Brexit memes: a multimodal analysis of political memes

Memes are a participatory public discourse which can express political ideological constructs to different online communities. This paper investigates if internet users actually construct humour to express their political concerns and determines the possible ways in which humour can fulfil that persuasive role. For this purpose, an analytical and descriptive research was conducted, based on the multimodal analysis of 35 memes dealing with a particular political event of international current relevance, the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union, through the exploration of both visual and textual components. The results furnish evidence for the humorous nature of political memes which allow ordinary people to express their political insights through the use of multiple verbal and visual devices. Recommendations for future research are included