What is a meme film, you ask? You remember that image of Nicolas Cage meme, right? The one where he’s got crazy huge eyes, exaggerated eyebrows and a general super sarcastic facial expression? You probably know it. However, do you know what film it’s from? Probably not (it’s from Vampire’s Kiss, if you’re interested. If you’re not, that’s cool). One of the most entertaining elements of memes is their frequent lack of context, allowing the meme creator to put a wide range of text on that static image.
In the case of a film, however, whole scenes can gain meme-worthy status if they’re picked up by social media creators. Enter The Lorax, the animated adaptation of Dr Seuss’s story that recently reached its 10th anniversary. One of the film’s songs is titled ‘Let it Grow’, and it seems to be somewhere near the end of the film. I haven’t watched the rest of the film, and don’t feel any inclination to do so. Perhaps watching the entire film would even dilute my enjoyment of the memes themselves. Anyway, the scene itself begins with an angry small guy with an Edna Mode hairstyle telling his portly moustached employee to placate a large crowd of people or risk being fired. The employee then bursts into song, informing his audience of his name, going against his employer’s wishes and saying something about a tree needing to be grown. Subsequent characters join in the song and also agree that the forementioned tree should be grown. The weird hair Edna Mode guy tries to argue against them but gets yeeted into the distance on a jetpack. Then everyone carries on singing and the boy plants the tree. Great.
But where do the memes come into play, you’re wondering? Through messing around with audio and imagery with the powers of technology, of course. One of my favourite YouTube memes of this scene involves the portly work employee Si (Fletcher Sheridan). In the original clip, the gentleman utters the impassioned phrase ‘YOU GREEDY DIRTBAG’ at his employer. But in YouTuber IceDrop’s clip? Now Si says these words in multiple languages! Watch and laugh as Si insults his employer in a multitude of different tongues that you likely won’t understand! Part of the amusement is garnered from the questionable animation design (Edna Mode would likely not approve), as well as, with any good meme, a suitable lack of context. Sure, I vaguely know the film’s plot about a fantastical creature trying to save the environment, but not much else. The actual song and its lyrics are pretty awful, but I guess that adds to ‘Let it Grow’s memeable charm.
If you happen to be a creature who enjoys flexible aesthetics that turn into an animated hellscape which looks like the software Paint on acid combined with increasingly uncomfortable audio, you might enjoy the video ‘Let It Grow (The Lorax) but every grow increases the bass by 4db and changes the colour’. Equally, if your eyes and eardrums favour the presence of Grammy Norma (y’know, that old lady with the grey hair), then you could watch ‘let it grow but everything is grammy norma’, which just replays the character announcing her presence as the Edna Mode dude tries to talk and the imagery is really distorted. Then again, this might be the kind of thing that’s only enjoyed after a decent dose of sugar/alcohol/drugs, but if you’ve got a few minutes to burn then scouring the meme world on YouTube might be worth your time. It might not, but give it a go.