I put together a variety of internet memes to talk about type scenes. I showed them the meme, then I asked “What do you have to know for this to be funny?” and “What can I change and still make a joke work?” I then showed them a series of changed memes that I made. They debated about whether they worked or not. One student who was well versed in memes was also VERY dogmatic about their use. “You can’t do that…” That was perhaps, the best part.
The exercise worked well in the class with a students very well versed in internet memes and a student who didn’t know what internet memes were.