This Instagram page shares hilarious, random and relatable memes from across the internet. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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While we tend to think of memes as this entirely modern phenomenon. This is sort of true, particularly because it’s pretty hard to even imagine what the memes might look like without the internet. However, there are a few arguments to be made that it’s older than that.
For example, most people go back to Richard Dawkins 1973 definition of a meme, but it’s important to remember that he wasn’t exactly making memes, just describing the entire idea. A number of theories have been thrown around, for example, the BBC was exploring this 1921 cartoon as something so easily meme’able and recognizable, that a modern person can get it immediately.
It’s shockingly simple (which, one might notice, is pretty normal for a popular meme), just two frames of roughly the same person. It’s just another take on the “expectations versus reality” sort of template, but in just a few minutes, most of us can probably already think of a variety of captions to make it a proper 21st century meme.
Most meme researchers, who have a pretty enviable job, tend to see memes as directly related to the internet. After all, the concept is simple, an image, perhaps some text that conveys an idea, joke or emotion that is immediately understandable. Some memes can be very niche, other’s have widespread appeal.
But an important part is that they are replicable. Remember, it’s not some painting or piece of art, a unique touch might actually be detrimental. Memes need to be able to be mass produced, as if in some digital factory. This is just one of the reasons why we don’t really have memes without the internet.
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If you tried to, say, print out memes, you would quickly run out of money from the thousands in printing fees. The paper would get diluted, it would get destroyed by the elements, you might tire before it reaches the right people. But online? You can get an image in front of thousands, if not millions in the blink of an eye with the same amount of energy it would take to get a pic in front of one person.
At the same time, digital memes are a lot easier to create, modify and adjust. Pick a meme you like, Google it plus the word template and you have a veritable meme mint to supply your friends with content for days. Nowadays, we might think of it as pretty easy, but this is only because we are so familiar with the concept. We’ve also, arguably, dumbed memes down to make them a lot more accessible.
