A&M researchers now studying religion through funny Internet memes

The study focused on religious memes which highlighted what people liked and what they found problematic about religion. Photo by vitamin-ha.com The study focused on religious memes which highlighted what people liked and what they found problematic about religion. Photo by vitamin-ha.com Photo: Memes Online Photo: Memes Online Image 1 of / 72 Caption Close A&M researchers now studying religion through funny Internet memes 1 / 72 Back to Gallery

The battle of the religious memes rages strong on timelines and Twitter feeds every day, and now researchers at Texas A&M have studied them.

Classics like "1 John" over a picture of a toilet were featured in a research paper called "Reading Religion in Internet Memes," which found that it's quite a skill to put them together.

The witty photo-and-text combos have become a language in themselves, researchers said. It's something that could potentially have its own Rosetta Stone course to learn it, it seems.

"Memes require an interesting level of literacy," said Heidi Campbell, associate professor of communication at A&M. "You need to understand visual images, have basic digital literacy, have a fluency in memes culture so you understand how different memes work."

And you need to know which side of the religious fence you sit on.

"They can be positive or critical," said Campbell.

Memes can swing wildly from supportive messages created by religious organizations themselves, to irreverant and sarcastic messages written by, shall we say, less religious folks.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery," proclaims one meme, followed by in big letters, "Sorry Joseph."

The word meme was apparently coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 who said a meme was an "idea, belief or behavior that is spread through a given culture or social system through social or information sharing."

Whole genres have sprung up, like the Lolcats memes which sprung from the famous "I can haz cheezburger" meme.

Another trend highlighted is the Sean Bean/Boromir memes based on his famous line from Lord of the Rings, "One does not simply walk into Mordor" which birthed hundreds of "one does not simply..." spin-offs.

Researchers note that the inauguration of the new Pope last year was a major event in the meme world.

"There was a ton of memes that were produced in just a few days during the process, you can watch over a 72 hour period the whole debate unfold," Campbell said.

Houston's own major meme event was the polar vortex icepocaplyse of 2014, during which Houstonians used the language of the meme to express a vast array of ideas in a short time.

Perhaps the most memorable, the irony-drenched Star Wars parody which featured HanSolo and Luke Sykwalker setting out in the snow, with the words, "We're going to H.E.B., want anything?" underneath.