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Much like Pokemon, comic book culture, and so many other things, memes have hit the mainstream and have only destroyed the sects that enjoyed them in their purest form. Since the dawn of time, Pokemon has dominated the nerd culture, excluding pokemania in 1998-2000, but has only been appropriated in the past years by things such as Pokemon Go. The funny thing is, I remember a girl, who shan’t be named, making fun of me in front of the cool jock kids for playing Pokemon as a ninth grader, only to see her playing Pokemon Go as it came out.
In the past, buying a comic book movie or t-shirt was almost taboo, and as anti-productive human as one could get. Now, after the creation of the MCU (if you don’t know what that is, you’re the problem), and now that comic culture is “mainstream”, the real fans are left in the dust for those who probably didn’t even read the comics. Now that people only watch the movies, and buy their favorite Captain America shirt from Hot Topic to reflect that, those who are real fans, and have read the comics before it was cool are seen as part of the bigger, less real fanbase. As a comic book nerd who literally lives in my parent’s basement, this really hits close to home.
The creation of memes dates all the way back to ancient Egypt, with hieroglyphics being mainstream in their culture. Though the pioneers of memes were the ancient Egyptians, they did not appreciate their power, and thus lost their right to meme. After that they were swiftly destroyed by the sea peoples, a culture completely unknown to us today, probably for the same reason as the Egyptians.
Whilst the Egyptians were enjoying memes in their purest form, the Romans and Greeks were attempting to harness their power. Sadly, the puny Greek and Roman statues and vases were no match for the superior Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Post Roman empire collapse, memes became lost to time, until 1940. In 1940, the resurgence of memes started with Kilroy was here, something that took Europe by storm, and whose origins lie in mystery. Kilroy was really only successful because of the rapid traveling because of the soldiers going through Europe and spreading the joke to new heights. When internet isn’t an option, go to war. Kilroy was a helpful reminder to the cultures of long ago, and started the very slow start of memes overtaking the world by storm once again.
After Kilroy, the world didn’t see a good meme until all of your bases are belong to us in 1992. The early internet began to spread the meme until it entered the real world, with people even drawing it onto hillsides similar to when someone wrote TRUMP in big red letters on the hillside on Joseph’s Lane.
This only began a slippery slope to where we are today. Because of those who seek to industrialize memes, very much akin to when that hack Andy Warhol tried to incorporate assembly lines or whatever into art, and to make art accessible to the peasants. Art, much like memes, only belongs to those it was made for. Memes are for the betas of the planet earth, and art is for the rich and tasteful. With 4chan and reddit, 9gag and ifunny, twitter and more, memes have become the poop that has hit the fan for the people who were once mocked for their subcultures and struggles on the internet, and their only solace being taken away. Tumblr has shoelaces, 4chan has pepe, twitter appropriated pepe, facebook has old people with cats who want cheeseburgers, but all of these lose meaning when they are misused as they are today.
The memes of the past, the means of communication for betas all around the world has been taken over by omegas. Those who destroy all that is good. The memes many of us grew to love, and to use to connect with those who weren’t so different have been bastardized by the destroyers, by the leeches of pain, by the creators of fear, and swiftly lost any and all meaning to those who had them first. While you’re stealing from the president, while you republish without taking the thumbnail off, while you ask me anything, please know, you are the reason mental illness is chic, you are the reason for political correctness, you are the reason for the war in Syria, you are the lump sum of all the evil in the world, and everyone hates you.
This is very interesting and funny, and I never thought of it this way. It is funny how people made fun of things like that but now like it.
I think it is cool how you explained the history of memes. Good Job!
This does not seem like a constructive story. What does this tell people? It sounds like someone rambling about nothing. I also can’t help but notice the tone of this article that appears to be: if you like memes and I don’t like you than you are worse than me. Do you believe that you are better than others because you knew about memes before someone else? You article does seem to stay on topic and it appears to be arguing just for argument’s sake.
*Your article does not seem to stay on topic and it appears to be arguing just for argument’s sake.
This article has an interesting point, but lacks historically proven evidence.