Memes, music, and culture in DH

About

Yaser Al Adma, is a Syrian actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for his series "Maraya” which means mirrors in English (Arabic: مرايا). He wrote and prepared for more than thirty-five years, from 1982 t0 2013, during which he represented many characters who often bear the critical comic character. Yaser Aldama was a key role in spreading this series by repressing different roles and touching people hearts by criticising the causes of their problems in a satire way. With the advent of digital media, Yaser Aladma used as a satirical meme which associated with one of his most famous word “Faza”. Thus, Yasser’ meme and his “Faza” (Arabic: فظاعة) word are used as a response to an impossible situation.

Background

Maraya was based on separate episodes founded on the idea of "From what he read, saw and lived" from 1982 to 2013. The episodes were identical to reality and dramatised a comedy for the life of the viewer whether he/she was Damascene, Bedouin or an Arabic citizen. Also, some of the episodes were forbidden to show due to its political content that episode tries to convey a message seeking social and political change. Thus, Maraya was spread from the local, Syrian, social context to the Arabic one. The uniqueness of this widespread is that even though the journey of Yaser Alabama started in the late of the 20th century, he stills well known among the millennials and post-millennials. This shown in creating a meme for Yaser and including his work as part of digital practice.

Origin

In many sections of the episodes, the word “Faza” in Yaser’s talk was one of his unique and remarkable terminologies. It is used as a reaction to an unbearable incident during the episode. According to Shifman in her book Memes in Digital Culture which discuss this digital phenomenon that has spread the globe. Shifman (2014) builds on Dawkin's concept of memes as she defines it as "the propagation of items such as jokes, rumours, videos, and websites from person to person via the Internet". In my example of Yaser character as pop-culture genre, memes have a meaningful impact on critical social issues. It shows the participation of various opinions on social causes through posting satirical texts and media on the internet which servers an entertainment purpose. As a result, new forms of social participation and cultural production. This help understands the stream of the digital sphere, how it affects audience behaviours and values and how people think and how they act towards others (Knobel and Lankshear, 2007). Thus, digital humanists can use them as tools to convey messages locally and globally and then evaluate its proliferation and evolving throughout the lifecycle and its influence change in society (Shifman, 2014).