Folklore Meme Stash

Click on a meme created by members of the WiseFolk team and then the information icon at the bottom of the image to learn how to interpret each image and how it connects to the field of folklore!

Two images of the shiba inu “Doge” dog: the one on the right is the head of the dog with a body of a very buff man, and the other is an image of the doge looking sad making a photoshopped frown face. The word “context” is written above the buff doge, with bottom text reading: “We tend to think of the text as the fixed component and of contexts as the variable settings into which the text can be placed. The relationship between context and text is far more complex than such a nested model suggests, however. To say that something has been “taken out of context” is in fact to say that a prior context has been usurped by a later one (Young 1985:119). -Mary Hufford, 2003.” The word “text” is above the sad doge, and the bottom text reads “omg stahp misinterpreting me!!!!”
The background of the image shows a blurred image of a white house on fire with a fire engine parked in front of it with a woman and a firefighter standing to the left of the truck facing the house. The text that is superimposed over this part of the picture reads “Satanic Panic”. The next part of the image centers on a young girl with chin length brown hair staring over her shoulder at the photographer while smiling devilishly as the fire burns on. The text over her reads “Latchkey kid”
Black text on white background reading “Me: [no text] Richard Dorson to Paul Bunyan:” above a close up portrait of a light-skinned man wearing a brown cowboy hat and yelling, with bottom text reading “you’ve yeed your last haw.”
image of three light-skinned people, one man in the middle of two women, wearing very basic clothing, the man is looking at the woman in the foreground with desire, and the other woman looks upset at the man. The text over the man reads “folklorists driving to do fieldwork” and the text over the women reads “an abandoned farmhouse with cool architecture” and the other “the road.”
hand of a light skinned person holding a giant white soda cup. The hand is pressing three different soda dispensers from a soda machine into the cup. Each is labeled as follows: tradition, genre, transmission. The hand is labeled “folklore.”
an image of four human hands of differing skin tones holding each other’s wrists to form a circle shape. The black text over each hand reads: “classics students,” “folklorists,” “theatre kids,” and “bored high schoolers in English class” with the center circle formed by the joined hands reading “Julius Caesar Memes”
white background with three rows of images. Top text reads “what vibe do I give off ??”. Row 1 are mythical creatures with numbered labels: Selkie (1), Bigfoot (2), vampire screaming (3), big witch (4), elf archer (5), fairy (6); Row 2 are vices: Diet Coke (A), beer (B), coffee with cookie in teacup ( C), granola bars (D), hard alcohol (E), tobacco pipe (F); Row 3 are fashion choices: big chunky earrings (@), blue Jean jacket (!), black leather jacket (?), knitted/crocheted shawl (#), bolo tie ($)
black and white photo of Barre Toelken (full body; seated and holding an acoustic guitar) with the phrase “embrace dynamism” over his face, and the phrase “embrace tradition” over the guitar.
Photo collage with black text on top of the image reading “me: can we stop and get folklore? Mom: we have folklore at home. Folklore at home: “ Below the text, there is a collage of photos depicting various folk traditions including people at a Super Bowl party, a jack o lantern, a hand made bird house, homemade dumplings, pie, sourdough bread, hands gardening, an Easter egg, a birthday celebration, hands making a friendship bracelet, and the Taylor Swift Folklore album.
Image of a light-skinned couple sharing a bed. A woman looking at the man turned away from her has text reading "he's probably thinking about other girls..." over her head. The man, facing away looking deep in thought, is labelled "What *is* folklore anyway?" At the bottom, the man is labelled with the names: Zora Neale Hurston, Américo Paredes, Audre Elisa Kerr, Ellie Kongas Maranda, Simon Bronner, Barre Toelken, Roger Abrahams, Diane Goldstein, Dan Ben-Amos, William Thomas, Taylor Swift.....
description: two very muscular human arms, one with lighter skin and the other with darker skin, both with the sleeves of a tee shirt, joining hands in union. The text on each arm reads “English departments” and “anthropology departments” and the hands joined in the middle has text that reads “the study of folklore”
Photo of the back of Bane (a human in military style pants and chest plate) from The Dark Knight Rises in a sewer on set, with arms stretched in the air in direct confrontation with a much smaller man in a pink one-piece, skin-tight suit, photoshopped into the picture. White text over Bane reads “STEM” and over Pink Guy reads “Folklore,” The two appear to be commencing battle.
black and white image of a human made of interlocking puzzle pieces, holding a single missing piece in their hand. Text reads: “Sometimes what a person needs is one piece… Folklore”
an image of Anthony Adams, a dark-skinned man wearing a circle beard and a bright yellow suit jacket, poking his head from around a tree with his tongue slightly out licking his lips and rubbing his hands together
black text above the panels reads “folklorists vining with chaos because it’s a liminal space.” Below is a comic style image of an anthropomorphic yellow dog wearing a small hat and drinking a coffee at a table. The entire room is filled with fire. The two panel depicts a medium shot and a close up of the dogs face, and the second panel reads from a speech bubble “this is fine”
Left side features an image of a blond woman pointing and crying with a dark haired woman holding her back. Above this image is the caption: Real Housewives is trash reality t.v.!! Right side features an image of a white cat making a face that can be perceived as sassy sitting behind a dinner plate. Above this image is the caption: Real Housewives has folklore.
a black and white image of the “that feels when” guy with a party hat on and holding a drink at an event where stick figures are dancing. The text reads “they don’t know that I’m analyzing their dancing through a folkloristic lens”
a screen shot of Morty, a character from Rick and Morty who is a white teenager, who is wearing a red backpack and pointing his finger. Text reads “fairytales and legends as a gateway into folklore studies. The students: you Son of a Bitch Im in.”
screenshot of a person searching the phrase “how to not get caught pushing my sister down and have her bones turned into a magical instrument” while the person receives a text message at the same time from God that reads “so you know how some sins are unforgivable?”
Screenshot taken from an episode of the TV show Food Network Challenge of a cake depicting the “legend” that swallowing a watermelon seed will grow a watermelon in your stomach. The face you see here was meant to be that of a girl who swallowed a watermelon seed, complete with an open mouth and animatronic vines growing up and out of her throat, and is made mostly of fondant. Black text on a white background above the image reads: “When you talk for 30mins abud the definition of a legend and it gets cut down to 30seconds:” implying the image that follows if the face you’d make to the scenario just described.
Image of a blurry light-skinned person's hand speeding quickly towards a large blue button. The hand is labelled "folklorists" and the button is labelled "taking any opportunity to talk about memes"
A .gif of a scene from Vanderpump Rules of James Kennedy looking exasperated and putting his hand over his face. Text on top of the scene reads “Folklorists getting into the social aspects of food” and bottom text reading “It’s not about the pasta!” implied to be a quote/context for the conversation in the .gif.
An image of a light-skinned man wearing a suit with medium length long hair holding his hands in front of his chest in a blue-lit room. The text on screen reads “Trade Offer: I receive: A Florida Man Headline. You Receive: A folklorist’s rant on why Florida Man is a cryptid”
a screenshot of an iPhone background receiving a text message from “Dad” reading “why is the FBI here?” Over a google search of the text “How do I get Ben Botkin’s FBI file?”
image of two light-skinned very muscular men; wrestler AJ Styles stand in front, looking completely unassuming, while the Undertaker, standing behind him with a foreboding look, about to take him down in a fight. Text over AJ reads “JD Vance” and text over the Undertaker reads “actual Appalachian scholars.”
Four panel image of the Despicable Me villain Gru standing excitedly in front of a presentation board. The first board reads "Interview collaborator," the second reads "Set up audio recording equipment," and the third and fourth read "Battery dies during interview" and Gru looks sad when he realizes his plan has fallen short.
Rectangular advertisement outlined in a yellow border featuring the photoshopped head of Dr. Dom wears long black hair and white headphones raising an eyebrow. Next to him in a fancy font reads “Video games? In my Folklore? It’s more likely than you think” with a yellow button at the bottom reading “FREE PC CHECK” and a ContentWatch Logo.
