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Zack Snyder’s Justice League: DC Comics and DCEU Easter Eggs Guide

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This article contains Zack Snyder’s Justice League spoilers. We have a (relatively) spoiler free review here.

Well, they finally released the Snyder Cut! Zack Snyder’s Justice League is now out in the world (and streaming on HBO Max) and it’s four hours of the director’s undiluted, controversial take on the DC Universe. It’s even more packed with DC history than the “official” theatrical release, if you can believe that, and it builds out the world of the DCEU in some new and unexpected ways.

There’s no shortage of DC Comics Easter eggs in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and even nods to DC movies of the past. It’s a six course meal of a movie that DC superhero fans should savor, because we’re unlikely to ever see anything like this again.

We’ve tried to find all the DC references and lore in the film. Here’s what we’ve got so far.

The Story

While the Justice League have been around since 1960 (they first appeared in Brave and the Bold #28) the broad strokes of this movie are based on 2011’s Justice League: Origin (which was adapted as the animated movie, Justice League: War), the comic book story that revamped the team’s initial team-up for a new generation. The villain of the comic was Darkseid not Steppenwolf, but the Parademon hordes, the Mother Boxes, and the tying of Cyborg’s origin to Fourth World technology all come straight out of this story.

Steppenwolf DID show up in a contemporary story as well, though. A visually-similar version of the character appeared in DC’s Earth-2, which indicated that Darkseid’s attack on Earth was one that spanned the multiverse, and his lieutenant Steppenwolf ravaged a different Earth, killing its greatest heroes in the process. So that’s two big comics influences out of the way here.

Throughout this movie, Steppenwolf keeps on trying to bring about “the unity” with the three Mother Boxes, but as far as I know, that has no correlation to anything in the comics. If anything, Steppenwolf’s quest and the movie’s backstory has more in common with the Lord of the Rings saga than anything Jack Kirby did, with magical tech being distributed across the different races of the world to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.

Aquaman

Of all the characters in this film, Aquaman seems to bear the most of Zack Snyder’s stamp. It’s incredibly visible just in his eyes, which were “humanized” considerably by the time he appeared in his solo movie.

Snyder’s original vision for Aquaman was clearly something a little grittier than the gleaming underwater fantasy that James Wan brought us. The eerie “hymn” that the women of the village sing to mark Arthur’s departure is a haunting reminder of how these characters are seen in this world.

As Aquaman returns to Atlantis, we see a familiar octopus. Could this be Topo, comic book octopus sidekick to Arthur and famed for his drum solo skills in the Aquaman movie? I’d like to think it is.

Willem Dafoe’s Vulko is here, looking a little different and perhaps a bit less kindly than he did in Wan’s film. Interestingly, he refers to Arthur as “the king who would be man,” an inversion on “the man who would be king,” and a shot at Arthur for not taking his rightful place as heir to the throne of Atlantis. For his part, Arthur’s refusal on the grounds that the Atlanteans are a “brutal, petty, superstitious people” also hints at broader visions Snyder had for the character.

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It’s interesting to note that Mera and other Atlanteans speak with English accents here, where they didn’t in the Aquaman movie. It’s a proud tradition of making alien races speak with an English accent, one perhaps most famous in superhero movies thanks to virtually the entire population of Krypton in Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie.

Similarly, Atlanteans don’t speak underwater here as they do in the James Wan film, instead creating bubbles of air in which to communicate like land-dwellers. It’s pretty cool.

The song that plays when Arthur vanishes into the waves is Nick Cave’s “There is a Kingdom,” and its lyrics are pretty much as on-the-nose as you might expect.

Aquaman spearing two Parademons with his trident reminds me of this moment from Justice League: Origin, as well…

Is Aquaman the first person to call Bruce “Batman” in the DCEU? In Batman v Superman it was all “the Bat” this and “the Gotham Bat” that.

Speaking of Batman…

Batman

When we first see Bruce Wayne searching for the mysterious Arthur Curry, he’s riding a jet black horse, which is very similar to the steed he rode in some famous pages of Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley’s classic and influential The Dark Knight Returns, a work which has considerable influence on how Batman was portrayed here and in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

If you look closely you can see a 201 area code on Bruce Wayne’s business card, which further confirms that Gotham City is on the New Jersey side of the river that separates it from Metropolis.

This movie, like Batman v Superman before it, reminds us that we’re dealing with a Batman who has been active for 20 years. It’s yet another reminder of the influence of The Dark Knight Returns on the DCEU vision for Batman, depicting him as a much older, more experienced crimefighter.

Let’s just take a moment to appreciate how good Jeremy Irons is as Alfred Pennyworth. His line about “someone who broods in a cave” is classic Alfred shade (as is the moment later on when he is totally micromanaging how Diana makes tea). See also: Bruce’s joke about how he works for Alfred.

Bruce tells Alfred that he “made a promise to him [Superman] on his grave.” As we well know with Bruce and his parents, when he swears on someone’s grave, it’s a promise he takes very seriously.

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We meet Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Crispus Allen very briefly in Gotham PD HQ talking to JK Simmons’ excellent Jim Gordon. Detective Crispus Allen was a Batman supporting character who played a significant role in the excellent Gotham Central series. While we don’t get any hint of his future here, Allen went on to become the human host of the Spectre after he was murdered by a corrupt colleague.

Barry asks Bruce incredulously, “you have a satellite?” to which Bruce calmly responds, “I have six.” It feels very much like something Grant Morrison’s Batman would say (he even owns a flying saucer), but it ALSO hints at the fact that for many years, the Justice League operated out of a satellite HQ. Perhaps Bruce would consider moving the team up there in future installments.

During the big battle at the end, there’s a terrific shot of Batman that mirrors his first appearance in Detective Comics #27.

There’s a pretty clear shot of the Bat-tank that is a very direct nod to a panel from Dark Knight Returns.

Cyborg

It seems like all the flashbacks to Vic Stone’s pre-Cyborg college days take place in 2015, so it’s after the events of Man of Steel, but he has only been “Cyborg” for a relatively brief period here.

Thanks to the backstory in this version of the film, we learn that Vic is already a genius level intellect. Although in the comics it was because Drs Silas and Elinore Stone were already experimenting on their son long before the accident that forced them to turn him into Cyborg.

Interestingly, the origin story here is neither the classic comics origin nor the New 52 version (surprising, since so much of this film feels inspired by the New 52 Justice League: Origin story). There, it was either an accident with interdimensional energy or the opening of a Mother Box/Boom Tube which virtually destroyed Victor’s body and caused the creation of Cyborg.

