Grumpy Cat. Condescending Wonka. The Most Interesting Man in the World.

These memes, tailored to a WKU audience, completely fill the WKU Campus Memes Facebook page. The memes poke fun at a variety of WKU topics including parking, dorm life and academics.

Louisville senior Rachael Sheldon, a moderator of the page, described it as all in good fun.

“It’s pretty much just a free-for-all of funniness in regards to Western,” Sheldon said.

Among the many trends of internet culture, very few are as widespread as internet memes. Internet memes can take on many forms, with many simply being an image with humorous text overlaid on top that can be created in a matter of seconds.

Lawrenceburg junior Nathan Smith, the founder of the page, said the inspiration for the idea came during his freshman year, after thinking about some of the funny things on campus and looking at other college meme pages.

“I was just looking at all of my friends from high school and how they were sharing pictures off of their respective school meme pages and I just thought, ‘You know what? Let me see if WKU has one,’” Smith said. 

After seeing that WKU had no meme page, Smith said he created the WKU Campus Memes page with a friend.

Smith said he and his friend initially just posted content that was relatable, not necessarily humorous.

“We would do broad stuff like the DUC renovation or whatever was going on,” Smith said.

Sheldon said there are plenty of popular memes that are on the page right now.

“I really enjoy the Lazy College Senior meme, because that’s my life right now,” she said.

Other memes include a picture of Boromir from “Lord of the Rings” with a caption stating, “One does not simply walk to Cherry Hall” and a picture of Guthrie Bell Tower with the caption, “Interrupting Your Outdoor Conversations Since 2003.”

In the beginning, Smith and his friend just invited their friends to the page and the popularity grew from there.

“We attracted it just by inviting our friends and sharing what we thought was funny,” Smith said. “Apparently, it was funny to other people too. That’s just generally how humor works.”

Smith said after his friend graduated from WKU, he opened up moderator positions on the page.

“When I was looking for moderators, I was trying to find people from different disciplines, people from different groups, people who are involved in different activities,” Smith said.

Smith said the students who contribute to the WKU Campus Memes page come from diverse backgrounds as well, which helps with the overall quality of the page as each moderator has a different perspective on campus topics.

Smith said even though there has been the occasional negative comment, the WKU Campus Memes page has mostly received positive feedback.

“I feel like WKU Campus Memes has kind of moved to something that is part of the campus — part of student life,” Smith said.

In addition to posting memes, Sheldon said the page posts other content related to WKU, including the 24-hour-food petition and the Capital One Mascot Challenge.

“I think it’s the stuff that we find interesting that we’ll post,” Sheldon said.

Although Smith still maintains ownership of the page, he said he has stepped back and let the other students take over.

“It’s become something bigger than myself,” Smith said. “I just kind of let it be natural.”

Smith said the WKU Campus Memes page has branched out to other social media websites, such as Twitter and Instagram.

Currently, the page has more than 3,500 “likes” on Facebook.

Louisville senior Marrquon Bartee is one of those “likes.” He said the page unites the campus through common interests.

“It expresses a whole lot of feelings that people have on the hill,” Bartee said.

Smith said he wants the WKU Campus Memes page to continue once he leaves.

“I am happy to see where the page has gone,” Smith said. “After I graduate, it should be passed down to every generation of students.”