Image of a reddish-purple Yu-Gi-Oh Trap Card. In the center of the card is a black and white photo of Henry Glassie, an older white man in a leather jacket and flannel, with a large mustache curled at the ends. Text at the top of the card reads “Henry Glassie’s Mustache [Trap Card]” and underneath the photo, text reads “Limited Edition: Use Henry Glassie’s mustache to harness all of his folk knowledge for: - Material Culture - Vernacular Architecture.”
A screenshot of two successive moments in the Office. Dwight Schrute, a tall, nerdy white man, stands in a bar with bright lights and people in the background, while Angela Kinsey, a small blonde white woman, approaches Dwight from behind. When Dwight sees her, he exclaims, “F*ck!” Dwight is labeled “People going Legend-Tripping” in both panels and Angela is labeled “The ghost” and then “The Ghost Saying Hi” in white text in each panel respectively. Dwight makes a scared face when he sees Angela in the second panel.
An image of film director Taika Waititi giving actress Cate Blanchett notes on the set of Thor: Ragnarok. Blanchett is wearing a green bodysuit and is standing over Waititi who appears to be reading from a series of notes. Blanchett is labeled “Academia” and Waititi is labeled “Folklorists explaining folklore as a discipline” in white text.
image of a cat’s head with a pink floral headscarf in center surrounded by pink and orange alternating triangle pattern increasing in size from center to emphasize the cat. Upper text reads “Attempts participant observation” and bottom text reads “Annnnnnnd now I’m drunk”
Photo with four text boxes on the left and four images of brain that gradually expand in human head on the right. Text on Left Side: box 1: Thinking the Super Bowl isn’t folklore. Box 2: Making wings, nachos, and other traditional game day foods. box 3: Gathering with a small group to engage in ritual watching and storytelling. box 4: Recognizing Sportsball is folklore.
Image of Jake Gyllenhaal from the film Spider-Man: Far From Home, wearing a space suit with his eyes covered by a bright lazer. Text above the image reads "Paul Bunyan developing into actual lore about loggers. Richard Dorson:" and bottom text reading "Now this is an Avengers Level threat"
two-panel image of two light-skinned humans. The top image is a close up of one of the humans whispering directly into the other’s ear, followed by an extreme close up image of one of their arms with visible goosebumps and hair raised.
Photo of A$ap Rocky and Rhianna at the Met Gala: Rhianna dressed in a frilly black dress and Ae$sop Rocky bundled up in a yellow, blue and red puffy quilt outfit. Text reads “two kinds of folklorists: The Goth into Legends, Macabre, and Halloween. The Enthusiast into material culture, storytelling, and festival”
Image of two astronauts in space facing Earth. The first astronaut facing Earth says "Wait, it's all chili" and the other astronaut facing the other and holding a gun pointed towards them says "Always has been." This astronaut is also labelled "Dr. Tim Lloyd"
a two frame photo and text combination. The first image is of Marie Kondo, a light skinned woman with short black hair wearing white with her hands clasped, dialogue text reading “This one Sparks Joy” in yellow, and text to the right reading “chiming in randomly to point out Folklore happening in action.” The second image is of Kondo again, with dialogue text reading “this one does not spark joy” and the text to the right reads “family jabbering during the holidays.”
Image of the back of Kermit the Frog’s green head facing another green muppet frog wearing a black shroud. Text on right side reads “Studying Fairytales” and the text on the right reads “now make it trauma.”
Screen-capture of Michael Jordan wearing blue in a well-lit room sitting in a chair from the documentary The Last Dance. Text on top reads “Dave Casper of the Oakland Raiders: "People outside of sports are always making things up on little evidence." Cal Football Coach Roger Theder: "It's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,’ MJ is labelled “Alan Dundes,” and the text on image reads “and I took that personally.”
