this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
1016 points (98.2% liked)

memes

14127 readers
3056 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to [email protected]

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment

Sister communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Internet was much better when it was just Star Wars Kid and All your base.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I don't get this. And I'm le tired.

I'll take a nap.

AND VIRE ZHE MISSILES!!

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 88 points 4 days ago (6 children)

In the year 2100 on my 120th birthday, looking to the adoring eyes of my decedents.

"I was there, at the beginning, it was glorious and it was terrible, we had Charlie the Unicorn and Nyan cat, but also there was two girls and one cup....those days are gone now; forgotten the memes have morphed and combined new ones have spawned, the originals are no more"

[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Remember goatse? Wasn't that a cute rabbit?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Sending your friend's email contacts and invite to the lemon party they were hosting

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago (2 children)

No, that was a shock site. You’re thinking of Lemon Party.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (4 children)

You mean people won't even remember who all the base are belong to?

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 61 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (8 children)

Remember when the Dancing Baby was on Ally McBeal? Pepperidge Farms remembers

Edit to add a link to David Hasselhoff's 1997 cover of Blue Swede's cover of BJ Thomas's "Hooked on a Feeling"

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Hey guys... remember Newgrounds? Heh... Remember Spoony? Hehe...

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 days ago (8 children)

Dunno maybe this was localized but

Tunak Tunak Tun was declared the anthem of my California middle school computer graphics class. Lots of FlashMX tribute animations and such.

It apparently went way beyond that, as we saw the Draenei rocking that dance in WoW: Burning Crusade. :D

It still freaking slaps. :D

It was a great time for foreign music, as Gary's silly dance and lip sync to the "numa numa" song was proliferating everywhere.

I wonder if a lot of this was from all the fun file sharing and explosion of P2P networks going on? I don't miss how easy it was to catch malware but I do miss some very particular feeling about those days...

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I have no idea what the snake and mushrooms are and I was born before the internet existed, so it’s not only kids.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Yeah, but were you chronically online in 2002? Ie exposed to the memes of the time.

Nowadays all sorts of normies fill the internet. Internet used to be explicitly for "nerds".

I remember when nornies didn't even know how to.

And now we've gone around again and the youngest generations have really poor PC skills because they just do everything on their phone.

Do you remember the dancing baby? That was a few years earlier than Badgerbadgerbadger.com but it was more mainstream, being like in Ally Mcbeal etc.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

My mom used to call the house from work at a random time between when my brother and I got home from school and when she left work. If she got a busy signal, she would wait about 15 minutes to half an hour and call back. If she got a busy signal a second time she would assume one of us was on the Internet and we would get in trouble when she got home.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 days ago (2 children)

"the first memes" yeah right

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

The Hampster Dance meme happened 5 years before the Badger meme.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

All your base are belong to us!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (7 children)

I think that's cute they think those were the first memes.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 days ago (4 children)

🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🍌📞

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 days ago (2 children)

👅🐴 ... There is not a raisin emoji.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

✊️🐴

🛩

🐴

✊️🍆

Or something like that

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 days ago (4 children)

👧🤮

🫵🤔

🚫🙈

📍🍋🏭

🍬🍋

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

I just want to say, all you degenerates in this thread, you are my people. Thank you for remembering the terrible shit we shared.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Thanks, now I have that freakin’ song stuck in my head.

And fuck I feel old now. Get off my lawn!!!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Why do you think the web was born? Porn porn porn!

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago (5 children)

I am too old to remember this

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Weebl released a video on youtube marking the 20th anniversery of badger badger badger a while ago, he released one for the 15th too and the 10th

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago (5 children)

I've seen Weebl videos. I've seen them with my eyes.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 days ago (3 children)

The first? Idk about that, im 27. And am well aware of memes prior to my existance. The oldest i can think of is the dancing baby meme.

https://youtu.be/eyR6O0eHz-o

Or more relavent to this would be the hamster dance

https://youtu.be/6WpMlwVwydo

[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 days ago (16 children)

Dancing Baby was the first normie meme. Its popularity spread through TV and print.

All Your Base is more of an actual “first” internet meme.

load more comments (16 replies)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Memes are also not inherently digital. Going back to the definition set by Richard Dawkins (trans-hating bigot he is), a meme is anything that "conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation." Perhaps that's a bit broad of a definition compared to what we conventionally think of as memes, but it's how we got to where we are.

People in ancient Egypt building pyramids and obelisks because someone before them built pyramids and obelisks is a meme. Cathedrals being built in much the same way throughout Renaissance Europe is a meme.

But those examples aside, there are still a few pre-internet examples that would still resonate more with the idea of memes as we know them today. Kilroy was Here is considered a meme and goes back to World War II. Or a bit before that, this "How you think you look" cartoon which I am not entirely sure was overly meme-like in its day but certainly feels relatable today.

But even slogans or popular sayings could be considered memes; if we consider internet terms/phrases like "pog" or "Are ya winning, son?" or (dating myself) "I can haz cheezburger?" to be memes, what about pre-internet sayings like "Luke, I am your father," "It's just a flesh wound," or "Where's the beef?" Or going way, way back, what about saying "Break a leg" before a performance, or "All the world's a stage," or even "Carpe diem"? I think one could make a case for just about any repeated and widely understood concept, really.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I've fallen and I can't get up!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I vaguely remember the Harry Potter one?

Potter, Potter, Potter Weasley, Weasley Snape! Snape!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

Where do I sign the petition to add Weebls Stuff to middle school curriculum

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The picture is missing two badgers (sing the song in your head and count).

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago (9 children)
load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

Hahaha! When Halo Reach first came out, me and three friends were playing the campaign and chanting "banshee banshee banshee banshee oooooooooo TANK TANK! OOOOOOO It's a tank!"

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago

New grounds flash games

load more comments
view more: next ›