USU Digital Folklore Project Announces 2023 Digital Lore of the Year

LOGAN — Utah State University’s Digital Folklore Project has announced that two forms of digital folklore tied for Digital Lore of the Year 2023: “Barbie” memes and OceanGate memes.

When Greta Gerwig’s movie “Barbie” hit the box office in July and began breaking records, the meme response was fast, favorable and pink. “Barbie” opened on the same day as Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” Fans delighted in the contrast of dark and light and christened the cultural event “Barbenheimer.” Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Stereotypical Barbie also appeared in memes that drew on scenes and themes from the movie.

When the Titan, a submarine built and operated by OceanGate Expeditions, went missing almost two hours into its trip to view the wreck of the Titanic, rescuers raced against the ship’s reported 96-hour emergency oxygen supply, but reports eventually revealed that the submersible had imploded due to pressure loss.

As details emerged about the passengers — only the extremely wealthy could afford the $250,000 seat price — and the Titan’s questionable construction (the craft had never been inspected by any regulatory agency and was being piloted by a video game controller), memes began to emerge commenting on the tragedy and the irresponsibility of both the company and the thrill-seeking billionaires.

“Having ‘Barbie’ memes tie with the much darker OceanGate memes is a lot like the marriage of light and dark that we saw in the memes about ‘Barbenheimer,’” Professor Jeannie Thomas said.

Lynne McNeill, who co-directs the Digital Folklore Project with Thomas, said, “the dominant theme of this year’s contenders appears to be the disparities that dominate many of our cultural conversations these days.”

“Both ‘Barbie’ and OceanGate memes provide an opportunity to comment on gender disparity and wealth disparity,” she said.

McNeill and Thomas are folklorists in USU’s Department of English.

Folklore students and faculty at Utah State University track digital folklore on an annual basis. They then meet at the end of the year to prepare a ballot that goes out to a national board of experts in digital lore. This panel selects the year’s winner.

The USU team places the lore into two categories that appear on the ballot: social issues and serious fun. The OceanGate memes represented the social issues category, and the “Barbie” memes were a serious fun entry.

Other 2023 Digital Lore of the Year contenders included: