Ok Buddy CoP: Brain Cell-Killing Observations
of a Subreddit

1: Le Introduction
The internet encompasses a massive variety of virtual gathering spaces, each becoming its own community complete with its own identity practices. Such a phenomenon is perhaps most easily observed on a social media site, Reddit. Reddit consists of a constantly expanding roster of online communities, all known as subreddits; subreddits then each carry[a] a specific theme, which all posts and discussion are subsequently based around. For example, one can find a sub dedicated to Boston, or one to Linguistics, one for discussing Disney movies, one for custom computer keyboards, even one for cats sitting down on glass; the possibilities for a subreddit, and thus the possibilities for a specific community of practice, are endless.
Throughout the internet, there is quite notoriously a love for memes. Just about any website where something can be shared has them, and Reddit is no different; but because of Reddit’s structure, the ecosystem for sharing memes has become highly dynamic. Because of this, while a large bulk of the users on Reddit might enjoy memes, communities will form entirely for the sake of sharing specific memes for any range of reasons. The results of this trend will include subreddits dedicated to memes about certain media, memes about certain personality traits, memes for specific political alignments, or for the most well-seasoned of meme sharers, there will be subreddits dedicated solely to memes about memes themselves.
Such subreddits are founded on the premise that its users have seen plenty of memes, understand what makes for an entertaining meme, and also that they have mastery in understanding the various demographics of reddit and the internet itself; so these subreddits will create works which, while appearing almost completely nonsensical to the uninitiated, will cause riotous laughter[b][c] from the users that understand the numerous layers behind deeply ironic jokes. These users, referred to in Ntouvlis (2020) as “ironic memers,” will share memes that poke fun at certain elements of memes; examples include these images from the recently terminated subreddit r/DeepFriedMemes, wherein users took memes from other subreddits (typically ones regarded as not being funny) and then edit them with layers of imaging filters such that they become almost illegible, in a process called “deep-frying.” To a non-user, these memes will likely be confusing, and not the slightest bit funny for the intended purpose, while people familiar with deep-frying will understand that they make fun of an intense image compression that occurs when altering file types in such a way that the image becomes hard to read, a sign of an image shared by a technologically illiterate user. Of course, some subreddits will go beyond having a formula for posts and maybe a handful of lexical innovations unique to them; the most deeply ironic subreddits will be host to a massive range of linguistic identity markers that emerge as it becomes a community where users essentially take on separate roles from that of real life, constructing a separate identity specifically for interacting with memes for the one specific community.

2: Enter OKBR
Among the most notorious subreddits on the site today is one controversially called r/okbuddyretard (often shortened to “okbr[d]” to avoid repeat usage of a slur). While its name is a point of concern for non-users, even being named alongside genuinely abhorrent subreddits in Sherry et al. (2020), the name itself says very little about the subreddit’s purpose until one actually observes it. And so, in observing this subreddit, one will find perhaps the most mind-bendingly idiotic group of users on any website.
In okbr, nothing serious goes on. There appears to be no one specific thing that users talk about, nor is there some obvious underlying subject matter to the memes within. Take, for instance, the most liked image from the sub for the whole month of April 2021, with caption “It’s okay sir, I’m okbr certified:” it’s a frame from the children’s show Arthur, with nonsensical identity details and an “ok buddy” stamp in the corner. Without context, and by that I mean lots of context, the point of the image is incomprehensible.
Since every post is like this, finding the real purpose of okbr requires spending enough time amongst its comment sections, similar to Jane Goodall’s methods of learning chimpanzee behaviors; however, since okbr is so firmly dedicated to ironic behavior, its creators made a companion sub named r/okmetaretard, in which users turn their filters off to seriously discuss the sub. It was here that I had posted a questio[e]n upon receiving this assignment, asking whether examining okbr could prove promising; among support from users, two comments were given that help clarify the goals of the subreddit. One user had said, “There’s no way your teacher’s gonna believe that anyone is dumb enough to use this subreddit,” while another answered my question by saying, “Honestly, yes, it would be funny to see what a functioning member of society thinks of a group of people who pretend to be children with learning disabilities.” We can also look back to Ntouvlis (2020), in which the spaces of ironic memes are described as seeking, “a subversion of established generic formats, an orientation to making content ‘worse, on purpose’ and resistant to easy interpretation.” By combining the comments on my post, the brilliant study by Ntouvlis (2020), and by simply wading through the chaotic comment sections of okbr, we can begin to unravel the identity practices followed by its almost 900,000 users.

3: The Practices of OKBR
The users of okbr follow a simple code: act really stupid. The more precise target is to mimic 12-year-olds who are aware of memes, but do not quite understand their conventions or appeal. This stipulated child, still early in understanding the internet, also still has a long way to go in understanding what constitutes a mature sense of humor, in how to interact with strangers on the internet, and even just in how to write correctly. Since this description can only do so much on its own, let us make sense of an okbr post now:[f]

3.1: Posts
As we can see, the user has used a widely circulated photo of rapper Kanye West and CEO Elon Musk as their base, simply with text plastered over. This text is meant to represent West and Musk asking for kids’ meals at McDonald’s, specifying that they receive the toys that are typically intended for boys instead of the ones intended for girls. The choice of image is used in a standard mockery of the two celebrities, although in the context of okbr, it carries a layer of the user (pretending to be 12) looking up to them as cool celebrities instead. The age then becomes more obvious with a reference to Happy Meals, which are almost exclusively consumed by younger kids; this reference is then bundled with a reference to “boys and girls toys,” which is a sharp distinction made by (often at least mildly sexist) young boys to ensure that they are, in fact, doing things boys do and this appear cool.
Furthermore, the text itself: it’s written in white Impact font, which is a font commonly associated with memes; however, such text in meme-fluent circles is strictly confined to memes from the early 2010’s. Any use of it would expose a user as a “normie” who doesn’t understand the current landscape of memes, or that the use of Impact is considered almost universally unfunny; that is, except for in this sub and others like it. The joke is then not the image or the text taken at face-value; the joke is a combination of all of these aforementioned factors. This makes the essence of ironic posting: making a joke that is funny because of the particular ways that the joke is not funny. Every post is made with the intention of garnering community favor in the form of “upvotes,” which are a helpful tool for identifying positive identity practices in just about any subreddit. For instance, while the image above may garner an eye-roll or a chuckle from most, the members of okbr adored it enough to give it just below 44k upvotes, placing it among the most well-received posts on the sub in 2020. Of course, this image’s punchline(s) is only a specific example of okbr’s humor on display, but the general premise of acting like a child is almost always visible: text will often be misspelled, some posts will defend the existence of Santa Claus, some posts will repeat references to viral media like Among Us or Fortnite, some posts will be extremely predictable sex jokes or toilet humor, some will incorporate drawn-out meme formats, some will show irrational loathing for other countries (particularly France, as seen here) for not being America. Anything that reflects the ideology of a socially inept child using the internet is fair game for okbr subject matter. But a subreddit is more than its posts, as every post will become home to hordes of comments; these “discussions” are where the community’s linguistic practices are truly witnessed.

3.2: The Comments Section
Comments on okbr are often more confusing than the actual posts, because every comment is senseless, and almost every reply to a comment manages to be even more senseless. Rather than attempting to describe what a normal okbr discussion looks like, let us observe one straight away, from the comments on the “boy toys” post:
The first post directly responds to the text on the image, with an improperly written declaration that the original poster (OP) will receive a Barbie doll, which is associated strongly with girls. OP then responds in all-caps, playing along with the first user by pretending to panic about the prospect, while additional users make comments on Barbie dolls which, honestly, I struggle to comprehend. The last comment on the first screenshot then makes a reference to the subreddit r/AmITheAsshole (YTA=”You’re the asshole”), which the first user on the next screenshot pretends to misinterpret as meaning “yellow turd ass.” Because kids are often forbidden from using swears, another user chastises them for writing “ass,” which then receives defiant comments from additional users. We can observe several things here: to start, a direct comment to the text of a meme is a feigned misunderstanding of meme composition, the text being taken literally and treated as a point for conversation; or, in this case, insulting. Users will almost always insult each other instead of overtly expanding discussion; in this way, they actually do expand the humor of the first by comment by continuously taking comments literally and continuously attempting to outdo each other in nonsensical responses, usually in the form of unprovoked insults. These comments are displays of extremely juvenile communication, yet we can see that some of them receive hundreds, or even over a thousand upvotes. We can also see typing in all-caps as representations of yelling, following the notion that kids are often excessively loud. In addition to that, we see some users comment with an abundance of emojis, mocking the younger generation’s greater frequency for their use; in fact, some comments will literally be hundreds of emojis with no text, and yes, those comments are upvoted plentifully.
Last, we can see the role of swearing on the sub, which is often accompanied with an insistence of not swearing; though not exhibited here, users will often type swears with one character replaced by an asterisk, such that “ass” will become “a*s,” mocking kids’ tendency to censor their swears online despite there literally being no need to do so. This concept often finds additional layers of mockery, where “ass” can be written as “a*ss” or even just “*ass,” both of which literally being the swear the “child” was afraid to type.
More practices can be described, but all will fall under the same goal of being as ironically stupid as possible; let us move on.

3.3: Negative Identity Practices & The Guiding Hands of Moderators
In any subreddit, positive and negative identity practices are handled by the users themselves. As positive practices garner upvotes, negative identity practices will receive downvotes; however, on okbr, downvoted posts or comments are difficult to find. Even still, it’s normal for a comment to receive downvotes simply because downvoting was just a funny thing to do. That’s not to say that negative identity practices don’t exist on the sub, or even that the dictation of positive and negative is in the hands of all users: these are often decided by okbr’s moderators.
The goal of a subreddit is to host an active community of users, but subreddits never appear from thin air: at least one person establishes one, and maintains it by monitoring posts and comments to ensure that users abide by Reddit’s rules along with the rules of the subreddit. As subreddits grow, founders will often recruit additional moderators to keep massive communities from stagnating as a result of poor-quality content, rule violations, or any other reason.
Ironic meme spaces face a challenge of not growing too big, for fear that too many users will go on to mean “too many users that fail to understand the sub;” preventing a good subreddit from becoming a bad one is a herculean task for mods, with some extremely popular subreddits like the aforementioned r/DeepFriedMemes being deleted by its mods after reaching 1 million users, the quality of posts having been deemed too far gone to warrant a continued preservation of the sub. In addition to this end, some subreddits can be terminated outright by Reddit’s administrators, as was the case with r/GamersRiseUp; one of the most infamous subs in the site’s history, it was shut down after ironic humor gave way to disturbing, incessant, thinly veiled hate speech.
The mods of okbr are adamant about avoiding either fate, so they create and enforce rules to preserve both the ethos and practice of purely ironic posting, and they take their role quite seriously. The subreddit’s rules are written plainly, with pinned posts about rules almost never engaging in the same practices mentioned above (although mods will often join the fun in comment sections). The rules themselves are straightforward, but broad: they include being original with posts, never posting a meme that fits better in another sub, never posting illegal content, never posting pornography, never relying on shock humor (particularly the use of slurs), and numerous others meant to preserve the fun of the sub. In addition to these, the rules page has an expansive list of banned memes; often, a particular image used for a meme’s base will be repeated, as an image entails a sort of formula that can reliably yield humorous results. As the same format is repeated, though, its joke can become stale and/or lost, and the sub itself risks being flooded with the same joke ad nauseum. Whenever this is seen as beginning to happen, the mods will ban the arising format, the list of bans being updated weekly if not almost daily. In this way, okbr has a sort of hierarchical structure in which the practices within the sub are ultimately determined by the mods, with everything visible on the sub displaying a positive identity practice while any negative one is swiftly scrubbed away by mods.

4: Conclusion[g]
As easily misunderstood as the sub can be for its name and discourse, okbr is home to some of the greatest innovations in internet humor. Its central creed of making the most senseless posts and discussion has spread to more specific subreddits, adding to the copious layers that make okbr’s content so utterly hilarious for those who understand it. As just a fun space for users to avoid any social norm, any Gricean maxim, any real-life expectation, in favor of writing the stupidest things imaginable, the sub is a gem both in terms of its memes and in terms of its ingenious abuse of linguistic standards.
Works Cited
Ntouvlis, Vinicio. Ironic Memes: Digital Literacies Deep Fried. Master’s thesis, Radboud University, 2020.
PeterGriffinFan. “No girl toys!!!”Reddit, July 1, 2020. https://www.reddit.com/r/okbuddyretard/comments/hjiglr/no_girl_toys/
Sherry, Mark, Olsen, Terje, Vedeler, Janikke Solstad, and Eriksen, John. Disability Hate Speech : Social, Cultural and Political Contexts. Interdisciplinary Disability Studies. Abingson, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge, 2020
And of course, an unquantifiable (i.e., unlistable) amount of posts and comments from https://www.reddit.com/r/okaybuddyretard
[a]Change to “each carrying”
[b]Weird phrasing, try something more modern “those that understand the numerous layers behind these deeply ironic jokes will greatly appreciate the humor behind them.”
[c]Oh shit, someone who actually gives constructive feedback?
Anyway, usually I do give my papers the time of day to smooth out my writing and stuff; however given how much I had to do throughout the week, and knowing that my professor’s first language isn’t English, I figured the numerous errors would slide. Love the comments though, I’m always striving to push mywriting 🙂
[d]Do you want to capitalize this to OKBR for your essay? It might be seen as more formal
[e]Two things
– do you really want your professor knowing you use okbr
– is this too casual? Idk about a first person story
– will your professor find your account 😬
[f]In this section you don’t mention the okbr inside jokes (?) I think it’s incredibly important but that might just be me
[g]I would add more to the conclusion
Maybe about how humor can be corrupted so easily (evolution)? How easy it is for people to switch identities? The nature of humor?