=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2474/shortpaper1
|storemode=property
|title=Impact memes: PhDs humor(e)
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2474/shortpaper1.pdf
|volume=Vol-2474
|authors=Concetta Papapicco,Giuseppe Mininni
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/smc/PapapiccoM19
}}
==Impact memes: PhDs humor(e)==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2474/shortpaper1.pdf
Impact memes: phds humor(e)
Concetta Papapicco Giuseppe Mininni
Dept. Science of Psychology Dept. Science of Psychology
University of Bari, Bari, Italy University of Bari, Bari, Italy
ORCID 0000 0003-3240-8740 ORCID 0000-0001-7896-6620
Abstract— The era of User Generated Content (USG) on To satisfy these purposes, 39 memes about the PhD were
Social Networks has invested different areas of human experience, collected from a Facebook page called “High Impact PhD
including one of the highest levels of education, i.e. the PhD grade. meme” during the first part of 2019. The PhD memes were
As regards the opportunity to "imitate" a virtual content, the analyzed in two levels: the quanti-qualitative, aiming to detect
phenomenon of Memes (Shifman, 2014) is spreading. The research
the semi-automatic emotional involvement, expression of
has two goals: to demonstrate how the practices of signification of
humor on the doctorate are modified with the "memes factory" humor in “meme discourses”; the semiotic analysis of meme
and how artificial intelligence is able to detect a complex rhetorical images to understand if it is possible to classify PhD humor.
strategy such as humor. To satisfy these purposes, 39 memes about The emotional involvement were detected by means of Tone
the PhD were collected and, then, analyzed in two levels: the Analyzer IBM (Byrd, 2016), that gives back as output the
quanti-qualitative, aiming to detect the semi-automatic emotional prevalence of meme texts emotions. More, starting from these
involvement, expression of humor in “meme discourses”; the quantitative results and considering the PhD meme texts as
semiotic analysis of meme images to understand if it is possible to “dia-texts” (Manuti & Mininni, 2017), the meme texts about
classify PhD humor. The analysis show a further function of doctorate path were qualitatively analyzed, evaluating the
humor mediated by communication through memes, that is the
context of enunciation.
complaint against a complex and precarious career path.
Regarding the visual part of a meme, a semiotic analysis of
Keywords—PhD Memes, Mediated Humor, Emotional Analysis, images was carried out, in which the main features were
Diatextual Analysis Semiotic, Analysis of Imagines highlighted in terms of structure, colors and principal subjects.
I. INTRODUCTION II. HUMOR, SOCIAL NETWORK AND AFFECTIVE
The era of User Generated Content (USG) on Social INTELLIGENCE
Networks has invested different areas of human experience, The psychological interest in humor establishes roots in the
including one of the highest levels of education, i.e. the PhD psychoanalytic theories (Freud, 1905/1950), in which it is
grade. In fact, Social Networks, like Facebook, amplify the underlined the relation to unconscious. Later, Henri Bergson
possibility of creating content and making sure that they reach (1950) introduces the theory of laughter affirming that the
a wide audience. Indeed, every user, even a non-expert, can put humor behavior is the result of spontaneity and freedom as
content online, share it or imitate it. As regards the opportunity human values appearing in a rigid or mechanical expression
to "imitate" a virtual content, the phenomenon of Memes is face. In this way, humor becomes a psycholinguistic subject of
study, defined as a cognitive experience that gives rise to feeling
spreading. Conceptually the Meme is "the minimum cultural
of mirth or joy and it is generally mediated by language. Humor
unit capable of replication" (Shifman, 2014), which declined in
is mainly used to reveal suppressed desires and to overcome
the virtual context and, specifically, of the Social Networks, can sociocultural inhibitions, such as aggressive themes. In this way,
take different forms. One of the typical functions of Memes, humor has a primarily emotional function, helping the humorist
especially on Facebook, is the replication of semi-serious to build confidence and self-esteem. There are three theories that
images accompanied by humorous phrases. explain humor: the relief theory (Buijzen, Valkenburg, 2004);
Taking the theoretical boundary between memetics, the superiority theory (Berger, 1993) and the incongruity theory
psychology and computer science, the study aims to assess (Meyer, 2000).
