Is there a fundamental internet meme that has had such a major impact that it would have notable repercussions if it had somehow disappeared?
Rickrolling, possibly.
Or yeet. I think modern culture might be noticeably different if we didn’t have yeet.
Would love a world without rickrolling tbh. One of the jokes I never really got
Man, I don’t know why a random Rick Astley song replaced goatse, but I am so glad it did.
I’ll agree to that for sure. A marked improvement
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I sometimes think back to when Loss was first posted. I was a teenager hanging out on Shacknews and Somethingawful. The memes started pouring out, people couldn’t stop mocking it. Seemed kinda cruel to me, obviously the author was trying to share something personal and painful with his audience. But the internet was a cruel place. People just didn’t give a fuck.
I remember thinking it’ll blow over before too long. Boy howdy did I underestimate the internet.
To be honest i discovered this meme no so long ago, but i feel like the message and resilience of it is kind of universal. Everyone understand whats’s its essence, everyone can relate. I never though i would be the one to bring it up anywhere, but here i am, posting it, years after the original. And its still relevant!
I agree the internet is a cruel place but it’s also an extremely human response to react to tragedy with comedy. If the comic didn’t strike a chord with people in a very real way, I’m not sure people would still be finding ways to laugh at it. I mean, look at how many people cope with/joke about depression through memes. I don’t think it’s meant to be cruel, it’s just a natural human reaction to hardship and the reason it’s still around is because people do, in fact, give a very sad fuck.
The I Can Haz Cheeseburger? kickoff meme of the happy Blue Scottish Fold cat.
I wasted sooooo much time on ICHC and it was due to that memeified cat picture that started it all.
Probably the one we already removed. I’d tell you which I’ve but unfortunately I forgot.
Don’t blame yourself, last month’s Emergency Broadcast Test wiped it from everyone’s memory.
LOLCats?
I’m thinking you have to go way back, something like lolcats, advice duck, ceiling cat, something where if you remove it from the equation meme culture just straight up does not develop, or does not develop the same way or at the same time.
Before LOLcats was Demotivational posters, which were just the generic motivational posters, but with a humorous twist. Motivational posters had a black border with text on the bottom, which made it easy to swap out in MS Paint with funny text back in the early Internet days. It was the first caption memes, which became even more popular when people started doing it with cute cat pics too.
I still have a large folder of black boxes. One day they’ll be worth something!
Ah remember Nyan cat :-D
I can haz cheezburger
Doge, it would make crytobros slightly less cringe (VERY slightly)
They’d still find a way
Lightsaber kid? Mostly just because iirc he got bullied for it quite a bit.
Goatse or two girls one cup. Or lemon party.
What would the world be like with out our brave Lord and savior a man and a jar
Does it have to be an internet meme? Also does God count as a meme?
Meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene in 1976, and defined as the equivalent of a gene but for more abstract ideas (because the gene is ultimately just a unit of information as well). I don’t remember for sure if religion is specifically an example he personally used, but if it’s not it’s very comfortably in the same vein.
Religion is a memeplex in Dawkins’s conception
Well if you’re a time traveler, you’d want to remove the very first meme for maximum ripple effect, so prevent people from questioning Bielefeld.
Fucking wojacks. Disappearance of this cancer will bring significant benefit to me specifically because I wouldn’t have to endure those ugly drawings. Fucking trollface was better than this hell.
Rage comics were better and were actually a modern form of Commedia dell’arte or Masked Theatre, in such that it used stock characters and so plot could be both meaningful but simple. Wojacks lack implied character and context, so story or character depth requires explanation which doesn’t usually work as well with that form
Wojacks soyjacks chuds chuddle and chad memes can be really funny
also humor is subjective what you may dislike someone else may likeI am willing to sacrifice all five funny memes you are talking about, if it means I will not have to look at all the “I depicted you as this ugly undesirable wojak saying stupid things therefore I won” bullshit ever again.
If Dat Boi had never appeared online, all those people might still be alive.
I can’t imagine the modern internet without Among Us
Does Encyclopedia Dramatica count as an internet meme?
He-Man Fabulous Secret Powers
Sex.
