What was the first meme ever?
There's no single first meme. Richard Dawkins coined the word in 1976, and the oldest picture meme people point to is a 1921 Judge magazine cartoon: how you think you look in a photo vs. how you really look.
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The word meme was coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, for any idea that spreads by copying. The oldest picture meme most people cite is older than the word: a 1921 magazine cartoon pairing “How you think you look when a flashlight is taken” with “How you really look.”
Below: where the word came from, the other contenders for first meme, why the birthday song counts, and how we turned meme formats into cards starring a family that doesn't exist. One of them can't spell fine.
Where does the word meme come from?
Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, invented the word in 1976 in The Selfish Gene. He needed a name for a unit of culture that copies itself from person to person the way a gene copies itself down a family: a tune, a catchphrase, a fashion, a way of building arches.
He started from mimeme, from a Greek root meaning “imitated,” and trimmed it so it would sound like gene (theconversation.com/the-surprising-academic-origins-of-memes-90607). That's also why it's said “meem,” to rhyme with cream, and not “me-me.”
So a meme was never about pictures. By the original definition, the joke your uncle tells every Thanksgiving is a meme. So is the way your family sings Happy Birthday a little too slowly. The internet borrowed the word in the 1990s for jokes that spread from inbox to inbox, and it never gave it back.
What was the first meme ever?
It depends on what you count. If a meme has to be a picture with a caption that people keep remaking, the favorite answer is a 1921 cartoon. Two portraits sit side by side: a handsome one captioned “How you think you look when a flashlight is taken” and a much rougher one captioned “How you really look.” A flashlight back then was a burst of flash powder, not a torch.
It ran in Judge, an American humor magazine, in July 1921, and went around the internet again in 2018 as the oldest expectation-versus-reality joke anyone could find (time.com/5241498/how-you-think-you-look-meme).
If a meme has to live on a computer, the sideways smiley has a birth certificate. Computer scientist Scott Fahlman proposed :-) on a Carnegie Mellon message board on September 19, 1982, so readers could tell which posts were jokes (cs.cmu.edu/~sef/sefSmiley.htm). Forty-four years later, that is still exactly what it's for.
| Year | Contender | Why it counts | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1921 | The “How you think you look” cartoon | Two panels, one joke, remade for a century | Nobody called it a meme until 2018 |
| 1982 | The sideways smiley :-) | Copied everywhere, still means the same thing | It's punctuation, not a picture |
| 1996 | The dancing 3D baby | One of the first picture memes online, forwarded by email | You needed a modem and patience |
What were the first birthday memes?
By Dawkins' own test, the oldest birthday meme is the song. The tune was printed in 1893 as “Good Morning to All,” people copied new words onto it, and now a whole restaurant can sing it at you without a rehearsal. The full story, lawsuit included, is in who wrote Happy Birthday.
The first birthday memes you could buy were jokes on paper. In the 1950s, tall, skinny “studio cards” brought sarcastic humor to the card rack, and the joke about getting old has been copied onto birthday cards ever since. The over the hill party is the same meme in a party hat.
Online, birthday memes follow the 1921 recipe: a picture, a line on top, a punchline about age. Nobody wrote down the first one, which is the most meme thing about it. We keep 49 of the funniest on our birthday memes page, and the newest ones put the birthday person's own face in the picture.
How we made our meme cards
Our meme cards star the person in your photo instead of a stranger from 2009. The trick is to borrow the format and never the original picture: no cartoon dog in a burning room, no anime still, no real person from the famous version. Every idea is tried many times on our test family, none of whom exist, and graded on four things: does it still look like them, is it funny, does it fit, is it well made.
Totally Fine is the burning-room meme as a party photo: a paper hat, a calm mug of coffee, a cake with far too many candles and a kitchen on fire behind you. It has two rules: the fire stays behind the person, and the card is for grown-ups only. One early take with Sofia, 30, who doesn't exist, came back with a speech bubble reading “This is firne.” Our meme pictures are drawn with no words in them now. Your message goes on the card under the picture, spelled by you.
The 1921 format got its own test. Dave, 38, also made up, starred in an expectation-versus-reality card: black tie and fireworks on one side, a sad cupcake on the other. The take printed EXPECTATION REALITY over the fancy panel and gave him the same happy smile in both, which kills the joke. It never became a card.
Birthday Denial was the best meme in the set: four panels of someone putting on clown makeup with total seriousness. Its rule is a cheerful clown only, never a scary one, and the eyes and face shape have to carry the likeness because the paint hides the rest. Distracted by Cake, with a salad mascot playing the jealous partner, was cut: three characters in one scene kept coming out wrong.
How to make a birthday meme that lands
A birthday meme has about two seconds to work. These are the rules we'd give a friend.
- Pick a format they already know. Half the joke is recognizing the shape.
- Make the caption about them, not about birthdays in general: their age, their habit, their famous excuse.
- Use their face if you can. A meme starring the birthday person gets screenshotted and kept.
- Tease the age, flatter the person. The best ones do both in one line.
- If you're late, make that the joke. Our belated birthday memes exist for exactly this.
How it works
- Pick a cardPilots, mermaids, rock stars, one very surprised cake. Every one shows a real example first.
- Add their photosOne clear face each, up to 5 people. A selfie is fine. No sign-up.
- Preview it, then payOne picture of them in the card in about 10 seconds. Like it? Apple Pay or Google Pay, and four pictures arrive about 20 seconds later, the video in about 90.
Is Dancing Baby the first meme?
It's one of the first picture memes to spread online, in 1996, mostly by forwarded email. Older contenders exist, including a 1921 magazine cartoon and the 1982 sideways smiley.
What is meme short for?
Mimeme, from a Greek root meaning imitated. Richard Dawkins shortened it in 1976 so it would sound like gene.
What does the term memetic mean?
Memetic means having to do with memes: how ideas, jokes and habits copy themselves from person to person. Memetics is the study of that copying.
What is an example of a meme?
A catchphrase, a dance, a tune, or a two-panel joke that gets a new caption every time. A restaurant singing Happy Birthday at a stranger counts too.
By HiWith (Winding AI, Inc.) · support@winding.ai · Updated