Shahad Ali
Senior Press Pass Correspondent
Internet memes are practically taking over our social media news feeds. These ingenious concepts are set to go viral, with some memes being shared up to 1000 times in a given week. Memes are rooted in popular culture and are aimed at a general audience and there are numerous pages on facebook that are run by our very own citizens. One of these pages that stand out among the rest is 'Meanwhile in T&T', a facebook \page that focuses on popular local culture. The page itself is run by an average of six anonymous administrators. Founding member of the Meanwhile in T&T page "Batz" explained to gieMAGAZINE that their identity is never revealed because social commentary can sometimes be very risky. "We had our admins on standby during the arrest of Ian Alleyne. Since social media is so popular these days, photos are easily made available for the most recent events." Batz further explained that once they had enough information to go on, a series of comical pieces were made by different administrators and uploaded to the page. The response by their 10,000 fan base was very positive. "We do it to entertain!" quipped their newest administrator, "Le Biscuit". According to Batz, Le Biscuit was recruited because of his continuous original local memes that he posted online. Le Biscuit, despite being very new to the page, has been able to gain hundreds of likes for very simple, funny and effective memes. Perhaps the most comical is the one that reads:
"Ey girl yuh from Macoya awah, cuz yuh looking like d Centre of Excellence"(lol).
His most recent, popular meme that has gained over 700 likes on facebook is his local satire on the popular sang by GOTYE "Now you're just somebody that I used to know." He replaced the lyrics with:
"Now you're just some bodi that I used to grow."
The page was created out of a very simple thought from Batz himself. An international photo with a plane oddly parked in a suburban area. Batz always thought of the word 'Penal' to be funny. The way it's pronounced, the way its spelt and the whole culture of it being a rural area. He took the photo and just simply placed the words "Meanwhile in Penal..." and for an odd reason the response to the meme was overwhelming. The majority of his facebook friends found it to be extremely funny! There are many competing pages which have gotten more likes than 'Meanwhile in T&T'. These pages have been able to command an online audience of up to 100,000 individuals. As such, these pages have been able to invest their creativity into online advertising. They generally post your product or service during prime time facebook hours, when their memes are carded to have the most exposure to their fan's news feed. While these pages cater for a more international audience, 'Meanwhile in T&T' is keeping it local. "We have not gone into advertising as yet. We want to push our creativity beyond a boundary," revealed Batz, adding that he and his team are working on a series of local memes to see what type of responses they get. Thus far, they have been able to create a meme that resembles soca superstar Machel Montano, but are still working out the kinks as to what exactly this meme would comment on. "It's a work in progress" said Batz. If you like local culture and cannot get enough out of Internet memes be sure to visit 'Meanwhile in T&T' on facebook. They will have you laughing throughout the day!
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY: Meanwhile in T&T