Meme (pronounced
meem)
(1) Any unit of cultural information, such as a
practice or idea, that is transmitted orally or by repeated action (by
imitation) from one mind to another, through generations, in a manner comparable
to the transmission of genes; the synonym is culturgen
(2) On the internet, a cultural item in the form
of an image, video, phrase etc, that is spread and often altered in a creative
or humorous way.
(3) In Internet slang, a derogatory term to
describe something not to be taken seriously (meme job, meme degree etc).
(4) To turn into a meme; to use a meme.
1976: From the Ancient Greek mīmeîsthai (to imitate, copy) and a shortening of mimeme, from the Ancient Greek μίμημα (mīmēma) (imitated thing) from μιμεῖσθαι (mīmeîsthai)
(to imitate), from μῖμος (mimos) (imitation, copy; mime). Structurally, the word was shortened
(following the model of gene) from mimeme
and anglicized to emulate the form of a noun derived from the Ancient Greek mīméomai with the deverbal suffix -μα (-ma), from μῖμος (mîmos). The word was coined by British evolutionary
biologist Richard Dawkins (b 1941) and used first in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. The construct was m(ime) + -eme and Dawkins apologized to classical scholars
for what they would think a most improper form, explaining he wanted something monosyllabic
and if they preferred they could think of it as related to the French word même
(“same or alike” although the meaning does shift with the context of use). Helpfully, he added it should be pronounced to
rhyme with “cream”. In the way English
forms proliferate (often with short lives) on the internet, meme has been the
source of many coining including dank meme, memeable, memedom, memesque, meme-maker, memeable, memed, memeplex, memeish, memester, memeishness, meme-pool, memescape, memetic, memeworthy, memey, memome
& memeable.
The more widely used concept of “a cultural fragment distributed on the internet” was created by lawyer Michael Godwin (b 1956) of the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and was first documented in 1994, use beginning to spike in 1997. Godwin was the author also of Godwin's law (rule) which states that the longer an online exchange lasts, the greater the probability that some comparison with Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) or the Nazi regime will be invoked. There’s some evidence suggesting the rule may not (statistically) operate as described but it remains a useful tool for determining the point at which a discussion (certainly if conducted on platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter) or Reddit) has passed a certain threshold. The concept of the meme is very old, examples noted in the graffiti of Antiquity and anthropologists have cited prehistoric example; the pre-internet exemplar in the modern age being "Kilroy was here" which proliferated with extraordinary rapidity during World War II (1939-1945). Many languages have adopted meme, some in the original sense from biological science, most in the more recent application used on the internet but there are other meanings. There was the French même and the Turkish meme was from the Ottoman Turkish ممه (nipple, breast (and described by most dictionaries as “a childish term”)), following the Ancient Greek μᾰ́μμη (mámmē) and the Persian ممه (mame).
Watched by crooked Hillary (whose gaze was said to suggest either disbelief or hatred depending on who was writing the commentary), her husband (Bill Clinton (b 1946; POTUS 1993-2001)) delivers his infamous “I did not have sexual relations with that woman… Miss Lewinsky” [former White House intern Monica Lewinsky (b 1973)] line. (left) and Chelsea Clinton (b 1980; FDOTUS (First Daughter of the United States 1993-2001)) & Bill Clinton watching crooked Hillary on stage with Donald Trump (b 1946; POTUS 2017-2021 and since 2025) during the second presidential debate, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, 9 October, 2016 (right).
Even in the years before internet trends made memes a common device for expressing ideas, critiques or jokes good & bad, "Hill-Bill" (Bill & crooked Hillary Clinton) was the gift which kept giving, humorists, political commentators and conspiracy theorists never short of material while they were in the White House. Subsequent presidents have of course for their own reasons also been memeable although Barack Obama was a disappointment, his earnestness and scandal-free life meaning the possibilities were scant although, thankfully, during his administration, crooked Hillary remained an omnipresence and from Foggy Bottom provided the necessary content, including non-existent snipers in Bosnia, a still not fully-explained private mail server and the circumstances surrounding events in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 when four Americans (including the US Ambassador) were killed. Even after leaving office in 2013, crooked Hillary has remained a fixture in US political culture and she and her husband may yet return to centre-stage as various agencies on both sides of the Atlantic continue their investigations into matters associated with convicted paedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein (1953–2019).
Dawkins coined meme to describe the concept of
the intra- and trans-generational cultural spread of ideas and cultural
phenomena, his construct being analogous with the agent of evolutionary biology,
the gene. He didn’t claim the idea was
new, noting the earlier work of geneticists & ethologists and as early as 1904
German zoologist Richard Semon (1859-1918) had published The Mneme and mneme in which he included his theory which explored a
vaguely similar idea although one later disproved as understandings of
genetics improved. Closer to the thoughts
of Dawkins was La Vie des Termites (The
Life of White Ants (1926)), an entomological book by Nobel laureate in
literature Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) which remains controversial because
of the extent of the author’s plagiarism although he would later acknowledge a debt
to the nineteenth century work of English biologist T.H. Huxley (1825–1895).
