A literary character as a humorous meme: A semiotic perspective
By: Inna Merkoulova
| ARTICLE INFO: Volume: 11 Issue: 01:Summer 2025 ISSN: 2459-2943 DOI: 10.18680/hss.2025.0007 Pages: 135-154 Lic.: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
KEYWORDS: Meme ChatGPT Artificial intelligence Humor Semiotics of culture |
ABSTRACT
The article analyzes the phenomenon of a unique memeliterary character that appeared simultaneously with ChatGPT. This meme is a striking example of a floating signifier (Buchanan 2010) arising from mixed discourses. This is the Shoggoth meme, which was created based on a fantastic monster from the novels of Howard Lovecraft, and in our time has turned into a humorous picture with a smiley. The seriousness of “Lovecraftian horrors” as an element of mass culture of the 20th century gave way to a playful, humorous beginning in the digital reality of the 21st century. To understand the meaning of the meme, it must be considered from the standpoint of the semiotics of fear, according to the classification of Lotman (2004d), but also from the point of view of the semiotics of humor. The meaning of the humorous meme Shoggoth is to show that artificial intelligence and human intelligence can interact and understand each other.
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