I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me, and it'll happen to you, too
I remember back when they were Vin Diesel jokes and then suddenly people were doing them with Chuck Norris instead. And I wondered why people were so into that guy on the Texas cop propaganda show.
Kids these days don't even know what memes are. For them webcomics and social media screenshots, even plain political ones without a shred of humor, are just memes. Everything is a meme now...
If we use the original definition of the word "meme", which is "a unit of cultural transmission" then yes literally everything is a meme.
It was coined to be analogous to the word "gene". One of the similarities is that the borders of genes and memes are fuzzy: when you split a gene in half, you get two genes. Both genes and memes are nested inside of themselves like a Russian doll.
The misdefinition of "meme" as "image macro on the internet" was ill informed, and is thankfully going out of style.
The term was originally coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 in, "the Selfish Gene".
The main problem with that definition of the word is that it's really hard to use. It requires both the speaker and the listener to be comfortable with the fungibility of data and code.
Just yesterday I was at a cat cafe with two of my kids. My 9y/o is with me as we are petting a British “blue” shorthair and I tell it “you CAN haz cheesburger.” He laughs and is like “dad, what is that?” And I realize that that meme is practically ancient history for him. So I pull out the phone and show him the kernel of all he finds funny today.
Am I the only one who remembers when there was a failed effort to replace Chuck Norris with Vin Diesel? Like the same jokes, but with different actors.
Or maybe I really did step through a wormhole into another dimension... 🤔
Wanna feel that meme happen to you in real time? When Saving Private Ryan released on July 24 1998, Matt Damon (born October 8 1970) was 27 years, 9 months, 16 days old.
From the release of the movie to today (October 4 2025) is 27 years, 2 months, 10 days. We have almost reached the point that someone born the day the movie came out will be older than Matt Damon was when the movie premiered.
73 Comments
Trex202@lemmy.world · 104 pts · 331d
I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me, and it'll happen to you, too
mtpender@piefed.social · 19 pts · 331d
"No way, Man! We're gonna keep on rockin' forever!"
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 331d
I was just never with it.
Akasazh@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 330d
They only secure way to be with it is to not give a damn and do your own thing.
WildPalmTree@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 330d
"The only winning move is not to play."
benni@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 331d
Had to read this a few times, it was a bit of a /c/aneurysmposting moment for me.
Tuxman@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 330d
Blame Brent Forrester, he wrote the line in The Simpsons episode 😜
ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com · 67 pts · 331d
All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction. You have no chance to survive make your time. Ha Ha Ha Ha
snooggums@piefed.world · 12 pts · 331d
Whelp, time to rewatch!
"Original": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qItugh-fFgg
Remaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJVOu9nKBck
_stranger_@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 331d
This meme is so old Al Gore was still relevant as a politician and wasn't a meme himself quite yet.
Akasazh@feddit.nl · 6 pts · 330d
Move ZIG.
For great justice
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 331d
Do a barrel roll
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 331d
Used to love the chuck Norris memes till i found out hes a MAGA dirtbag
shalafi@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 330d
Chuck Norris? Nope! Chuck Testa!
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 330d
You thought that deer was alive? NOPE
justcallmelarry@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 27 pts · 331d
Yo dawg, I heard you like memes
toiletobserver@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 331d
chilicheeselies@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 331d
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b7/71/76/b77176f7418b6a0d7af1473022296d87.gif
fox2263@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 331d
Remember when memes were “motivational posters” and were mainly kittens in fields
jawa22@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 14 pts · 331d
You're the man now, dog.
baltakatei@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 330d
Punch the keys, for God's sake!
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 330d
I did not come from Chuck Norris. I've been telling people he's a piece of shit for decades.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 330d
I remember back when they were Vin Diesel jokes and then suddenly people were doing them with Chuck Norris instead. And I wondered why people were so into that guy on the Texas cop propaganda show.
janonymous@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 331d
Kids these days don't even know what memes are. For them webcomics and social media screenshots, even plain political ones without a shred of humor, are just memes. Everything is a meme now...
Krono@lemmy.today · 14 pts · 331d
If we use the original definition of the word "meme", which is "a unit of cultural transmission" then yes literally everything is a meme.
It was coined to be analogous to the word "gene". One of the similarities is that the borders of genes and memes are fuzzy: when you split a gene in half, you get two genes. Both genes and memes are nested inside of themselves like a Russian doll.
The misdefinition of "meme" as "image macro on the internet" was ill informed, and is thankfully going out of style.
nednobbins@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 331d
The term was originally coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 in, "the Selfish Gene".