Photo with four text boxes on the left and four images of brain that gradually expand in human head on the right. Text on Left Side: box 1: googling “folklore” Box 2: reading and researching books written by folklorists box 3: taking college courses and getting a degree in folklore box 4: following “Folkwise” on social media
Image of a cartoon Anime boy with glasses lifting his hand in the air, with text reading "are these fieldnotes?" towards an added image of a series of line drawings that look somewhat like butterflies and triangles. The boy is labelled "Alan Lomax"
Two images of Winnie the Pooh on top of each other. The first is a regular photo of Pooh bear frowning in a chair with text to the right reading "folklorist." The bottom image is the same as the first, except Pooh bear is wearing a tuxedo, has squiggly eyebrows, and a smirk, with text on the right reading "small group qualitative sociologist"
Mostly red and beige 1940’s hand-drawn advertisement featuring a young kid on the left wearing a crown and holding a hotdog asking “Gee Propp How Come Your Mom Lets You Have 31 Functions?” in a speech bubble. On the left side is a black and white image of Propp’s face surrounded by many red hotdogs in buns with text labelling the hotdogs with his 31 functions (ex. Absension, trickery, punishment, branding, victory, etc.)
Image of the Facebook "marked safe from" flag. Black text below reads "Marked safe from unethical research practices today"
Photo of A$ap Rocky and Rhianna at the Met Gala: Rhianna dressed in a frilly black dress and Ae$sop Rocky bundled up in a yellow, blue and red puffy quilt outfit. Text reads “When you love your grandma so much you take the quilt she made you to the Met Gala:”
Two screenshots of Anton Ego from the Pixar animated movie Ratatouille, one on top of the other. The first image, Ego appears middle aged and wears all black and takes a bite from a plate of fine foods in front of him at a restaurant which sends him into memory, with added text above him reading “Critical Nostalgia and Material Culture in Northern Ireland (Cashman 2006).” Ego is labelled “The Killeter District Historical Society.” In the lower screenshot, Ego appears as a child eating a home-cooked meal at his mother’s house warmly. In this image, he is labelled “Northern Ireland before The Troubles.”
Image of Steve Buscemi (actor) wearing a backwards red baseball cap, red zip-up hoodie, grey shirt with text reading “band/music” in rock n’ roll font, and holding a skateboard over his shoulder. Top text reads “* First Day of Fieldwork *” and the bottom text reads “Hello, Fellow Kids!”
Two images side by side, on the left is an image of Quenlin Blackwell, a women with brown skin wearing a white shirt with her hands in front of her appearing to be explaining something, with added text reading “Folklore is a ‘thing’ and a ‘group’ and it’s what the ‘group’ does with the ‘thing’ that’s the interesting part.” On the right an image of Ms. Juicy, an older woman with brown skin sitting under a Dallas Cowboys blanket on a couch looking utterly unimpressed, with added text reading “My family at the dining room table trying to have a nice meal.”
Vertical two panel image of a screenshot from the animated series Invincible. In the First, Omni-Man, a man in a skin-tight bodysuit with black hair and a mustache looks at an image of an iPhone with six pieces of audio equipment surrounding it, including microphones and a soundboard. The lower image has Omni-Man replaced by an image of a Tascam audio recorder looking at Invincible, showing the back of the young superhuman’s head, with text reading “Look What They Need to Mimic a Fraction of Our Power!”
Vertically arranged two panel screenshot of Spongebob Squarepants, a yellow sponge, holding a blueish rectangular box. The first image, the box is closed, and reads “Ol’ Reliable” on top of it. The second image, the box is open and has shining light coming out of it, with added text revealed inside the box reading “Fieldnotes.”
Two images vertically stacked on top of each other. Marty McFly, a young white man wearing a grey suit, is standing on a stage with a dark skinned man also wearing a grey suit holding a red guitar behind him. White text reads “***Linda Dégh writing ‘Folktales and Society’*** I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it”
Claymation image of a pirate raising a hand towards a character out of frame while wearing a red jacket and pirate hat in a room on a ship. Black text above the image reads “So like, everything that’s expressive and performed in small groups is folklore?” and the bottom yellow text and misquote from the show reads “Well yes, but actually no.”
