Example: a fully completed submission

This page shows what a complete, high-quality submission looks like, using a well-known American dark-humor meme. Your answers do not need to be long — clear and specific beats long. The green notes explain why each answer is a good one; they are not part of the form.

Step 2 — Provenance

Where did you find this meme?	Public URL — https://www.reddit.com/r/dankmemes/ The link is optional: paste it if you have one. If the meme came from a private chat, pick “Private message” and leave the link empty.
When did you first see it? (year)	2019 A rough year is fine; pick “Unsure” if you honestly don't remember.
Meme's culture/country of origin	United States
Meme's primary language	English
Culturally native?	Yes This meme was created inside US internet culture — it is not a translated version of a meme from somewhere else.

Step 3 — The questions

Meme explanation (English)	The photo shows a smiling boy holding a paper airplane, with the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center still standing behind him. The caption presents him as a “psychic kid” who knows the September 11, 2001 attacks are coming and finds them funny. The joke works by putting an innocent childhood photo next to one of the worst national tragedies in US history. Explain the meme as if to a foreigner who has never seen it: what it shows, what it refers to, and what it means.
Meme explanation (your language)	— (optional — this contributor's language is English, so it was left empty)
Emotion shown in the meme	Happiness The boy is smiling — pick the ONE emotion that is mainly visible in the image/text. This is your own reading; other annotators of the same meme may answer differently.
Emotion the meme is meant to cause	Disgust Choose the single strongest intended reaction. This dark joke aims to shock; “Sadness” would also be a defensible answer.
Purpose	Humor / entertainment · Mockery / ridicule
Target community	The victims of the September 11 attacks and their families — and more broadly Americans, especially New Yorkers, for whom the attacks are a national trauma. The meme makes them the subject of the joke. This asks who the meme is ABOUT or attacks (the target community) — not who shares and laughs at it.
Under the norms of its culture, this meme is:	Toxic It makes nearly 3,000 deaths the punchline. Under US norms, joking about the 9/11 victims is clearly offensive, even though the meme circulates widely as “dark humor”. Answering “Borderline” or “Toxic” opens the two follow-up questions below; they stay hidden for harmless memes.
Why it is toxic	It treats a mass-casualty terrorist attack as comedy. Nearly 3,000 people were killed on September 11, 2001, and the meme jokes that this will be “really funny someday”. That trivializes the victims and is offensive to many Americans — especially New Yorkers, survivors, and victims' families. Say WHAT is offensive, WHY it is offensive in that culture, and WHO is hurt by it.
Kind of toxicity	Abusive / insulting · Other
Would a platform moderator flag it?	Unsure “Unsure” is a legitimate answer — don't guess.
Could it be illegal in its country of origin?	No
Who can understand it?	1 — needs regional pop culture The 9/11 attacks and the Twin Towers are known far beyond the US, but a viewer still needs that historical knowledge to get the joke.
Elements locking it to the culture	Event · Place / geography
Background facts (one per line)	On September 11, 2001, hijacked passenger planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing nearly 3,000 people. The photo is older than 2001 — the Twin Towers are still standing in the background. “Psychic kid” memes caption old photos as if a child could foresee a future event. The paper airplane the boy holds visually foreshadows the planes used in the attacks. One self-contained fact per line — each fact should be something a person must already know for the meme to make sense.
Anything else researchers should know	The meme resurfaces every year around September 11; countless variations exist with the same photo and different captions.