In the dim light of a prehistoric cave, a human hand left its mark on stone—a smudge of red ochre, a stencil, a message to no one and everyone. Thousands of years later, we tag walls, comment with GIFs, and share pixelated cats with Impact font. Though centuries divide us, the impulse is the same: to communicate meaning through shared symbols, humor, and repetition. That impulse is the soul of the meme.
Today, memes shape global conversations, spark revolutions, and offer comic relief. But where did they begin? What was the first meme? To understand that, we must travel back—way back—before the internet, before language as we know it, to the raw beginnings of human expression.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Meme, Really?
- The First Memes: From Caves to Coins
- Richard Dawkins and the “Meme” Revolution
- The Birth of the Modern Internet Meme
- What Memes Reveal About Us
- FAQs
What Is a Meme, Really?
The word meme was coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. He described it as a “unit of cultural transmission”—an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.
Just as genes pass down biological traits, memes carry ideas:
- Catchphrases
- Rituals
- Fashion styles
- Inside jokes
A meme is not defined by humor alone. It’s about replication, variation, and survival. From chants around a fire to viral TikTok dances, memes are how culture evolves in real time.
The First Memes: From Caves to Coins
Long before the internet, memes lived on walls and in whispers.
Prehistoric Cave Paintings
Hand stencils found in the caves of Sulawesi, Indonesia—dated to over 40,000 years ago—are one of the earliest known examples of repeated visual communication. Across continents, nearly identical motifs appear: animals in motion, human hands, cosmic symbols. No global Wi-Fi existed. What connected them was something older—human instinct.
The “Kilroy Was Here” Graffiti
Fast-forward to the 1940s. American soldiers scribbled “Kilroy Was Here” across bunkers, trains, and latrines, often with a doodle of a long-nosed man peeking over a wall. The phrase had no real meaning, yet it spread across the world. It was infectious, absurd, and universal—hallmarks of a modern meme.
Roman Graffiti & Ancient Coinage
Pompeii’s walls are covered in political slogans, crude jokes, and love declarations. Even Roman coins bore phrases and iconography designed for wide recognition. These were memes: portable, adaptable, and designed to last.
Richard Dawkins and the “Meme” Revolution
When Dawkins introduced the term, he wasn’t talking about LOLcats. He was drawing a parallel between biology and culture: ideas that catch on are fit—they’re memorable, relevant, and easy to reproduce.
He gave examples like:
- Melodies
- Proverbs
- Architectural styles
The idea of the meme evolved in academic circles for decades before being hijacked by the internet generation.
The Birth of the Modern Internet Meme
The modern meme exploded in the early 2000s.
Before TikTok and Instagram, there were message boards and crude image macros.
Notable Early Internet Memes:
- Dancing Baby (1996): A 3D-rendered baby doing cha-cha. Often called the first internet meme.
- Hamster Dance: A webpage of animated hamsters dancing to a sped-up song.
- LOLcats: Cat photos with grammatically broken captions (“I Can Has Cheezburger?”) that redefined how the internet thinks about animals—and language.
These memes spread not through top-down media, but through grassroots sharing. They were built by communities, mutated by users, and propelled by the invisible engine of relatability.
What Memes Reveal About Us
Memes are mirrors. They reflect what we fear, what we mock, what we love. They compress complex emotions into simple formats. In times of crisis, memes become tools of resistance. In times of joy, they become shared laughter.
Why Memes Matter
- They make abstract ideas digestible
- They spread faster than traditional media
- They build communities across borders
- They document history in real-time
From cave walls to Reddit threads, memes are more than entertainment—they’re cultural DNA. They are how humans shout across time and say, “I was here. I felt this too.”
FAQs
1. What is considered the very first meme in history?
While difficult to pinpoint, many consider the “Kilroy Was Here” graffiti from World War II as the first widely spread visual meme. Others point to prehistoric cave art as early meme-like communication due to its repeated, symbolic nature.
2. Who invented the term “meme”?
The term was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 in The Selfish Gene, where he described it as a cultural unit of replication, similar to a gene in biology.
3. What was the first internet meme?
Most sources credit the Dancing Baby animation (1996) as the first viral internet meme, followed shortly by other early web phenomena like Hamster Dance and All Your Base Are Belong to Us.
