rgriswol_LookingOutwards-06

Are internet memes art? Well, according to Oxford Dictionary, which defines art as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination” – yes, they are. While it seems silly to classify them as such, comedy in and of itself is an art form, and internet memes are used almost solely for comedic purposes.
The tumblr blog “memelovingbot” was created by Nora Reed, a generative artist in New Mexico. She’s created multiple bots on tumblr as well as over 60 on twitter. While she does sometimes change the frequency of the bot’s posting and updates the bot when new memes get popular, the rest is completely up to the bot. It can’t do things like answer asks or respond to messages sent by other tumblr users, and it doesn’t have the ability to learn, but even with its rather simple format it still generates some pretty hilarious meme combinations.

The creator also open sourced the code, and it was made using Cheap Bots Done Quick which uses Tracery. All of this information (and more) can be found on the tumblr bot’s FAQ page. While you do have to be rather familiar with these memes to find this kind of meme-distortion funny, the blog is still worth a look regardless.