PB1B: Genre Generators

            After experimenting with the three different genre generators, SCIgen, Pandyland’s Random Comic Generator, and Meme Generator, the conventions of each genre become more prominent. SCIgen generates computer science-related research papers that does not make any logical sense. Pandyland generates a three-panel comic that makes sense about 20 percent of the time, however 70 percent of the time two out of the three comic blocks make contextual sense together. The Meme Generator is not so much a genre generator rather an online community where netizens are able to find compilations of trending memes and create and share their own memes.

            SCIgen randomly generates computer science research papers that uses fake reference research articles. It also has an option for the user to input names of authors to add to the generated papers, but it made no significant difference in terms of making any logical sense. The site itself seemed plain and boring, a stereotype of many research papers. All of the generated research articles were similar; they all have titles that are related to computer science such as “The Impact of Authenticated Configurations of Networking” or “An Emulation of Spreadsheets”, and is broken down into sections including an abstract, introduction, methodology, implementation, experiment results and analysis, real life applications, and conclusion. The papers were formatted standard to a research paper so that its readers can recognize immediately that it is a research paper.

            Pandyland’s Random Comic Generator was much more interesting in comparison to SCIgen. The website has a fairly simple layout of the three-panel comic with the “Generate” button right below. After clicking the “Generate” button, the program randomly generates a three-panel comic that sometimes make sense as a whole, but majority of the time only makes a bit of sense when looking at two out of the three comic blocks. Having experimented with the generator multiple times, the comic only consists of the two guys, Simon and Finlay, conversing with one another. The website states that it can generate approximately 74,000 comics, but I have come across panels that were reused.  

            The Meme Generator is considerably more similar to Pandyland’s Random Comic Generator due to its eye-catchingly colorful picturesque interface, but it is not a true generator, rather it compiles memes that are currently popular on the internet and allows users to make their own memes to be circulated online. Even though it does not necessarily generates memes, this site only has posts of memes, which answers the question of what a meme is—a meme is either a picture, video, piece of text, or a picture or video with text that is supposed to be funny and spread rapidly across the Internet. Because the Meme Generator is more of an entertaining social networking hub, it is sectioned off into four parts: currently popular memes, trending meme characters, new images that are meme worthy, and new characters that could be used to create memes.

            Understanding how these genre generators are working helps clarify genres. In SCIgen, despite the usage of false evidence, experimental data, and statistics, it still recognizes elements of a research paper. The reader can see that each paper consists of a fully developed hypothesis supported by data in forms of figures, graphs, and citations, experiments with analysis of its results, and a conclusion. Both Pandyland’s Random Comic Generator and the Meme Generator could be considered part of the pop culture genre because it showcases the entertainment values found in pop culture. Pandyland produces a short comic which allows the reader to escape the reality of the present and delve into the world of comic relief found in pop culture. The Meme Generator puts together popular memes for netizens to follow, create, and share.

            If interested, The Star Wars Random Name Generator allows fans of Star Wars to have a name created for them to use for role-playing games. Star Wars is increasing in popularity due to the upcoming release of the new movie.