Hey there followers! Welcome back to sk8itwearit! This week I will be discussing memes that are pretty relatable in the skateboarding community. The first meme I’ve chosen is of a Disney character, Aladdin, who is essentially emphasizing how important it is to skateboard. The catchphrase “skate or die”seems to also play a significant role in the skateboarding community. It is found on skateboarding apparel, boards, and skaters seem to use it in their daily language as well. But here the catchphrase is incorporated into the meme by acknowledging if you’re not skating, you’re better off dead. While the catchphrase doesn’t literally mean if you’re not skating you’re better off dead, but it instead represents, an exaggeration of what it is like not skating. This meme highly resonates with many skaters, who are passionate and are motivated to skate everyday, all day. It also represents how skateboarding is a life commitment and you either skate or die without it.
As for the second meme, it includes an older man who appears to be a professor and also skateboarding. The caption of the meme reads in bright highlighted letters”No Textbooks, Only Manuals” which I found quite funny and amusing. For those of you, who aren’t completely aware of skateboarding terms, such as the word manual, it’s actually a type of trick where a skater is essentially balancing on his or her front or back wheels while rolling along. The funny thing about this meme is that it uses the word manual making it seem like it’s a book of some sort, but in reality it’s a skateboarding trick. I felt like the meme represents how practicing tricks is way better than studying a textbook, and by showing a professor skateboarding, it essentially shows how skateboarding is an easily likable sport by anyone, no matter the age or gender. In addition, I also thought the meme is highly relatable for those who are students and skate, and would most likely pick skateboarding over going to class.
Finally, the last meme/gif I felt was quite important to add, given the fact many male or female skateboarders experience pain in their skateboarding career. In this meme/gif, we get to see a skater falling off his board, while bright bold letters appear on the bottom of the image, which essentially expresses what he’s feeling at the moment. Although skateboarding is a beautiful sport, one must endure a lot of pain and sacrifice. This meme shows how there might be constantly falling in skateboarding, but it happens to every skater in order to get better. Any skater can relate to the feeling of being on the ground, like the meme/gif is showing, we’ve all been there, done that.
To conclude, although I didn’t address a whole bunch of memes, I think I covered memes that can only apply to those who skate. If someone who doesn’t know anything about skateboarding comes across these, chances are they won’t think much about them. But on the other hand, skaters can relate to these and even share them via text or through social media with their friends or use them as a way of representing how they currently feel about a situation they’re in. For example, Patrick Davison, who analyzes the role of memes in his article, mentions how, “The ideal is that small combinations of recognizable glyphs represent the intent or emotional state of the person transmitting them”. In other words, all three memes found above resonate with different situations every skater seems to face. The memes essentially provide comical relief and represent the state of a mind of a skater.
Well that’s all I have for today! Thanks for visiting sk8itwearit! and Let me know what you think about these memes in the comment section down below 🙂
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