Islamic-inspired memes have become an important part of everyday digital communication in Indonesia. Circulating across platforms such as Facebook, Twitter (X), and TikTok, they provide opportunities for expressing humour, negotiating religious difference, and responding to public issues. While memes are often regarded as trivial online content, this dissertation examines how they function as cultural practices through which religious identities, social norms, and everyday forms of religious belonging are negotiated. Drawing on digital ethnography, interviews, online observation, and cross-platform analysis, the study follows Islamic-inspired memes across different social media platforms while tracing their historical roots in earlier Indonesian traditions of folklore, proverbs, wayang, and everyday humour. The findings demonstrate that humour can facilitate the negotiation of religious difference by making differences visible in playful ways rather than eliminating them. At the same time, the meanings and social consequences of memes emerge through platform-specific forms of participation and remain contingent on the social and cultural contexts in which memes circulate. The dissertation argues that humour should be understood not simply as entertainment, but as an everyday cultural practice through which religious life is expressed, negotiated, and experienced in contemporary Indonesia. By bringing together digital anthropology, media studies, and the anthropology of religion, it contributes to broader discussions on humour, digital culture, and lived religion.
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