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Can Jokes Bring Down Governments? Memes, Design and Politics.
Could the leftovers of graphic design be turned into jokes? Might design rediscover actual societal impact? Can jokes scale? Can they supersize?
These are serious times, or so our governments keep telling us. Strangling economies with their austerity policies, they assure us that they have no choice. In a world where “there is no alternative”, how do you dissent? Once upon a time, graphic designers would have made political posters and typeset manifestos. Today, protest has new strategies. Enter the internet meme. With its Darwinian survival skills and its viral potential, the meme is a way of scaling up protest. Hackers and activists have learned to unleash the destructive force of a Rick Astley video. They have let slip the Lolcats of war. Pranks have become a resistance strategy. As the rise of Beppe Grillo in Italy testifies, this may be the hour to fight nonsense with nonsense. Jokes are an open-source weapon of politics, and it is time to tap their power.
These are serious times, or so our governments keep telling us. Strangling economies with their austerity policies, they assure us that they have no choice. In a world where “there is no alternative”, how do you dissent? Once upon a time, graphic designers would have made political posters and typeset manifestos. Today, protest has new strategies. Enter the internet meme. With its Darwinian survival skills and its viral potential, the meme is a way of scaling up protest. Hackers and activists have learned to unleash the destructive force of a Rick Astley video. They have let slip the Lolcats of war. Pranks have become a resistance strategy. As the rise of Beppe Grillo in Italy testifies, this may be the hour to fight nonsense with nonsense. Jokes are an open-source weapon of politics, and it is time to tap their power.
100 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2013
22 people are currently reading
467 people want to read
About the author
Metahaven
18 books42 followersThe work of Metahaven consists of filmmaking, writing, design, and installations, and is united conceptually by interests in poetry, storytelling, digital superstructures, and propaganda. Films by Metahaven include The Sprawl (Propaganda about Propaganda) (2015), Information Skies (2016), Possessed (2018, with Rob Schröder), Hometown (2018) and Eurasia (Questions on Happiness) (2018). Publications include PSYOP (2018), Black Transparency (2015) and Uncorporate Identity (2010). Their work is screened, published, and exhibited worldwide.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 15, 2021
some interesting ideas explored. the in-joke as class solidarity, the history of graphic design as political protest always being doomed to institutional influence/bias until now, the co-opting of memes by politicians/corporations as inherently antithetical to the semantics of internet jokes. would be interesting to have a 2021 revisitation or editors note from the authors given how meme culture and design has radically changed since 2013
August 22, 2021
A couple of interesting thoughts, but doesn't pack the punch as much as I'd like it to. Feels like an article made into a book, or a brochure.
February 7, 2017
3.5 of 5 stars
A quick funny witty reading!
one day in someone life
A : Is this...a joke?
B : No, this is politic.
A quick funny witty reading!
one day in someone life
A : Is this...a joke?
B : No, this is politic.
January 29, 2023
As piadas podem derrubar governos? Podem, mas geralmente derrubam governos de esquerda e não de direita. Isso foi visto em diversas eleições ao redor do mundo, como por exemplo na de Donald Trump e de Jair Bolsonaro, em que as redes sociais e os memes tiveram um papel decisivo. O que derruba governos e ações de direita são suas próprias ações extremistas, como a invsão do Capitólio e a Invasão dos Três Poderes no Brasil. Este é um livro introdutório e online para aqueles que querem conhecer mais sobre a interaçao entre política memes e design. Não é um livro aprofundado que possa gerar citações acadêmcias, por isso me deixou um pouco decepcionado. Traz algumas colocações interessantes sobre o papel do design e dos designers na guerra cultural e política entre os eixos da esquerda e da direita e aponta algumas possóvel considerações para reverter e conter o avanço dos extremistas através do design de memes.
March 25, 2025
If anything, the answer is no. The joke is the field of the defeated and the hopeless, it confuses power but is not able to take it down. Many references point to the Arab Spring, whose ongoing failure after the military coup is still waiting for the turning of historic tides, the European troika who has a stronger hold on European finance than ever, and Beppe Grillo who symbolised the failure of the historical Italian left as we grapple with the contemporary Meloni phenomena.
Can Jokes Bring Down Governments? It seems like not, but we might as well laugh at our catastrophic doom.
