As it has been shown previously, the term Dank  can be understood as the opposite of  what is considered Normie, in the meme compass classification system. But the relevance of the term and its ever changing meaning goes far beyond a simple antagonism to norm and tendency.  Dank as a word, before being applied to memes and internet images in general, was often associated with recreational drugs of exceeding rarity and quality, for example is the phrase “dank kush”, which refers to marijuana strands of the highest quality, with powerful effects and a very high price. In a similar way, when applied to memes, the term Dank evokes an idea of rarity, weirdness and  refinement. This said  refinement, is understood in a very ironic way, in which a really poor quality expressed in both misspelling, low definition,  and low effort cropping are seen as a sign of ironically good taste, even being a status signifier, in an ironic internet hierarchy in which the most lofi, the most ironic, the most edgy, or the dankest  memes occupy higher ranks opposing to normie content that is seen as cringe. If  dank kush is  a strand of hard to find luxury recreational cannabis, a dank meme is a bizarre, over the top meme often loaded with high amounts of novel  forms of irony characteristic to the Generation z.

 

In a more intuitive, vibe-oriented way, the term “dank” could be explained  as  a weird, uncommon, and many times meaning deprived meme, in which the form is  more important the the content. From that statement, on can see dank memes as a digital upgrade that carries the same type of jokes and statements that 20th century Avant Garde movements such as Dadaism or Pop Art produced in analogue media, but there is a danger in comparing two phenomena separated by almost a hundred years and some drastic transformations in society and technology. The disregard for meaning, of the total lack of it is common to both 20th century movements and to contemporary internet culture, but there is a fundamental discrepancy between the two, and it can be found in the motivations for that erasure of meaning in the creation of images in these distinct periods and movements. Despite  many  images and works of art produced both in the 20th and early 21st century  carry  some sort of intentional nonsense, modern Avant Garde movements such  as Dadaism  would value intuition, irrationality and nonsense as a strong opposition to  the mainstream ideals of reason, order and logic imposed by  modernity. The absence of meaning proposed by a scribbled urinal in a art gallery, for example, carries a strong message, with a very  clear meaning: opposition  the status quo that led the world to terrible wars and misery. In the other hand, dank memes and shitposting, are made nonsensical and bizarre, mostly by anonymous authors, without any intentional ambitions to oppose anything. The rejection of meaning is not made as a radical, edgy choice, but as a very casual one. Choosing between strong takes with potent meaning, or complete nonsense is  a casual, aesthetic choice