The Art and Meaning of Internet Memes with Aidan Walker

ART REVEALS AND EXPLAINS more than historical text. Art can also be prophetic, telegraphing trends and nascent ideologies before they are articulated in the culture. Art is the ultimate arbitrator of a multi-dimensional chronology of life on our planet.

With that idea in mind, I wanted to discuss the phenomenon of internet memes with

Aidan Walker

, the author of the How to Do Things With Memes newsletter of Substack—and my guest today on the WOODRUFF cast. (Aidan also has a popular TikTok channel. And his LinkTree is here.) Aidan started his writing career with the popular website, Know Your Meme.

It’s easy to dismiss memes as cyber effluvia, but as Aiden explains in our discussion, they represent more than we imagine.

Here’s a rundown of what we explored on the cast:

• What exactly are memes?
• This decade’s pivotal meme, The Distracted Boyfriend.
• The Skibidi Toilet YouTube series and the arrival of Pluto in Aquarius. Aidan wrote in a recent essay:

“Nearly every character in Skibidi Toilet is some kind of human/machine hybrid. I think we’re at a point with AI and the internet of things where the cultural image of the cyborg feels less theoretical and more like a practical, lived reality for many people. We are grafted to the phones, our lives take place through the tech, we are cyborgs ourselves.”

• Zoomers and the era of MAGA v2.0
• BBC documentarian Adam Curtis’s analysis of the lack of a unifying narrative to corral and harness effective activism.
• The bizarre merger between MAGA and the tech broligarchy.
• Aidan’s advice to remain engaged online, in his essay Don’t Log Off.
• Strategically building an activist community while still utilizing dominant social media platforms.
• Brian Eno’s direction to take ‘digital detoxes.’
• Seth Werkheiser’s Social Media Escape Club.
• Is there a place for the metaphysical within electronic technology?
• TikTok divination.

The Distracted Boyfriend stock photo by photographer Antonio Guillem. Image via Wikipedia.

The Skibidi Toilets and their war with the Cameraheads. (Image via YouTube screencap.)

Love,

Opening placard collage by FW. Aidan image TikTok screencap. ©2025 Nightcharm, Inc.

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⭐️ My new book, I Love You Jeffrey Dahmer arrives soon! ⭐️

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