Gifs
A brief history and analysis
Potential Pronunciations
- gif
- gif
- gif
What even is a gif?
Warning: jargon ahead.
The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that supports up to 8-bits per pixel (255 colors) per frame, as well as animation.
A Brief History of Gifs (not by Stephen Hawking)
Note
A company that you have never heard of introduced the GIF format in 1987 to make it so that you could download an image in color. Yes, what you're thinking is right: before 1987, you couldn't download a color image.
What makes a gif funny?
There are a few aspects to gifs that specifically make them funny.
- Context
- Types of humor
Context
As with a lot of comedy, context is important in creating a humorous space for the gif. This has created a whole new genre of gifs called reaction gifs,
Note
which allow you to express your reaction to something over the internet, when you're not face to face. Captions are also commonly used to create the same effect.
Types of Humor
Many of the primary genres of humore can be expressed in gifs, including:
- Dark or Morbid humor
- Surreal humor
- Parody
- Irony
- Blue
- Slapstick
- You get the point
Dark or Morbid (Black) Humor
Deals with disturbing subjects such as death, drugs, terrorism, rape, war, and general sadness
Surreal Humor
A form of humor based on bizarre juxtapositions, absurd situations, and nonsense logic
Parody
Comic imitation often intended to ridicule an author, an artistic endeavor, or a genre.
Ironic Humor
An event in which what appears, on the surface, to be the case, differs radically from what is actually the case
Blue Humor
Also called off-color, or risque (from the French word for “to risk”); relies on impropriety or indecency for comic effect
Physical Comedy
Somewhat similar to slapstick, this form uses physical movement and gestures; often influenced by clowning
Cute Humor
A thing that makes you smile because it's so cute.
Deadpan
Delivered with an impassive, expressionless, matter-of-fact presentation.
Hyperbolic humor
Comic presentation marked by extravagant exaggeration and outsized characterization.
Word play and Wit
More intellectual forms based on clever, often subtle manipulation of language (though puns can be crude and farcical)
Conclusion
Gifs are a great way of expressing emotion, and have been mangled by the internet into a sometimes-funny-but-mostly-hopeless thing. Just like your mom.