In celebration of the Facebook group “Lawl Memes for Aspiring Justice Supremes” recently reaching their 10,000-member milestone this month, I sat down with Shayyan Malik, co-founder of the group, to talk about how he turned a vision into reality and how he handles being an internet celebrity.
Mariam (M): Hi Shayyan, thanks for letting me interview you.
Shayyan (S): Thank you for doing this!
M: So, I want to start at the very beginning. What [inspired] you to create this group?
S: I started this with a friend in 1L to create a fun little community at Osgoode to de-stress and share a laugh. Together, we built an empire.
M: An empire!
S: (Laughing) It’s nice to parody ourselves every now and then. I was already doing it privately, so, I figured I might as well share.
M: Your page has seen a lot of growth and success in the last two years since you started it, why do you think that is?
S: Probably because the main administrator (me) is super attractive.
Just kidding! I think it picked up after we reached other schools like Ottawa, then Windsor. Then, one of my friends reached out to U of T. Initially it started out slow, growing through word of mouth, but eventually it reached exponential growth. Now it’s become something of its own just from sharing.
And I’ve also gone public with the page. So, I think that’s helped because, now, when people like things, they’ll see it on Facebook.
M: You now have members from all over the world – Singapore, Oxford, Cape Town. How did you attract international attention like that?
S: Umm, [probably] international students.
I started with a humble goal. Just hitting Canadian, or even just Ontario, law schools. But now we’ve reached global heights and I’m really proud of that. I think it’s also inspired a few copycats as well, which, I mean, is flattering, but also a bit annoying when people take memes away from our page and share them elsewhere. I’ve been seeing that with some of our material. I think we need a watermark.
M: What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning?
S: Honestly, the bread. Getting the bread.
But more realistically, knowing that, you know, I have global fans everywhere looking forward to seeing what I come up with next. I just go out there with a fresh mind in the morning looking for meme inspiration. It’s everywhere if you look for it.
M: What’s your secret to creating a good meme?
S: My secret? I mean, I can’t tell you that! That’s my secret sauce. It’ll just take that away from me, and then what’s left? An empty shell of a man. So, I’m sorry but that’s patented, I can’t disclose that. Otherwise, what’s stopping other people from creating their own meme page?
M: And you already have copycats?
S: Yeah. We do have a lot of them already.
M: This may be a loaded question, but our readers need to know. What is your favourite meme?
S: Oh man, see the problem is, the one that comes to mind would seem like a plug. But, can you post it in the Obiter? I think the trojan horse meme was the best. I actually reached out to [the creator] to let them know what a great job they did. And they told me it was completely original, which impressed me so much. The trojan horse has so many layers to it. I just thought it was hilarious. I think the best memes are the ones where you can have a laugh at yourself. And, for some reason, law students love self-deprecating humour, and that [meme] encapsulated it perfectly.
M: Who is the best in the world at what you do?
S: I mean, I’ve yet to meet them (laughter). I think I’ve really made this niche my own category. There is another rival meme page, I’d say. I forget their name…
M: The T14 page?
S: Yeah, there’s the T14 page in America and you know, that one’s not that great, it just got really popular, really fast. They don’t have much on us.
But yeah, I wish there was someone I could look up to. I just don’t have that kind of mentorship.
M: Who are your influences?
S: My professors. I mean, they’re a great influence. Every time I suffer at law school, I use that experience, turn it around, and hope that it’s something people will find funny. Any time someone disappoints me, I say ‘Don’t worry Shayyan, we’re going to turn this into a meme. We’re going to turn this into a meme some day.’
M: What are your goals for the group this year?
S: So, my goal for this year was actually just to reach 10,000. And I’m surprised to say that it’s already happened, because we haven’t even hit our second anniversary. I just love the way it’s grown, and I just want it to keep growing. And I’m hoping that it starts attracting attention from…well, we’re already at the global stage, so maybe from outer space? It’s just—where do you go from here, you know?
M: (Laughing) Did you prepare these answers?
S: No!
M: If you could sit yourself down 10 years ago, what advice would you give your younger self?
S: Stop wasting so much time contributing to other people’s dreams, and start focusing on building your own dreams. Because I think I spent too much time contributing to other meme pages when I could’ve done this to begin with, you know? There was no need to fight for someone else’s approval when I could decide whose memes to approve and reject.
And this goes back to answering your question of what prompted me to start this page. What prompted me was a meme page called Halal Memes that I kept posting to. And they were very picky. They would let the odd meme in, but for the most part, I was getting rejected constantly. So, I approached one of the admins at a very pathetic low moment in my life, and I asked him, “why? Why do you keep rejecting my memes?” And he just said, “sorry, they just seem too similar to the other ones,” or gave me some [other] excuse. And I think I wasted too much time there, just thinking about ways to find a meme that would impress them when, you know, I could have just done this. So, at some point I said, ‘screw you guys. I’m just going to create my own meme page and I don’t need your validation.’ And I think that is a message that can inspire a lot of people.
M: What are the most important lessons you’ve taken away?
S: From this project?
M: Yes.
S: Umm, you know—fame can be hard. It’s not easy. I totally get why celebrities don’t like being in the spotlight. I’ve seen my life become busier. And sometimes you just want your own personal time. So, I can see now why people make anonymous accounts for meme pages. I definitely see the value in that.
M: What advice would you give to aspiring “memers” who find inspiration and solace in your page and memes?
S: Never underestimate your ideas, no matter how silly they are or how silly they might start out. When I started this, people told me I was taking it too seriously and it wouldn’t amount to anything big. You can prove those naysayers wrong. Now I feel like it was a great idea to start this, and it’s something I feel very attached to and it’s become a great community. It just started out [as] a silly idea but now, like you said, we’ve attracted people from all over the world. And I’m being interviewed for the Obiter, which is a huge honour. And, you know, people recognize me on the streets. So, that’s really such an honour. I feel like a little celebrity.
M: Thank you for your time, Shayyan. I know this took away from the time you normally spend meme-ing.
S: That’s okay, I do it for the fans. Thank you for having me.