Memes and social criticism: A semantic analysis of irony in political humor on Instagram @memecomic.id

This study aims to identify and analyze the types of irony found in political memes on the Instagram account @memecomic.id using semantic and pragmatic approaches. Memes were selected as the object of study due to their role as a popular medium for expressing social criticism in the digital era. This research employed a qualitative descriptive method with content analysis techniques. The data consisted of thirty political-themed memes analyzed based on Perrine’s (1966) classification of irony: verbal, situational, and dramatic. The results indicate that situational irony is the most dominant type, appearing in sixteen memes, followed by eleven instances of verbal irony and three of dramatic irony. These findings suggest that the mismatch between expectation and reality is the most commonly used strategy to convey socio-political critique through memes. The study demonstrates that irony in memes is not merely a form of entertainment, but also a pragmatic mode of communication that reflects social tension and public dissatisfaction with political conditions in Indonesia.