For such a wonderfully conceived show it’s only fair for its viewers to have many favorite characters. And I’m thrilled to admit that my favorite is 

 — the magnate of the advertising world. A pink 

 runs her own PR company for the celebrities of 

. She is known for her no nonsense attitude and high rising ambitions. Being a cat, her motto for life is 

, as we’ll refer to her as from now onwards, never accepts defeat however tough her circumstances might be. She has a tendency to fix screwed up matters — be it her life or of those around her!

 isn’t emotionally involved with her and 

 understands pretty quickly that he doesn’t really care for her. So when they break up, she still hangs on with him to be his agent.

Yeah, but I’m still your agent! I pride myself on my ability to separate my professional life from my personal life.

 gets into trouble repeatedly and leaves the mess for 

 to clean up — like the time he runs off to 

 has got his back each time. Their relationship evolves over time to being really close friends and she knows 

 from inside out, eventually realising that he isn’t the right partner for her and that she cannot be romantically involved with such a toxic person.

In her early forties, Princess Carolyn dates a mouse called Ralph who is genuinely interested in her despite their racial differences (haha). They try to have a baby but Princess Carolyn gets to know that she might never conceive because she is infertile. After a really hard day and having a miscarriage she gets overly drunk and breaks up with Ralph over a row.

It is almost ironic that she has all the makings of a good mother but she can’t bear children. It is hard for 

 for help but when she reaches there, she gets immersed into a surrealist painting called ‘

’ (hinting at the misery of those who hate their job) made by the 

’. She starts fantasizing that she is present in the painting, living in a cottage and enjoying the rustic life while being served by her constant rival 

She feels happy and contented for a while but soon it dawns upon her that she has never really wanted the simple life or its comforts. She is perfectly happy in being the career oriented woman that she is and one can’t have everything in life. So she takes the reins of her life, landing right on her feet again. To experience motherhood, she decides to become a single mother. She adopts a baby porcupine and names her 

 represents the modern woman of our generation. In the tussle between professional and personal front, she sometimes ends up in a fix and wonders whether she should quit trying so hard to be on the top of her career all the time. But her weak moments are short lived and are always concealed behind closed doors.

 starts having doubts about her competence as a mother, that she is not being able to give her daughter enough time. She hires 

 boosts her confidence by giving her the pep talk that she uses on others. And in no time, 

 aces the role of a mother. It all works out for her in the end as her long time assistant and well wisher 

 confesses his feelings to her and in the Season 6 finale they have a wedding which is attended by 

 tells her that after he’s served his term in prison he will need an agent who could represent him. Indirectly, he is hinting at 

 politely declines his request, acknowledging that she will always love him and has already forgiven him for everything— but it is not her responsibility to take care of him anymore. She has let go of that streak and is finally ready to be truly happy in life.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of The Jamia Review or its members.

BoJack Horseman’s Princess Carolyn: Our Favorite Fictional Character

s narrative offers much more than the usual conflict of personal fulfillment and religion. It also addresses the hypocrisies that are often overlooked in the framework of an ultra-religious society. The youngest of the family 

 is a lost soul trying to form his identity as an artist. He is unable to pursue painting as a profession since his father finds it too absorbing, straying him from the path of being a 

’. Instead, he wants his son to get married to an eligible maiden and raise a faithful home in 

 who isn’t ready to get married to him because she is too tired to begin life afresh.

 (school) and wishes to devote his life to educate his students about being a true 

 scholar. However, secretly he visits divorced and widowed women of his age and likes to share meals with them. 

 has recently become a widower and is still coping with the death of his late wife 

. He frequently seeks companionship but is not able to move on with his life, pushing away each woman who poses the idea of being his potential bride.

, a religious woman and a mother of five is abandoned by her husband 

 – a Hebrew term used for an immoral young girl. 

 is a gentle but headstrong woman who learns to handle finance and runs her household quite well without even letting anybody know about her hardships. 

 lives in the Home for Elderly people. Being almost ninety years old, her children expect her to devote all her time to recite the 

 and give up all worldly pleasures. However, 

 surprises them all by ordering a television set to be put in her room so that she can watch the dubbed 

 soap operas, making her son and grandson very upset.

