Memetic.

Meme-ing.

After watching an hour long history on internet memes, I was reminded of some of the memes we've had in our family for a long time. 

To this day, when my brothers and I get together, we are on the lookout for memetic expressions, video clips, sounds and pictures, either from our friends or from ourselves that evolve into something that we customize for lols, depending on the situation. Most of the time, it's very exclusive, as in we are the only ones who find it funny, but sometimes, it leaks out to our very close friends, and some of our cousins. It's almost like an inside joke gone wild.

One of these popular inhouse memes is the one about E, a freelance driver that used to take my brothers to and from their Arabic school here in Jeddah. E had a habit of being on his phone while driving. There was also a certain way he answers his phone, where he changes his voice into a 'bedroom drawl', as if he were suggesting sexual relations to anyone who calls him. My brothers, their friends and our cousins have made songs and jingles about this, they have sketched little drawings, and almost everyone in their circle would every once in a while, answer their phones with that distinctive.. "Ha-looooooo."

In fact, the other night at the goth party, while we were dancing to a hiphop beat (I know, don't ask), my brother and his friends start changing the rap lyrics into something that E usually says. We all lol-ed about it, but S, who wasn't very familiar with the E Story, hounded me all night for an explanation. "What was so funny?"

Our memes are really not that funny, if you think about it. Like most memes, they only become funnier as they get ridiculous, as they are put into highly unlikely situations. 

The last great meme (after the now semi-famous Ghulam story) we enjoyed was that of R. Aounane, a teenaged boy who has a relatively strange name, and a mistaken identity. The best part of this meme? He's in on it, too.