Analysis of “Distracted Boyfriend” meme - Bruna Oliveira

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The meme that I chose to analyse is called “distracted boyfriend” and I believe most people that have twitter have probably seen it. The meme is a man looking at another woman while walking with his girlfriend, who looks shocked about it. It was a picture taken by the spanish Antom Guillem for a campaign (Hindustan Times, 2017). So while there are some misconceptions about the picture being about a real situation, it is nothing but models.
The meaning of the picture itself is already explicit despite the many memes that were created with it. The meme first emerged on a turkish Facebook group but it did not become famous until it came to instagram and twitter. An instagram account posted the picture with the caption “Tag your friend/ who falls in love every month”, which overpassed 28.500 likes. Then a twitter account posted it with the girlfriend being “capitalism” and the distracted boyfriend being “youth” looking at “socialism”. So the meme went viral and was adapted to various issues from eclipses and sandwiches to politics. In other words, the meme is still used for any subject involving mixed desires.
A meme can sometimes be a political statement and according to Bratich, that mentions Paolo Virno, a meme is about transforming the context. So it involves the spectator changing the context and taking innovative actions (Bratich, 2014). In this case with socialism and capitalism, the user used this comic picture and situation to demonstrate the desire of the youth. While we mainly live in a capitalist society most young people prefer socialism. Therefore, the meme presents the aesthetics that Bratich talks about and it “was not designed merely to spread information, but to facilitate the passage from information to action”. Moreover, the reproduction of this meme is not only an affirmation but a motivation to the young people to be united and realize that they are not the only ones asking for socialism.
In conclusion, I believe that this meme is not only humorous because the photographer captioned a very particular moment that can happen to anyone but also because of the multiple captions and interactions that unify the spectators.

References:

Bratich, J. (2014) Occupy All the Dispositifs: Memes, Media Ecologies, and Emergent Bodies Politic. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies Vol. 11.

Hindustan Times. 2017. How Many Times Have You Seen The ‘Distracted Boyfriend’ Meme? Now Read The Story Behind It. [online] Available at: <https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/how-many-times-have-you-seen-the-distracted-boyfriend-meme-now-read-the-story-behind-it/story-pCvFvxgCLuEIhlcupqvYIM.html> [Accessed 9 October 2020].

Comments

  1. RosanaOctober 14, 2020 at 10:13 PM

    Great post Bruna, I'm glad that someone chose this meme since its many versions and reinterpretations go back in time! I think you have captured Bratich's ideas in your entry brilliantly. I find very interesting how a trope can embrace a whole new meaning with a small and simple mutation. This one, has made me think of how similar memes are to the act of vandalizing billboards, with the difference that here, the resonance of the action (as you very wisely call it in your post), is greater.

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