Popular ‘Memes of the city’ also hidden in Gazet van Antw… (Antwerp)
Bart De Memer of Memes of the city makes twice a week exclusive memes for Gazet van Antwerpen: online on Tuesday to appear in the newspaper on Wednesday, and online on Friday to appear in the newspaper on Saturday.
A twenty-something with a job from nine to five who lives in Antwerp. Until then, the personal details you may know from Bart De Memer, the anonymous and invariably masked guy behind the 120,000-fan Instagram page Memes of the city. Wait a minute: memes? According to Van Dale, a meme is a comic film, image, etc. that (whether or not in modified form) is massively shared on the internet and spreads so quickly.
And focus on the memes of the Instagram mayor of Antwerp. sneers at burning current figures such as Marc Van Ranst, Niels Destadsbader by Bart De Pauw are read and approved in the farthest corners of Instagram. Check the mutually crafted images. Zorro getting the message that he’s wearing his mask wrong? More than eight thousand likes. In a jiffy.
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Everyone happy? Well, no, not everyone. Bart De Memer has already been banned from Instagram twice. The first time, just before summer, he lost his page for the full 51 days. At the beginning of this month, his account only had to be locked for a week. “Experience”, says De Memer, also masked in our editorial team with a balaclava, which actually becomes a bank director. “In the meantime, I know who on Instagram to email to solve such a ban.”
“In the meantime, I know who on Instagram to email to solve such a ban.”
See you in the Netherlands
When Bart De Memer put the first message online on December 19, 2019, he did not yet have that experience. “Memes of the city were still something personal,” he says. “Together with what others do count and joke. But more and more people came to my page. Suddenly Memes van ‘t stad was no longer my circle of friends, but a whole culture. The lockdown that followed a few months later has accelerated everything. Everyone was sitting at home looking at my memes.”
Everyone is today the Antwerp native, but also Kempenaar, Mechelaar or Gentenaar. There are Dutch people between his fans and people from West Flanders. White and black. Big and small. Young and here and there old too. People from the goods of the political field and people from the placed. Also politically, yes. “We are all not as different as we think,” says De Memer. “If an East Fleming sees how the everyday Antwerp citizen still encounters them every day with his tram, he can present himself. Memes of the city shows that we are all Flemish.”
Until there and no further. Furthermore, De Memer does not feel the need to achieve a goal or to convey a Bond Zonder Naam-like message. As he puts it himself: “I don’t really have a vision. I just want to be able to keep bringing memes. People expect something from me. ‘The Memer will tell you’. but fair? I just want to make jokes.”
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Frustrated at the checkout
He has become more cautious in the past year. “I used to have less reach, results Instagram was not yet looking at me with a magnifying glass. I could post whatever I wanted without risking a ban. It was all. I also came up with the name of the page very simply: I’m from Antwerp, I love the city, and I make memes: Memes of the city So. The profile picture is still the same: an image of two pixels in size.”
Today the messages are up Memes of the city consider milder, less daring and has already considered it twice. “Instagram’s rules are power and they sometimes fail to tell the difference between humor and fake news. My first ban came after a post about vaccination. I said the vaccine turns people into a 4G zombie that kills all friends. Instagram’s algorithms thought that was fake news. And if you already have a few warnings to your name, they throw you off.”
Today, only two people still know who Bart De Memer is in real life: his two best friends. “I want to be able to walk quietly on the street,” says the Antwerp resident. “That is mental health, something I take a lot into account in life. I think being famous is quite pleasant. But being able to quietly go to the store when you’re having a bad day is much better. I’m going to get milk too. I am also frustrated at the cash register. I want to be able to continue to do that, just like before.”
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Vaccination
Bart De Memer’s method is one with the precision of a heart surgeon. At six o’clock sharp, he puts the first image online. The second follows at seven o’clock, the third and fourth at eight and nine o’clock. At night, the vast majority of his fan base is away from the school desk, out of traffic and back home. “I’ve already made most of the posts during the day, based on what’s going on on the news pages. But if I find something on your site at half past five and I notice that half of Belgium is busy, then I know: this is a hot topic and must be given priority.”
Are there any topics with he not smiling? “Vaccination,” he says, with a small smile and thanks to Instagram. “I didn’t laugh at the flood in the Ardennes either. At that time I was banned, but I didn’t do anything with it either. I avoid human suffering. I want to laugh at another’s misery, but not at the heavy misery. I wouldn’t want them to do that to me either.”
After the last post of the day, De Memer turns off all notifications. Die mental health again. “Detoxing the cell phone”, he put it. “Then it was good.” Every now and then he reads criticism under his images. Or they spew their bile through private messages: people who can’t find his joke anyway, or just saw events. At first he found it quite difficult. “I just want to make people laugh.” Today he can say that not everyone has the same opinion. And the criticism is still limited. “As long as the group of people who agree is larger than the group that disagrees, I can live with it.”
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Pay for work
It also helps that Memes of the city two years after the very first message for an extra cent. No, the big cash cow isn’t the Instagram page yet and living faith like influencers can, with the major clothing brands paying in exchange for visibility, isn’t up to the mark either. But money is coming into the creative drawer. For example, by taking over Instagram pages of companies or brands and posting a message there Memes of the city-style. The companies content, because their page gets extra visibility. And De Memer content, wants pay for work.
“It’s not that those 120,000 followers came by themselves,” he says. “I had to put a lot of time, effort and energy into that. There are limits. I will never advertise a branded product by hiding it in a joke. I sometimes see that happening on other sites and it bothers me too much. For the rest, we’ll see what comes. Making jokes remains paramount. eventually I just want to be able to keep making memes.”
As of today, he will also do so in Gazet van Antwerpen.