Just when you thought the “cash me ousside” meme had come and gone…

My colleague, Erhan Aslan, and I have recently had an article appear in the Journal of Sociolinguistics about how YouTube users describe and assess the speech of Danielle Bregoli (the “cash me ousside” girl). The abstract is available online here , or you can email me if you’d like a copy of our article.

And a discussion about our article has already appeared on Reddit! Ah, how I love the endless recursivity involved in studying internet phenomena…

In case you haven’t been following the life of Danielle Bregoli, she’s got an active career as a rapper (she goes by the name of Bhad Bhabie), and a small country’s worth of followers on social media (over 15 million on Instagram alone).

Erhan and I have just launched Phase 2 of our study, in which we’ll be analyzing over 200+ different variations of the image macro shown above. Our focus this time will be on how meme creators exploit word play and other forms of linguistic humor.

And speaking of playful and humorous memes, this recent article in the Guardian showcases some delightful examples of parodies of the #himtoo campaign. These examples really highlight parody’s potential for serious critique!