A Brief History of Memes
Have you ever breathed oxygen in the 21st century? If so, then you have probably heard of something in our culture we like to call memes. Memes today are everywhere, music, TV, videogames, and the biggest being social media. If you are on any social media for more than 5 minutes your bound to see some form of a meme.
Well what are memes some may ask, or where did memes originate? That is why I will be diving into the history of the images and videos we all find so engaging.
A Sator Square. Notice it reads the same backwards and forwards.
The term “meme” was not coined until the 70s by a man by the name of Richard Dawkins. He wrote a book called The Selfish Gene. In his book he referred to them as Mimeme, which is derived from Greek which translates to “that which is imitated”. This is what memes essentially are, they imitate or mock pop culture and are normally designed to poke fun at something, all while relating it to the reader.
Richard Dawkins said that a meme is to an idea, as a gene is to a physical trait. So as a gene or trait can evolve through natural selection, so can memes. This is proven as all these memes and ideas are pitted against one another in the world’s largest battleground, the internet.
Long before even the thought of the internet had been conceived memes were being made. As early as 79 A.D is when the first meme is found in Pompeii. Their memes look absolutely nothing like the ones on Reddit and 4chan we have today, however a meme is not just a funny video of a guy falling down the stairs or some cute cat picture, it’s the idea of imitation. The meme is known as the Sator Square, a 5x5 arrangement of letters that form a palindrome. Nobody can translate it and the only way they know it is a meme is because the same engravings are in cities across the world. Memes have been prevalent throughout a lot of our history, but it was not until about the 1980s when memes take the shape that we see today.
The dancing baby, made famous on the early internet and FOX’s Ally McBeal
The birth of the internet was an explosion of information and satire alike. The early stages of the internet were a good breeding ground for memes to thrive and flourish. The first meme ever was made by a software developer in creating a gif of a dancing baby to show off the software they were using. Little did they know they had created the first meme, it spread by web forums, email, and the web. The internet opened memes up to the world due to how fast and virally they spread across it. This led to an expansive evolution into all the memes we see today.
I contacted Mr. Girard about why he teaches memes in his classes at Moeller, he said, “It is a very popular form of communication. Students see and use them every day, so it is worthwhile to look at what they are really doing rhetorically as a form of language arts. Fiction, and most language, is only a representation, an allegory, for something that has been seen, experienced, etc. Memes are the perfect demonstration of that.” This form of communication is so simple and effective at the same time.
When asked about what the future of memes will look like he said, “Probably a picture of a potato chip and y’all will think it is the funniest thing ever. But that is not a meme beyond how absurd the world can be, which can only take you so far. Stuff like “Brainpower Levels” and “Is This a Pigeon?” gives me hope memes will always be able to pair an image with an idea in a way that sparks genuine communication. Memes will likely evolve more with audio and video. “He Needs Some Milk” is gold; would love to hear that over all sorts of chaos.”
All in all the meme is an essential to the internet and pop culture alike. People from all walks of like can relate to memes because it is comedically appealing to all of us and we can relate to them. For what the future of memes looks like is uncertain but hopefully when our generation has kids that we can relate to them through this and share many good memes with them.