Ketchup Is the Whitest Sauce: Memes as Silly/Serious Bordered Spaces in International Relations

Abstract This paper draws on previous scholarship on humor, memes, and seriousness in International Relations to produce a novel means for understanding online far-right communities. In this paper, I challenge the distinction between silly and serious and argue for a space that recognizes the simultaneous existence of these concepts when it comes to researching far-right memes. The paper is explicit in arguing that we pay attention to far-right memes, but do not take them “too seriously” because far-right groups often take the opportunity to ridicule mainstream and leftist moral panics around memes. Simultaneously, far-right politics have the potential for serious harm, so these communities cannot be seen as exclusively silly. Through an analysis of the seemingly silly memes manufactured by the far-right Nordic Resistance Movement, I argue for understanding memes as central to home-building efforts by online far-right communities. These online spaces are technically accessible but conceptually inaccessible; significant prior knowledge is required to be part of online humorous far-right communities, and I argue this serves a bordering function. Moreover, without an appreciation for the silly/serious nature of far-right memes and politics and the homes they provide, we will never truly grasp the appeal of engaging with such communities.