Meme’s are everywhere these days. It is highly unlikely that you will get through a day online without coming across one- be it on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr, BuzzFeed or any internet forum for that matter! What exactly is a meme? By definition (on urban dictionary) a meme is “an idea, belief or belief system, or pattern of behavior that spreads throughout a culture either vertically by cultural inheritance (as by parents to children) or horizontally by cultural acquisition (as by peers, information media, and entertainment media)”. The word meme originated in 1976 by Richard Dawkins in his book “The Selfish Gene” as an attempt to explain the way cultural information spreads. Today, we know meme’s as simply an image edited with a humorous piece of text, which then goes viral. This image below is a typical example of a meme:
Meme’s have without a doubt become a huge phenomenon in the past few years and are getting increasingly more popular by the day. Anyone who uses the internet will be familiar with what a meme is, but have you ever wondered where they originated? Have you ever thought who started this meme and where did the photo actually come from? Well, it usually starts with an individual uploading a picture onto the internet, to a website like Reddit where people can submit content, and it simply escalates from there.
If you are curious or ever find yourself wondering about a certain meme you came across, a great sight to find the origin, background and history of a particular meme is http://knowyourmeme.com/. On this site you can search for any meme and it will give you a page of information, informing you on the history of the picture, when and where it first appeared online, who posted it and the viral spread of that meme.
From this website, I learned that the image above is known as “Evil Toddler” and originated on October 19th, 2012. It was first uploaded on Reddit as a picture of this child laughing titled “Evil Plan”. That same day the original photo was edited by another Reddit user and re-posted. Over the following three months the post received more than 10,100 up votes and 100 comments. There has since been many different meme’s created using this image and it has spread across the internet, including in various Polish versions.
So where did this meme fad originate and who posted the first one? It certainly proves difficult to pinpoint what the first ever meme was, especially as the word literally means “an idea, belief or belief system, or pattern of behavior that spreads throughout a culture…”. This therefore could be dated back as far as 1983 with the catchphrase from the Star Wars series: “It’s a trap!” or earlier again with the spread of graffiti art finding its way around the globe.
However, in line with what we consider a meme today; those that are circling the internet rapidly and taking up our ‘news feed’ on a daily basis – the earliest example I could find is Mr.T and “Ate My Balls” dating back to 1996.
You can definitely see the difference in the quality a meme from back then and now. I’m sure as the internet and technology grows over the years so too will our meme’s… Who knows what they will evolve into 19 years from now!
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