Two vertically stacked images of two white men standing next to two cars, one red and one white, in a parking lot. The top image has the two men facing an image of a modern mass-produced white quilt and bedspread with white text reading “This is brilliant...” The bottom image has the men facing the other car, covered by an image of Joan Gaither’s self-portrait quilt, with white text reading “But I like this.”
Four panel images of a seagull sitting on a roof, the second image has the seagull stretching out its neck. Text on the first image reads “Someone chatting about Joseph Campbell.” The following two panels are of the seagull sitting on a roof with its head thrown back, and in the third image, tinted red, screaming with red eyes. Text over the third image reads “*inhales*” and the fourth image reads “Folklorist Activated”
A four-panel image of a light-skinned woman with blonde hair looking around in each panel demonstrating confusion. This is emphasized by added mathematical equations drawn over the images. Black text above the image on a white background reads “folklorists contemplating if all of Henry Glassie’s knowledge is stored in his mustache.”
Text above images reads: “Can I copy your homework? Yeah just change it a little bit so it doesn’t look obvious that you copied. Ok. Image on bottom left depicts a black and white photo of a Mongol noblewoman in regalia wearing an ornate headdress and robes. A large dot of face paint is on both cheeks. Image on the right bottom depicts Natalie Portman in her Padmé Amidala costume that is very similar to what the woman on the left is wearing. Natalie is wearing an ornate headdress with red and gold robes. Her face has been powdered almost white with a large dot of face paint on each cheek and a thick line of the same paint has been painted going down the center of her bottom lip.
At the top of the image, a distressed white woman with her blond hair messily pulled back into a ponytail yelling with yellow text overlaid on the image reading “Why can’t you just be normal?” The bottom image is of a young white boy with overgrown messy blond hair shrieking and looking deranged with text overlaid on the image reading “ *Screams* the changeling in the backseat”.
A stylish photo of actor Giancarlo Esposito wearing a grey suit and tie with a dark blue background. Text reads (from top to bottom): “You’re an Anthropologist studying Culture with a capital “C.” I am a folklorist studying artistic communication in small groups. We are not the same.”
Four panels in a square made from screen shots of close ups of Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala with a grassy field background in Star Wars Episode II. The images and text read as follows: Anakin (top left), labelled Folklore 101, Padme (smiling; top right), labelled “new students” saying “this will be about wizards and fairies and stuff right?” followed by Anakin (bottom left) grimacing. And then Padme (frowning; bottom right), repeating “this will be about wizards and fairies and stuff right?”
The four-panel meme depicts two close ups of the changing facial expressions of a young man on the right side of the image and text paired with the expressions on the left side. In the top half of the image, the person looks excited toward a text that reads “Learning about the American Folklore Society Ethnographic Thesaurus.” On the bottom, the person looks confused/disappointed, toward text that reads “Finding the term ‘breastfeeding’ listed first under ‘foodways’”
A three panel meme featuring text on the left from top to bottom reading: “Mentioning you’re a folklorist at a party. They say they’ve heard of that before. They ask you to tell them a story.” This text is paired with the first image of Meme Man, a beige mannequin head, with hands on the top of their head with the word “Panik” next to it, followed by the same image with no hands and the word “Kalm,” ending with the same first image, only blurred to imply a shaking movement.
An image of an older man (character Ed Truck) in a suit confidently shaking the hand of a surprised and overwhelmed younger man (character Michael Scott), who appears with long hair, a fanny pack, short sleeve button up shirt, and blue striped tie, located in a standard office space. White text labeling the older man reads “Franz Boas saying “I have a new Theory of culture” seconds before dying in the arms of Claude Lévi-Strauss” and the younger man is labeled “Claude Lévi-Strauss”
A horizontal bar graph of increasingly larger sizes in descending order. The top of the chart reads “The Loudest Sounds on Earth” in black text. Each bar is a different color, and is presented with an image at the end of the bar graph depicting the object described by the text labeled over each bar. In descending order, the chart reads “Concert Speakers. Fireworks. Gunfire. Blue whale. Space Shuttle. Opening a beverage in the library’s archives.”
