this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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Is there a fundamental internet meme that has had such a major impact that it would have notable repercussions if it had somehow disappeared?

all 33 comments
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[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Rickrolling, possibly.

Or yeet. I think modern culture might be noticeably different if we didn't have yeet.

[–] LadyLikesSpiders@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Would love a world without rickrolling tbh. One of the jokes I never really got

[–] swordsmanluke@programming.dev 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man, I don't know why a random Rick Astley song replaced goatse, but I am so glad it did.

[–] LadyLikesSpiders@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I'll agree to that for sure. A marked improvement

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

AYBABTU. It was one of the first "real" memes that grew organically. If youtube had existed back then, the creators would probably have been set for life off the views from that one video alone.

But back then, they did it for the lulz...

[–] ALostInquirer@lemm.ee 44 points 1 year ago

Somehow this is the first time I've ever seen, "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" shortened that way and it left me thinking it was something even more arcane 😂

[–] roawre@feddit.ch 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I sometimes think back to when Loss was first posted. I was a teenager hanging out on Shacknews and Somethingawful. The memes started pouring out, people couldn't stop mocking it. Seemed kinda cruel to me, obviously the author was trying to share something personal and painful with his audience. But the internet was a cruel place. People just didn't give a fuck.

I remember thinking it'll blow over before too long. Boy howdy did I underestimate the internet.

[–] roawre@feddit.ch 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

To be honest i discovered this meme no so long ago, but i feel like the message and resilience of it is kind of universal. Everyone understand whats's its essence, everyone can relate. I never though i would be the one to bring it up anywhere, but here i am, posting it, years after the original. And its still relevant!

[–] artisanrox@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The I Can Haz Cheeseburger? kickoff meme of the happy Russian Blue cat.

I wasted sooooo much time on ICHC and it was due to that memeified cat picture that started it all.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Doge, it would make crytobros slightly less cringe (VERY slightly)

[–] Deez@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

They’d still find a way

[–] holycrap@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Probably the one we already removed. I'd tell you which I've but unfortunately I forgot.

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Don't blame yourself, last month's Emergency Broadcast Test wiped it from everyone's memory.

[–] Xariphon@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

LOLCats?

I'm thinking you have to go way back, something like lolcats, advice duck, ceiling cat, something where if you remove it from the equation meme culture just straight up does not develop, or does not develop the same way or at the same time.

[–] cobysev@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Before LOLcats was Demotivational posters, which were just the generic motivational posters, but with a humorous twist. Motivational posters had a black border with text on the bottom, which made it easy to swap out in MS Paint with funny text back in the early Internet days. It was the first caption memes, which became even more popular when people started doing it with cute cat pics too.

[–] SheDiceToday@eslemmy.es 3 points 1 year ago

I still have a large folder of black boxes. One day they'll be worth something!

[–] Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com 3 points 1 year ago

Ah remember Nyan cat :-D

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Lightsaber kid? Mostly just because iirc he got bullied for it quite a bit.

Goatse or two girls one cup. Or lemon party.

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

Well if you're a time traveler, you'd want to remove the very first meme for maximum ripple effect, so prevent people from questioning Bielefeld.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does it have to be an internet meme? Also does God count as a meme?

[–] conciselyverbose@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene in 1976, and defined as the equivalent of a gene but for more abstract ideas (because the gene is ultimately just a unit of information as well). I don't remember for sure if religion is specifically an example he personally used, but if it's not it's very comfortably in the same vein.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

Religion is a memeplex in Dawkins’s conception

[–] kakes@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

If Dat Boi had never appeared online, all those people might still be alive.

[–] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fucking wojacks. Disappearance of this cancer will bring significant benefit to me specifically because I wouldn't have to endure those ugly drawings. Fucking trollface was better than this hell.

[–] TheMechanic@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

Rage comics were better and were actually a modern form of Commedia dell'arte or Masked Theatre, in such that it used stock characters and so plot could be both meaningful but simple. Wojacks lack implied character and context, so story or character depth requires explanation which doesn't usually work as well with that form

[–] backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 year ago

I can't imagine the modern internet without Among Us

[–] recursive_recursion@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Does Encyclopedia Dramatica count as an internet meme?

[–] kalkulat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago