#BoomerRemover: COVID-19 and the intertextual politics of internet memes

This article analyzes ‘Boomer Remover’ the controversial term for COVID-19 popularized on social media in early 2020. It mobilizes digital theory and discourse analysis to ask what makes Boomer Remover acceptable its users. conceptualizes as an internet meme argues that memes use intertextuality (the way new texts build upon older texts) a core mechanism of meaning making. allows form communicate high-level complexity depth easily consumed format, however, it also bifurcates audiences is understood differently depending audience member’s familiarity with reference points. these divergent understandings through framework ‘discourse communities’. unpacks how community familiar has come be connected progressive politics, contrasts this readings ageist attack those unfamiliar memetic contexts. Rather than privilege one reading correct, shows order understand impact memes, we must recognize their inherent polysemic nature.