KIDDING AROUND

A children's book meme has become viral comedy for modern times

What began as an innocent tickle a half-century ago is now providing the art for darker laughter.

The kiddie-lit characters from the Mr. Men and Little Miss franchises have been co-opted for a cheekily bleaker meme. Where the official series has someone like “Little Miss Jealous,” the meme delivers someone like “Little Miss At My (Expletive) Breaking Point.”

Some social media creators and observers call it comedy for our times. Giorgio Angelini, the filmmaker who tracked the arc of the Pepe the Frog comic meme in the documentary Feels Good Man, sees a similar initial dynamic at play with the Little Miss meme: “She's no longer just grumpy. She's reeling from anxiety and depression because the world is warming, democracies are crumbling and those in power seem to be more Mr. Greedy than Mr. Actionably Concerned.”

British author-illustrator Roger Hargreaves launched his Mr. Men series in 1971 after, according to the book series website, eldest son Adam, 8, asked, “What does a tickle look like?” The resulting creation, Mr. Tickle, was first in a cast of simple brightly coloured Mr. Men characters that the site says sold a million copies within three years.

The warm-hearted books — in which readers see how a title character's personality trait affects their life — spawned comics, songs and TV adaptations. Hargreaves then began publishing his spinoff Little Miss books.

Adam Hargreaves has overseen the series since his father's 1988 death, more recently adding characters such as Mr. Calm, as well as celebrity inspiration like Little Miss Spice Girls.

Fast-forward to this month, when one Instagram account alone — Littlemissnotesapp — has attracted nearly two million followers by posting the Hargreaves's characters beneath such captions as “Little Miss Lexapro,” “Mr. Vape Cloud” and “Little Miss Aggressive Drunk.” The account credits the user Juulpuppy, who last spring began posting such art updates as “Little Miss Weed Psychosis.”

In April, “A lot of the memes I was making were pretty dark and I wanted to make a relatable meme that didn't take itself too seriously,” says Juulpuppy via email, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Books for young readers have inspired some of her previous such “remix” posts, including If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

“Visual comedy takes advantage of unexpected pairings and I love to lean into that with all the memes I make,” continues Juulpuppy, who says she is a 21-year-old woman from Brooklyn, N.Y. “This trend is so infectious because the pairings are so ridiculous and relate to so many people. Any caption can be applied to a Little Miss image, so no one has to feel like the odd one out from this trend.

“We get to see cute imaginary versions of ourselves and laugh together at the messy nature of our flawed personalities, which I think is very genuine and sweet.”

The “Little Miss” hashtag has more than 140 million views on Tiktok. When the meme recently spiked again, Max Knoblauch's wife told him it reminded her of something he had done.

Sure enough, Knoblauch — a writer, illustrator and comedian based in Queens, N.Y. — had paired the Hargreaves's characters with contemporary-toned captions in 2014, for an article on Mashable.

Knoblauch drew Mr. Men Children's Books Reimagined for Millennials, featuring such characters as Mr. Student Loan Debt and Little Miss Underemployed.

Knoblauch says he enjoys the current memes, but sees them as bleaker, more absurdist and more nihilistic than his. “The ones that I made were so: `Wow, this is peak 2014 here' — there were just bad things happening but they could be fun. Now, well, they're bad and they're not getting better.”

Jamie Cohen, a CUNY Queens College assistant professor who specializes in media studies and digital culture, says the appeal of the meme is that it allows people online to share a hyper-specific personal description.

“I think it's neat that people are using it to introduce really specific traits like neuroses, trauma or divergent characteristics — something that I think is good as it helps people hear new vocabulary and unknown characteristics in both funny and serious ways.”

Although what sparked the recent rise of the Hargreaves meme is uncertain, the Twitter account dreamgirltat helped popularize it when she shared a character captioned “Little Miss Smokes Too Much Weed” on April 17. The tweet received more than 36,000 likes.

That image earlier appeared on the Tumblr account of Notyourgaybestie, which is linked to New Jersey food-service worker Mike Di Carlo.

Naturally, businesses are riding the trend. Such organizations as Linkedin, M&MS and the Philadelphia 76ers have seized on the meme, as well as PBS, The Kelly Clarkson Show and the account for the production Les Misérables.

Says Juulpuppy: “I do think the corporate trajectory of this meme takes away from its initial pureness.”

We get to see cute imaginary versions of ourselves and laugh together at the messy nature of our flawed personalities ...