Two books placed next to each other from a side view on a white background with red covers. The book on the left is considerably larger than the right. The book on the left is labeled “Linda Dégh” and the book on the right is labeled “Legend scholarship if Linda Dégh didn’t exist.”
A two panel screengrab from the animated series Omniman arranged vertically. The top image has a close up of Invincible, a young man labeled “Folklorists” with dialogue text reading “How do I get approval for my oral history project?” and the bottom image features a close up of Omni-Man pointing a finger and labeled “IRB Reviewers,” with dialogic response reading “That’s the neat part. You don’t.”
An older man, balding and with white hair wears a gray coat. He stands on a sidewalk in a neighborhood, with some snow visible on the ground. He is speaking, and the text reads "I am once again asking for Pączki"
A large image in the top half of the meme of a silhouette of a strong man sitting in a room with backlighting, labeled “Folklorists” with dialogue reading “I fear no man.” Below, three images are placed horizontally, the first of the same man and lighting with dialogue reading “but that thing…” The second image is black text on a white background reading “Grant Reviewers.” The third image is of the same man from the previous images, leaning forward into the frame, dialogue reading “it scares me.”
Image of a cartoon Anime boy with glasses lifting his hand in the air is labeled “Americans,” with text below reading "is this Irish heritage?" His hand gestures towards an image of a butterfly labeled “Drinking green beer on St. Patrick’s Day.”
Two stock images of a man at a desk looking at a computer holding a mug wearing a button up collared shirt are stacked vertically on each other. The man’s expression in the first image is facing the computer looking content, and in the bottom image, his expression looks pained and uncomfortable. The top text reads, “* Gets an email from a journalist looking for a folklorist *” and the bottom text reads “Can you tell me the origin story of…”
A cartoon image of two people dressed in red and blue SpiderMan superhero costumes (skin-tight suits) pointing at each other in front of a police van outdoors. Both people have a photoshopped gray scarf and large red and gold necklace added to their outfits. Top text reads “POV: we wore the same chunky necklace and shawl combination to the conference.”
a photo of a golden retriever dog looking at the camera sitting calmly next to a large, aggressive animatronic werewolf. The retriever is labeled “Disney’s ‘Cinderella’” and the grey werewolf is labeled “The Grimm Brothers ‘Aschenputtel’”
a close up image of a farmer in a field wearing blue overalls, a checkered shirt, and baseball cap looking into the camera. Text above the image reads “Me remembering to charge my equipment before I do fieldwork” and the bottom text of the image reads “It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.”
A still of Kenan Thompson from SNL dressed as Steve Harvey (sporting a mustache and brown suit) on a parody set of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? “Steve” is looking off to his right, eyes wide and appearing shocked and confused and overwhelmed by the question before him. The question and possible answers at the bottom of the screen read: What is the definition of folklore? A) artistic communication in small groups. B) Informal, traditional culture. C) Small groups communicating creatively. D) creative, everyday communication.
An image of Slowpoke the Pokémon, a pink colored cross between a salamander and a hippopotamus, with a patterned background moving outwards from center. Text reads: “April 25th. The Perfect date.”
An image of multicolored album art for “Now that’s what I call music” but the word “music” is replaced with an image of Simon & Garfunkel album art for El Condor Pasa, with text on the side reading “Cultural Appropriation.”
An image of chrome and bright futuristic buildings with soft textures reflecting sunlight. The buildings are round and imagine a future for architecture and there are flying objects (presumably transportation) in the background. There is some green grass in the foreground and a person happily walking their dog next to a pool. The top text of the image reads “Society if all folklorists could complete their dream projects.”
An image with black text on a white background at the top reading “Journalists asking scientists to explain the origins of Mothman.” The bottom image is of a man’s face with a serious expression (actor Rapulana Seiphemo). The man is labeled “folklorists” and the bottom text reads “am I a joke to you?”
