It was a day of the week, that much I remember. It could have been Monday or Thursday...even Saturday, the first time I saw a meme.
“Yo, check out this new music video from Kanye,” my alleged friend said. “It’s awesome.”
It was not “awesome” as I just got Rick-Rolled.
I was scarred permanently and the fear of being Rick-Rolled again follows me to this current day.
Never again.
For those who don’t know, or to those that would like to re-learn, “Rick-Rolling” is an occurrence, where instead of watching or listening to a song that you want to hear, you instead end up with Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” It’s terrifying, it’s humiliating and it’s a meme.
A meme, according to the world-renowned encyclopedia Wikipedia, is “an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” It can be transferred or sent through text, social media or just daily conversation. They are viruses and they will never die.
Some of the best current memes are “Crying Jordans,” where Michael Jordan’s sad face in planted over embarrassing pop culture moments, “JOHN CENA,” where the yelling of the infamous wrestler’s name cuts into any YouTube video and “Smart Dog,” where a cute dog with glasses reading a book says puns that have to do with canines such as “Thoreau me the ball.” It’s adorable, and I’ll send you a link soon.
The reason that I bring all of this up, besides the fact that I was asked to write this and apparently will get paid for this, is that memes will continue to live on forever. From Sad Keanu to Doge to “Hotline Bling” Drake there are just more and more examples of how memes progress and reflect the Internet landscape.
Originally just pictures, there are now videos, gifs and even audio memes that symbolize what has picked up our culture by the lapels and refuse to put us down.
Anything can become a meme, even you, so it’s best to know what you’re in for before it happens to you.
