Hoopy the Hoop vs The Cake is a Lie

In our class we had a discussion on memes and why they have been so successful in this new computer literate society. There was a discussion on why they are so effective in selecting your own audience or even how they can be clever ways in including new people into an otherwise obscure group. Yes, there was a lot of discussion on why they are so effective but not on what makes a successful meme as opposed to a failed meme and what I’ve come up with is that meme’s follow closely to a set pattern that resembles Hamilton’s theory of social literacy. When I say this I want to focus on this quote, “visible literacy events are just the tip of an iceberg: literacy practice can only be inferred from observable evidence because they include invisible resources…” For while the failed meme in question has parts of this, the successful meme will have far more depth to work with.

A small note to add to the back of your mind of the origins of these memes. Both come from the financially and culturally successful Portal franchise. Even people who hadn’t played the games know, or at least has heard, of the famous The Cake is a Lie meme. This meme not only acts as a subtle joke among the fans of the series but also as an entertaining meme machine for the casual look through of internet whats-its. While the other meme is so obscure that some of the most hardcore fans would look at you in confusion if mentioned, harder fans then me hadn’t even heard of it. That said, let us start with the failed meme, Hoopy the, overlooked, Hoop.

On the surface, this meme seems to fit in with Hamilton’s prior-mentioned quote, so why did it not sink in to the gaming world? The Valve team, the producers and creators of the game, spent a large amount of time and brain power in trying to create a successful meme. They thought of their fan base and attempted to make the meme so in your face that it would be impossible to ignore, so why the failure? The Valve team had searched the internet, expecting to find Hoopy the Hoop memes everywhere and were actually surprised–and perhaps even a little disappointed–when they found nothing of poor Hoopy. Let there be a brief discussion on what it did right according to Hamilton, “invisible resources,” is the driving force behind Hoopy the Hoop. The Valve team took time to create this Hoopy and even thought of their fan base. With games like Half-Life 2 under their belt, they already had experience with their fans. This is a group that over-analyzed every bit of their games, trying to find clues at to what Valve intended by this or that, there are countless youtube videos to prove this. So it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that this lone hoop could have sparked some attention from their audience, but it still failed. Let us now turn to what they failed to realize, “visible literacy event are just the tip of an iceberg.” No company can make a meme, no one person has such influence, people–or more accurately a collection of people–make memes. After you complete Portal you are sent flying through the air with debris falling from the sky, as well as a hoop, so what? You just beat GLaDOS, the best in evil AI technology since HAL 9000, or perhaps SHODAN. You even managed to get your hands on a portal gun! Compared to all that a simple hoop, one of many pieces of debris, seems very underwhelming. Which leads us to the cake.

Hoopy the Hoop was forced on an audience that was completely oblivious to its existence but the cake was subtle. At the beginning of Portal, when your friendly neighborhood AI sought to encourage you she/it promised you a reward of cake. If by cake she/it meant a lava bath then she/it truly did attempt to follow through on her/its word. As the player, you find several clues and must infer on your own intuition as to the cake reward. Even the ending song makes a jab at this cake. If given the two meme’s and asked which one was intended and which was made purely of the internet masses it would stand to reason The Cake would be labeled as intended. There is a level of mythos, a history, and even a direct connection between protagonist and antagonist that comes form this meme. A familiar piece of information to remind the player of the game, riddled with that glorious experience that made up playing Portal. The success of this meme, though in the end must fall directly to the internet masses, stems largely from the dramatic build up of this meme. Though an inquisitive eye may have caught a misplaced hoop in a set of falling debris, it takes no effort to understand the fact that you were promised cake and given an unhealthy dose of neurotoxin in its place. It was easy to pick out the connection between player and rival, protagonist and antagonist, then some insignificant hoop, sorry Hoopy but it’s true. This layer of connection is an invisible connection, one that cannot be explained, one that must be experienced. There are some that were so distraught at this lack of cake that they made videos of themselves making cake, physically making cake. Something they played somehow forced, or perhaps inspired, people to make something in order to somehow further their connection with the game. Now, I’m not saying that Portal is the best game ever made, that claim belongs to Half-Life 3 which will be confirmed any day now, but few games can boast of that kind of power over players, not to mention a game that you could beat in a few hours of afternoon leisure.

So when it comes to a successful meme there has be be a sort of build up but more importantly then that it, it is up to people to create the meme. There has to be some sort of element that connects people. For some it may be some sort of sports memorabilia, others a novel, some a game, but there is no way to force a meme. In the end a meme is only a meme because people allow it to be, they must feed into the meme and spread it out. Even if you want something to be well liked and appreciated it may not be noticed in they manner you expected. Though memes have been able to amass attention to unknown individuals and achievements that may not have been noticed or recognized otherwise, it up to the collective to select their memes, not any one man or group.