People on Tumblr Created A Meta Meme That Drove The Whole Internet Community Nuts

And if you take one look at it, you will understand why.

Damjan

• Published in Tumblr
• May 31, 2020

Although "meme" is a relatively new word, its not as modern as you imagine. The concept was made up back in 1976 by a biologist Richard Dawkins, and he used it in his book “The Selfish Gene.” He word “meme” is coined from the Greek word “mimeme” (a thing being imitated) and the word “gene” (genetics). His intention was to make a word to perfectly depict how ideas spread and mutate in similar ways as genes do.

And that is how the strange image formats and their countless variations got their name. The same as the animals evolved to the point that they look totally different from their ancestors, so are memes evolving, and they are often combined into some incredible forms. One Tumblr thread took it one step up and started a totally confusing grid meme:

Some people will get this meme without a problem, and some people might get some part of it, but what about us who don’t get it at all?

Comedy is a cultural thing, and what you find amusing basically depends on your upbringing, surroundings where you grew up, languages you speak and understand well, and so many other things… 

This debate might just take you back to college days when you had an assignment do analyze all the literal influences, allusions, and metaphors in some ancient poems.

But it turned out that the meta madness was just starting, and the other users started contributing.

All this makes you wonder: as the memes are continually evolving, what would they be like in 5 or 10 years from now? And will they be even more challenging to understand? Will we need chips in our heads to help us get them?

Damjan