University Offers Degree in Meme Studies, Applications Crash Server Within 90 Seconds

The University of California, Berkeley announced a new Bachelor of Arts in Meme Studies on Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, the application portal had received 47,000 submissions and the server had, in the words of the IT department, 'simply given up.' The program, housed in the Department of Digital Culture, promises a four-year curriculum covering 'meme theory, viral semiotics, the political economy of attention, and advanced shitposting workshop.' Core courses include 'Introduction to Irony Layers,' 'The History of Loss (From Cave Paintings to Loss.jpg),' and a capstone project titled 'Original Content or Repost: A Thesis.' 'Memes are the defining communicative form of the 21st century,' said department chair Dr. Vanessa Liu. 'They encode complex social commentary in formats that bypass traditional literacy barriers. Understanding them is as important as understanding literature. More important, arguably, since more people see memes than read books.' The application volume was unprecedented. Berkeley's most popular existing program, Computer Science, receives approximately 22,000 applications per cycle. Meme Studies doubled that in 90 seconds. 'The demographic skews heavily Gen Z,' said admissions officer Carlos Reyes, scrolling through applications on a phone that he appeared to be holding with visible fatigue. 'One applicant listed their qualifications as, and I quote, been posting since 2018, never missed a trend, got blocked by three celebrities. Another submitted their entire application as a meme format. It was actually very well-argued.' The program has received criticism from traditional academics who question its rigor. 'It's a degree in internet jokes,' said English professor Dr. Harold Wainwright. Dr. Liu responded by posting a meme of Dr. Wainwright's quote with the caption 'old man yells at cloud.jpg,' which received 200,000 likes. 'And that,' she told reporters, 'is Lesson 1.'