how, in a context mediated like Facebook, the Memes convey
the humorous content regarding a highly qualified educational Following these theories, people laugh at things that are
path, such as the PhD, which is a high level of education, but unexpected or surprising and it is the violation of an expected
pattern that provokes humor in the mind of the receiver. Rather
also delicate because PhD students are neither a
than focusing on the physiological (relief theory) or emotional
teachers/workers nor a students. Furthermore, the research has (superiority theory) function of humor, incongruity theory
two goals: to demonstrate how the practices of signification of emphasizes cognition. It assumes that the cognitive capacity to
humor on the doctorate are modified with the "memes factory" note and understand incongruous events is necessary to
and how artificial intelligence is able to detect a complex experience laughter or mirth. Absurdity, nonsense, and surprise
rhetorical strategy such as humor. are vital themes in humor covered by this theory (McGhee,
1979; Veatch, 1998). According to Berger (1976, 1993), humor
Copyright © 2019 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
techniques fall into four general categories: language, logic, that users that know the enunciation context may understand
identity, and action. Some examples are summarized in Table I: easily the meaning of communication act, on the contrary, there
was no effect of joy and mirth in the humorous meaning.
Currently, the studies about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and
Natural Language Processing (NLP) focused on the creation of
sophisticated software, able to detect and recognize the tone and
the emotions of all discourse genres. It is the case of IBM tools,
in particular the Tone Analyzer, that is more than an Artificial
Intelligence, because it may be classified as Affective
Intelligence. The mode of operation of these software is that of
matching the text in input with their inner vocabularies of words,
going back, as output, a data of total emotion on the base of a
scale with score lower than 0,50, equal to 0,50 and higher than
0,50: the significant values are those higher than 0.50. The
emotions detected are the five basic emotions, which are: joy,
fear, sadness, disgust and anger. Joy or happiness has shades of
enjoyment, satisfaction and pleasure. There is a sense of well-
being, inner peace, love, safety and contentment; while fear is a
response to impending danger. It is a survival mechanism that is
a reaction to some negative stimulus. It may be a mild caution
or an extreme phobia; sadness indicates a feeling of loss and
disadvantage. When a person can be observed to be quiet, less
energetic and withdrawn, it may be inferred that sadness exists;
disgust is an emotional response of revulsion to something
considered offensive or unpleasant. It is a sensation that refers
to something revolting and anger evoked due to injustice,
conflict, humiliation, negligence or betrayal. If anger is active,
the individual attacks the target, verbally or physically. If anger
is passive, the person silently sulks and feels tension and
hostility. But, even in these cases, the main limit is that it is
impossible reduce the complexity of human experience in a
matching: in particular the AI is not able to detect all rethorical
strategies and all context.
III. PHD CONTEXT AND SOCIAL NETWORK
PhDs (philosophiæ doctors) are young researchers
who invest three or four years in the in-depth study of specific
scientific topics. These are graduates with different educational
Tab. 1 Humor Techniques (Berger 1976; 1993) backgrounds, from engineers, doctors to more humanistic
disciplines such as social sciences, philosophy and literature.
They are, however, people who, after completing their
This theoretical framework begins to be challenged
university studies, transform their "thirst for knowledge" into
following the Digital Revolution and the introduction of new
an occupation.
media, in which it has been experienced a humorous situation in
a different way. In particular, the spread of social networks, However, it is an occupation that is more "vulnerable" to
which offer the possibility of producing a quantity of content the labor market flexibility logics, in a context, such as the
very easily, modifies the experience of the humorous academic one and, on a larger scale, the scientific one, which is
communication situation, the function and the comprehension based on rigor and quantity. In addition to this, there is a lack
itself of this rhetorical strategy. First of all, the main difficulty of clarification in the definition of who, in terms of skills and
regarding the mediated humor is the absence of enunciators face tasks, is a "doctoral student". In most cases, it is a paid
to face interaction. In fact, this limit engrave the possibility of a "qualified" student, but not all PhDs are eligible for financial
fast understanding, such as in the case of mediated irony support. The common element is that all those who undertake
(Papapicco & Mininni, 2019). More, regarding the this career clash with an uphill path, not always linear and
communication act that takes place in virtual space, it is often characterized by deadlines, pressures, measurements of their
difficult to re-build the context of enunciation: this is an other work through purely quantitative indices, all surrounded by the
factor of engraving the comprehension. In the specific virtual uncertainty of the future.
space, as Social Network, the communication act is transmitted This landscape has aroused the interest of sociologists,
in a “broadcasting” way, reaching a wide audience. This means psychologists and economists, who, starting from statistics,
Identify applicable funding agency here. If none, delete this text box.