What is the Dean of GCU’s name? It looks like it might be “Dean Stanton” which would be a lovely tribute to actor Harry Dean Stanton (but there’s no DC Comics connection here in that case).

You may note that the scoreboard for Gotham City University was built by Wayne Enterprises.

It’s probably a coincidence, but Cyborg financially helps out a “Linda S. Reed.” In the comics Linda Reed was a short-lived Green Arrow character who (along with her twin sister Ramona) went by the uninspiring name of “Girl Archer.”

Since Vic Stone has traditionally been a Teen Titans character, and he and Barry are by far the youngest members of the League, it makes sense that they would bond. Especially since this version of Barry Allen has more in common with the comic book version of Wally West than anything else, and Wally was a member of the Titans with Vic.

The Flash

When we first meet Barry Allen he is late to a job interview. This isn’t just a play on “oh, the fastest man alive is actually really slow” or something, Barry’s habitual lateness was baked into the character in his very first appearance back in Showcase #4. Similarly, even his predecessor, Jay Garrick was known for this not terribly charming trait, too.

Interestingly, Barry’s persona in the DCEU feels much more in common with the Wally West of the DC Animated Universe. He’s the less experienced hero, a kind of point-of-view character, and generally younger and funnier than his teammates. But the more specific Wally reference is his need to consume tremendous quantities of calories to keep going (his “snack hole” crack), something that was unique to Wally among Flashes (but which was also utilized when John Wesley Shipp played Barry on the 1990 The Flash TV series).

That’s Billy Crudup as Henry Allen in jail (who sadly won’t be reprising his role in Andy Muschietti’s The Flash movie) The whole “hands on the glass” thing was done quite a bit between the TV versions of these characters, played by Grant Gustin and the great John Wesley Shipp. Henry’s line to Barry that he should “make your own future” would seem to foreshadow the events of Flashpoint, as well.

But there’s one other similarity to the TV show worth pointing out…

Henry is rocking the Jay Garrick look with the grey hair at the temples thing. With certain developments on The Flash TV series, this could also be an indicator of how things will be handled in the DCEU. I wrote lots more about Jay Garrick, one of my favorite characters, right here.

Barry notes to Bruce that he is fluent in “gorilla sign language,” which could come in handy down the road should he encounter a race of superintelligent gorillas who have started their own civilization or something like that.

Is Barry wearing a “Black Freighter” t-shirt? As in the pirate story that is woven through the Watchmen comics? You don’t need me to remind you that Zack Snyder also directed a Watchmen movie, right?

If you look at Barry’s desk, there’s a photo of Nikola Tesla there, which makes sense given Flash’s whole aesthetic.

One fun thing about Barry’s personal HQ: If you look carefully on one of the TVs, you can spot that he’s a Rick and Morty fan, and a particular season two episode, which involves a chemically-enhanced Summer and Rick beating the crap out of unsavory types like Nazis, is playing in the background.

It’s interesting to note that Barry is only now just on the path to becoming a police scientist, rather than already having been driven to do so. It’s almost like his time with the Justice League inspires him to do more with his professional life, as well.

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It’s interesting that the Barry Allen of the DCEU is Jewish, if only because we’ve never had any hint of Flash’s faith (or lack thereof) in the comics or on the TV show. The closest Barry Allen has to any kind of religious or ethnic identity has always been “midwestern.” Brian Cronin at CBR thinks this could be a reference to a throwaway line from a late ’80s DC story, but I don’t necessarily think that’s considered canon. I’m open to corrections, though!

Iris West

We see the first meeting between Barry Allen and Iris West here. I don’t know the exact make and model of the vintage convertible that Iris is driving (if anyone does, please give us a shout in the comments or on Twitter), but it feels like it COULD be from the year 1956, when Showcase #4 was published. Similarly, the excellent and underrated The Flash TV series from the 1990s used to populate the streets of its version of Central City with vintage cars to give it a “timeless” feel.

Speaking of Showcase #4, the fact that hot dogs are among the things kind of hovering in midair thanks to Barry moving at super speed is another nod to the character’s first appearance, when one of Barry’s first super speed acts was to catch a spilled tray of food in a diner in mid-air before the waitress knew what had happened.

What’s the brand of fast food the truck driver is eating? I can’t quite make it out. It would be cool if it was a Big Belly Burger with a Soder Cola, but I think it might just be something lame like “Burger Shop.” Help me out, folks!

The truck that nearly kills Iris is for a company called Gard’ner Fox, a reference to classic Flash writer/co-creator Gardener Fox.

You can see a newspaper box for The Central City Tribune, which hints at the fact that Iris West is a journalist in the comics.

Superman

Martha’s dog’s name is Rusty, which I THINK is a reference to a briefly glimpsed pooch in Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie. But I can’t fully confirm that as of this writing.

Lois Lane’s depression and loneliness is soundtracked, appropriately enough, to “Distant Sky” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Mr. Snyder seems to love the work of Nick Cave), which features lyrics like “They told us our gods would outlive us,” but there’s lots here that mirrors the journey of these heroes in the film.

The Daily Planet’s slogan in the DCEU is “reporting on the planet, daily” which seems a little on-the-nose to me, but whatever. It’s had several in the comics, but in Richard Donner’s Superman it was “Metropolis’ Greatest Newspaper.”

When the Motherbox generates the image of Superman flying, it’s a classic Superman pose this is. This is a really cool shot, and looks like a Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson drawing of the Man of Steel come to life.

During the return to the Kryptonian ship that served as the de facto Fortress of Solitude in Man of Steel (and which gives Supes his black costume here), we can spot the open pod that launched so many fan theories in 2013. A possibly no-longer-canon Man of Steel prequel comic that was nonetheless written by David Goyer implied that it was Kara Zor-El who was in that pod, and who has roamed the DCEU undiscovered thus far.

You can hear moments of Hans Zimmer’s truly excellent Man of Steel score at key Superman moments throughout the film, too.

Clark Kent was buried in a conservative dark blue business suit, with a red tie, and black shoes. That is the exact outfit that the comic book version of Clark Kent wore in virtually every single comic book appearance from roughly 1938 until 1986. Henry Cavill’s Clark was a little more fashionable in life, but not in death.

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When Superman wakes up, well, it’s not pretty. This scene serves two purposes, though. For one thing, it demonstrates how he is more powerful than the entire team combined, lest anyone think that Superman is lame. But his disorientation and raw fury are a slight nod to how in the comics and cartoons, at several points, Superman has been manipulated by Darkseid. While that doesn’t quite happen here, the role of Fourth World technology in his resurrection feels like it’s not a coincidence.

