The birth of Memes

[Last Valiance]

Nowadays the internet is plagued by scores of humorous little oddities we lovingly call memes, ranging from Mudkipz to Rick Rolling (to name some major ones), however I'm quite interested in how these actually started: Do any of you have links to the birth of a meme?

Big or small, it doesn't really matter, I'm just curious.

I am also aware that many spawned from Something Awful and 4Chan, which means those ones are pretty much dead ends because all the files on them will have vanished into dust like Nazis in Indiana Jones, but there must be some somewhere ...right?

 

[Clash_Action]

Well, if you want a really historical context, memes are as old as communication.

Try reading Shakespeare, or a T.S. Eliot poem, and understand everything that is being talked about without the use of the notes at the bottom of a page or at the end of a piece... You can't, because those works are full of pop culture references, or "memes" that are horrendously outdated.

 

[temporalcrux]

Most are far from humorous. They get started by groups of idiots that make it so large of an inside joke that other groups think it must be amazing, and perpetuate it to the point that everyone knows about it and doesn't care anymore... but they keep doing it just because.

It's like if Carrot Top made chain letters threatening to slap you with a blue waffle if you didn't send money to a Nigerian prince so he could give you millions of dollars. It's not funny, but you know someone out there will pass it on to friends.

Memes are like trying to read Urban Dictionary.

 

[Jedamethis]

I believe Know Your Meme contains the origins to many memes.

 

[temporalcrux]

Well, if you want a really historical context, memes are as old as communication.

Try reading Shakespeare, or a T.S. Eliot poem, and understand everything that is being talked about without the use of the notes at the bottom of a page or at the end of a piece... You can't, because those works are full of pop culture references, or "memes" that are horrendously outdated.

Don't tell me you just equated Rick Rolling to Shakespeare.....

 

[Lilani]

According to Encyclopedia Dramatica, the first meme was the dancing baby.

If you wish to look up something in the Encyclopedia Dramatica, I must warn you that web site is NSFW.

 

[Exterminas]

The word was introduced by Richard Dawkins in the 70s, as a cultural equivalent of the gene. I doubt most people from 4chan were even pooping their pants at that date.

 

[CitySquirrel]

You should read Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash. Sure it is fiction, but he has some interesting ideas about memes.

 

[De-Moti]

Memes are pretty cool guys.

Spoiler: You have the small time memes.

Spoiler: And then you have the big time memes.

Spoiler: And then you have the god tier.

 

[Naheal]

According to Encyclopedia Dramatica, the first meme was the dancing baby.

If you wish to look up something in the Encyclopedia Dramatica, I must warn you that web site is NSFW.

I thought it was hamsterdance...

 

[Irridium]

Well, the lolcat meme was started in the 1870's.

Yes, lolcats are roughly 180 years old.

http://www.popfi.com/2010/07/09/the-worlds-oldest-lolcats/

You'll probably need to use Google's cache to see the pages that are linked there, but its true.

So yeah, I guess meme's are roughly 180 years old.

 

[Lilani]

According to Encyclopedia Dramatica, the first meme was the dancing baby.

If you wish to look up something in the Encyclopedia Dramatica, I must warn you that web site is NSFW.

I thought it was hamsterdance...

Well, according to Wikipedia, the dancing baby originated in 1996, while the Hamster Dance didn't emerge until about 2001.

 

[RandallJohn]

Know Your Meme is a good place to start. They seem kind of overzealous to me, though. They're very quick to cal every little thing a meme: http://knowyourmeme.com/

 

[Nickolai77]

dancing baby and the hamster dance....i remember being shown those in primary school, even my head teacher found them amusing....

But yeah, i love a good meme.

 

[tomtom94]

Moviebob's still hoping he'll start one.

Regardless, most of the cool ones start somewhere where a lot of follow-the-leader occurs.

And/Or 4Chan.