An Ode to Classic Memes
Back in the day, one only ventured out into Facebook only to like a few statuses, add the occasional beauty/beast (we don't judge), play a few online quizzes and call it fate when the letter Facebook says your crushes name starts with happens to coincide with, well would you know it, your crush. How boring.
But then one fine day, someone in the magical world of the internet, decided to break away from the kind of self-absorption and materialism social media breeds. Regardless, enter the crudely drawn faces which changed our lives forever. Memes.
From the Y U NO faces to the SpongeGar and Harambe memes of today, we've come a long way. Gone are the days we'd go "Dost ei mey-mey ta dekh" because hey, they're everywhere. But alas, all memes must end one day. While the death of one meme signifies the birth of another, let us look back at some of the memes that were legends in their days.
GRUMPY CAT
The Grumpy Cat meme is probably as famous a meme as it is because it gives life to deep set low key disdain for humanity we're all in denial about having. I can't say I'm happy about someone as bad a failure as I am but, Grumpy Cat can because he's grumpy. Convenient.
DOGE
The Doge meme set fire to the internet way back in 2010 when a funky Shiba Inu dog named Kabosu made a weird face at a camera, and his Japanese owner shared pictures on her blog. Like all things on the internet, somebody noticed, decided to add a few choice lines to the picture and voila - instant hit for the ages. Such article. Very read. Much good. Wow. Many like.
DOLAN DUK
The Dolan Duk memes are throwbacks to the times when writing in shorthand was considered cool (read: k3wlz). Featuring crudely drawn Disney characters and their crudely written and imagined shenanigans in a comic-like format, Dolan memes very apparently have a dark side (Darth Vader would be proud). In fact, these memes can get borderline offensive, given Dolan's, um, predatory demeanour.
I DON'T ALWAYS_______ BUT WHEN I DO, _______
Possibly one of the first memes on the internet, this meme is based off a 2007 commercial called "The Most Interesting Man in the World", which quickly turned into an internet sensation between 2009 and 2013. This meme accurately depicts what I like to call the impressive-douchebag-effect, where you hear someone brag and you hate it, but you can't help being impressed somewhat and hate yourself for it.
YOU DON'T SAY
This is as classical as classic memes get, and it features the forever young and balding Nicholas Cage sarcastically reacting to the obvious. You don't say memes were the rage back in 2012, and soon it became a thing to blurt out "You don't say" anytime someone farted and someone else went "haha someone farted."
These barely scratch the surface of the wide and varying kinds of memes that exist, or have existed, over the ages. While one may very well feel sad and reminisce about how the great memes over the internet have slowly withered away into oblivion, at least we know there's something else, something brand new, right around the corner.
Because after all, it's a jungle out there.