Clark “returning” to himself in the field in front of his Smallville home and being greeted by Martha Kent feels like an inversion of Clark leaving home in Superman: The Movie and bidding his mother farewell. He’s wearing a similar flannel shirt in both scenes, too.

As Clark completes his journey and “returns” to being Superman, complete with the cool new costume (more on that in a second), we hear the voices of BOTH his fathers, both Jor-El and Jonathan Kent. It’s yet another nod to Richard Donner’s Superman, when Kal-El was guided by the voice and spirit of his Kryptonian father when he first wore the suit. And, of course, his takeoff here mirrors his first flight in Man of Steel, completing his “rebirth.”

The black and silver Superman suit was a fixture of Reign of the Supermen, the story that brought the recently deceased Man of Steel back to life. In the comics, it was a kind of regeneration suit, meant to help harness solar radiation for Superman’s cells. It’s not clear if it is meant to serve that purpose here, since (as we see when he kicks the entire League’s ass) he was already at full physical (if not mental) power upon his resurrection. It’s been done several times in live action too, but it has never looked as good as it does here.

Amusing detail about the Kent Farm being foreclosed on…there’s already some awful suburban McMansion built right across the road.

Marc McClure who played Jimmy Olsen in the Donner Superman films played an Iron Heights prison guard in the theatrical cut of the film, but here he is the cop guarding the Superman memorial in Metropolis.

And the final true shot we see of Superman in the film, with Clark Kent becoming aware of trouble and doing the classic “shirt rip” is another iconic moment from throughout the character’s history, although it’s never better than it is in Superman: The Movie right before the big helicopter rescue. It’s worth noting that in the theatrical cut, Supes was back in the red and blue, while here he has chosen to stay in the black and silver.

Wonder Woman

One of the big takeaways from Wonder Woman’s intro sequence is that even mundane villains in the DCEU are cool, stylish, dangerous, and they don’t think small. These guys are the face of a mysterious organization who want to “turn back the clock” but I have yet to find a suitable DC Comics parallel to them.

Of course, the statue we see Wonder Woman standing on is Justice herself.

Diana’s white dress while she’s working on restoring the statue feels vaguely reminiscent of her “mod years” in the late 1960s, where she briefly ditched her primary colored costume to fight in something a little more practical.

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Wonder Woman wearing an appropriately stylish black getup when visiting Bruce in the cave kind of reminds me of Wonder Girl Donna Troy’s star-spangled black outfit that she wore for a little while…but that’s probably just a coincidence.

Diana tells Bruce that she “once knew a man who would have loved to fly it” regarding Bruce’s flying troop transport for the League. She is, of course, referring to Steve Trevor, but this line takes on a little bit of extra weight after we see Steve flying more modern aircraft in Wonder Woman 1984.

At one point in the film, Diana hints that Atlantis and Themyscira had been at war at one point in the past. This has been teased in the comics several times and came to a head in the Flashpoint comics.

There’s a cool moment when Steppenwolf tells Wonder Woman that she has “the blood of the old gods” in her veins. When Jack Kirby created the New Gods and the Fourth World, he was still working for Marvel. The original plan was for the Asgard of Marvel’s Thor comics to undergo a Ragnarok, everyone would die, and in its place would be these New Gods. Obviously that didn’t happen, and the concepts ended up at DC. But that one line, tying Diana’s Greek mythology roots directly to the cosmic New Gods of the DCEU, is surprisingly in keeping with Kirby’s original intention.

Ryan Choi

We get another hero snuck into the mix in this movie, in the form of STAR Labs’ Ryan Choi (played by Zheng Kai). While he doesn’t suit up in this film, Choi was the inheritor of Ray Palmer’s mantle as the shrinking superhero, the Atom.

By the end of the film, Choi is given the title of head of nanotechnology for STAR Labs, further setting up his future as a hero.

Green Lantern

While no Green Lantern remains alive for long in this film, there are plenty of references to the Green Lantern Corps throughout…

Steppenwolf promises that there are “no protectors, no Lanterns, no Kryptonian” guarding Earth this time, which is pretty self-explanatory.

This member of the Green Lantern Corps we see fall in battle during the flashback sequence is Yalan Gur, a character who has only made a handful of appearances in the comics. Gur was indeed the Green Lantern of space sector 2814 (that includes Earth) around the time this battle would have taken place. In the comics, Gur was corrupted by his own power and turned on the humans of Earth, but he clearly didn’t get that chance in the movie, as he was killed by Darkseid in the flashback.

During the vision of the future where Darkseid has gained control of the Anti-Life Equation, another dead Green Lantern can be spotted amongst the rubble of a ruined city. That would be of Green Lantern Corps drill sergeant and fan favorite, Kilowog. This is Kilowog’s second live action appearance, if you count 2011’s not great Green Lantern movie with Ryan Reynolds.

Darkseid

Steppenwolf tells the Amazons that he “has come to enlighten you to The Great Darkness.” The Great Darkness is more than just a reference to Darkseid himself and his entire philosophy, but is also a reference to what is perhaps the ultimate Legion of Super-Heroes story, The Great Darkness Saga, by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen, which saw a long dormant Darkseid return to life to terrorize the galaxy a thousand years from now.

When Darkseid strikes the surface of the Earth with his axe, it creates the kind of hellish firepits that his homeworld of Apokalips is famous for.

Darkseid taking on the literal “old gods” of Earth including Zeus, Ares, Apollo, and Poseidon is a fun contrast with the fact that he is part of DC’s “New Gods” mythology.

Darkseid is searching for the Anti-Life Equation, which we wrote more about here.

During Darkseid’s “vision” of the universe once he has obtained the Anti-Life Equation, we can see Superman holding a charred corpse, which is presumably the body of Lois Lane. This apparently sets him up for corruption by Darkseid, and helps bring about the “Knightmare” vision from Batman v Superman, which is once again glimpsed at the end of this film.

The third figure we see on Apokalips with Darkseid and Desaad appears to be Granny Goodness, the chief of the armies of Apokalips (and the one who trained/traumatized DC heroes Mister Miracle and Big Barda).

Parademons

The weird insectoid drones making everyone’s lives miserable are Parademons, the foot soldiers of the planet Apokolips, a hellish world which lives in opposition to New Genesis, the home of the New Gods and Forever People. All of this great stuff was created by the brilliant Jack Kirby, by the way. Steppenwolf (more on him in a minute) and the Parademons are trying to collect three Mother Boxes left on Earth.