’s magic works because of the prodigious range of its characters. We get to see people of all age groups trying to get a grip on their slipping lives. The title track tells us about the whole point of the show:


‘Where are we going, all of a sudden, all of us?

 community has always been perceived as dull and lifeless; often stereotyped to be mechanical, lacking a passion for life, 

 shows an alternative perception of its members— this time a truly personal one. They might be orthodox but not everything that is happening in their life has to be a matter of religious propriety. The cast consists of mostly 

 have done a splendid job in playing their respective roles of 

’s eldest daughter who is furious at her father’s actions and eventually becomes rebellious toward him. 

 outshines others in her role and leaves a powerful impact on the audience.

—- the serious, devoted educator actually manages to engage the audience by his wisecracks. On a visit to the zoo, his students ask him to accompany them to the zebra’s enclosure which they haven’t seen yet. The rabbi replies ignorantly that 

the enclosure is at the far end of the zoo so they should not go there and anyway, there is nothing special to see in zebras, they are just donkeys with stripes… like a pyjama!

 becomes even more exceptional because of its captivating background scores. The tracks composed by the 

 are sublime, carrying plenty of spiritual resonance. Although, very different in melody from the 

 music that we hear the characters humming and singing, they convey the essence of 

SHTISEL: An Alternative Perception of Orthodox Jewish Community

 can be summed up in a single phrase: “

” Language and its proponents are problematic and inaccurate because of our tendency to find a coherent meaning and origin in between words in a text. In this struggle, we tend to miss out the original meaning, meant to be communicated… or is there an original meaning, and if it does exist how do we determine that it is or it is not the same as the creator of the text wished to convey? It is a loop of impossibilities which brings us back to the phrase. 

So in between the tussle of language and meaning, time flew by and 

s theory (that he himself claims to be a process of reconstruction rather than a critique) was employed in realms like literature, psychoanalysis and so on. Linguists believe that the origin of spoken language dates back to some 10000 years. Before that, humans communicated by means of natural sound around them. Today humans have come out with various other modes of communication. GIFS, emojis, stickers, etc. are ruling the digital platforms where you can respond to your peers using images, symbols and videos.

The social media world is ruled by the world wide phenomenon called memes. But what can be called as memes? In technical terms, the 

an element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means

an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations.

Naturally the second definition is what defines the nature of memes as we know them now. From the point of communication, our first question would be whether to consider a meme as a text? Something to be holding a specific meaning, and the answer is definitely affirmative.

Let us take a look at the first historically claimed meme that was an 

. The earliest of a meme became associated with 

 in the 1940s. The meme represents a bald-headed man with a prominent nose peeking over a wall with his fingers clutching the wall.

Around the same time, another doodle, “

. The origin of these two graffitis is said to be another doodle called ‘

’. The true meaning behind these three doodles is still debated but whatever the case, all three of them carry the same “

” connotation. The crucial point here is the fact that the development of these three doodles was successive; whatever the precedence might be, each one inspired the other in representation.

 started in the pre-Internet era. The term was first coined by 

a cultural entity, something that acts as a replicator analogous to the term ‘gene’, a biological entity

. While copying memes people often refine and modify memes with other memes to create new memes and they are changed further with time, carrying new meanings and contexts each time they undergo even the slightest alteration.

But what makes them so unique and engaging is also the reason of their far fledged popularity. And that is their ability to find relevance in all walks of life and most importantly to be able to convey their context with limited visual content. One meme goes out in the domain of social media platforms and within no time it gets viral. And what are the most successful memes? The ones that are the most relatable in context. The internet connectivity across the globe has made it possible for billions of people to share a common media content, also called the 

. The pop culture caters to the meme making community and its consumers.

It won’t be wrong to say that the meme language, laden with humour and comic references has indeed emerged to be a powerful tool of communication and is yet to expand its outreach among billions of followers.

Articles by Kriti Kundu

BoJack Horseman’s Princess Carolyn: Our Favorite Fictional Character

SHTISEL: An Alternative Perception of Orthodox Jewish Community

MEMES: Nascent Language of Communication

BoJack Horseman’s Princess Carolyn: Our Favorite Fictional Character

SHTISEL: An Alternative Perception of Orthodox Jewish Community

MEMES: Nascent Language of Communication