Syeda Tuba Rizvi Viral memes: How Pakistanis take

Syeda Tuba Rizvi                                              سیدہ طوبی رضوی

Roll no: 2k18-MC-150                                                    ۲k۱۸-۱۵۰-MC

Medium: Urdu to English

وائرل میمز: طنز و مزاح میں پاکستانی سوشل میڈیا پر بازی کیسے لے جاتے ہیں؟

Viral memes: How Pakistanis take a break on social media in humor?

'I guess when the World Cup ends, the series of memes will also end.' But because of these memes, I reached the White House. It is a great pleasure to see that I am still popular.

'It is to say that during the World Cup 2019, every moment in the match between Pakistan and Australia, Sarim akhtar, who portrays the changing situation according to the situation.

Sarim Akhtar was a common and unknown person living in his little world like any ordinary human before going to see the match that day. So what happened on that day?

It happened that during the match between Australia, the picture of a moment of sarim Akhtar was saved in the TV camera.

Then what, a screenshot of his picture was made viral in minutes and several of the memes began to be reflected. Now he was not only a spectator of Pakistan Australia's match but also became a celebrity in the world outside of cricket.

The protagonist from the social media and digital world came out and told the BBC that when he was watching this match, he had no idea that he would become so famous.

His surprise journey took place during the match with the incoming messages on his WhatsApp immediately and then after seeing how many of his memes went viral.

Sarim says that not only Pakistani but also Indian and Siri-Lankan cricket fans came to him and took selfies.

Sarim says memes have made them so famous that they could never imagine. He is not alone on this new fame, his family is also very happy and whenever someone in the family sees a meme, they send them, which they see more fun.

The world of memes not only seeks new people but also doesn't let the opportunities of making memes on old celebrities go hand in hand. The name of Samina pirzada comes in this regard.

Samina pirzada does a program called 'rewind with samina' on YouTube. In this program she talks to her guests on topics about their daily life and also asks some 'out of the box' or unconventional questions.

Many memes are made on the picture of Samina Pirzada based on the questions asked by her.

BBC tries to learn from samina pirzada how they feel when their memes are made.

Her response to this was straightforward: 'when my memes go viral on social media, I get a lot of excitement.' she says that these memes show them how popular their program is, people look at it passionately and carefully and are using it as a basis to think and create memes.

Samina says I thank everyone who makes these memes. However, she agrees that they should not make a meme on something that is likely to hurt someone.

She said that the program because of which her memes are made does not have any scripts, but all things are from the heart, and the idea of the program was to test an artist. So they are asked questions about their childhood.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's member national assembly and celebrity scholar Amir Liaquat Hussain also make many memes. When the BBC approached him for comment, he said he didn't pay much attention to memes. For him, memes start with Muhammad and end on mother.'

What are memes?

If it to be said that memes are the product of current social media culture, it would not be wrong. Usually, any picture with its original context, while removing and connecting at the same time, is put on social media by writing a quick impact phrase on the picture, it is called a meme.

To say, a picture is heavy on a thousand words. But when a viral text is written along with the picture, it takes the form of memes circulating on social media.

Who makes memes?

Memes anyone can make. For this, you just need a picture and a phrase written on it that can bring a smile on someone's face and can cause anger for anyone.

BBC spoke to Abdul Rafay bin Sohail, Fahim ahmed and Sidra aslam, who ran memes pages on social media in Pakistan and tried to find out how these memes are finally created, and what's the story behind them? 

Image caption: It is important for any meme to go viral so that the arrow of its humor is on its target at the right time.

How are memes made?

Fahim ahmed, who runs a Facebook page full of memes, looks very serious and it also surprises many people how he finally makes so many hilarious and influential memes. Fahim said that making memes is not as easy as it looks because they have to be mentally prepared all the time and have to keep the brain present.

The creator of the Facebook page named 'rafay comics' and the smile on the face at all times are convinced of the seriousness of the work of making Abdul rafay memes. He says that you can not enjoy anything while making memes, because you are watching anything, there is also a thought in mind that how can a meme created from this thing.

Sidra also works on a website called 'Bolo Jawan' and she herself owns a gooseberry and dynamic personality. Where they make memes on one side, they also take off a very good copy of others.

Sidra says a lot of content is being made on social media. 'there is an atmosphere of tough competition. It is not an easy task to bring new ideas to the content that is created and to collect the content for the memes. '

What reaction comes when making memes?

Memes are a reason for some people to smile, but not for everyone. Even if they are memes makers or their viewers.

Rafay smiles and explains that if he makes a meme on Imran khan, he often has to listen to harsh words. That's why they try not to look at the comments section after putting memes on Imran khan.

However, sidra says she has been making memes on maryam nawaz and shehbaz sharif but once she has made memes on some pictures of maryam nawaz, maryam nawaz's social media team has blocked her.

Abdul rafay says that after making some memes, he avoids seeing the comments section, but fahim ahmed says that on some memes there is so much abusive language and that they have to remove some memes.

Of course, sidra agrees that there should be no such thing as to cause someone's heart attack, such as those who are not in this world, to avoid making their memes. Sidra also says that making memes also has a code of conduct.

Can money be made by making memes?

Fahim and rafay believe that making memes does not have any financial benefit directly, because Facebook does not give you any money. But since their pages' likes are quite high, sometimes someone tells them to post their content on their page so we get some money.

Sidra believes more open-minded on availing herself of opportunities to make money from memes. He says that a business brand contacted him to make memes for us so he had taken the money for this work.

Sidra says that now business brands also understand that they need memes for their promotion, so it's time that you can earn something from memes.

What is the future of memes?

Sidra says the future of memes is bright. The reason is that now people, as young people, don't want to read too much-written content. In the least words they want, they all get it quickly.

Rafay also hopes that the time to come is memes. Fahim says it's just the beginning, the whole movie is still there.

Practical work carried under supervision of Sir Sohail Sangi 

Media & Communication Studies, University of Sindh