What is a Mother Box?

The Mother Box is the unifying piece of technology of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World epic. Think of a Mother Box as an alien smartphone that can do anything from heal the injured to teleport you across time and space. It’s pretty cool hearing their trademark “ping. ping. ping.” sound for real.

Mother Boxes are often used to call down Boom Tubes, the preferred method of transport of the New Gods and their friends and foes. We see them deployed quite a bit throughout this movie, obviously. Super Powers fans of the 1980s may remember that on Super Friends: Galactic Guardians, boom tubes were referred to as star gates.

It’s POSSIBLE that the knights burying the Mother Box are meant to be King Arthur and his crew, while the one with the horns could be Sir Bors. They relatively recently appeared in Demon Knights, but they were best in Seven Soldiers of Victory, where the Knights of the Round Table fought an invasion from evil Faeries and lost, only to have Sir Ystina, the Shining Knight, help save the world in the present day. Honestly, that sounds like it would be pretty up Zack Snyder’s alley too, now that we think about it.

Mother Box is cataloged as “unknown object 61982” after it has been discovered in the modern world. So far, I haven’t been able to find any DC Comics or DCEU significance to that number.

DeSaad

DeSaad is Darkseid’s chief advisor and torturer-in-chief (hence the name). Like all the other cool Fourth World stuff in this movie, he was created solely by the legendary Jack Kirby. He first appeared in Forever People #2 in 1971.

It’s kind of cool that the nameless “Motherbox priestesses” kind of look like DeSaad, too.

Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf is the first Jack Kirby creation to show up in a DC superhero movie (for comparison, nearly the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe owes its entire existence to Jack Kirby). They don’t really give us much to go on with Steppenwolf in this flick, but to be fair, he wasn’t one of Kirby’s most inspired creations and it’s not like he has the longest comic book history. In the comics, Steppenwolf was Darkseid’s uncle, and responsible for the war between Apokolips and New Genesis, but here he appears to be his nephew instead.

In a lot of ways, particularly his appearance, this version of Steppenwolf seems to owe more to his appearance in DC’s New 52 version of the Earth-2 comics than he does any of Kirby’s vision.

The weird little spider-y device that Steppenwolf uses to get information on people looks a lot like Starro, the first villain that the Justice League ever fought in the comics, right down to the way it attaches to people’s faces.

Martian Manhunter

We get our first long-promised revelation of Martian Manhunter in the film, who, as it turns out, had been masquerading as Harry Lennix’s General Swanwick the entire time.

Martian Manhunter finally revealing himself to Bruce at the end kind of completes Bruce’s journey from vaguely fascist xenophobe in Batman v Superman to someone far more heroic.

Martian Manhunter says he has “gone by many names” but doesn’t mention any of them. It doesn’t make sense why he wouldn’t have introduced himself as J’onn J’onnz (his Martian name). Other names he has gone by include Detective John Jones (not in the movies), and as we’ve seen in this very film, General Swanwick.

While we don’t get to see Martian Manhunter officially join the Justice League here, his presence in the film kind of completes the “unite the seven” tease that dates back to Batman v Superman. Martian Manhunter has always been depicted as a founding member of the team, both in comics and in the excellent Justice League animated series.

Deathstroke

We get a LITTLE more of Joe Manganiello’s Slade Wilson in this movie than we did in the theatrical cut…

In the theatrical version, Lex had summoned Deathstroke in order to start assembling a Legion of Doom-esque team of supervillains. But here it’s to give him Batman’s true identity. Apparently this would have helped set Deathstroke up as the villain of the Ben Affleck-led Batman solo movie, which would have featured Deathstroke dismantling Bruce Wayne’s life, Daredevil: Born Again style.

We see Deathstroke again during the epilogue where Slade (who is more of an antihero in the comics) has joined Batman’s ragtag group of freedom fighters against Darkseid and the forces of Apokalips.

Speaking of that epilogue…

Joker

No, your eyes do not deceive you, that is indeed Jared Leto returning as the Joker, marking his first appearance in the role since his controversial turn as the character in the Suicide Squad movie.

So…it appears that the “Knightmare” sequence in Batman v Superman wasn’t a vision of this movie after all, but rather for the Justice League 2 we’ll never see. And it’s up to Jared Leto’s Joker of all characters to explain this to us once and for all.

It seems that in a not-too-distant future, Darkseid’s armies have indeed come to Earth, and he is either in search of or has claimed the Anti-Life Equation, having murdered Lois Lane, turned Superman to evil (god, why does Zack Snyder love this idea so much), leaving a ragtag group of heroes and villains to try and set things right.

The death of Lois Lane at the hands of a villain turning Superman into a maniac feels quite a bit like the storyline of the Injustice video game.

Joker makes several allusions to having murdered Robin, which in the comics would be Jason Todd, although Snyder has hinted before that the dead Robin in question was actually Dick Grayson (hence, no Nightwing in the DCEU).

The notion of Batman and Joker teaming up in any capacity isn’t one with a whole lot of weight in the comics, but them coming together in a post-apocalyptic landscape with Joker acting as a kind of truth-teller for Batman is faintly reminiscent of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman: Last Knight on Earth.

Joker’s hints that Batman needs to die in order to set things right are reminiscent of Grant Morrison’s superb Final Crisis.

Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor’s escape from Arkham Asylum (side note, it has always rubbed me the wrong way that they keep Lex at Arkham…that isn’t where you put Lex Luthor) with a fakeout vaguely reminds me of how he escaped from prison in Superman II, which involved using a hologram to fake out the guard. The guard’s response to “Lex” not doing what he’s supposed to here is similar, too.

When we finally see Lex for real, it’s on the yacht, and his loud outfit is more than a little bit reminiscent of how Gene Hackman’s Luthor dressed as Lex in the Superman movies of the 1970s and 1980s.

Miscellaneous Stuff

Bruce returns to the ruins of Wayne Manor which he intends to convert into a headquarters for the newly formed Justice League. But placing a roundtable in a mansion has a little bit more of a Justice Society of America vibe to it…but that’s just a coincidence. However, we’ll be meeting the Justice Society in the upcoming Black Adam movie.

There’s a headline in The Daily Planet that says “Security Bank of Manhattan Sets New Architect.” No, this isn’t a John Stewart Green Lantern reference. Instead, it’s a nod from Snyder to the character of Howard Roark, the protagonist of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, a favorite of the director’s and a project he once hoped to adapt into film. In that book, Roark is an architect who is commissioned to work on the “Security Bank of Manhattan.” Draw your own conclusions about Snyder’s love for this book and Rand’s work, however.

