A Brief History Behind The Meme
What Is A Meme? /mi:m/ (mee-m)
If you don’t know what a meme is then I think it’s safe to say that you’re either extremely internet-sheltered, or you’re too mature to use the internet as a medium for comedic entertainment. Generally, a meme is a virally-transmitted cultural symbol or social idea.
Most modern memes are captioned photos that are intended to be funny, often as a way to publicly ridicule human behavior. Other memes can be videos and verbal expressions. Some memes have heavier and more philosophical content. [1]
It’s important to remember that memes predate the internet. Some of the oldest memes include “Kilroy was here”, “Frodo Lives” and the ancient Roman “Sator Square”.
Origins Of The Trollface Meme
The Trollface meme is represented as a generic character’s head with a face wearing a mischievous smile that is meant to represent the facial expression of the common Internet troll.
A troll is a person who intentionally causes discord on the internet by starting arguments or upsetting people by posting inflammatory, often off-topic messages in an online community to deliberately provoke an emotional response for amusement.
The Trollface originates from the the art content website deviantART, produced by the user Carlos Ramirez for the purpose of a MS Paint webcomic about internet trolling back in 2008. In the time since, the meme has been remixed a countless number of times to express delightful mischief across the web. Trollface is often used with other memes in panels like the one below.
Search queries for the meme didn’t really pick up steam until early 2009, many months after the original posting. The meme’s popularity peaked interests in early 2012, and since then the Trollface meme has been nominated as one of the top memes on Knowyourmeme.com. The meme garnered the name “Coolface” and “Problem?” following various webcomics and videos which were posted on 4chan and Ebaumsworld.
Evolution Of Trollface Into “Coolface” & “Problem?”
The Trollface meme was a humble beginning to a great legacy. The Trollface would go on to become even more famous because of its evolution into the meme variations known as “Coolface” and “Problem?”. These monikers arose from the popular YouTube video embedded below, titled “Cool Face”. The video was released in 2009, and as of this blog posting has garnered 2.3 million views.
Coolface: The face you put on when in a troubling situation, eliciting a response of immediate dismissal by the subject of your trouble.
— Urban Dictionary
Now, let’s step back into time and witness the birth of a meme.
A Special Remix Of The Trollface
So my special remix is a reflection of how I feel when you’re sitting in class in the same seat day after day, and you get used to that seat. Then on exam day when you come to class you find a complete stranger sitting there, IN YOUR SEAT! Not to mention the added stress of having to find your name on a Scantron sheet laid out in alphabetical order, in a completely non-beneficial spot. It’s the same feeling as when you’re told one thing in advance, but then shown another thing at a later time. It’s worthy of a table flip…
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
All in all, I’m not being salty towards my prof ;) but seriously, like WTH bruh.
-J
Works Cited
[1] What Is a ‘Meme’? What Are Some Examples?
[2] Know Your Meme / Trollface
