Paula Deen Riding Things
Team Member: Jennifer Hansen
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| The First Paula Deen Riding Things Meme |
Most of the meme's images are of Deen riding food, particularly butter and bacon, as the chef is known to love these unhealthy ingredients.
Also popular is placing Paula Deen upon the shoulders of celebrities, movie characters, or otherwise well-known people.
The meme originated after an appearance by Paula Deen at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival on February 27, 2011. At one point during a tasting event Deen was hosting, her co-host Robert Irvine, a fellow celebrity chef, got down on all fours and Paula climbed onto his back and pretended to be a horse jockey. (Of course copious amounts of wine were involved).
Here's a video of the incident: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeaUA1Dt-mM
The following day, February 28, two college students, known to the Internet as Nick and Robbie, created a Tumblr blog called "Paula Deen Riding Things." They posted 13 photoshopped images of Paula Deen's riding pose, including the gif above. The tumblr also provided two templates which enabled others to participate more easily in the production of the meme. The meme did not take off in popularity until the next day,March 1, after comedian and talk show host Jimmy Fallon tweeted a link to the blog. The meme spread quickly and was featured on numerous websites and even shown to Deen herself during a television appearance on March 16. The meme's popularity was highest during the month of March 2011 and decreased significantly once the "buzz" had passed (see the Google Trends graph below).The Paula Deen Riding Things website (http://pauladeenridingthings.com/) had 212 posts during March 2011, 106 more over the next three months, and only 91 in the 22 months since August 2011, including three submissions in 2013. Additionally, the popularity of this meme was restricted to the United States (according to Google trends), which would suggest the meme's humor is cultural specific.
The Paula Deen Riding Things Google Trends graph:
The popularity of Paula Deen Riding Things is, like many memes, a strange phenomena. One possible factor in its proliferation is the joy of participatory humor. By providing an easily accessible template on their blog, Nick and Robbie encouraged others to modify the already funny situation of Paula Deen riding a man's back along with them. In addition, America's celebrity fixation, as well as emulation, may be a factor. Paula Deen's actions only garner so much attention if people are watching and interested in what she is doing, which is only the case because of a tv show and media attention. Media attention also helped spread the meme in their coverage of both the original incident and the meme's creation. The role that Jimmy Fallon's tweet had in the spread of this meme indicates the desire of Americans to emulate their stars, to be interested in what interests or amuses them. Finally, the meme is popular because it is funny. It is humor of the reducto ad absurdum type. Taking a picture of Paula Deen and placing her on a killer whale (http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/369/290/5fb.png) expands her behavior from its original playfulness to absurd. Also, Paula Dean herself is an exaggeration of a Southern identity, from her accent to her love of butter. The Internet meme allows people a disinhibited space to poke fun at her identity. All of these factors help explain why Paula Dean Riding Things rose quickly in popularity.
Although the Paula Deen Riding Things did not spawn other memes, a common practice is to incorporate Paula Deen into other memes.
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| Paula Deen Rides Ridiculously Photogenic Guy |
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| Paula Rides Nyan Cat |
In October 2011, a blog was created devoted entirely to the mash-up of the Paula Dean Riding Things meme with another meme known as Kim Jong Il Looking At Things.
In conclusion, Paula Deen Riding Things is a Photoshop meme that arose in March 2011 and has largely died out today, but not before providing us with unforgettable images such as...
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