That isn’t the only Ayn Rand reference in the film, either. The fishing boat that Aquaman rescues is called the Cortlandt, a reference to a housing development in The Fountainhead.

The place where Lois gets her coffee is “Fred and Ginger Coffee” as in Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Also, if you look really closely in the window of the coffee shop as she leaves, there’s a man at a table wearing a vest. I’m not 100% sure, but I THINK this is Zack Snyder giving himself a Hitchcock-esque cameo in the film.

The STAR Labs janitor who goes missing/gets eaten by Parademons is apparently named Howie Jensen. Whenever there’s a janitor in a top secret area working with alien tech in the DC Universe, my mind immediately goes to Superman villain, the Parasite. The most famous version of the Parasite was Rudy Jones, a STAR Labs janitor who ended up wallowing in some toxic waste (perhaps coincidentally because Darkseid manipulated him into it). Anyway, this isn’t Rudy Jones, so it can’t be the Parasite right? Well…mostly. There was a previous Parasite names Raymond Jensen…which seems to be our poor, doomed, pal Howie’s name in this.

When Bruce leaves Barry’s lair to drive to the Central City Airport, there’s an American Foundation for Suicide Prevention billboard that says “You are not alone,” a nod to the work Snyder has done to help raise awareness for their cause. You can learn more about them here.

During Darkseid’s vision of the future he wants, there’s a ruined Hall of Justice, the Justice League headquarters first made famous on the Super Friends cartoon and which, in more recent years, has become a fixture of the comics.

The pregnancy test in Lois’ nightstand is named, we kid you not, Force Majeure.

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Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

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The 10 Shirts Every Man Needs In His Wardrobe

http://fashion-trendin.com/the-10-shirts-every-man-needs-in-his-wardrobe/

The 10 Shirts Every Man Needs In His Wardrobe

Unless you come from a family of avid Hawaiian surfers, chances are you wouldn’t show up to the funeral of an elderly relative in a pair of floral-print shorts and flip-flops. Likewise, when you’re off to meet your mates for a summertime beer garden session, it’s highly unlikely you’d reach for the parka. Well, assuming you aren’t one of the Gallagher brothers, that is.

The point is, there are different items of clothing best suited to different occasions. However, there is one wonder garment that works across the whole spectrum of social settings. Wear it to a funeral, wear it at the pub, wear it at a wrestling match, wear it to meet the Queen. Intrigued? We’re talking, of course, about the shirt.

With all of its different variations, the shirt is without a doubt the most versatile article of dress there is. But which types of shirt should you stock your wardrobe with to ensure you have all bases stylishly covered? Well, these 10 are the essentials.

Oxford Button-Down Shirt

Sharing its name with the Oxford cloth from which it’s cut, this menswear classic has been serving as the bedrock of many a stylish outfit for well over 120 years. The fabric is quite thick compared to most others in shirting, giving it a casual edge. A button down collar and hanger loop to the back of the yoke are common design traits.

If ever there was a true menswear essential, the Oxford button-down shirt is it. This timeless piece serves as a sartorial building block that works for a range of dress codes, making it one of the most versatile pieces in any wardrobe.

“I like a button-down worn open collar with jeans, corduroys or chinos but not with a suit, as I think the casual style clashes with the formality of the tailoring,” says master shirtmaker Emma Willis. “A button-down collar shirt looks perfect in a mid blue Oxford cotton with a button cuff made famous by Brooks Brothers but now in more tailored fits.”

Dress Shirt

Whether you’re a fan of getting suited and booted or not, society dictates that you’re probably going to have to shoehorn yourself into a tuxedo at least a handful of times over the course of your existence. If you didn’t already know, black tie requires a very specific type of shirt.

A classic evening or dress shirt will typically be cut from pique (AKA Marcella) fabric, which was originally chosen for its ability to hold starch and keep the fabric crisp and stiff. There is also usually a bib, where the fabric is reinforced, a wing, pointed or cutaway collar, and double cuffs, which require cufflinks to be worn.

In terms of styling, Willis suggests keeping things low key. “I prefer simplicity for the evening,” she says. “A marcella bib front evening shirt with stud front and tiny jet or pearl studs and cufflinks, a cutaway collar – wing is only for white tie – and a black silk barathea bow tie.”

Cuban Collar Short Sleeve Shirt

What better way to appease your inner hairy-chested Colombian drug lord than by soaking up some sun in his favourite type of shirt? This breezy summer staple has always looked good, and thanks to the current fifties-fashion revival, it’s right on trend at the moment too.

The ‘Cuban’ part refers to the shirt’s open collar, which makes it ideal for putting some air on your chest. In addition to this, most Cuban collar shirts also feature a fairly boxy fit, straight hem and button-up front.

This shirt is a must-have for most guys, but there are a few considerations to be made. “Approach with caution,” warns personal stylist Daniel Johnson. “This style is not for the thicker necked bloke. Make sure to get it right on the body too, or it’ll look like a pyjama top.

“The golden rule, as ever with short sleeves is to make them fit to the arm – baggy sleeves make arms look skinnier and skinny arms make a chest look smaller – not great.”

Overshirt

Two warm for a coat, yet too cold for a T-shirt. That troublesome transitional period between the two meteorological extremes is notorious for throwing a spanner in the works where getting dressed is concerned. Luckily, though, we have overshirts.

The overshirt’s beauty lies in its versatility. It makes for a perfectly suitable light jacket when the weather is warmer. Or, you can layer things up on colder days and even wear a coat over the top in winter.

Styling-wise, simplicity is the key. “A dark blue overshirt with a white T-shirt works great,” adds Johnson. “But a shabby overshirt and a detailed shirt looks like a sloppy teenagers get up.” Team it up with some raw denim and a pair of lace-up work boots and you’re good to go.

Flannel Shirt

Whether you’re chopping logs in rural Canadian woodland, or simply nipping out for a latte in mid-December, the humble flannel shirt is an absolute must. This thick, soft fabric is essential when the mercury drops and it’s versatile too, whether you opt for a plaid or plain version.

“A mid-weight or heavy flannel shirt is an absolute must for when the weather turns cooler,” says Alex Field, head of menswear at Reiss. “This classic piece is great for layering and can be worn open over a T-shirt or buttoned up so it mimics a light outerwear piece in the summer, or even in the winter under a parka when the cold needs to be kept at bay. Top it off with some dark denim jeans and a pair of sturdy boots and you’re all set to brave the elements in style.”