Can Jokes Bring Down Governments? It seems like not, but we might as well laugh at our catastrophic doom.
June 2, 2025
Very prescient! Can’t believe this was published in 2013, feels so relevant to now
September 12, 2017
How can designers operate when they cease to be "gatekeepers" and when institutions of social democracy collapse? (Also: great analysis on the Lolcat and why kittens are the best animal for the purpose)
June 18, 2025
Can Jokes Bring Down Governments by Metahaven – you can find notes on a few hundred books and films on my blog, where the best gig is https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
9 out of 10
The answer to the question Can Jokes Bring Down Governments may seem obvious, and we could affirm that it is no, you need much more than irony to undermine power, except that maybe we are closer to the Golden Mean https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... of Aristotle
They could help shake the foundations, and though we do not have studies, confirmation – at least I think we do not – my view is that the samizdat, underground passing of humor targeting the regime, especially the leader, in our case, Ceausescu, but also aspects of life under communism, like the police, called militia then
Take this joke: ‘how many policemen do you need to change a bulb? Five, one to keep the bulb and the other four to turn the table around’ and there are plenty of others like this, meant to expose the stupidity, absurdity of the regime, and of the ones serving it, keeping the tyrant and his clique in power until 1989
Animal Farm https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is one of the masterpieces, Greatest Books of All Time, and the overwhelming point made in there uses humor to get the message across, the pigs take the power and use the dogs to keep it, commies and the police
Let me mention this other joke ‘the end of the world comes, and the American and Soviet (then, now it would be Putin) presidents tell their citizens on live television that they have space ships, they will leave the earth, at the same time, Ceausescu (and it could be another one) says ‘do not worry, we are at least 100 years behind’
Humor is one of the ten crucial ingredients of Positivity, the others are awe, interest, hope, inspiration, pride, serenity, gratitude, love, joy and the list is detailed in the classic of psychology by Barbara Fredrickson https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... which is worth reading
jokes used to explain what was going on and give you the truth, distorted by the propaganda, just like you see from this other sample: ‘question for Radio Yerevan – is it true that Mr. Ionescu has been given a white Dacia (it could be a Lada, Skoda, in other realms) and the official answer is
- ‘It is not a car, it is a bicycle, it is not white, it is black, and it was not given to him, it was taken away from him’
Nevertheless, we live in a world where the joke is on us, we have attitudes, acts, words that would have seemed preposterous, outrageous in a comedy, we would not believe a fictional character would do such a stupid thing, and yet, like in the film which presents a future where humanity is idiotic, the rulers are fools in quiet a few places
The Orange Jesus has announced new tariffs yesterday, and for me, this is the epitome of evil and it has been said that they represent the ‘car with clowns’, what with that sharing of war plans (claimed to be just ‘attack plans’ to distract, deflect, deny and lie) on insecure platforms, and the rest of the shit show, you may think of
- Waiting for Godot https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
In other words, you have some governments – America now- that are a joke themselves, but maybe MAGA hoi polloi will eventually see that they are taken for a ride, The Chosen One is all about vanity, and a complete calamity
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
9 out of 10
The answer to the question Can Jokes Bring Down Governments may seem obvious, and we could affirm that it is no, you need much more than irony to undermine power, except that maybe we are closer to the Golden Mean https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... of Aristotle
They could help shake the foundations, and though we do not have studies, confirmation – at least I think we do not – my view is that the samizdat, underground passing of humor targeting the regime, especially the leader, in our case, Ceausescu, but also aspects of life under communism, like the police, called militia then
Take this joke: ‘how many policemen do you need to change a bulb? Five, one to keep the bulb and the other four to turn the table around’ and there are plenty of others like this, meant to expose the stupidity, absurdity of the regime, and of the ones serving it, keeping the tyrant and his clique in power until 1989
Animal Farm https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is one of the masterpieces, Greatest Books of All Time, and the overwhelming point made in there uses humor to get the message across, the pigs take the power and use the dogs to keep it, commies and the police
Let me mention this other joke ‘the end of the world comes, and the American and Soviet (then, now it would be Putin) presidents tell their citizens on live television that they have space ships, they will leave the earth, at the same time, Ceausescu (and it could be another one) says ‘do not worry, we are at least 100 years behind’
