Not all jokes are memes, and not all memes are jokes.

[–] solstice@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

It bugs me when people call any stupid little picture or comic a meme. It also bugs me when people say they are making a meme. One does not simply "make" a meme. It must become a meme on its own. Now if you'll excuse me I've got some clouds to yell at.

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[–] ReadyUser31@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This feels like a slippery slope towards defining motivation posters as the original memes. I don't like it.

[–] dezmd@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My old manual Minolta SR-7 camera had a timer button for selfies. I was cool before it was cool to be cool.

Listen up boomer, if you didn't want people on your lawn, you shouldn't have moved into a NIMBY WASPspsps HOA neighborhood.

/issues fines for grass over 1.12 inches high

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[–] SlowNoPoPo@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago

ok grandpa let's get you back inside

[–] Kethal@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was going to ask what people mean when they say "meme" now, because they do not seem to be using the word the way that I use it.

[–] Sunforged@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (9 children)

A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures. In popular language, a meme may refer to an Internet meme, typically an image, that is remixed, copied, and circulated in a shared cultural experience online.

Per Wikipedia, emphasis on what I consider the relevant bits. What way do you use it?

[–] Kernal64@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

By your own highlighted parts, the cards in the OP are not memes. People don't alter pictures of those signed cards and they don't mutate. They don't change via selective pressures as we don't see new versions where people change the image or the text. Additionally, those pictures of the trading cards are not remixed. They're shared unaltered. The OP is missing key traits of being a meme. The OP is a picture of some funny jokes that Mark Hamil wrote on some trading cards he autographed. They're certainly entertaining, but they're not memes.

[–] Sunforged@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Is it a meme now?

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The Selfish Gene was first published in 1976, a year before Star Wars.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’ve even seen recent writers struggle to describe self-replicating ideas as “mind-viruses” and the like. I dunno, if only there was already a word for that guys!

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[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 146 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My favourite joke of his is a very lowkey one: changing his twitter display name to Mar 🐫

[–] GladiusB@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That took me way to long to connect lol

[–] z500@startrek.website 3 points 1 year ago

I had to scroll back up to upvote it after it clicked

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[–] dragontamer@lemmy.world 107 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mark Hamill showing how he's such a Joker.

[–] the_dopamine_fiend@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It was always in the cards.

[–] Khalic@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't beat that metaphor to death... there's Robin for that

[–] TubeTalkerX@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Akin to a Trickster if you ask me.

[–] Sunforged@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago (14 children)

MFW a post doesn't get enough upvotes.

[–] teft@startrek.website 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You got 200 upvotes in under an hour. How many do you need King Xerxes?

[–] Sunforged@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

~~You~~ Mark Hamill got 200 upvotes in under an hour.

I'm just a dirty reposter in this scenario.

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[–] Chickenstalker@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wew. Lots of Lucas and Disney fanbois it looks like based on the vitriol. I'm GenX. We lived through the "Gap of SW" where we made do with mid-good SW novels, toys, games, cameos and the occasional SW-related tv movies. We were so hyped to the heavens for the Prequels that we didn't see the warning signs when Lucas shat on SW by making the Special Editions. I walked out of the cinema in confusion after watching TPM. It's like a Believer being told by God himself that your religion is a sham. Lucas is a sfx visionary and world builder but he is a hack in script writing and needed people to tell him off. The actors like Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford frequently refused to act out the lines Lucas wrote. Carrie Fisher even became a script doctor due to her experience with Lucas' terrible scripts.

[–] Sunforged@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Wew. Lots of Lucas and Disney fanbois it looks like based on the vitriol.

[–] FARTYSHARTBLAST@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 year ago

I wish Mark Hamill was my cool uncle

[–] dill@lemmy.one 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Think the bong is still for sale?

[–] Sunforged@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] MermaidsGarden@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

Never tell me the odds!

[–] BravoVictor@programming.dev 9 points 1 year ago

So you’re telling me there’s a chance…!

[–] solstice@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I saw mark Hamill perform in a play once called Six dance lessons in six weeks. Rue Mclanahan from the Golden Girls played the female lead. This was like 20+ years ago now I guess.

It was actually a really good play and I got to meet him during the opening night party afterwards. I was an idiot kid and asked him to sign the playbill with a MTFBWY or something dumb like that. He was visibly miffed, understandably, but still politely signed it "forcefully yours."

It wasn't until years later that I realized it was kind of rude of me to ask for that at the opening night party of a play he just worked really hard on. Must be real annoying having fanboys pestering you about a shitty movie you did decades ago. Anyway he seemed nice enough and it was a really good play. I got a pic with him around here somewhere, maybe I'll post if there's any interest.

[–] Sunforged@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Oh man, at least you reflected on that one. Forcefully yours is some top tier passive aggressive malicious compliance though, too funny.

[–] BitOneZero@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

He learned from the best... George Lucas did everything he could with Bill Moyers to open source the whole humanity meme pattern inspiration in Star Wars. He was trying to tie pre-film, pre-cinema, patterns to film. Passing down the meat and potatoes of society to each generation.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Kind of wild to think that Star Wars was filmed when "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" was cutting edge literary theory.

Damn, come to think of it he probably went to some of Joseph Campbell's lectures.

[–] Grant_M@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago

Mar🐪 is a legend of legends.

[–] Coeus@coeus.sbs 11 points 1 year ago

I went to Star Wars Celebration VI back in 2012 and it was $225 to get Mark Hammil's autograph. I opted instead to get Peter Mayhew's for $60. RIP Mr. Mayhew.

[–] MargotRobbie@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

But he's too famous of an actor to write funny things, everybody knows that after you've been in a couple of big movies, you aren't allowed to do funny bits on the Internet anymore.

Maybe he's one of those "meme accounts" or something.

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