ABSTRACT
L. Laineste and P. Voolaid found that the humour in memes creates intertextual references that rely on both cultural heritage of the local society and on the global cultural references. Memes form the type of storytelling that entangles recognisable traditional patterns and motifs, but also accepts variation and adaptive modification. A global Internet darling, memes spread across platforms and borders. Memes preserve a number of highly recognisable configurations that may vary by colour, font, composition of elements, vocabulary, but retain trademark features of the original style. The visual language of magazine cartoons bears much resemblance to many formats of the present-day Internet memes: it offers a condensed and often simplified representation of a complex situation or event and demands the contextual awareness of the audience. In order to interpret a cartoon, one has to decode the hints and allusions that the author is making.
