Last month, the meme craze invaded UC High, as an anonymous student founded the group “UCHS Memes” on Facebook. The group has taken the school by storm, publishing funny and sometimes edgy posts about all that goes on at UC.

For students that don’t spend an obscene amount of time on the internet, an internet meme is defined as “a cultural phenomenon that spreads from one person to another online” (whatis.com). Memes are commonly spread through social networking websites such as Tumblr and Facebook. Examples of popular memes include the “LOLcat,” which combines funny phrases and pictures of cats; and the “Ridiculously Photogenic Guy,” which was born from a picture of an extremely photogenic man running a marathon (knowyourmemes.com).

A single student founded UCHS Memes, but over time, several additional students have been added as administrators of the page. One administrator (who has chosen to remain anonymous) said, “I get all of my inspiration from you guys, the viewers. I like to characterize my page as a way for people to express themselves. I consider myself like the voice of the student body. I post whatever needs to be posted, from a single clap it up to shedding light onto a problem. There’s no limit to what people can post and that’s what I’m most proud of.” With over 700 likes on Facebook it seems that the student body is indeed responding well to the posts made by the page.

Some of their most “liked” posts on the group reflect on Principal Jeff Olivero’s overuse of his favorite phrase – “clap it up.” Although it pokes fun at the principal, most students agree that the memes page is not meant to be malicious. It is meant to make light-hearted fun of the experiences a student that goes to University City would encounter on a daily basis, such as censored Wi-Fi, un-flushed toilets, and classrooms without windows. Senior Nia Hilton explained, “Some people may feel that a few of the memes go too far. But honestly it is all meant in good fun.”

Senior James Natanauan said, “I think that the posts on the memes page are hilarious, and I love reading them. My favorite was the one about school Wi-Fi.” This particular post contained a picture of a young girl with a burning building behind her. The text read, “They censored our Wi-Fi, I censored their screams” (facebook.com). For the many of us who have been unable to access simple, clean websites such as Wiki-Answers, this meme especially reinforces these frustrations.

Despite how eager students are to discover the creator’s true identity, the main administrator of the page said, “In time, you will learn my identity. But for now, it will be best for all if you don’t know who’s behind UCHS Memes.” So, the student body and administration will just have to enjoy (or at least tolerate) the posts until we are finally able to unmask the creator of the page.