have begun to study doctoral students, with "research in
research". In particular, a Belgian research of 2017, published
in Research Policy, studied the relationship between the
academic career and the mental health of the doctoral students
(Levecquea et al., 2017). Specifically, 3600 Belgian doctoral
students of all disciplines were involved and it emerged that,
independently of training, one third of the sample had a high
risk of developing, above all, depression. Despite this, there are
no other studies to confirm the data, as most of the results show
a correlation with stress and states of anxiety, mainly identified
as a concern for the future, due to the lack of prospects. There
Chart 1: Quantitative results of Emotional Analysis
is also the absence, in the universities themselves, of
professionals who deal with supporting Human Resources in
future employment or simply accepting individual and By convention, following the model of Barrett and Russell
collective difficulties and needs. Some strategies, already (2009) which disfigures positive emotions from negative
present within the Social Networks, useful to defuse the emotions, the results of positive emotions (joy) have been given
common practices of meaning related to the doctorate, are the a value of 1; for negative emotions (anger, sadness, disgust and
international humorous pages, in which every PhD student is fear) a value equal to -1 and for neutrality a value equal to zero.
recognized. These pages, like many virtual communities, have
almost a "mutual help" function, because, thanks to sharing, it The results show the prevalence of neutrality, represented in
is possible to feel less alone. gray in the graph. The negative emotions in red are also
This is the case of a specific communication tool, which is significant, where, however, the absence of disgust is
becoming a rapidly spreading cultural artifact, i.e. the "Meme". highlighted. The positive emotions represented in green are
The meme is composed of two communicative elements: one quantitatively less significant. This is an important indicator
visual and the other textual. because, from the psycholinguistic scientific literature on
“humor”, the connection of this rhetorical strategy to a positive
emotion emerges. Starting from this limit and considering the
IV. IMPACT PHD MEME: A CASE STUDY memes discourses as “diatexts”, whose meaning derives from
the interweaving of text and context, it can be noted that the
The research has two goals: to demonstrate how the practices emotionality detected by the Artificial Intelligence is not
of signification of humor on the doctorate are modified with the entirely incorrect, as in the following example:
"memes factory" and how artificial intelligence is able to detect
a complex rhetorical strategy such as humor. To satisfy these Eg. 1 “When your manuscript comes back with major
purposes, in the study, 39 memes about the PhD were collected revisions. (0,51)
from a Facebook page called “High Impact PhD meme” Ah shit, here we go again (0,73)”
during the first part of 2019. In fact, more recent PhD memes
have been chosen. The PhD memes were analyzed in two In this case, the real fear emerges of those who submit a
levels: the quanti-qualitative, aiming to detect the semi- scientific work in the form of an article to a journal and receive
automatic emotional involvement, expression of humor in it with many corrections to be made, perhaps, in a limited
“meme discourses”; the semiotic analysis of meme images to period. Fear is immediately replaced by the anger that emerges
understand if it is possible to classify PhD humor. in having to work again on the same research, further modifying
what could have been the initial idea.
A. IBM EMOTIONAL ANALYSIS At the textual level, in the memes on the doctorate it can be
From the Emotional Analysis of the PhD memes, a significant noted the constant presence of bad words, such as "shit",
prevalence of neutrality and negative emotions such as anger, "bastards" which then load the emotions in a negative sense. On
sadness or fear emerges, as can be seen in chart 1: the contrary, in the case of joy detection, this is due to the use
of intensifiers, as in the following example:
Eg. 2 “When your manuscript is finally revised gets backfrom
review” (0,74)
Also in this case, the basic theme is the review of scientific
articles by journals. The use of the "finally" intensifier loads the
sentence of joy.
From these initial results it can be deduced that the PhD 2. the semisymbolic correlation, which provides a relationship
practices of significance are the subject of the memes concern between a category of the expression and one of the content (for
the relationship with the supervisors, the difficulties in example the topology / topology category, can correspond to
publishing the papers and the post-doc uncertainty, as shown in one of the content where “high” corresponds to “sacred” and
these expamples: “low” to “ profane”.
The application of this methodology aims to understand the
Eg. 3 “Phd supervisor: is your manuscript finished yet? presence or absence of regularity on the creation of visual
PhD: Well, yes, but actually no” aspect in PhD memes.
Eg. 4 “Pimples? Zero First of all, the image becomes the imitation element in the
Blackheads? Zero "meme" phenomenon. The images used are actually known.
