Memes can vary between harmless jokes to crude humour that could potentially damage a person's wellbeing, an organisations reputation or slander a political campaign. I want to focus on the funny side, the jokes.
I would put these memes into two categories if I was asked to separate them, short term and long term. This probably makes no sense but when you over-analyse what a meme is you come across a pattern. The jokes that last years and the jokes that are funny for about a month before everyone grows to hate them. An example of a meme that has lasted years is Doge or Pepe. Examples of short term memes are Damn Daniel or PAPP.
Let's talk about memes that have withstood time. Things that started as sarcastic images become internet icons when they are 'memed'. It all starts when someone on some far corner of the internet posts something funny, someone shares it, their followers share it again. Memes really explode when internet celebrities endorse them but I'll be discussing that later in my blog. Most of the long-term memes were created in the beginning of the social media era of the internet. This was around 2002-2008. Pepe The Frog first appeared on the internet in 2005.
One of the earliest memes is 'Gellieman - Aicha' It was created by Jelle Buelen from Belgium. He filmed himself singing Aicha, a song by a French singer-songwriter. It blew up after December 2003. No one's really sure if he uploaded the video himself, who it's for or whether or not he even intended to post it in the first place. It was originally posted to his own website which is now inaccessible but it's been floating around ever since.
(source: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/meme)
(source: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/gellieman-aicha)
(source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxtLMoD9GqA)