Office Shirt

It’s a horrible term, but the advent of business casual dress codes has meant that that you can probably clock in to your workplace in a much broader range of clothing than your father ever dared to. We think that’s a good thing, but there’s still room for wardrobe workhorses like the classic work shirt, especially if your boss still expects you to wear a tie.

Look for a breathable poplin weave for stuffy days handcuffed to your inbox, and choose between a pointed or cutaway collar, depending on how much you want people to notice your tie. Some retailers will offer stretchy and anti-wrinkle fabrics, too. Light blues and pinks are solid team members but for its versatility, white will go home with the employee of the month award.

Chambray

No, it’s not denim. Chambray uses a plain weave in its construction, which results in a lighter fabric than the twill weave used for denim. This makes a chambray shirt a great option if you like the look of denim but find it a bit too much.

This type of shirt looks fantastic with almost everything too, making it nothing short of a style staple and something that every bloke should have at least one of hanging in his wardrobe.

Because of this versatility, the chambray shirt couldn’t be easier to style. One of the main considerations is to ensure it doesn’t match too closely with your jeans. “Just vary the shade a bit,” says Sarah Gilfillan, founder of men’s personal styling service SartoriaLab. “Otherwise, wear it with chinos. Or you could put one with a light suit to make it look a bit more casual.”

Classic Short Sleeve Shirt

It wasn’t so long ago that the short sleeve shirt was a style crime reserved for for delivery drivers, bible salesmen and scary men in nightclubs with pupils the size of coffee cups. Fortunately, designers have reclaimed this casual summer style for its versatility and warm-weather practicality.

In recent years, it’s become a vehicle for broader summer trends, from tropical prints and geometric patterns to pastel colours and vertical stripes. Whatever your preferred mode of turning heads, a short-sleeve shirt works with most summer legwear from shorts and chinos to lighter denim and linen trousers.

Wear casually, usually without tucking it in. Make sure the sleeve ends no higher than mid-bicep and never wear it with a suit.

Denim Shirt

Don’t be too quick to write the denim shirt off as a fashion faux pas. Worn right, this classic workwear item can give your outfit an added dose of masculinity and lend a casual edge when worn with an unstructured blazer, or even a full suit if you’re feeling brave.

The fashion police seem to have an eternal arrest warrant out for double denim too, which is one thing that might put a lot of men off wearing denim up top. However, if you’re clever about it, embracing the Canadian tuxedo can offer a way to inject some texture into your wardrobe.

“Never be scared of doubling up quality denim,” advises Danny Hodgson, owner of London-based premium denim shop Rivet and Hide. “It’s when the denim is of poor quality that you can make a bad situation worse. “Styling-wise, it’s good to wear a crispy new raw denim shirt with broken in and faded raw denim jeans, or vice versa.” The key lies in the contrast.

Linen

Is there anything worse than being crammed into a train carriage on a summer commute with some bloke’s soaking wet armpit so close top your face that you can almost taste the salt? Probably not. Don’t be that guy and swap out your Oxfords for linens when the mercury begins to rise.

Linen is the breezy answer to all of your warm-weather woes. It’s light, it’s airy and it gives you the chance to experiment with some pastel shades that you may not ordinarily go for.

“Nothing says summer like a linen shirt,” says Gilfillan. “Airy and breathable, I love a linen shirt with jeans or chinos, or you can roll up the sleeves and wear casually with shorts. I feel like you can be braver with colour in a linen shirt too, though a white or pale blue is always a classic to have in your wardrobe.”

Getting The Perfect Fit

Your shirt could be spun from the hair of angels and hand-stitched in the Tuscan hills by God Himself but, sadly, if it doesn’t fit like a glove, you’re still not going to look the part.

This is why it’s so crucial to nail your sizing and stick to it religiously, no matter what type of shirt you’re wearing. With that in mind, we asked renowned men’s personal stylist Daniel Johnson for his tips on how yours should fit in all the most important places.

Collar

A gaping collar is a dead giveaway that a shirt is too big. Likewise, if your face is turning purple and you’re having difficulty swallowing, you might want to consider a size or two up.

“Pay attention to the neck of your shirt,” says Johnson. “Usually a finger-width of space when fully fastened will be just right.”

Sleeves

High fashion may have experimented with overlength sleeves, but if you’re walking anywhere other than a runway, you’d be well advised not to do the same. For the perfect fit, your sleeves should end where your wrist meets your hand but with enough excess fabric to prevent them from riding up every time you move your arms.

But it’s not all about length – ahem – girth is important too. “Keep them slim,” says Johnson. “You need to see some daylight between the sleeve and the body.”

Shoulders

So, you’re not blessed with the torso of a Greek god. Don’t worry, because a well-fitted shirt can create the illusion of a more masculine frame even if you’re built more like Ariana Grande than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“To make the shoulders appear as wide as possible there’s one trick,” says Johnson. “Where the sleeve of the shirt is joined to the body is the key. It should sit on the ‘humeral head’, in other words the widest point of the shoulder.”

Chest

Nothing ruins the look of a shirt quite like straining buttons, struggling to contain what lies beneath.

“Ensure your shirt isn’t too tight around the chest,” says Johnson. “I see it all too often that the shirt is tightly fitted around this area, restricting movement and looking unsightly when it pulls.”

Ultimately, the chest area should feel comfortable, while also granting you a full range of motion in the arms and upper body.

Length

Length is one of the most common things guys get wrong when it comes to shirting. Yes, we’re fully aware of the whole longline thing but it will pass eventually, trust us. And if you want to come out the other end of it with your style credentials left unscathed, there are just two shirt lengths you need to keep in mind.

“Casual shirts are designed to be left untucked, says Johnson. “For this reason the fabric should reach roughly halfway down the backside. Formal shirts, on the other hand, should reach to the bottom of the backside to avoid coming untucked.”

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50shadesofbrain · 6 years

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What makes a meme go viral?

A bit of a warning before reading: This post starts talking about Twilight roughly halfway through, and doesn’t really stop. I offer neither excuse nor apology.

Hello, internet, and welcome to another exciting installment of 50 Shades of Brain. I’m your host, Tim Carroll. Today, I’m delving into the exciting/horrifying world of internet memes.

What are memes?

The word “meme” was first invented by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene.” A meme is an idea, behavior, or belief that spreads from person to person like a thought contagion. In the same way that a person can develop biological traits (hair color or skin color) by expressing the right genes, a person can develop mental traits (political beliefs and religions) by expressing memes. Just as the study of genes is known as genetics, the study of memes is known as memetics. (Meme rhymes with team, and memetics loosely rhymes with phonetics.)

