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This particular meme is derived from House Stark's words "Winter is Coming" from the "Game of Thrones" television series. In both the television and book series, Winter is the every-present ominous threat that looms over the world of Westeros. In the beginning of the series Ned Stark, the Lord of Winterfell and person depicted image, has a foreboding feeling of the wars and hardships for Westerns to come, thus “Winter is Coming.” This meme has become a symbol of a warning for an individual to brace themselves for an upcoming trend(often hyperbolic). While in this case it is not necessary for an individual to know the source material to derive meaning from the image, context helps to explain it’s origin. -
George RR Martin’s, the author of the Song of Ice and Fire, writes his books from several characters points of view, 14 main POV characters, and 10 minor POV characters. Since there a large number of characters among an entire world with their own separate story arcs, we many not hear from a favorite character for 300 pages. The hat featured in the meme is from the “scumbag Steve” meme, symbolizing when an individual pulls a something scummy. This is an example of a meme that the individual needs prior knowledge, in this case ASOIAF series, to gain any meaning from the meme. -
Jon Snow, a character from GOT and ASOIAF, is from the north and thus worships the Old Gods. Within the world of Westeros, very few people besides northerns, worship the Old God. This is a play on hipster culture, where the more obscure something is, the better. The meme uses iconic hipster symbols, such as the flannel scarf and big glasses. Therefore for an individual to find this meme funny or valuable, they must understand the context of Jon Snow’s religious beliefs and jokes about hipster culture.
Found Objects
Memes work as found objects, or their metadata can hold different significance to an individual based on that indivdual's prior knowledge of the context of the object. Like Duchamp's "Fountain" the images on the page hold next to know artistic value on their own merit. They only hold humor, or value, based on the value an individual assigns to them. If I, as an individual, knew nothing of "Game of Thrones" or "A Song of Ice and Fire" the images on the page would not hold as much value to me as someone who did have that knowledge. Metadata allows desginers to give deeper meaning to objects withouth the use of complex or lengthy explanations. Often times other elements from other concepts in culture are applied (Remix Culture) so an understanding of the source material may not be suffiecient to fully understand the creator intent