The world of memes is a complex and oftentimes bewildering landscape to navigate.
To the outsider, it’s an ever-expanding language of seemingly nonsensical words and images.
But to the insider, the symbols of this world are powerful tools of communication, often
subject to controversy, transformative meanings and varying durations of popularity.
However, since Twitch’s launch in 2011, one emote has become the trademark
of sarcasm and continues to thrive atop the platform’s throne.
That’s right.
We're finally doing it: we’re tackling the grey face (no space).
"Josh, you can’t meme on people when trying to explain a meme!"
Listen you can't tell me what the f*ck to do.
We’re doing Kappa.
"Kappa!"
"Kappa?"
"Cappuccino? Nah makes me hyper."
"What's a Kappa?"
The seemingly smug, desaturated face you’re seeing right now is that of former Twitch
developer Josh DeSeno.
Back in 2009, he was hired to work on the chat client for what would eventually become TwitchTV.
And, like many of his co-workers, DeSeno decided to insert his employee photo as an easter
egg which would appear when a specific word was typed.
He chose the command Kappa based on his love of Japanese mythology.
The Japanese Yokai are a collection of various demons or monsters, and the Kappa is a kind
of strange water imp, complete with beak, shell, and a dish on its head that holds water.
On an average day, the Kappa enjoys fine activities like eating cucumbers, engaging in some sumo
wrestling...
...or pulling people’s souls out of their butts.
I’m not joking.
"I'm an a** man. Yeah!"
According to DeSeno, once his face was was initially discovered, it was used as a kind
of generic, punny replacement for parts of other words, like “kappa-licious.”
But over time, the emote and its command became synonymous with sarcasm.
And given Kappa’s ceaseless popularity, I wanted to talk to an expert about how this
type of phenomenon emerges and develops.
Yes.
I had to seek out a meme overlord, one even greater than I.
"That's impossible!"
My quest for memetic enlightenment would see me venture to the University of Toronto and
a quiet office where I’d meet Dr. Marcel Danesi, a semiotician with over 40 years of
experience in his field.
“It’s a bizarre world in which we live, I’m sorry to put it that way.
It is bizarre.
But I’ll tell you as well, it's extremely interesting.”
Professor Danesi wrote an entire book about Emoji, and has another coming out next year
called “From Popular Culture to Meme Culture.”
In the case of emoji, many of those symbols had obvious pre-existing meaning.
But I asked Professor Danesi if there were any cases he could think of where a near-meaningless
set of symbols was simply handed over to users.
"Not in this way, but if you look at all kinds of symbols from the beginning of time.
They have and bear meaning in a context, in fact even magical meaning and Emotes are still signs – symbols
of a certain type – that accrue meanings through usage and through the participation
of the users of these symbols.
Adding to them. Developing a kind of sui generis language.
That says an awful lot again, to the insider rather than to the outsider. So it forms a code."
Think about the eggplant emoji.
It's just a f***ing eggplant, but over time it has developed a secondary meaning.
Just because it kinda looks like a…
"Pecker!"
"Oh where?"
So what, then, was the early context for Kappa?
Well Twitch chat is a medium that viewers use to respond to streams.
DeSeno’s face in the Kappa emote appeared perhaps slightly smug, and that was a visual cue for users.
The meaning that Kappa did eventually accrue was one of sarcastic intent, but it took time
for that to happen.
Sometimes, like we did with our Paid By Steve video, it is possible to track this development.
But other times it isn’t – and Kappa is so old by Twitch standards that it’s impossible
to know for sure who first discovered it.
But Prof. Danesi points out something else, as well:
Many people using the emote may not even fully understand what they’re doing.
"As you see tribal symbols and rituals evolving, you’re an outsider, you look at them and
say “what the heck is going on?"
If you’re an insider, they bear meaning by virtue of the fact that they form a cohesive
pastiche, most of those people have no idea concretely what they mean."
They’ve inherited this from the connotations that they have had over time.
It’s a kind of distributed meaning that we acquire not intentionally, but by osmosis...
I don't know what better word to use."
The idea that people don’t know the concrete meaning of a symbol is the reason that we
can do this series at all.
You guys know something intuitively about the emotes that you use, but you click on
our videos to confirm your understanding and seek a greater context.
Over the course of history, mankind has attempted to create universal symbols for signifying the presence
of irony or sarcasm via text.
And those efforts have largely failed.
But could Kappa finally solve this problem?
While its use is currently limited to Twitch.tv users, as the platform, streaming and meme
culture continues to grow in popularity, so too does Kappa’s global presence.
It transcends the boundaries of written language and has developed something of a cult-following:
Kappa’s rampant popularity has spawned a number of variations and even fanatics who revel in its use.
"I'm not gonna ask you to sing me happy birthday but, everyone spam Kappa in the chat. Aaaand...
Let's get a nice loud Kaaaappaaaa.
"Kaaaaa- No? You guys suck! Let's try again!"
"haHAA"
I asked Professor Danesi how symbolic meaning is decided between groups,
And what factors come into play when determining it.
“From tribal cultures to now, it’s the quest for meaning.
I don’t know why.
Hey, if I knew the answer, I wouldn’t be here talking to a YouTube channel.”
"Boom, roasted."
Sorry. I love YouTube channels."
But what we can confirm is that Kappa is the biggest emote on Twitch, and that’s unlikely
to change any time soon.
And while DeSeno wasn’t even really with Twitch during the emote’s rise to popularity,
he has kept track of it on his personal website.
Now living in Japan, he seems amused by it, suggesting that his face could possibly be
the most digitally reproduced ever.
For something that was added as a joke, it seems truly fitting that Kappa has come to symbolize just that.
"Cut!"
"Great job man, I’m really happy with how this one turned out."
What can I say? I'm a one man show.
"Are you gonna throw a Kappa on the end of that or?"
Nah I'm good.
"You know I love Grumpy Cat, I don't know why."
"I had a cat. In fact. Again for the first time your question is making me think and make associations."
"It makes me laugh. At the same time it makes me think and so on.
And that therefore leads me to say right now that meme culture is an associative culture.
It is not just concocted on the spot. Which I thought it was.
Because it connected me to my previous experience.
Which obviously are shared by many others. So now that I think about it's probably my favorite meme."