The main problem with that definition of the word is that it's really hard to use. It requires both the speaker and the listener to be comfortable with the fungibility of data and code.
davepleasebehave@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 331d
YOU ARE THE ONE WHO IS A MEME!!!11!ONE
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 331d
If those are the past, what I think of as classics must be fucking paleontology.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 330d
ALL YOUR BASE!
GraniteM@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 331d
That is not dead which can eternal lie.
LemmyThinkAboutIt@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 330d
What about all the different Nic Cage faces we would use?
eyelevel@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 330d
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 331d
Damn Daniel? That was like 10 years after all the rest.
Sc00ter@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 331d
This was the only one i dont recognize
scytale@piefed.zip · 3 pts · 331d
No wonder I don't recognize it.
thatradomguy@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 331d
Cool story bro.
RabbitMix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 330d
When you accidentally killed yourself in BF Bad Company 2 it said Epic Fail on your screen.
Absolutely wild times
Grimy@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 331d
You buried the Mordor meme alive bro, get him out
PacMan@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 331d
No Advice Dog or Can I Haz Cheeseburgers?
FrChazzz@lemmus.org · 9 pts · 331d
Just yesterday I was at a cat cafe with two of my kids. My 9y/o is with me as we are petting a British “blue” shorthair and I tell it “you CAN haz cheesburger.” He laughs and is like “dad, what is that?” And I realize that that meme is practically ancient history for him. So I pull out the phone and show him the kernel of all he finds funny today.
Damage@feddit.it · 5 pts · 331d
lolcats
ohshit604@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 329d
Grumpy cat an Nyan cat are missing. Pretty sure forrest gump was a meme at one point.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 5 pts · 330d
Am I the only one who remembers when there was a failed effort to replace Chuck Norris with Vin Diesel? Like the same jokes, but with different actors.
Or maybe I really did step through a wormhole into another dimension... 🤔
Metostopholes@midwest.social · 5 pts · 331d
"This headstone is so worn I can barely read it... 'Ate'... 'Ate My Balls'?"
Edit: For you youngsters, this was once the height of internet humour.
Masamune@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 331d
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Hatshepsut@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 331d
No Grumpycat?
renrenPDX@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 331d
I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?
Prox@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 331d
Interesting tale, hermano.
capuccino@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 331d
When memes were more a feeling
TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 330d
No goatsie?
burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 330d
or tubgirl or... where is it... goddamn it... moves 10 files of memes from 2005
aaah, here we go: You could get a lot of traction posting that in /b/ back in the day.
TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 329d
I honestly think tubgirl was worse.... like way worse lol
Preventer79@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 331d
I distinctively remember when these were the new "cancer" memes like skibidi toilet is now :/
Akasazh@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 330d
Skibidi toilet reminds me of old Gmod TF2 videos.
Preventer79@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 330d
They're made with the same software (Source film maker)
InFerNo@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 330d
All your base are belong to us
Landless2029@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 331d
I miss rage comics/memes
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 329d
https://youtu.be/mfhBM_Yay6w
oh and
Valmond@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 330d
So where is the digital museum? There must be one right?
Rekonok@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 330d
https://knowyourmeme.com/
winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 330d
They should implement a 'history' or way to see pages made in order chronologically to kind of build out a timeline
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 331d
Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of memes...
BlueLineBae@midwest.social · 4 pts · 331d
Once upon a time there was a website called "meat spin dot com"...
nednobbins@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 331d
I hear if you stay for one more spin it takes you to goatse.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 331d
You forgot shriek
Yuyarl@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 331d
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qnFE1um_xo
OrteilGenou@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 331d
Those old memes certainly had an IMPACT
zakobjoa@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 331d
tom_hanks_aging_facemorph.jpg
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 331d
Matt Damon aging actually. Tom Hanks died during the final battle scene.
edgemaster72@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 329d
Wanna feel that meme happen to you in real time? When Saving Private Ryan released on July 24 1998, Matt Damon (born October 8 1970) was 27 years, 9 months, 16 days old.
From the release of the movie to today (October 4 2025) is 27 years, 2 months, 10 days. We have almost reached the point that someone born the day the movie came out will be older than Matt Damon was when the movie premiered.
Time comes for us all.
zakobjoa@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 331d
Damn you're right.
Sabata11792@ani.social · 2 pts · 331d
Troll face is timeless and still makes its rounds.
joyjoy@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 331d
After the rage comic fire, Wojack rises from the ashes.
pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 330d
epic is dead?