Tag: Memes

This story originally aired in the Dec. 15, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Andi Marie Tillman is a character chameleon. Scrolling through her TikTok is like hanging out at a family reunion. Her sketch comedy features all kinds of impersonations of characters: from Papaw who’s always piddling around and telling silly jokes, to the chronically-late Aunt Pam with her blackhole of a purse.

Tillman is a content creator and humorist from eastern Tennessee, who currently lives in Nashville. She’s a self-described “silly, silly” person, who’s dabbled in just about every area of the performing arts, including music. She started doing these impressions on stage in between her songs. At first when people told her she should be a comedian, she was sad that they weren’t as moved by her music. But then she realized that they might be onto something.

“People have always told me that I need to put some of my characters online,” Tillman said. “And I didn’t even know about TikTok, so [I] really just did it for funsies one day, and then my Papaw character really took off.”

Over the years, Tillman has gained quite the following, with almost half-a-million followers across all her social media platforms. Characters like Papaw and Aunt Pam are fan-favorites for a reason. 

“I always say that these characters are an archetype and they’re an amalgamation of multiple people. Otherwise they wouldn’t be funny, because it wouldn’t be relatable,” Tillman said. “I think they take off because they’re loveable people.”

With such a large following, it’s clear her characters are relatable — especially when they remind fans of their own loved ones. In fact, some of Tillman’s sketches have even helped people through difficult times in life.

“When people tell me that it helped them through [a] bereavement period after someone died … that’s when it feels real,” Tillman said. “Because a lot of times it doesn’t feel real, and I don’t know that I’m doing anything because I’m being so silly, but when somebody tells me it helped them through grief … that’s when it feels real.”

Tillman isn’t the only one portraying life in Appalachia in the digital realm. So is another creator who goes by the name Little Bubby Child. Under the alias of “Bubby Wade,” they create cartoon vignettes of people you might run into in eastern Kentucky where they live.

Bubby’s real identity is a secret, and while I wasn’t able to speak with the person behind the memes, I was able to speak with Sarah Craycraft. Craycraft is a lecturer of folklore and mythology at Harvard University, and a big Little Bubby Child fan. She’s from Appalachian Ohio, and she came across Little Bubby Child when her sister sent her the memes.

“I think if you’re in Appalachian circles, it’s inevitable to come across Little Bubby Child,” Craycraft said.

Inevitable because Little Bubby Child is very popular, with nearly half-a-million Instagram followers. The memes reference all kinds of things that resonate with fans — from potted meats and Marilyn Manson, to Beanie Babies and dollar stores.

Craycraft said that what she likes so much about Little Bubby Child is that the memes reflect a version of her childhood and family stories that feels genuine. 

“It felt like a genuine sense of home and a celebration of making do and just the silly people in our hometowns that we know and love, but that aren’t seen, maybe, or talked about or celebrated or recognized in ways that are kind and caring,” Craycraft said.

Craycraft recently lectured on Little Bubby Child in one of her classes at Harvard, as a way to talk about the importance of dialect. 

She says that it wasn’t just the students from Appalachia who resonated with Little Bubby Child. 

“It was an interesting kind of realization for us that what we think of as Appalachia may be a rural experience, [and] what we think of as very local is maybe not as local as it seems. Maybe the picture of mainstream America should shift to reflect this a little bit more than other kinds of Americanness or ways of being American,” Craycraft said. “So it opened up a lot of conversations.” 

There was one Little Bubby Child character in particular that sparked a lot of conversation about what it means to be Appalachian: the Goth Brother. The Goth Brother is Bubby’s older and more alternative brother. With his spiky black hair and face piercings, he’s the perfect foil to the more stereotypically Appalachian Bubby. 

In her class, Craycraft and her students discussed how to classify Bubby’s content. She explained that Bubby’s jokes fit into a lineage of Appalachian humor.

“I do think there is a lovely, rich culture of humor in Appalachia … a lot of it is just clever, insightful observations of everyday life. It is people making humor out of the stories all around them,” Craycraft said. “I’d say it seems like an evolution of some of the jokes and chit chat that I might hear my dad talking about at his morning coffee meetup with the ‘McMen’ at our local McDonald’s.”

Little Bubby Child’s memes do sound like jokes that you’d hear just out and about in Appalachia or talking with your friends and family. That’s one of the reasons people in the region send them to those who aren’t in the area anymore.

“The humor can also open up and connect the diaspora, people who have relationships to the region, people who have had to leave and miss home,” Craycraft said. “And I think the big part of why Little Bubby Child and Andi Marie Tillman’s content resonates is that it reaches beyond the small community. It lets people connect outside of regional boundaries.”

And that’s why they’re such a great way to remember your loved ones and let them know you’re thinking of them.

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This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia.

The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.