Memes

The word meme originated with Richard Dawkins’ 1976 book The Selfish Gene as a shortening for mimeme, a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. The concept developed into internet memes, as we know them today, during the 90’s and early 2000’s. An Internet Meme is an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media which spreads, often as mimicry or for humorous purposes, from person to person via the Internet.

Ever since then, many new memes have been produced and widely spread, gaining continuous popularity all over the world especially during the past few years. In 2017, one meme that particularly stands out as perhaps the most comical and sharp-witted one of all. The “Roll safe” meme, more known as the one with the man pointing at his own forehead. It basically consists of the same picture of the man accompanied by captions that differ from picture to picture. The main detail that makes this such a great meme is how the changing captions are funny but at the same time also make you think. Some examples of the captions are “I leave all assignments to the last minute because the older, and therefore the wiser, I will be” ; “You can’t get cheated on if you don’t get into a relationship”; “No one can call you thirsty if you always carry around a gallon of water”. Combining humor with intelligent content is not as easy of a task as you’d think, which is why the “Roll safe” meme is my pick for Best Meme of 2017.