this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
594 points (95.6% liked)

Memes

45581 readers
1 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 72 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

This one is also nice and true until today

https://www.sunnyskyz.com/blog/3428/103-Year-Old-Comic-Describes-What-Would-Happen-If-Pocket-Telephones-Are-Invented

Same with Musk's "revolutionary" Hyperloop, nothing new with the same people

[–] culprit@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 years ago

truly amazing meme

thanks!

[–] darth_tiktaalik@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 years ago

Pocket phone prediction is more spot on than the cartoonist themselves realized, Amish men got shunned because of the emergency alert test going off

[–] imgprojts@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

Their hyper loop drawing is missing the Costco tube communication sound, a nice "thoonk!" Noise.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

The thing he didn't foresee was the ability to turn the phone on silent mode.

We can put it on silent,, but that doesn't mean everybody does when they should!

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 69 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's not a political cartoon.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 33 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think that OP's sentiment is more against gatekeeping what a meme is. Like if this is a meme, than political cartoons are too

[–] kleenbhole@lemy.lol 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Defining words properly isn't gatekeeping, it's categorization.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Well, defining words narrowly is pretty much the definition of gatekeeping. I hope you're not gatekeeping what gatekeeping means?

[–] dabster291@lemmy.zip 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

You aren't a real gatekeeper if you haven't gatekept gatekeeping before

[–] drphungky@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Ah yes, no true gatekeeper.

[–] kleenbhole@lemy.lol 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Defining things properly isn't gatekeeping. You said narrow. I didn't.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

But who decides what the proper definition is? Your proper definition is for me a narrow if it doesn't take into account the common usage. The definition of meme is widening. Cope with it.

[–] kleenbhole@lemy.lol -2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm perfectly happy to give orthographic dominion to Webster. They can be our Academie Francaise. They can control the definition drift. And the pedants can use their educational privilege to suppress the poors. As it should be.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 0 points 2 years ago

As it has always been. As God himself intended it as we see in the story of the tower of babel

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)
[–] 01189998819991197253 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 years ago

Not only is it a great origin, that's a fantastic article on it

Thank you so much for sharing

[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Literally all the things here including comments are memes.

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 years ago

Correct

So basically what I'm saying is that there's a lot of people gatekeeping what a meme is without understanding what a meme is

Or if they're referring to the first of the definitions in the screenshot I shared, not understanding that different people can find things humorous

The biggest meme of all is our spoken languages

[–] kleenbhole@lemy.lol -1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I didn't say they weren't. I just reject the notion that proper definitions aren't gatekeeping. I'm not joining the above argument. I understand the definition is based on usage and the usage has changed. Most humans are morons and don't know how to use words properly so they let language change over time.

[–] I_Clean_Here@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

People no longer understand what meme means. Memes are old as time. Stories, jokes, funny images. Pretty much every form of information can be a meme.

So, yes, this is a slightly older meme.

[–] M137@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Eh, what "meme" actually means and what it currently means in popular culture are two different things. People never understood what it really means, but the most commonly used meaning of it is constantly changing.

The word itself was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976. But it wasn't a commonly used term until around 2005, even then it was used exclusively for specific things and few people knew its actual meaning. But memes in their literal sense have almost always been a thing, and they're common among many species.

[–] I_Clean_Here@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Your post is an "uh, actually" version of what I said. You are not disagreeing with me but still somehow making it sound like you do.

I meant the term meme never applied to only sharing "image macros" but to inside jokes, coming shared references, common cultural knowledge. It is an absolutely fascinating term and concept if used like that, and I wish more people would understand it and use it in the same way.

[–] rurutheguru@lemmings.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What species aside from Homo Sapiens use memes?

[–] cholesterol@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

In Dawkins' sense of the word, memes are 'units of cultural inheritance'. So melodic movements in bird song, that birds teach each other, could be considered memes. Any other place you might find cultural inheritance, you could describe it in terms of memes. Memes were simply meant to be a cultural analogy to genes.

[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 35 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Even_Adder@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The chad vs. virgin meme was originally the reverse. Virgin did things the way you would expect them to be done, and Chad did things in a reckless or incorrect way.

[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 9 points 2 years ago

There's a much longer use case now for "chad good" and that must make the originally intended users seethe. gigachad

[–] IzzyData@lemmy.ml 34 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Were photos really called flashlights in 1920?

[–] HerbalGamer@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago
[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Memes are truly as old as the human race.

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 years ago

Hell one could argue that memes are as old as social constructs

So they could in all likelihood predate moden humans

[–] electrogamerman@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Are animal paintings in caves memes too?

[–] BellaDonna@mujico.org 4 points 2 years ago

Literally yes

[–] kleenbhole@lemy.lol 11 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Meme has come to mean cartoon. Your usage is no different.

Meme doesn't NOT originally mean cartoon, it just means a viral idea.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 years ago

Richard Dawkins, is it you?

[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] PM_ME_FAT_ENBIES@lib.lgbt 6 points 2 years ago

The gods are memes. Ideas that have reproduced and evolved to secure their own existence, so much so that they can accurately be said to have their own agency, as forces directing the will of society. This proves the existence of gods.

[–] AndrasKrigare@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

I'd argue that the "modern meme" of photo with caption are just a modification of demotivational posters

[–] clearleaf@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Meme actually means something and isn't just "funny image." We no longer have a word for what a meme actually is. I didn't care about the meaning of ironic changing because there's still words for that but this is different.

[–] Sabata11792@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago

Going to be hard to beat fire and pointy sticks for old memes.

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] culprit@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 years ago
[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Meme from the American Civil War

[–] culprit@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

oh ya I forgot about this one, total classic political cartoon meme too

[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Always dipping on the chinless...

[–] CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Define meme, does the Sator Square count?

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 years ago

So, uh, yes.

Yes (IMO) it does count.

It was passed down for centuries in a non-gene based way among people

[–] culprit@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

A C A B
C A B A
A B A C
B A C A