2. you know, we have fun here, with the word “meme,” but according to meme theory, which is an actual thing pioneered by reptilian human impersonator Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, most of what we call memes are very unsuccessful memes. A meme, in the scientific sense – if one is generously disposed to consider memetics a science on any particular day – is an idea that acts like a gene. That is, it seeks to replicate itself, as many times as possible, and as faithfully as possible.
That second part is important. A gene which is not faithful in its replication mutates, sometimes rapidly, sometimes wildly. The result might be cancer or a virus or (very very very rarely) a viable evolutionary step forward, but whatever the case, it is no longer the original gene. That gene no longer exists. It could not successfully reproduce itself.
The memes we pass around on the internet are, in general, very short lived and rapidly mutating. It’s rare for any meme to survive for more than a year: in almost all cases, they appear, spread rapidly, spawn a thousand short-lived variations, and then are swiftly forgotten. They’re not funny anymore, or interesting anymore. They no longer serve any function, and so they’re left behind, a mental evolutionary dead end.
This rendition of Freddie Mercury’s immortal opera Bohemian Rhapsody is about the most goddamned amazing demonstration of a successful meme I’ve ever seen. This song is 42 years old, as of 2017. FORTY TWO YEARS OLD. And it has spread SO far, and replicated itself across the minds of millions of people SO faithfully, that a gathering of 65,000 more or less random people, with nothing in common except that they all really like it when Billie Joe Armstrong does the thing with the guitar, can reproduce it perfectly. IN PERFECT TIME. THEY KNOW THE EXACT LENGTH OF EVERY BRIDGE. THEY EVEN GET THE NONSENSE WORDS RIGHT. THEY DIVIDE THEMSELVES UP IN ORDER TO SING THE COUNTER-CHORUS.
“Yeah, Pyrrhic, lots of people know this song.”
Listen, you glassy-eyed ninny: our species’ ability to coherently pass along not just genetic information, but memetic information as well, is the reason we’re the dominant species on this planet. Language is a meme. Civilization is a collection of memes. Lots of animals can learn, but we may be the only animal that latches onto ephemera – information that doesn’t reflect any concrete reality, information with little to no immediate practical application – and then joyfully, willfully, unrelentingly repeats it and teaches it to others. Look at how wild this crowd is, because they’re singing the same song! It doesn’t DO anything. It’s not even why they showed up here today! If you sent out a letter to those same 65,000 people that said, “Please show up in this field on this day in order to sing Bohemian Rhapsody,” very few of them would have showed up. But I would be surprised to meet a single person in that crowd who joined in the singing who doesn’t remember this moment as the most amazing part of a concert they paid hundreds of dollars to see.
And they’re just sharing an idea. It’s stunning and ridiculous. Something about how our brains work make us go, “Hey!! Hey everybody!! I found this idea! It’s good! I like it! I’m going to repeat it! Do you know it too?? Repeat it with me! Let’s get EVERYBODY to know it and repeat it and then we can all have it together at the same time! It’s a good idea! I’m so excited to repeat it exactly the way I heard it, as loudly as I can, as often as possible!!”
This is how culture happens! This is how countries happen! Sometimes a persistent, infectious idea – a meme – can be dangerous or dark. But our human delight at clutching up good memes like magpies and flapping back to our flock to yell about them to everyone we know is why we as a species bothered to start doing things like “telling stories” and “writing stuff down.”
“That’s a lot of spilled ink for a Queen song, Pyrrhic.”
So I kept a list of memes I noticed throughout the year bc I’m a communications / internet culture geek
Pls note that these are not necessarily 100% chronological; the memes are just listed under the month that I noticed them becoming popular (some might not even count as memes from this year). Feel free to reblog and add any I missed!
Look at it, it’s got anxiety (original tweet from last year, becoming a meme now)
Kazoo kid
X loves… Y! X loves… Z! X loves… revolution
Where does Jared Leto end and the Joker begin
Tag Yourself meme
What most people think gender is, what gender actually is
I heard that so and so has an 8 pack, that so and so is shredded
Be like so and so (seems to be everywhere but tumblr)
Person A: got into harvard, person B: ate 15 cold hot pockets in a row
Do it for him/her
Detective pikachu
February
“Why are you reading that nonsense?” “Shut up X this doesn’t involve you.” … “X help”
Donald Drumpf
Jorts, joots, jean everything
Strange and eerie screencaps from wikihow articles
Bernie or Hillary
Raccoon eats grapes with his little hands (?)
Damn Daniel
Character: You look pretty. I SAID YOU LOOK SHITTY, GOODNIGHT OTHER CHARACTER
Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer
Leo finally winning a fucking oscar
March
Slightly changing the logo/tagline of a chain company in a shitposty manner
I can be your angle or yuor demon
History of Japan
Face swaps. Just like, hella face swaps everywhere
Fusion comics
Carly Rae Jepsen Run Away With Me
The guy who doesn’t understand kilograms
April
April Fool’s Day comics: Maybe I am the fool
The lizard president thing
Child saying “pussy” in vines
Don’t talk to me or my son ever again
gun
Character: “I won’t do x thing.” Title card: “Character Does X Thing”
I’m dying Squirtle
dark X show me Y
May
Stu Pickles and eggs (??)
*slams fist on table* shouting about something
dat boi (o shit waddup)
The Chewbacca mask from Kohl’s
Cap saying “hail hydra,” other characters saying things that are extremely OOC
June
Are you a X or Y person? (usually three questions in a row, pretty unrelated categories)
High noon
Caveman Spongebob
Pooh and Piglet talking to each other out of character
Dog and cat 911
July
👏 Hand 👏 clap 👏 emoji 👏
Hella Pokemon Go everywhere
Especially making clever jokes in naming your pokemon
Sapphic moodboards
Melania Trump quotes
T h e s o l d i e r f r o m t h e m o u n t a i n s
Not all heroes wear capes
August
100 layers of some beauty product
Arthur’s fist
Pouting Olympian guy
Running Olympian guy
Exeggutor
Says who
the Stranger Things title text
how to talk to a woman wearing headphones
September
Whoa, we’re halfway there, whoa, [image of something that rhymes with “Livin on a Prayer”]
“you need a hobby” “I have a hobby” “being sad isn’t a hobby”
Something about Ratatouille? Idk
Me, an intellectual:
Three characters that represent me
Dabbing
The gif of that one runway model posing in the doorway and then prancing down the walk [[if someone can provide the gif I’d appreciate it, I don’t know her name so I’ve been unable to find it from a search]]
User boxes
October
Retro wave text
Clowns……..?????
The Cask of Amontillado
Hillary and Donald singing duets together
Alolan Dugtrio
Can’t relate
X? I haven’t heard that name in years (image of animal or object smoking cigarette)
November
Little girl who dressed as No Face for Halloween
Confused person with mathematical equations overlaid on their face
Cheating penguin
Joe Biden and Obama making plans to troll Trump and Pence
Evil Kermit the Frog
That creepy looking guy from Lazy Town
Dick: out. I am forcibly removed from wherever I am
Mannequin challenge
Blurry photo of the word perfection, polishing glasses, a pic of something awesome
Bone apple teeth
Bode
December
Movies where every time they say some key word it gets faster
And the second iteration: movies where every time they say some key word it’s replaced with an entire other movie
Variations of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s name
And finally, the biggest meme of the year… 2016 itself, being a fucking dumpster fire of a year.
Solutions Without Problems 