Are you sure about that? I think that antimeme subs actually banned those low-effort setups, which was part of the reason they were so common here in the early days.

I feel like antimemes include a fair bit more than just those, although those are the clearest examples of antimeme.

When I (personally) think of classic BHJ, I think of radical, childlike departures from the expected format. Obviously there’s the original J. Jonah Jameson Bone Hurting Juice comic. It was funny because it was a rigidly structured meme of him laughing condescendingly, sometimes with a setup by Peter Parker. Every line of the BHJ comic came out of left field. Why would it start with him inquiring about juice? Who drinks random juice? *What the fuck is “Bone Hurting Juice?”* Why would Peter have it, why would he leave it lying around, and why is he being so casual about it? Whose first response would be “it tasted good?” Who would use the shot of him laughing as the punchline of him screaming in pain? The fuck kinda caption is “ow my bones hurt ow oof ouch”? Every beat misses the point, and every beat subverts your expectations, making it funny and somewhat surreal.

My other favorite example is “[Go Go Gadget Bench Extender](https://www.reddit.com/r/bonehurtingjuice/comments/6orhgk/ow_oof_my_bench/).” This was another very old 9gag-tier meme with a stale structure. “I did comically mild crime. \*Hardened criminal slides away apprehensively.\* [There’s an older variant of this, which I would personally call an antimeme.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/302/540/c25.png) Even though it’s almost identical to the above example, it stays in the confines of the meme’s format. Replying “Go Go Gadget bench extender” was just wild. It’s a complete non-sequitur to the setup, it makes the deep cut of Inspector Gadget out of nowhere, that’s a gadget so stupid that it wouldn’t even make sense in its original context, and it gives an alternative but internally logical explanation for the punchline.

At the end of the day, it’s not an exact science. It’s extremely personal and subjective, and it’s certain to evolve over time. This post is simply my own opinion. Again, it’s going to vary between individuals.

For this example in particular, it seems like it’s trying hard to create a different setup. It’s not particularly out of left field (not to be confused with straight-up randomness). On the other hand, it’s not really subverting the meme format from within itself, like most antimemes. I’m not going to side one way or the other because I don’t really care.

pls don’t make this a pasta I know I’m a nerd rambling about the most trivial of nonsense but it’s who I am and I’m kinda insecure about it already