“Ermahgerd, Gersberms!” screamed the young, pig-tailed girl in the picture, as she wielded an armful of Goosebumps novels. The Ermahgerd meme, one of many, has become a viral sensation, which first made its debut on Reddit on March 14 of this year.
Since then, it has spread to various blogging sites such as Tumblr and Facebook, according to the article “Ermahgerd: Popular Meme Originates On Reddit Thread, Spreads Across The Web” in Huffington Post.
According to Oxford Dictionaries, a meme is an “image, video or text, typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users.” A meme is now known for being humorous and can be in response to social dilemmas and interaction, including puns about pop culture and politics.
The meme started in ancient Greece with the word “mimeme” which meant “something imitated.” The word then progressed further, and in 1976 when British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins wrote his book The Selfish Gene, meme faced another transition when it was applied as a concept for evolutionary principles.
The idea rose that genes transmit biological information, and like genes, memes now transmit ideas and beliefs.
Viral videos originated in the 1990s, according to listverse.com. One of the first viral videos was “baby cha-cha,” which featured a dancing image of a 3D infant. With viral videos came image macros, which are pictures that are used for memes. Some of the first memes included the “O RLY?” owl that depicted an owl with a sarcastic attitude, and “lolcats,” the infamous cats with bad grammar.
Sophomore Ryan Decker, who frequently uses the Internet, said he used to find memes funny before they became really old, really fast.
“I don’t mind viral videos, but memes are overused. I didn’t really mind them until people started referring to them in conversations,” Decker said. “It’s unnecessary, and a reference that not many people will understand. I prefer to have a normal conversation.”
However, senior Jason Piotrowski said memes are a form of comedy and break up the monotony of the school day.
“I enjoy memes because it’s nice to have a point in the day where I can just sit down and look at funny pictures. Every day at lunch, my friends and I will look at iFunny, an app on the iPhone for memes,” Piotrowski said. “iFunny has 20 new featured memes daily, and we’ll sit down and look at them. It’s something else to talk about and it brings us together.”
According to Piotrowski, memes are something that everyone can relate to.
“Memes are universal jokes that people can enjoy and relate to because they are catchy and a good idea. They give my friends and I something to talk about and I think they’ll last,” Piotrowski said.