Memetics and Psychology are closely related sciences. But while Psychology often asks “How do people find ideas?” Memetics asks “How do ideas find people?” [This quote - along with many of the ideas expressed in this blog post - is taken from the book Thought Contagion.]

I’m a big fan of the term “Thought Contagion” to describe memes, as it likens memes to viruses. Memes, like viruses, require people to spread, and, also like viruses, often don’t need the people involved to be willing participants in the spreading. That’s why memes are often described as “self-spreading ideas.”

Now keep in mind, an idea doesn’t have to be true in order for it to be a meme. A great example of a probably-untrue self-spreading idea is the story of Saint Elmo’s Fire. In case you’ve never heard of it, Saint Elmo’s Fire is a meteorological phenomenon in which glowing plasma surrounds tall, pointed objects during thunderstorms (or any situation where there’s a lot of electrical potential energy in the sky.)

This means that during intense thunderstorms at sea, the mastheads of old sailing ships would begin to glow. You can see a video of it here. Rather than seeing this as terrifying, sailors who saw these lights claimed that it was a sign that Saint Elmo, the patron saint of sailors, was there with them to ensure that they would make it through the storm.

Now, is that explanation true? Probably not. What makes the idea “a glowing mast in a storm is a good omen” memetic is that it’s a thought that’s nearly impossible to disprove. Think about it: the sailors who saw St. Elmo’s Fire and made it back to shore could tell everyone the story of Saint Elmo guiding them through an impossible and terrifying storm. Those who saw Saint Elmo’s fire and didn’t make it back to shore… well they couldn’t tell their tale to the contrary, could they? As such, with plenty of sailors to confirm the legend, and none to speak out against it, the legend – or should I say meme - spread.

This meme also had two other things going for it that helped it spread. The first is that it benefitted from some “pre-existing infrastructure.” Saint Elmo was a figure in an already-established and incredibly popular belief system, in this case, Christianity. [Christianity, as well as every other religion, is also a good example of a meme.]

The second factor that helped this meme spread was that it was generally a comforting thing to believe in. During a terrifying storm, a captain probably felt a lot better shouting “Saint Elmo is with us!” to his crew than “We are all so screwed…”

Saint Elmo’s fire is just one example of a meme. I mentioned religion above, but faith in science is also a meme. If you feel the urge to share this blog post with your friends, then the ideas inside are also memetic.

I could go on for hours listing examples of memes (any cultural/social norm for instance) but we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. But before we move on, I should also mention anti-memes – ideas that terminate themselves. A great example of an anti-meme is the idea “melee weapons are more useful than guns during warfare.” This idea died a rapid death in America right around the time of the Civil War. Care to take a guess as to why?

So that’s what the word meme used to mean….

But what does meme mean now…

The science of memetics has hit something of a stalling point in recent years. There are several reasons for this, but a rather salient one is the fact that the word meme has taken on a somewhat different definition.

Today, the word “meme” most commonly refers to pieces of media – be they images, gifs, or blocks of text, that are passed around the internet usually as a joke or to make a political point. Probably the most famous of these is Pepe the Frog. These are often thought to have started with the internet but it’s not too difficult to find historical examples. During the 40’s it was popular for WWII GI’s to scrawl the words “Kilroy was here” on walls and structures. In the 60’s and 70’s it was popular to wear buttons or make graffiti that said “Frodo Lives.” Or if you wanted to get really old fashioned, people have been drawing a square that reads “SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS“ since around the birth of Christ. (That last example looks much cooler when it’s arranged into a five by five square, rather than written out.)

Two thousand years is a long time for a five word message to hang around, wouldn’t you say? What makes those five words have more staying power than all the other Roman graffiti out there?

I guess I’m asking what makes certain memes have so much staying power. Or, in other words…

What makes a meme go viral?

Every year we post an estimated 1.8 billion images to the internet. (Just to give you an idea of how big a number that is, if you dedicated a single second to looking at every one of those pictures, you’d finish sometime in 2075.)

With such a massive number of pictures, it’s likely you could only view a tiny fraction of them, and share an even tinier fraction. And the fraction you see is almost entirely composed of pictures that others decided to share themselves.

What makes that fraction special? Why have over a hundred million people looked at this dress, but not this one? Why is this frog so damn popular, but this one isn’t?

Today on Fifty Shades of Brain, I’m going to endeavor to answer these questions. It turns out there’s not one answer as to what makes a meme more sharable than another. However, I’ve found that almost all memes have one or more of the following things in commons. The first of which is:

1. Pre-Existing Infrastructure

Up above, we talked about pre-existing infrastructure being important in the spreading of the legend of St. Elmo’s Fire. Turns out having a “fan base” helps your meme immensely. In fact, as this Daily Dot article about the ‘wistful Javert’ meme explains, most memes become famous as derivatives of other memes.

If you have a favorite meme – and who doesn’t – you can track its evolution on the surprisingly comprehensive website Know Your Meme, where you can see not just how that meme started, but all of the ways that that meme has crossed over into other memes.

But why would we prefer derivatives? Shouldn’t we like originals just as much, if not more?

Not exactly. The answer lies in something called the Mere Exposure Effect. The Mere Exposure effect is a logical fallacy that causes us to like things more that we’ve seen before. It applies to pretty much everything. We’ll even think that Chinese characters mean nicer things if we’ve seen them before.

In fact, things become funnier the more you’re exposed to them. The more people are exposed to a newspaper comic, the funnier people think it is. [I have a hypothesis that this repeated exposure effect is why comics like Dagwood and the Family Circus have stuck around for so many years.]

Now sometimes memes can be a reference so obscure, that it’s almost impossible to know what the original topic being referenced was without the aforementioned Know Your Meme website. In fact sometimes the joy of spreading an obscure meme is…

2. The ability to be part of a cool secret club.

When we look at some of the ancient memes above we find that a lot of them have a component that is difficult to read to outsiders. For example, the phrase “Frodo lives” doesn’t mean much to people who don’t know about Lord of the Rings. And “SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS” doesn’t mean much if you don’t speak Latin.

So why all the secrecy? Don’t we like it when people understand what we’re talking about? Isn’t that the whole point of communication?

As a rule, humans don’t like keeping secrets. A 2013 study in the journal of adolescence found that keeping secrets was toxic to your health. Their exact words were “secrecy was associated with increased delinquency, physical complaints, depressive mood, loneliness, and with lower quality relationships.” Yikes.