Probability of your manuscript acceptance on first These are images that represent clear and identifiable subjects,
submission? Zero placed in the foreground. In some cases, the presence of
dialogues is recorded and therefore the image is a vignette,
Eg. 5 “Me: I’m doing a PhD where all the characters have an equal portion of space. Even
People: and then what? the colors are clear in most cases, so they can be easily
Me: Good question.” recognized. As for the subjects and the situations portrayed, the
protagonists of the photos are famous movie characters with
In these examples, there is a prevalence of neutrality, linked to expressions consistent respect to the text of the image. In the
a lack of emotions or to the presence of contrasting emotions, case of PhD memes, the recurring expressions in the characters
i.e. anger and joy in the same phrase. In PhD meme discourses, is doubt and sadness, as shown in the following examples:
neutrality is also due to the presence of imagines, that
sometimes is the real element of joy. If the image is bigger or
more significant than the text, neutrality is justify. Therefore, it
is necessary analyze PhD meme images that, in most cases,
replace the non verbal communication act.
B. SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF PhD MEME IMAGES
Fig. 1 example of doubt Fig. 2 example of sadness
Sight is one of the most attractive senses of the human
being, as it communicates messages immediately with respect As can be seen from the images, the visual aspect helps the
to the written text. An image is the privileged and mediated way comprehension of the text and completes it. Furthermore, they
to pass quickly from the level of the signifier (plan of the are well-known TV personalities: in the first case the
expression) to that of the meaning (plan of the content). The expression of doubt and the sentence of the protagonist are not
semiotic analysis of images (Van Leeuwen, 2001) is a original, that is to say that the context in which they are inserted
methodology that allows to trace meanings within visual changes, which makes it possible to consider it an imitation and
objects and it is based on the plastic analysis of the image that detect the basic humor. In the second case, the expression of
includes three levels: original sadness of a well-known protagonist of a TV series for
teenagers, is set in a different context, where, however, the
1. topological organization, where the constitutional elements image is coherent.
of the image are identified; Other characters typical of the meme images on the PhD are the
protagonists of cartoons, as in the following examples:
2. eidetic organization, where the lines of the visual object
analyzed are highlighted;
3. chromatic organization.
After having identified these three characteristics, it can be
found the plastic formats that allow to reach the content, that is
the transition from the signifier to the meaning, which are
divided into two aspects:
Fig. 3 Meme of Shrek Fig. 4 Meme of Spongebob
1. the symbolic correlation, that is the set of conventions and The images, however, are not chosen randomly. In example 3
cultural aspects connected to the expression plan (for example there is an "ogre" in the foreground, which in traditional culture
if the gold color indicates sacredness, the subject / object is considered a monstrous figure, here instead replaced by an
depicted that dresses gold, will be a sacred subject / object); ogre of modern cinematography used to overturn many of the
fairy tales elements. The humor of the PhD meme fits into this neutrality. The software does not allow, in case of neutrality, a
reversal. sentence level analysis able to understand if neutrality is given
by the absence of sentiment or as a juxtaposition of positive and
V. CONCLUSION negative emotions, an aspect that will be evaluated as a future
perspective. In addition, among the future perspectives, a
The era of User Generated Content (USG) on Social comparison of the current results of the study with other sources
Networks has invested different areas of human experience, and with a larger sample will be provided. An inter-judges
including one of the highest levels of education, i.e. the PhD agreement will also be possible, in order to avoid the excessive
grade. As regards the opportunity to "imitate" a virtual content, simplification to five emotions carried out by the IBM software.
the phenomenon of Memes is spreading. The research has two
goals: to demonstrate how the practices of signification of
humor on the doctorate are modified with the "memes factory"
and how artificial intelligence is able to detect a complex REFERENCES
rhetorical strategy such as humor. To satisfy these purposes, 39
memes about the PhD, analyzed in two levels: the quanti- [1] Berger, A. A. (1993). An anatomy of humor. New Brunswick, NJ:
Transaction Publishers.
qualitative, aiming to detect the semi-automatic emotional
[2] Berger, A. A. (1976). Laughing matter: A symposium: Anatomy of the
involvement, expression of humor in “meme discourses”; the joke. Journal of Communication, 26(3), 113–115.
semiotic analysis of meme images to understand if it is possible [3] Bergson, H. 2008. Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic.
to classify PhD humor. The virtual context, but in particular the Translated by C. Brereton and F. Rothwell. Original ed. 1900. Rockville,
image, conveys a representation of the academic career and, MD: Arc Manor.
