A month before I started my MBA, I posted this message on the Kellogg admits Facebook page:

Sadly for me, the answer was no. [1]

It was this ‘no’ that led me to start KelloggMemes. With over 1,300 followers, a companion meme channel (Overheard At Kellogg - also started by me), and frequent mentions in daily life, KelloggMemes is truly a cultural institution at our business school. But when I had set out on my satirical journey, it had never even crossed my mind to start a meme channel.

***

I love satire. I’m the sort of person who spend his free time reading Lysistrata or A Modest Proposal and watching shows like The Thick of It. More than any other type of comedy, satire appeals to be because of the thought and wit that goes into it. Satire isn’t just funny because things that are incongruous are put together. Satire actively questions the status quo in a subversive way, that disarms people by making them laugh and then hopefully makes them think twice about what it is they are actually laughing at.

So when I set out to bring everyday satire to Kellogg [2], I wanted to do it in the same way that my satirical heroes had done for millennia - through the written word. As things happened at school and ideas came to me, I wrote satirical articles about them (which you can read here). It was a lot of fun, the friends that I shared the articles with seemed to enjoy them (Kellogg people are also too nice to criticise), and I was doing what I wanted to do. But something didn’t feel right. The whole ‘satirical article’ thing felt a bit 19th century. I didn’t think a lot of people would actually read an entire article (since we have no attention span) and, more importantly, I didn’t think anyone would help me by actually writing articles. So I sat back and asked myself “If Aristophanes, Benjamin Franklin, or Jonathan Swift were alive today, what would they do?”. That’s when it hit me.

I had to create a meme channel on Instagram.

My classmates and I are all Instagram obsessed (for better or worse) and so an Instagram meme channel was likely to be exposed to a high proportion of the Kellogg population, as opposed to a website or email articles (I approximate that over 90% of Kellogg students see every KelloggMeme post). Additionally, doing something on Instagram reduced the friction that people would have in going to a website or opening an email from the deluge that we receive daily. Memes are also technically easy and quick to make, despite the needing the same degree of thought and consideration as a satirical article.

So with a new medium, I launched KelloggMemes on 10 June 2018 and waited to see what happened.

The first few weeks were tough going. I realised that my sense of humour was vastly different to that of my classmates. While my favourite posts did not do well (such as this one - which is still one of my favourite posts and what I think is witty, hard-biting satire), other less complex posts did relatively well (such as this one - which I think is just as funny but a bit too basic). So I adjusted my approach. I went heavy on the internship and KWEST memes (which did incredibly in the summer) and lighter on the more pretentious satire.

Despite this change in direction, KelloggMemes still provided me with one of the things that originally drew me to creating a satirical newsletter at Kellogg - an outlet for my creativity and humour. I am always trying to think of a meme. I’m always trying to link the crazy things that happen at Kellogg with random elements of our culture, hoping that more people critically think about the way we live out b-school lives. Sometimes this works. Sometimes I create absolute flops. But it’s a lot of fun for me either way. When I make a connection, create a meme, and get a lot of likes, it gives me a validating joy like no other. It’s even better when someone talks to me about KelloggMemes, or tags me in a meme, without knowing that I’m behind it.

Apart from the fun, another big reason why KelloggMemes is important to me is that it shines a light on the absurdity of the MBA experience at Kellogg. I am the first to admit that life at Kellogg is probably far better than any other business school, especially when it comes to inclusivity, facilities, the varying quality of our education, and shameless extravagance and displays of wealth. I’ve spoken to many friends at other b-schools and I am incredibly happy that I’m at Kellogg. But by no means are we perfect.

Case in point: Only one KelloggMeme post has received a negative or critical comment on the actual Instagram account - this one (I’ve received criticism to my face about other posts, but that’s for another time). Firstly, the premise behind the comment is fair and valid (a view reiterated in this brilliant article in the Guardian last week). However, the commenter missed the fact that we were mocking the very culture of business school students bemoaning being ‘poor’ or ‘broke’ while spending in a cavalier manner on a life of travel and decadence (something I am guilty of - I’m at the airport, about to board an international flight for Spring Break). So while the commenter was critical of my post, we were, in fact, arguing against the exact same absurdity.

So the next time you see a post on KelloggMemes or Overheard At Kellogg, don’t just blindly like or hate the post (and me by extension - although that is your prerogative, as my keychain says). Instead, give some thought to what the post is trying to make a point about, and what you can do to change the status quo (as Jonathan Swift did when he said that the poor should sell their children as food for the rich). I really have loved my time at Kellogg but I think that every one of us should try to make it the best that it can be.

Beyond the messages inherent in satire, I created KelloggMemes because I wanted to make a mark on Kellogg’s culture that would last beyond my time in Evanston. To that end, I recruited a team of talented and funny people to help me run the channel and eventually take over. Bringing on more people to the KelloggMemes empire taught me a lot about comedy and humour. Namely that diversity is key. On average, posts by others (either guest submissions that we re-post, or posts by the other members in the KelloggMemes team) do better than my average post. Engagement with the channel has also been higher since other people joined the team. Basically, KelloggMemes is funnier, and more popular, than I could have made it because of the team behind it.

So to the 5 other anonymous legends behind KelloggMemes, thanks!

For me, KelloggMemes has been a fun journey, some great material for this blog post, and the answer that I will give when asked the perennial introduction exercise “tell us a fun fact about yourself”. But more than anything else, KelloggMemes ties into my life thesis that “The biggest problems are only solved by those with the most diverse experiences”. I truly believe that you need to be having more interesting conversations (e.g. 1; e.g.2), engaging with better, more intelligent culture, and questioning everything in your life (including the essence of who you are).

But that’s me, not you.

So all I can do is implore you to think about your passions and how you can bring them to life to share with your friends at Kellogg. Really think about the mark that you want to make at Kellogg, and on your classmates. Because we only have 12 weeks left until graduation, after which point we will never speak to many of our classmates again (not by choice, but by the reality of life). So make the most of your remaining time at Kellogg (and submit a meme or two while you’re at it!)