A close up image of the face of a blue character with a large head (Megamind) peeking into a circle lens very closely. Text at the top of the image reads “No Folklore?”
an image of a male student sitting in a classroom with an extremely red, strained facial expression, with visible veins. He is wearing a black jacket, and there is a female student with a neutral facial expression and a whiteboard in the background. Text reads: when the audio recorder is on after you shared a powerful plate of enchiladas with your informant.
a vertical panel meme - the top image is of a man wearing a suit looking at a computer monitor with light on his face. Text reads “sending consent forms before starting fieldwork.” The bottom panel is the same scene, only the man has become a rotting skeleton, and the text reads “after receiving signed consent forms.”
A DALL-E generated screenshot. Each image has the text “DALL-E Mini AI model generating images from any prompt!” with nine square images on a grid below. The search bar text in this image reads “american folklore” and includes images of humanoid drawings in various scenes, kindof like wood cuts, without discernable or coherent features.
A DALL-E generated screenshot. Each image has the text “DALL-E Mini AI model generating images from any prompt!” with nine square images on a grid below. The search bar text in this image reads “folklore” and includes images of presumably people dressed in red and white patterned skirts mid-group dance. The outfits are perhaps regalia or costumes for a special occasion.
A DALL-E generated screenshot. Each image has the text “DALL-E Mini AI model generating images from any prompt!” with nine square images on a grid below. The search bar text in this image reads “Folkwise” and includes images of roughly two people in outfits that could be regalia or costumes for a special occasion, dancing crouched low together.
A pixelated image of a character’s shoulders up, facing a group of edited images of a scarf, Tascam recorder, the book “What Folklorists Do,” the word “Purple,” a chunky necklace, and a moleskine notebook. Pixelated text on the bottom of the screen reads “Wild Folklorist Appeared!”
candid and somewhat blurry image of a high school hallway. A dark skinned man labeled “belief scholars” is dressed in all black with white shoes jumping straight into the air with his head barely touching the ceiling, and a light skinned man in the foreground of the image labeled “the next up and coming cryptid” wearing a gray sweater and glasses running away very quickly from the floating man behind him.
Three images stacked in a tier paired with text. The images on the right side are of Vince McMahon, a light-skinned man wearing a suit with each image increasing his expression of excitement and intensity. The text on the left reads: “Downloading TikTok” then “Realizing Folklore is being Created and Performed” and finally “Folklorists going into overdrive trying to keep up.”
a still taken from The Simpsons where Lisa Simpson addresses a crowd with a large blank presentation slide in the background. Added text reads “Memes are a pedagogical tool. More folklorists should utilize humor in their classrooms or online in the form of memes to provide high-context examples of in-group communication, and teach internet literacy at the same time.”
an oblong gray area with the green x of the Xbox logo on the left side of the image. Text reads “achievement unlocked: friends with the Fairy Tellers Podcast hosts.”
A still from Parks and Recreation of character Andy Dwyer sporting a button up short sleeve shirt and a tie looking bashful with purple top text reading “I dont know what phenomenology is” and purple bottom text reading “and at this point I am too afraid to ask.”
An image of a man kneeling down in a plain button up shirt and pants next to a series of white tiles in a row, incrementally larger than the one before it. The largest tile is labeled “one of the most prolific traditional meals across the United States,” and the smallest is labeled “a recipe on a can of soup.”
a four panel hand-drawn comic of a person dressed as an explorer in a crystal-lined cave. Panel one, the person opens a chest in a small pool of water, and says “I’ve finally found it… after 15 years.” Panel two has the person rolling out a scroll and says “The Scroll of Truth!” Panel three is the scroll held up to reveal text that reads “Studying folklore does not guarantee you are ethical in research practice.” Panel four shows the person throwing the scroll away exclaiming “nyehhh!” and is labeled “non-reflexive researcher.”
an illustration of four bald, white human heads, medical illustration style, with different parts of the head highlighted with solid red, indicating the location of pain. The fourth and final head is completely filled in with red. The top text reads “Types of headaches” and each head is labeled from left to right: migraine, hypertension, stress, Campbell’s ‘Monomyth.’”