Dawkins' point was that evolution depended ultimately only a self-replicating unit of transmission which, in biological evolution, was the gene and by analogy, human behaviour and cultural evolution could helpfully be described, at least in part, by memes, subject as they were to the influences and pressures of evolution. Also, just as genes don’t always replicate as exact duplicates, memes existed and replicated imperfectly, things being combined, refined and rejected, the interactions creating new memes and thus, over time, cultures in some ways stayed the same; in others, things changed. The concept was well-received by cultural theorists and critics but less effusive were many scientists, some of whom felt the gene/meme analogy a bit strained because, unlike genetic material, memes couldn’t be studied by the scientific method nor reduced to mathematical description, there being nothing even vaguely similar to the DNA which is the definable code of the gene.
Held in the Livadia, Yusupov, and Vorontsov palaces at Yalta in the Crimea between 4-11 February 1945, the Yalta Conference was the second of the three decisive meetings between the leaders of government of the UK, US and USSR, the first being Tehran (the capital of Iran (Persia), 28 November-1 December 1943) and the third Potsdam (in what soon would become the GDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic; the old East Germany, 1949-1990), 17 July-2 August 1945). Of the three, it was the business done at Yalta which was most decisive and what was agreed (and, just as significantly, not agreed and left sufficiently vague to be open to comrade Stalin's interpretation) there decided for decades the political and military dynamics in Europe and beyond. In fairness to Churchill and Roosevelt, because of the reality "on the ground" of the Red Army's presence in conquered ("liberated" in Kremlinspeak") lands, whether more could have been achieved by them is unlikely but what over the decades unfolded in Eastern & Central Europe was very different from what they had hoped. Of the leaders, only comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) was there from start to finish, Harry Truman (1884–1972; POTUS 1945-1953) attending the Potsdam conference because of the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR, 1882–1945, POTUS 1933-1945) while midway through that event, Clement Attlee (1883–1967; UK prime minister 1945-1951) replaced Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) after the latter’s defeat in the general election. If comrade Stalin needed any proof democracy was a bad idea, the results of the UK’s 1945 election provided plenty. The group photographs from the Yalta Conference were among the most re-produced images from World War II (1939-1945) and have been repurposed by the meme-makers:
The image of comrade Bernie was from him in mittens at Joe Biden's (b 1942; POTUS 2021-2025) inauguration, Washington DC, 20 January 2021. Vermont folk are used to cold winters and the mittens were knitted by Vermont elementary school teacher Jen Ellis. The publicity generated by the inauguration photograph saw a sudden spike in demand and within hours of the posting, orders for thousands of pairs had been received. Noting the interest, Ms Ellis immediately made three pairs for auction, the proceeds split between charities and her daughter's college fund. An artisan creator and not in a position to support mass-production, the mitten-maker entered an arrangement with a manufacturer to produce a range of socks with the same pattern, the proceeds going to Vermont food banks, a cause which doubtlessly comrade Bernie supported.
The image of Lindsay Lohan in 2007, resting (just before dawn) in a Cadillac Escalade in Los Angeles in May 2007 was one of that year's most widely circulated memes, creators taking advantage of the striking similarity between her sleeping form and that of L'Estasi di Santa Teresa (The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa; sometimes called The Transverberation of Saint Teresa), a sculptural group in white marble, carved by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) in 1652 and located in the Cornaro Chapel (1626), at Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. The famous photo of Lindsay Lohan was taken during her "troubled starlet" phase.
A quadrilateral meeting to discuss German war guilt reparations and allied debts accumulated during World War I (1914-1918): Raymond Poincaré (1860–1934; President of France 1913-1920, left), Andrew Bonar Law (1858–1923; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1922-1923. centre-left), Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943, centre right) and Georges Theunis (1873–1966; Prime Minister of Belgium 1921-1925 & 1934-1935, right), 10 Downing Street, London, December 1922. At this time, the Duce had been in office only a few weeks.
Memes can be retrospective. This was an obscure photograph which until the twenty-first century had appeared only in some specialist history texts but as the internet achieved critical mass, memes became a thing and Mussolini’s sanpaku eyes were a gift for the meme-makers, most captions suggesting the duce may have had a sudden premonition of his own unfortunate end although others offered: “I feel naked without a moustache”, “I think I have imposter syndrome”, “Oh God, I just pooped my pants”, “I know one of these men is a Freemason but I don't know which”, “Maybe drinking those two triple-shot, short blacks was a bad idea” and “I wonder if they can tell I've smoked some weed”. However, although not noted as a mystic, he may have sensed another's impending death “sitteth at the right hand”, Andrew Bonar Law then having only months to live.
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