this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
596 points (98.2% liked)

memes

14327 readers
3575 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 !politicalmemes@lemmy.world

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
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

The modern meme format was around before 4chan. They were called "image macros."

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 12 points 4 days ago

I'd argue that demotivational posters were even older, right? These were even printed out before internet access was wide spread.

[–] SnortsGarlicPowder@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 days ago

Think they are talking about rage comics, wojack, and whatever the new one is called.

[–] Thunderbird4@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If you trust KnowYourMeme, the phrase “image macro” was coined in 2004 and popularized in 2005. 4chan was started in 2003.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social -1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I don't trust Know Your Meme for exactly that kind of bullshit. They were called image macros even in the late 90's on forums and Usenet.