Alexander Radovich

2-13-17
Typing
Wollert
Memes
As many great, respected figures of history have said, Born too late to explore the Earth,
born too early to explore the galaxy, but just in time to browse dank memes.1Meme is a term
that was first coined by Richard Dawkins. Internet memes can experience evolution and mutation
due to popular ideas and society.2 Meme history is complex and deep, perhaps starting with the
meme Kilroy was here. Kilroy is a mysterious figure peeking over a structure whose history is
just as mysterious as the man is. He might have first appeared during the deployment of
American soldiers of WW2, perhaps honoring the men of war.3 Kilroy mightve been the very
first meme, sparking a revolution that would last throughout the ages.
The two great memes of 2016 are dat boi and caveman spongebob, dat boi being a frog riding on
a unicycle, and caveman spongebob being, well, caveman spongebob.4 These two memes were
locked in an epic battle for popularity during 2016, but now, only the respected memory and
legacy of these memes live on.
The year now being 2017, a new meme has emerged. Pepe the frog is a controversial meme
that is seen as both a hate symbol and a honorable meme. Pepe the frog was first seen in the
magazine; Boys Club saying feels good man5 Pepe is now featured on many different
offensive and regular memes, including but not limited to Donald Trump, Hitler, and Spongebob.
Pepes popularity is dropping dramatically, and he is soon to be seen only as a vicious graffiti
and hate symbol.

1 Born too late to explore the Earth, born too early to explore the galaxy.
Knowyourmeme.com.Dateaccessed:February 14th
2017.http://knowyourmeme.com/forums/general/topics/31127-born-to-late-to-explore-the-earth-
born-to-early-to-explore-the-galaxy

2 Memesamazinginfographics.com. Date accessed:February 14th 2017.

http://www.amazinginfographics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/History-Internet-Memes.jpg

3 7 memes that went viral before the internet existed www.cracked.com. Date
accessed: February15th 2017. http://www.cracked.com/article_19119_7-memes-that-
went-viral-before-internet-existed.html

4 Dat boi vs. Caveman Spongebob animoapps.com date accessed: February 15th,
2017.http://aminoapps.com/page/dank/9068685/dat-boi-vs-caveman-spongebob

5 How Pepe the frog went from harmless to hate symbol www.latimes.com. Date
accessed: February 15th, 2017.http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-pepe-the-frog-
hate-symbol-20161011-snap-htmlstory.html
Back to the history of memes, the term meme was first coined by a man named Richard
Dawkins in his book about culture and the spreading of it throughout current times. His book
was called; The Selfish Gene in 1976.6 The actual word meme is a shortening of an ancient
Greek word mimeme The evolutionary biologist who coined this phrase copied and changed
the Greek word (which originally meant to copy) and used it in a completely different text.7 He
basically invented this word for his book as a topic for discussion with the general public.
The most common form of meme is now the internet meme, which is generally of picture or
series of pictures with upper words, lower words, or perhaps both. It is generally created and
viewed for amusement and a laugh, kind of like a comic strip or comic book. However, the
internet meme is only a subcategory of the much larger class of meme. The popularity of the
internet meme over the regular meme is so large nowadays, a reference to meme is probably a
reference to an internet meme instead.
People post memes for many different reasons. It might to be just to please the public. It
might be for virtual attention and popularity. However, some of the posters and readers of memes
are very sensitive about people stealing their memes and passing them off as their own. They
view it as an inexcusable crime, and, it kind of is. Its called plagiarism.
The pronunciation of meme is often a difficult task for people that have no idea what it is.
If it is viewed in print or text, the reader will often mispronounce the word as mey mey. The
correct pronunciation of course, is meem However, this mispronunciation was generally only
around back in the earlier days of the meme. It is less common to hear the mispronunciation due
to the larger popularity of a meme in pop culture.
One of the memes that people actually talk about with the non-meme community is the
Harambe meme. Harambe is a Gorilla that was killed after he dragged a boy that fell into his
cage. The meme community is furious about the killing of Harambe, and many people think he
saved the boys life, which, he did. A zoo worker was concerned about the boy, and shot the
innocent gorilla. Many people are mourning and even writing songs about Harambe.
Memes are, in short, a pop culture amusement that evolves to please the current people.
However, just like all fads, memes will reach a peak and die off.

6 History of memes Google. Date accessed: February 22, 2017. https://www.google.com/search?

q=history+of+memes&oq=history+of+memes&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i61j0l4.4554j0j7&sourceid=chrome&i
e=UTF-8

7 Ibid