specifically of the doctoral course, which is often obscured in [4] Bergson, H. (1900). Le rire, Paris (tr. it. Il riso, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1994)
the offline environment. The virtual context also changes the [5] Byrd, G. (2016). IEEE/IBM Watson student showcase. Computer, 49(1),
way we express humorous techniques. Most rhetorical 102-104.J. Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd
ed., vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon, 1892, pp.68–73.
techniques such as absurdity or imitation, with memes
[6] Buijzen, M., Valkenburg, P.M. (2004). Developing a Typology of Humor
precisely, take on a visual form rather than an oral one. In fact, in Audiovisual Media ". Media Psychology. 6 (2): 147-167.
the analysis show a further function of humor mediated by [7] Freud, S. (1905) Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten, (tr. it.
communication through memes: the complaint against a Il motto di spirito e la sua relazione con l'inconscio, Torino, Boringhieri,
complex and precarious career path. 1975)
[8] Greimas, A. J. (1991). Semiotica figurativa e semiotica plastica, trad. it.
L. corrain e M. Valenti (a cura di), Leggere l’opera d’arte. Dal figurativo
This reporting function of PhD meme communication act all’astratto, Bologna, esculapio.
emerges above all from the Emotional Analysis and the [9] Iannella, A. (2018). Digital authentic learning: introdurre alla tone
prevalence of neutrality and the anger. The visual part is a analysis per favorire un pensiero critico digitale. Thamyris, nova series:
means to mitigate the discourse meanings. Humor and imitation Revista de Didáctica de Cultura Clásica, Griego y Latín, (9), 319-336.
strategies arise in the contrast between expected/unexpected or [10] Levecque, K., Anseel, F., De Beuckelaer, A., Van der Heyden, J., & Gisle,
known/unknown: generally it is expected that a famous L. (2017). Work organization and mental health problems in PhD
students. Research Policy, 46(4), 868-879.
character behave in a certain way, instead it is integrate in a
[11] Manuti, A. and Mininni, G. (2017) A Rose Is More than a Rose … The
contextual unexpected framework known. Diatextual. Constitution of Subjects and Objects. De Gruyter Mouton, 37,
The main features of the PhD memes can be summarized in 243-263.
the following taxonomy: [12] McGhee, P. E. (1971). Cognitive development and children’s
comprehension of humor. Child Development, 42, 123–138.
[13] McGhee, P. E. (1976). Laughing matter: A symposium: Sex differences
TABLE II. in children’s humor. Journal of Communication, 26(3), 176–189.
[14] McGhee, P. E. (1979). Humor: Its origin and development. San Francisco:
Uncertainty Freeman.
Relationship Difficulty of
Topics for the future
with supervisors publication [15] Meyer, J. C. (2000). Humor as a double-edged sword: Four functions of
of work
humor in communication. Communication Theory, 10, 310–331.
Main character
Subject of Cartoons [16] Novielli, N., Calefato, F., & Lanubile, F. (2015, September). The
of Tv series or Animals
images Characters challenges of sentiment detection in the social programmer ecosystem.
Films
In Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Social Software
Emotions No Emotions Anger/Fear Anger/Sadness Engineering (pp. 33-40). ACM.
Rethorical Intensifiers Vs Bad words [17] Pang, B. and Lee, L. (2008) Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis.
Dialogues Foundations and Trends in Information Retrieval , 2, 1-135.
Strategies Attenuators (Intensifiers)
https://doi.org/10.1561/1500000011
Taxonomy of PhD memes [18] Papapicco, C., & Mininni, G. (2019). Twitter culture: irony comes faster
than tourist mobility. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 1-12.
The research shows that humor in the context of PhD memes is [19] Russell, J. A. (2009). Emotion, core affect, and psychological
based on two levels: a cognitive first linked to the perception of construction. Cognition and emotion, 23(7), 1259-1283.
something unexpected and a second emotional level, which [20] Shifman, L. (2014). Memes in digital culture. Mit Press.
explains the presence of negative emotions such as fear. One of
the limitations of the research concerns the prevalence of output
[21] Turckle, S. (2005). The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. [23] Veatch, T. C. (1998). A theory of humor. Humor, 11, 163–215
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.
https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6115.001.0001
[22] Van Leeuwen, T., & Jewitt, C. (Eds.). (2001). The handbook of visual
analysis. Sage.