BBC: 'Going viral - what happens when you accidentally spawn a meme'

[yorkie]

Some of you may have seen already this, which is currently on the front page of the BBC News site:

Going viral What happens when you accidentally spawn a meme

It's already been billed as the image of 2016 in some quarters. It's been called art and hailed for its beautiful composition. Others have singled out how it depicts 21st century Britain.

If you have not yet seen the image in question, it shows drunken revellers on a Manchester street and was taken by photographer Joel Goodman on New Year's Eve.

And it's my fault he received all the world's attention on Friday. Sorry, Joel.
Mainstream UK websites chose to lead with the image. Le Monde ran a piece on it. Other websites in France, as well in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, discussed it.

My original post has been retweeted more than 23,000 times....

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11568591

If Michelangelo took photos of drunks ... epic picture of New Year's drunkeness in UK inspires artistic memes

Only in Britain could debauched New Year celebrations be raised to classical levels.

A picture of debauched behaviour in a street in Manchester on New Year's Eve has gone viral after it was turned into a series of hilarious memes on social media.

The original photograph - posted by Roland Hughes on Twitter - looks like a tableau of drunkenness, with police grappling with a young man in the foreground while being shouted at by a woman in a fur coat.

A group of youngsters gather in the background on the chaotic Well Street, in front of a Superdry clothes shop and Greggs bakery, watching the mayhem while clutching takeaway boxes.

Meanwhile, an older man dressed in blue is splayed in the middle of the road, clutching a beer bottle in his outstretched hand while his T-shirt rides up over his belly.

After the photograph was compared to a Renaissance painting, Twitter-users got to work to create a series of spoof versions of the scene....

It's a powerful image. Also quite a sad one, in many ways. It raises a lot of questions about our culture of binge drinking. It also raises questions about photography and how images can suddenly, unexpectedly develop into 'memes'.

I also thought I'd have a go at producing my own version using Adobe Photoshop. I didn't have a particular plan, there is no message, it's just random. (If you're wondering what the fish on the road is about, it's from this incident Public warned against dining out on Belfast fish spill last year)

 

[yorksrob]

Well, it's certainly nice to see a Wimpy bar in the background

The references to Hogarth's Gin Lane are quite fitting !

 

[yorkie]

Well, it's certainly nice to see a Wimpy bar in the background

Yes, I knew you'd like that (I actually saw one the other day...I think it was in Enfield)

 

[yorksrob]

Yes, I knew you'd like that (I actually saw on the other day...I think it was in Enfield)

Indeed - there are still a few about !

 

[backontrack]

Wimpy and Donald Trump certainly go together!

 

[DaleCooper]

"Spawn a meme"? Is that a euphemism?

 

[Starmill]

Changing the double yellow lines to red is a subtle change... but to a Mancunian it immediately and pretty convincingly tells you the photo is not of somewhere in Greater Manchester. So that's very strange to look at!