PB1B: Brought to you by DJ Crime Shadow and MC E-Zee Menace

Every genre has its own guidelines and conventions that are unique to itself. Genre generator websites use these patterns to create "one click" genres, that can range from novel titles, to research papers, to magic potion recipes. Each website produces works that follows a specific structure depending upon the genre being used. 

The random generator, SCIgen creates computer science research papers in a matter of seconds. Input the name of an author, click the “generate” button, and you have a seemingly flawless research paper. Upon further inspection, they make absolutely no sense. So how does it work? SCIgen uses the patterns and conventions of a typical scientific research paper to design a template. When a paper is generated, the template is randomly filled to create the imposter paper. This genre generator works so well because the conventions of research papers exist heavily in formatting. The website aims to show that the information presented is irrelevant, yet the results will still produce a computer science research paper. Each generated paper has a title, abstract, introduction, conclusion, references, and numerous other sections. From paper to paper, each section is similar in length and location. Along with the sections, there are graphs and charts that “support” the research. For me personally, I took special note of all the titles, such as “The Impact of Event-Driven Technology on Machine Learning.” I have absolutely no clue what that means, or if it is even a legitimate concept. Due to my lack of scientific knowledge, it gives the illusion that the paper covers really advanced stuff. The scholarly sounding title, along with the structure of the paper, makes the random SCIgen research paper quite realistic and believable. 

Another genre generator, Pandyland, aims to do something similar to SCIgen. Instead of creating computer science research papers, they randomly create comic strips. Each strip contains three separate squares, that when put together create a full comic. The comics feature the same two characters, Simon and Finlay and are quite simple in their stories. Sometimes only one of the characters will appear in a box, but for the most part they are pictured together. As I generated multiple comics, I noticed that most boxes repeated themselves. After a while, it was rare that I came across an image I hadn't seen before. I also noticed that when a picture was repeated, it appeared in the same spot as it had before. For example, the second box in each of these comic strips is the same, yet when combined with the other two randomly chosen boxes, the meaning changes completely. 

 A comic strip is used to tell some sort of story. Pandyland kept that in mind when making the comic strip generator. The first box starts the comic off with a statement or questions that is meant to elicit a response. Using the comic strip above as an example, the line “I’m sad…Tell me something nice,” allows for a multitude of responses. The second box continues the story by responding to the first box with a statement or action. Finally, the third box ends the comic in an unexpected or abrupt way. The comics don’t always make sense, but follow this pattern more or less.

Another generator is the meme generator. Memes take popular pictures, people, or characters and add captions to them. The captions are meant to be humorous and often times relatable to the reader. Each meme is different and varies in format. For example, a popular meme featuring the character Boromir from Lord of the Rings always begins with “One does not simply” and then is completed with a type of action.“One does not simply eat just one Oreo” is one of my personal favorites, because I can identify with it. Another popular meme is Bad Luck Brian. This meme displays the caption in the same way as the Boromir meme, but follows a different set of rules in how it is phrased. Each meme has its own specific way of phrasing the caption, and not adhering to the guidelines is a big internet no-no. 

A genre generator that I found was a Rap Name Generator from rap.namegeneratorfun.com. The website gives users the option of choosing a male, female, or neutral rapper name. When testing it out, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the names being given. The Notorious Bad Bass, Flava Whooligan, DJ Crime Shadow, MC E-Zee Menace, the list goes on. Most names began with DJ, MC, or The Notorious, and were followed by a combination of adjectives and nouns. These prefixes are what characterize the names as rapper names. Without them, there is no context for the rest of the name, and it ends up sounding like a string of random words. Names that were considered female used nouns and adjectives typically used to describe girls, such as missy, foxy, queen, etc. The male and neutral options were essentially the same, utilizing more masculine sounding nouns and adjectives. 

Genre generator websites help demonstrate the idea that genres follow a set of guidelines and patterns, called conventions. These conventions are what make that genre, that genre. However, according to Dirk in Navigating Genres, "Genres require more effort than simply following the rules. The rules change as the genre changes, and no rules apply to all genres." So while genre generator websites are a good starting point for understanding the basis behind genre and genre theory, there are many more things that must be taken into consideration.