Humor is one of the ten crucial ingredients of Positivity, the others are awe, interest, hope, inspiration, pride, serenity, gratitude, love, joy and the list is detailed in the classic of psychology by Barbara Fredrickson https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... which is worth reading
jokes used to explain what was going on and give you the truth, distorted by the propaganda, just like you see from this other sample: ‘question for Radio Yerevan – is it true that Mr. Ionescu has been given a white Dacia (it could be a Lada, Skoda, in other realms) and the official answer is
- ‘It is not a car, it is a bicycle, it is not white, it is black, and it was not given to him, it was taken away from him’
Nevertheless, we live in a world where the joke is on us, we have attitudes, acts, words that would have seemed preposterous, outrageous in a comedy, we would not believe a fictional character would do such a stupid thing, and yet, like in the film which presents a future where humanity is idiotic, the rulers are fools in quiet a few places
The Orange Jesus has announced new tariffs yesterday, and for me, this is the epitome of evil and it has been said that they represent the ‘car with clowns’, what with that sharing of war plans (claimed to be just ‘attack plans’ to distract, deflect, deny and lie) on insecure platforms, and the rest of the shit show, you may think of
- Waiting for Godot https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
In other words, you have some governments – America now- that are a joke themselves, but maybe MAGA hoi polloi will eventually see that they are taken for a ride, The Chosen One is all about vanity, and a complete calamity
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
June 4, 2019
Thoroughly enjoyable with some funny nuggets here and there. However, in terms of theoretical approach, it lacks a solid argument in defining the relation between memes and politics; the design part is superb though. I think there is a trajectory to trace the connection between resistance and memes, which I think will be interesting to read. Moreover, it will be fascinating as well to see the connection of ideology with memes, considering that the memes are also instrumentalised by the right. It is interesting book nevertheless.
December 27, 2023
A little dated (published in 2013, after all), but with some good reminders of the origins and development of the aestheticization of politics, especially online.
That said, is it possible to write about memes academically without causing extreme cringe? :'D So few manage to do this effectively.
That said, is it possible to write about memes academically without causing extreme cringe? :'D So few manage to do this effectively.
October 31, 2018
In the moment when humor have played as an open source weapon of public to enrich global political arena, this book would navigate you to understand the nature of technology as a vessel to criticise global trend of political motivation if not to give 'constructive discourse elements to social democracy institutions' 😅 -- see when 'LOLs', kittens, film clips are the best mediums to bring the purpose through memes into the table. (Also, great explanation on memes and its historical origin!)
September 7, 2025
A quick and relatively interesting read.
The core contention is evident in the title. In an age of crisis, jokes and memetic action are one of the most effective means of resistance.
While there were some interesting ideas (I liked the discussion of Dawkins and Schelling), the writing was tiresomely academic, the references made the book feel incredibly dated (12 years is 120 in internet timelines) and I didn't think that the attempts to thread in design theory made much sense.
The core contention is evident in the title. In an age of crisis, jokes and memetic action are one of the most effective means of resistance.
While there were some interesting ideas (I liked the discussion of Dawkins and Schelling), the writing was tiresomely academic, the references made the book feel incredibly dated (12 years is 120 in internet timelines) and I didn't think that the attempts to thread in design theory made much sense.
June 19, 2020
Gr8 Years later even after the great meme war of 2016
Important analysis on the continuation of political design in the form of memes. Also a concise and poignant critique on the capitalist underpinnings of design and those we serve as designers. The paradox of what we sometimes fight against. A must read for anyone especially new or lost designers.
Important analysis on the continuation of political design in the form of memes. Also a concise and poignant critique on the capitalist underpinnings of design and those we serve as designers. The paradox of what we sometimes fight against. A must read for anyone especially new or lost designers.
June 23, 2020
A good take on memes and jokes and how the potentially disrupt the system or any other make-sense structures, however it’s very one sided and doesn’t take in an account that the same approach could be applied in reverse manners to bring down any good intentions at the start.
See Post-Truth from MIT press.
See Post-Truth from MIT press.
February 12, 2021
Quick informative read. Great deal of research condensed into concise essay length format split across core touch points. Metahaven are some of the best at what they do. I’ve been reading this in tandem with Digital Tarkovsky.
