Top 10

Top 10 Memes that Changed History

10.Pooh Bear

The meme, in this case, any image of Pooh Bear, is heavily censored in China. The country even banned the release of the movie “Christopher Robin” within its borders just to avoid showing any image of the old teddy bear. And because? It all dates back to 2013, when President Xi Jinping visited the United States and some memers compared him and President Barack Obama to Pooh Bear and Tigger. Xi was not a fanatic and considered being mistreated by me an affront to his dignity and his position. He is particularly susceptible, in part, because of his aim to be the figurehead of both a personality cult and an authoritarian regime. This has turned the meme, once again, any image of a simple cartoon bear, into a symbol of the corruption and protest of the Chinese government.

9.ALS Ice Buckets

In 2014, an online challenge trend emerged, growing organically and gradually from a series of unrelated charitable “cold water challenges” to a massive worldwide meme dedicated to raising money for ALS (also commonly known as ALS disease). Lou Gehrig). They raised the money they made: more than $ 220 million in 2014 alone. And the trend, which operates when one cartel challenges another to post as well, has resurfaced several years since. Although none have reached 2014 levels of success, they have generated more and more income for charities and ALS-related organizations. The meme has demonstrated an incredible ability to produce grassroots funds and demonstrates the potential that memes have to change finances in the future.

8.Radium

Today, even illiterate scientists understand that radiation can be dangerous. But in the first half of the complicated 20th century, newly discovered radioactive elements like radium were thought to be safe. More than that, they were in fashion. Radium in particular was used in every product imaginable, from makeup to watches to clothing and medicine. Between being considered a panacea and its fun self-luminous quality, the radio became the motto of quality in its day. You can find the word on all kinds of product labels, commercials, posters, and signs. It was a viral buzzword that brought the dangers of radioactivity to world fame.

7.Memento Mori

It is impossible to choose the most influential and widespread meme today, but in the medieval and Renaissance periods, the winner is clear: the memento mori. Memento mori, which means ‘remember that you will die’, is a motif that appeared in a large number of paintings over hundreds of years (and is still used today) .The essence of the meme is simple: include some object in your work to remind the audience that death is inevitable. In most cases, it was a timekeeping device set to a penultimate time, some living being that was clearly coming out, or just a skull. Even limiting the meme to just skulls, you can easily find hundreds of examples of paintings. Some are hidden, perhaps a small skull on a shelf whose contents are otherwise normal, and some are the central focus, as in Holbein’s “The Ambassadors.” It is safe to say that no nobleman of the Renaissance ever forgot that death was near.

6.Graffiti-Memes

Before the internet, perhaps the most common way to spread visual memes was graffiti. With an obvious location in or around high-traffic, high-visibility areas, many graffiti phrases spread from creator to viewer to creator, just as memes do online today. A notable example is the phrase ‘Frodo lives!’, Which was spray painted around the world in the 1960s and ’70s as a catchphrase for the hippie movement, the green movement, and the Vietnam protests. Another is “Clapton is God”, in reference to the musician Eric Clapton, who toured the United Kingdom and the United States during the guitarist’s tenure with the band Cream. Still another would be the “Kilroy was here” drawings that soldiers scattered around the world during World War II, bringing a connection and lightness to the gloomy journeys of soldiers in combat.

5.Tide Pod Challenge

Like the idiotic and malicious twin of ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the Tide Pod Challenge emerged to show us the power of memes to effect change. Only this time, the change is stupid and harmful. In 2018, videos began to be posted online in which people, usually teenagers and 20-somethings, ate Tide Pods. I ate them. They ate Tide Pods. Tide Pods, compact packets of laundry detergent, are colorful and bite-sized and increasingly being compared to candy. However, they are incredibly unsafe to eat and the challenge, as well as the flurry of memes surrounding it, led to a spike in Tide Pod ingestion injuries and even some deaths. YouTube has since banned videos, although the phenomenon is certainly not the latest epidemic of meme-driven stupidity.

4.Alfred E. Neuman

Mad Magazine is a comedic institution that influences and even defines satire for generations. The bulging-toothed, big-eared mascot that so often graces its cover actually has a name: Alfred E. Neuman, and the character has a long and tortuous history. General mascot for advertisers of the early 20th century, used to sell food, appliances, and services. Its other prominent use was racist propaganda. The pamphlets and posters of the time show the character, with the exaggerated features of him, grinning foolishly next to slogans such as “The Irish do not need to run” and “Kill the Jews.” As Mad Magazine (before that a comic) gained popularity, he gradually gained control over the character and now his catchphrase has become much less inflammatory, “What, I worry?”

3.Trump Wrestles CNN

In 2017, Donald Trump tweeted a short video of a meme edited to make it look like he was beating a CNN news network impersonator outside of a wrestling ring. It ends with the CNN logo replaced by one that reads “FNN: Fraud News Network.” The clip sparked great concern and anger and changed the way memes are perceived in politics for a number of reasons: For one thing, it is unprecedented for an acting leader of a first world nation to spend so much of his day paying pay attention to memes. On the other hand, the meme was created by a Reddit user with a long history of racist and anti-Semitic posts. On the other hand, newly positioned leaders attacking the integrity of the free press have historically been a common tactic of authoritarians. The “fake news” slogan, often repeated by Trump, has drawn many comparisons to Hitler’s “lying press” slogan. Both Trump and the creator of the clip apologized for posting the video.

2.Pepe the Frog

The history of Pepe the Frog is a tragedy. The meme started in the most innocent way possible. Pepe was a character in the Boy’s Club online comic, where the frog just hung out, smoked weed, and joked about nonsense. He later became a meme, his face used as a blank canvas to convey a million different ideas and emotions. And then … We lost it. From 2015 to 2017, there was a snowball effect, centered at first on Donald Trump and then on 4chan culture, which led Pepe de la frog from the “feeling good man” to a central symbol used by the alt-right. . He has become entangled with hate speech, Nazism, and even the assault on the United States Capitol in 2021. Pepe’s creator, Matt Furie, has been very frank about his dislike of Pepe’s co-optation and has sued multiple parties and organizations that have benefited from the use of Pepe as a symbol of extremism and hatred.

1.Doge

Unlike Pepe, the bulldog meme started out as pure as fresh snow and has remained that way ever since. Doge is easily one of the most popular memes of the internet age and has taken on countless variations throughout his life. It has been featured in ad campaigns, video games, phone apps, and all over the internet. The doge was most famously used as the name and symbol of one of the largest cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin. Currently, Dogecoin is valued hundreds of times beyond its initial price, and thanks to repeated endorsements from personalities like Elon Musk, it is becoming almost as famous as Bitcoin. . However, Doge has done more for Dogecoin than lend his face. The doge embodies the philosophy of the creators of the coin, who wanted to create a fun and laid-back cryptocurrency with an equally fun and laid-back community. Serving as the inspiration for a major monetary system, the doge meme demonstrates the potential of memes to effect radical change in previously stagnant systems.