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MEME WEEK

Can Meme-Making Be a Full-Time Job in India?

Apparently, yes.
Image: memegenerator

What happens when an image goes viral, attaining instant iconic status? For political watchers, Rahul Gandhi hugging Prime Minister Modi in the Parliament was a moment of analysis, but for creatures of the internet, it was an opportunity.

“You have to strike when the iron, hammer, chai, whatever is hot,” says 26-year-old Viraj Pradhan, head of social media at comedy collective East India Comedy. “We’re not only competing with other big websites. You are my competitor. A guy with five followers is my competitor, as he’s trying to crack a joke about Rahul hugging Modi the same time I am and we are both trying to get it out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram the fastest. And all we have is 10 minutes to do it.”

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When an image becomes ‘a thing’, Pradhan and his team start mind mapping. They write the topic down, and note down every possible word associated with it. In the above situation, some of the words that emerged were: Modi, BJP, Rahul, Pappu, Amit Shah, Congress, Hugs, Potty, Validation. Then they start associating the words with the image and start spitballing ideas. If there is an idea which everyone has been able to come up with, it’s considered a first thought and discarded. They keep discarding until they come up with a gem which is novel but also understood by all. This process has to be under 10 minutes. On the day of the much-memed hug which was then followed by Gandhi winking (also much-memed), this is what Pradhan and his team came up with:

“We usually put out all our content in 30 minutes. That’s when all the main engagement happens,” Pradhan said. “If a thing breaks the internet in the morning, nobody gives a fuck by evening, as by then, chai pilo aunty has already moved on to lassi.”

Pradhan started work as a junior copywriter at Mumbai-based Tonic Media straight out of college. In his second year there, he was enlisted to make content for Sony Pix. “I love movies, and back then in 2015, we could use movie stills and videos to make memes and spread awareness on releases.” But these were still very rudimentary then, like an image from Fast and Furious 6 had the words ‘When you don’t get a rickshaw’ scribbled on it.

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Pradhan then started a Facebook meme page called Just Generic Things in late 2015. He started uploading original reactionary memes, movie mashup videos, etc. He started making ‘pun videos’, in which he would do things like go to supermarkets, pick up random things on sale, and make puns. Though the page has 34,000 followers, Pradhan does not post on it anymore. Instead, since last October, he’s been with EIC, managing a team of four and with a monthly pay packet of mid five figures.

Viraj Pradhan (extreme right) and his social media team.

Even for those just starting out, making decent money from creating memes is a real possibility in companies based in bigger cities in India. Kahan Shah, 22, who has a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a specialisation in digital marketing, is in charge of making content with real potential to go viral. He works with a Mumbai-based cultural commentary website, where he makes memes for their Instagram handle. Ya, try explaining that job to your granny.

“I used to laugh at the idea of people making money off memes,” Shah says. But he’s realised that there’s more to it—from learning how to shoot and edit videos to creating a social media strategy to keeping himself constantly updated with what’s happening in the world. All. The. Time. “It can be exhausting but I am happy here.” His salary is on par with his friends who are also on their first jobs.

Kahan Shah hard at work.

Is this a bubble about to burst? Sure, it’d look great on the visiting card and a great way to answer the annoying ‘what do you do?’ question but is it it here to stay, considering everyone is talking of meme marketing as the next big thing. “Everyone suddenly wants a strong social media game, which these days means having a strong meme game,” says Pradhan. “They take memes seriously. If Netflix wants to have Sacred Games talked about, they’d rather make memes as it’ll get the show more visibility.”

How does he view his day job, we ask him. “I make memes for a living, but I always look at myself as a writer,” he says. “I started out as a copywriter and think I’m still one. People used to call the text on a meme ‘caption’ but in my office, I force them into calling it ‘image copy’, and with time, I want it to be called ‘post copy’. It’s not just a meme, it’s a creative.”