History of Memes

The guy above this, his name is András Arató, but he is better known as "Hide the Pain Harold". He became a meme some time ago back around 2011. His photo simply went viral for that sad but endearing smile. I have linked an article about it Here. Memes have been around almost since the dawn of highspeed internet. They started off as simple clipart photos with short phrases and soon evolved into actual pictures with captions on them. However, some would argue that we have actually been using memes for years, not just on the internet. Drawings, paintings, comedy sketches, etc. Lately, They have been all over Facebook and almost everybody knows what a meme is, unless you live under a rock or are one of those old folk who don't use a computer. The word "meme" was contrived by a British evolutionary biologist in 1976 known as Richard Dawkins. His definition was the smallest unit of sound in speech.

Benveniste, A. (2022, January 26). The meaning and history of memes. The New York Times. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/
2022/01/26/crosswords/what-is-a-meme.html

I have included some pictures of very early memes before they became what they are now.