However, humans do love feeling superior to an outgroup. It’s even been argued that it’s crucial to our self-esteem to believe our ingroup is better than our outgroups.

What better way to feel superior to others than to possess relevant information that they don’t have? And what better way to make the information you have relevant than by plastering it everywhere you can?

This love of having special information (or, at the very least, appearing to have it) would explain the internet’s love of increasingly obscure memes. Intentionally incomprehensible memes have become so common that some have likened memes to Contemporary Dadaism. (For those out of the loop, according to Wikipedia, original recipe Dadaism “consisted of artists who rejected the logic, reason, and aestheticism of modern capitalist society, instead expressing nonsense, irrationality, and anti-bourgeois protest in their works.”

So we like memes that build on infrastructure and memes that make us look like part of a knowledgeable ingroup. What else do we like in our memes?

3. They make an argument without making an argument.

Here on 50 Shades of Brain, I try not to get political. I tend to leave that to other edgier blogs. That said, this argument is best done with political example

It’s not too hard to find a Facebook page that’s willing to share political messages in the form of pictures. But out of a very strong desire to stay out of current politics, why don’t we hop on a time machine to the year 2009 and look at this picture. In case you didn’t click on it, it’s a photo of Obama’s Inauguration that says, “One Million people attended Obama’s Inauguration and only fourteen missed work.” It doesn’t take much googling to find that both of those numbers are demonstrably untrue. A quick check on Wikipedia will tell you that roughly 1.8 million people attended the inauguration, including thousands of currently-employed security personnel]

Still the implication of this message is clear: “The people who voted for Obama didn’t have jobs and voted for him because he’d help them stay that way.”

But here’s the fun part about posting that picture to your Facebook page, you didn’t actually say that thing about Obama’s supporters. You implied it. So when your crazy/sane liberal Uncle Jeff comes to your wall and says that plenty of people who attended Obama’s inauguration had jobs or that it’s totally normal for people without jobs to vote against the party in power, you can tell him that it’s only a joke.

Isn’t it great? You get to be snarky and sarcastic with none of the consequences or commitment.

And we do love not being committed to an argument. People may like arguing online, but they hate being locked into things they can’t get out of. A study by Dan Ariely shows that we like keeping our options open. We’ll even throw away potential profits to keep options that we know are bad for us open, just because we can’t bear to be hemmed in. Even if we are completely aware that those options are worse for us than the path we’re on now.

Now, disliking Obama in 2008 wasn’t exactly a rare opinion. Roughly 47.1% of the country agreed with you on it. But just in case you’re confronted by that persnickety 52.9%, you can claim it’s just a joke and get out of the argument. This also helps if you’re not as well versed in politics as your aforementioned uncle since we hate losing arguments.

But if we didn’t like engaging in arguments then why even post this stuff? Well that brings us to the final thing that makes for a good meme.

4. Memes that allow us to declare our allegiance.

To understand this next bit, it might help to learn a little about signaling. In both Psychology and Biology, we have a term called “Signaling.” Basically, anytime we have an aspect of ourselves that we want to show off, we need to find a way to “signal” it to the world. In the (non-human) animal world, a peacock “signals” how sexy and well fed it is by showing off a nice coat of feathers. In the human world, a man might show off how much money he has by buying an expensive sports car.

One of the most important things in signal theory is understanding that every signal has a cost. Basically, the more time and effort you put into broadcasting a signal, the more others will assume you care about what you are signaling. For instance, if you donate $200 to breast cancer research, one would think you’re way more dedicated to ending breast cancer than if you just tweeted about it. Granted, what is considered a high-cost signal for you is probably not what would be considered a high cost signal for Bill Gates or Elon Musk.

Now, memes are pretty clearly low cost signals, but sometimes quantity can matter more than quality.

Signaling dovetails nicely with the innate human desire to belong to a group. A lot of popular memes allow you to declare your allegiance to something.

For instance, we talked about this dress earlier. The entire controversy around that dress was based around picking a side. Did you see it as black and blue or white and gold? Either way you get to belong to a new ingroup. An ingroup you get to be in with celebrities.

If you want to get more elaborate you can declare a side within declaring a side. Do you remember Team Edward vs. Team Jacob? [If you don’t, it’s a reference to the Twilight novels where the main character’s two love interests were the sexy brooding vampire Edward and the sexy brooding werewolf Jacob. Now that I told you, you can feel like you’re part of the in-the-know ingroup. You’re welcome.] You could declare your team on t-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, and of course, with internet posts. Now this is a double declaration of your team, not only can you show off that you’re a Twilight fan (a Twihard, if you prefer) but also you can share your allegiance within the Twilight Fandom.

But hey, isn’t shouting Team Jacob also a way of building upon something that’s already part of “pre-existing” infrastructure? Isn’t it also a way of being understandable to your ingroup (Twihards) and not your outgroup? Weren’t those things we talked about earlier in the post?

Yeah, maybe instead of taking a look at these four things separately, we should be talking about them all together.

Bringing it all together

So if you’ve been counting, we’ve narrowed it down to four things. We like memes that are the following.

1. Build upon some “pre-existing infrastructure”

2. Be understandable to your ingroup but not your outgroup.

3. Make an argument that you can walk away from.

4. Show off your allegiance.

Now, it’s not too hard to see that these four objectives do dovetail nicely with each other. The ideal meme would signal to your ingroup that you’re a member (possibly with a humorous reference), but leave your outgroup with no information. This meme would also present an argument you can easily dismiss as ‘just a joke.’

If we wanted to keep going with our Twilight example (and honestly, why would we want to stop talking about Twilight for any reason?) When you shout, “Team Jacob,” you are 1. Referencing the well-known love story Twilight. 2. Showing off knowledge that is potentially-unknown to your outgroup. 3. Making an argument that you can walk away from (after all, isn’t the other side ridiculous for starting an argument about a book?) 4. Showing off your allegiance to the chiseled werewolf known as Jacob.

Almost every meme we’ve mentioned in this article falls into one or more of these four categories. The Obama election meme above is a very clear way of signaling your allegiance and making an argument you can walk away from. Saint Elmo’s Fire allows you to build off of the pre-existing infrastructure of the Catholic Church and also show your allegiance to that same Catholic Church.

Now there may be a few other factors that help memes spread, and we’ll talk about them and a few other things in this blog post’s appendix, which you should expect to see on this blog in the next month. (Unless I decide I want to do the next post first)

Until then that’s all for this blog post. Be sure to share the ideas in it with literally everyone you can.