For anyone interested in Mark Fisher, post-capitalist thinking and graphic design.
For anyone interested in Mark Fisher, post-capitalist thinking and graphic design.
May 30, 2024
Super quick and easy reading. I have been digging quite a bit into the meme-politics paradigm, so this book was for sure in my list. I feel like on the theoretical framework more could have been done, but maybe this isn’t the role that this book gives itself. Also the book is a bit dated, and memes do not wait for anyone.
April 20, 2025
Brief exploration of humor and politics in the wake of Occupy and Arab Spring. Calls its shot with the Presidential Correspondent’s dinner, where media, politic, and celebrity intersect and delivers something close to a perverse truth. And in truth, we find the butt of the joke there ten years later bringing it all down.
June 7, 2019
Jokes can be political weapons because they refuse rational debate by rendering invalid the very terms of that debate. As designers, what do we make of this?
July 4, 2022
coole gedanken, aber n artikel hätte es auch getan. bisschen wenig inhalt fürn ganzes buch, aber witzig und schlau
December 30, 2022
The smarter is the kong who is his own jester.
January 4, 2025
An overhyped take on memes as resistance that hasn’t aged well.
June 9, 2025
I love the premise, but it was too radical for my taste (it has been a while since I've had that experience), and I naively expected it to be a bit more fun (it's written in quite an academic way).
February 5, 2023
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 21, 2017
I will come back to this review to edit it later on. For now just a few thoughts.
I adore METAHAVEN's design practice and I adored this book. I feel glad that it seems to open conceptual space to design practices outside and beyond the Joke as well, because as much as I wanna learn to think (and work) more through the use of jokes, I also desperately need something else beside and behind laughter/lolz.
The main fault with the book seems to be its Euro/Americanocentrism. Come to think of it there are a lot of references to Japan, but they are never really dug into – unpacked.
Probably attempting to unpack those references could be a way toward new spaces?
Definitely it's never addressed the difference in modes and models of public space between Japan (where cat memes and 4chan seem to have their roots) and Europe/North America.
xx
gian
I adore METAHAVEN's design practice and I adored this book. I feel glad that it seems to open conceptual space to design practices outside and beyond the Joke as well, because as much as I wanna learn to think (and work) more through the use of jokes, I also desperately need something else beside and behind laughter/lolz.
The main fault with the book seems to be its Euro/Americanocentrism. Come to think of it there are a lot of references to Japan, but they are never really dug into – unpacked.
Probably attempting to unpack those references could be a way toward new spaces?
Definitely it's never addressed the difference in modes and models of public space between Japan (where cat memes and 4chan seem to have their roots) and Europe/North America.
xx
gian
September 16, 2023
A compelling read on humanity’s latest form of media communication/consumption: memes. Particular and precise, this served as an interesting study on internet culture: how sharing images has transcended simple communication and become a language and culture of its own. However, for a book about internet culture and memes—media that perpetuate an air of sarcasm and apathy—at times it feels its thesis is taken too seriously. The book reads like a scientific dissertation, and its hard to look past the dissonance between the analysis and its subject matter.
November 4, 2015
onderhoudend bijna-pamfletje vol gedateerde memes (geen kritiek, het boek werd gepubliceerd lang voor nicki minaj haar 1e pepe op instagram publiceerde), snoeiharde kritiek op zogenaamd radicale designpraktijken (het is tenslotte door metahaven geschreven) en een paar politieke reflecties die tot denken stemmen (re:neoliberalisme, kapitalistisch realisme, etc)
December 4, 2016
as a friend said: "i think pretty much Metahaven fore saw the Alt-Right and worked towards it thinking it was radical libertarian leftism, but it turned out to be fascism"
a good essay, however there's an extremely sus comment about "slave music"
a good essay, however there's an extremely sus comment about "slave music"
June 3, 2014
A really fun reading about the power of humor in this day and age, where technology is the perfect medium for viral phenomenons.
May 23, 2018
Short and sweet. I thought it might be frivolous and click-baity, but it was remarkably pithy.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have taken a lot away from reading it.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have taken a lot away from reading it.
May 30, 2016
Great read, short but gratifying.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews