[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-125811-en":3,"doc-seo-125811-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},125811,4398048949847,"Eliana","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/400002536579ef2da7f?_k=1778318612642679267",8,"Research & Report","The Faces and Forms of Pandemic Humor - Exploring Covid-19 Memes with Visual Machine Learning","The study analyzes 12,337 humor items from 80+ countries, collected in the first half of 2020, to understand the features and intended audiences of “pandemic humor.” Using visual machine-learning methods plus qualitative analysis, it examines which actors and meme templates were most prominent during COVID-19 and how they differ across local vs. global, Covid-specific vs. general, and political vs. non-political dimensions. Results show first-wave memes are largely non-political and globally shared.","UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository)  \nThe Faces and Forms of Pandemic Humor: Exploring Covid-19 Memes with Visual Machine Learning  \nBoukes, M. ; Kuipers, G. ; Lin, Z. ; Zannettou, S.  \nDOI  \n10.51685/jqd.2024.icwsm.6  \nPublication date  \n2024  \nDocument Version  \nFinal published version  \nPublished in  \nJournal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media  \nLicense  \nCC BY-NC-ND  \nLink to publication  \nCitation for published version (APA):  \nBoukes, M. , Kuipers, G. , Lin, Z. , & Zannettou, S. (2024) . The Faces and Forms of Pandemic Humor: Exploring Covid-19 Memes with Visual Machine Learning. Journal of Quantitative  \nDescription: Digital Media, 4. [https://doi.org/10.51685/jqd.2024.icwsm.6](https://doi.org/10.51685/jqd.2024.icwsm.6)  \nGeneral rights  \nIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons) .  \nDisclaimer/Complaints regulations  \nIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: [https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact](https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact), or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, P.O. Box 19185 , 1000 GD Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.  \nUvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam ( [http](https://dare. uva. nl)[s](https://dare. uva. nl)[://dare. uva. nl](https://dare. uva. nl))  \nDownload date:04 Aug 2026  \nJournal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media 4(2024), 1-59 10.51685/jqd.2024.icwsm.6  \nThe Faces and Forms of Pandemic Humor: Exploring Covid-19 Memes with Visual Machine Learning  \nMARK BOUKES  \nUniversity of Amsterdam, The Netherlands  \nGISELINDE KUIPERS  \nKU Leuven, Belgium  \nZILIN LIN  \nUniversity of Amsterdam, The Netherlands  \nSAVVAS ZANNETTOU  \nTU Delft, The Netherlands  \nThe Covid-19 pandemic brought about an unprecedented cycle of digitally spread humor. This article analyzes a corpus of 12,337 humor items from 80+ countries, mainly in visual format, and mostly memes, collected during the first half of 2020, to understand the features and intended audiences of this “pandemic humor”. Employing visual machine-learning techniques and additional qualitative analysis, we ask which actors and which templates were most prominent in the pandemic humor, and how these actors and templates vary on the following dimensions: [local](local vs. global)[ vs](local vs. global)[. global](local vs. global), Covid-specific vs. general, and specifically for the actors, political vs. not political. Our analysis shows that most pandemic memes from the first wave are not political. The vast majority of the memes are global: They are based on wellrecognized meme templates, and almost all identified actors are part of a cast of set “meme faces”, mostly from the US and the UK but recognized  \nCorresponding author’s [email address: markboukes@gmail.com](email address: markboukes@gmail.com)  \nDate first submitted: 2023-09-23  \nCopyright © 2024 (Boukes, Kuipers, Lin, Zannettou) . Licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License. Available at: [http://journalqd.org](http://journalqd.org)  \nBoukes et al. Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media 4(2024) 2  \naround the world. Most popular templates were found in several countries and languages, including non-European languages. Most memes were based on non-Covid specific templates, but we found new Covid-specific memes, which sheds new light on the process by which memes emerge, spread, and potentially become new meme templates. Our analysis su","cbCaiqV4IES94yo9","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqV4IES94yo9","pdf",3940297,1,60,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Data and Research Design\n## Feature and Audience Analysis\n## Findings: Actors, Templates, and Politicality\n## Covid-Specific vs General Templates\n## Implications for Meme Studies\n## Timeline of Meme Circulation","[{\"question\":\"What dataset does the study use to analyze pandemic humor?\",\"answer\":\"It uses a corpus of 12,337 humor items from 80+ countries, mainly in visual meme format, collected during the first half of 2020.\"},{\"question\":\"Which aspects of memes are compared in the analysis?\",\"answer\":\"The study compares prominence of actors and templates across local vs. global, Covid-specific vs. general, and political vs. not political dimensions.\"},{\"question\":\"What do the findings suggest about the political nature and reach of first-wave memes?\",\"answer\":\"Most first-wave pandemic memes are not political, and the vast majority are global, based on well-recognized meme templates.\"}]","The Faces and Forms of Pandemic Humor - Exploring Covid-19 Memes with Visual Machine Learning | PDF",1785901340,151,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"the-faces-and-forms-of-pandemic-humor-exploring-covid-19-memes-with-visual-machine-learning","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,54,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-faces-and-forms-of-pandemic-humor-exploring-covid-19-memes-with-visual-machine-learning/125811/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-08-05",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What dataset does the study use to analyze pandemic humor?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It uses a corpus of 12,337 humor items from 80+ countries, mainly in visual meme format, collected during the first half of 2020.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"Which aspects of memes are compared in the analysis?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"The study compares prominence of actors and templates across local vs. global, Covid-specific vs. general, and political vs. not political dimensions.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What do the findings suggest about the political nature and reach of first-wave memes?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"Most first-wave pandemic memes are not political, and the vast majority are global, based on well-recognized meme templates.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,109,114,119,122,127,130,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":108},5,"Comic","comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]