3: Memes and Capital

In an interview with the ABC, I once described TikTok as comprising ‘the performativity of YouTube, the scrolling interface of Instagram, and the deeply weird humour usually reserved for platforms like Vine and Tumblr’.¹ In later work, Kaye et al.² dipped into similar metaphors, describing a set of international short-video platforms that have ‘paved the way’ for TikTok via their most notable features, namely:

Indeed, the swift uptake of TikTok is in part due to social media users’ familiarity with an assortment of features and content norms from other platforms. Alongside this, the myriad of TikTok features have also contributed to a thriving ecology of content, many of which facilitate its highly vibrant meme cultures. This chapter begins with a quick review of the interface and key features of TikTok, considers some of the memetic practices popular among TikTok users and then offers five forms of capital that circulate among TikTok meme communities: Niche, Subcultural, Cross-cultural, Discursive, and Cross-platform.