top: a young white woman with blond hair and glasses wearing a white t-shirt with sharpie drawings on it sits on her bed in a suburban room. She holds up a drawing pad with “You okay?” Written on it. Bottom: a young white man with brown hair in the “Bieber” style of the late aughts sits in his room holding his own drawing pad that explains the history the word Folklore while also expressing his thoughts about her future album
a vertical three- tiered panel depicting a scene from the Simposons. The top panel is of Moe, holding a drummed Barney out the front door of his bar. Barney is labeled “historic geographic method.” The second panel is of Moe labeled “modern folklorists.” The bottom panel is of Barney standing behind Moe without him noticing, inside the bar, still labeled “historic geographic method”
a screenshot of a tweet that has been altered to say “No I wasn’t a teenage dirtbag, I was the weird kid checking out folktale collections from the public library”
text at top of meme reads “The first guy who let their cider accidentally ferment must have been like…”. Below the text are three frames of a young Asian man. First frame is of his profile looking stoic. Second frame he is looking directly into the camera as if something has his attention. Third frame is of him making a dramatic surprised face.
a still from the movie Zoolander featuring Will Ferrell as Mugatu, wearing a red and black high-fashion outfit holding a small poodle, stating something to the person next to him. Top text reads “Clogs? For conferences?” and the bottom text reads “So hot right now.”
Image of Squidward Tentacles (a squid-like character in the show Spongebob Squarepants) peering through a window with open window blinds at Spongebob and Patrick running on the ground below with their arms up. Text over Squidward reads “Me” and text over Spongebob and Patrick reads “People who finished their paper before the conference”
a screenshot of a tweet that has been altered to say “No I wasn’t a teenage dirtbag, I was the weird kid checking out folktale collections from the public library”
an altered photo of five young men posing for a picture at a party. A golden retriever is centered in front of the men play bowing with a samurai sword in it’s mouth. Text underneath this reads “When the Animal Helper Shows Up to Finish Your Quest”.
Screen-capture of Michael Jordan wearing blue in a well-lit room sitting in a chair from the documentary The Last Dance. Text on top reads “A lumber company invents a large lumberjack and his blue ox companion for advertising”. MJ is labeled “Richard Dorson,” and the text on the image reads “and I took that personally.
An image of a skeleton over a dark background with its hands in the air to feign frustration. Top text reads “When it's October” and the bottom text reads “and no one asked you about ghost stories.”
Image of a fake zombie like rotting skeletons too text reads “when you have to go back to the office after a weekend spent having fun with folklorists at the American Folklore Society Annual Meeting” and bottom text reads “I can feel myself rot”
Image of Squidward Tentacles (a squid-like character in the show Spongebob Squarepants) peering through a window with open window blinds at Spongebob and Patrick running on the ground below with their arms up. Text over Squidward reads “Bloody Mary waiting for the sleepover to get weird.”
screen grab from the film Young Frankenstein of Frankenstein hugging his monster from danger in the room. Too text reads “veteran conference attendees” and bottom text reads “loving the first timers”
image of Jason from the Halloween franchise looking menacing standing behind a bush. Text reads “all the papers I promised for AFS23”
screen grab from an episode of Portlandia including a close up of Fred Armistan looking down and grabbing the back of his head. Top text reads “folklorists picking out the clogs for AFS23” and bottom text, a quote from the scene, reads “I’m not not being indecisive, I just can’t decide!”
top text reads “when the abstract gets accepted and gig actually have to write the paper” above a picture of Surprise Pikachu
a Gif of a plastic skeleton puppet dancing. Bottom text reads “when you get to AFS and see all your friends”
On a white background text at the top of the image reads “Folklorists at Sleepovers”. Underneath that text is an image of an illustration of a goth girl (left), a pentagram (center), and a blond girl (right) in a blue patterned dress. Underneath the goth girl on the left , text reads “Lets summon a demon” and underneath the blond girl text reads “OMG this is gonna be so fun”. Beneath this, larger text reads “Theologists at Sleepovers” with an image of two men and a black cow in military gear with guns on the bottom left of the image. Text beneath the men reads “Who keeps summoning them”. To the right of the image of the men and cow is an image of them staring at an otherworldly creature.

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