meme magic

English

Etymology

From meme +‎ magic.

Noun

meme magic (uncountable)

1. (Internet slang, humorous) The (supposedly supernatural) power of Internet memes to have a meaningful impact on the real-world when used en masse in a targeted way.
   • 2017 June 19, T. J. Coles, President Trump, Inc.: How Big Business and Neoliberalism Empower Populism and the Far-right, Clairview Books, →ISBN, page 88:

     The site confirms that in 2016, ‘moderator TehDonald [sic] of the /r/the_donald subreddit submitted a post promoting … Nimble America, remarking that the community had “proven that shitposting is powerful and meme magic is real.” Meanwhile, Redditor NimbleRichMan [i.e., Luckey] submitted a /r/the_donald post asking for help defeating Hillary Clinton by donating to Nimble America’.

   • 2018 December 11, Julie A. Webber, The Joke Is on Us: Political Comedy in (Late) Neoliberal Times, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 307:

     As activists interested in generating a wedge between American Muslims and the LGBT community argued, “meme magic is real boys, so spread this meme. Drive this wedge” (Lyons 2017). The implication of this was that support for Trump did not mean liking the guy; it meant supporting his candidacy through extreme online versions of his campaign rhetoric and performance.

   • 2020 June 16, Tara Isabella Burton, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     Meme magic—the half-joking idea that Donald Trump could be “memed” into victory through judicious 4chan shitposting—became part of the site's rhetorical landscape. Due to the valiant efforts of brave shitposters, the “God-Emperor,” as Trump was frequently known on the site, would be propelled to the White House, where he would quench his thirst with an endless supply of liberal tears.

   • 2021 July 29, Melody Devries, Judith Bessant, Rob Watts, Rise of the Far Right: Technologies of Recruitment and Mobilization, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 176:

     Weirdness also refers to the way in which the group members' self-perception as a coherent entity is connected to a quasi-religious experience of their individual identities being subsumed by something greater than themselves – a particularly common sentiment among 4chan anons, for instance, expressed by mythologizing their collective efforts as 'meme magic'.

   • 2022 July 18, Paul Dawson, Maria Mäkelä, The Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:

     One of the first comments, which quickly became the top voted comment on the thread, simply said “meme magic”, linking to a post on 4chan that, three weeks earlier, combined a series of memes to tell a story about how Trump arrested Hillary Clinton.