Ancient Aliens: The Origins
In deciding to reverse engineer a meme, I went onto knowyourmeme.com for inspiration. There are so many memes coming out on a daily basis, it is hard to keep up. I chose Ancient Aliens because it is an old classic (which means its prime was in January 2012).
The origin of the Ancient Aliens meme according to knowyourmeme.com, is from a television show that explores the theory that aliens have visited throughout human history and can be attributed as the explanation for various phenomena such as the pyramids in Egypt. The meme is an image of supposed “alien expert” Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, who is the host of the show.
The use of the meme is usually to deride something as paranoid, ignorant, foolish, or conspiratorial. The punchline is usually aliens, although often it is mixed in with other memes, which can affect that. Part of what makes this meme so appealing is Tsoukalos’ humorous appearance. His hair is severely unkempt, he has what appears to be a fake tan, and his facial expression resembles another famous meme, Stoner Stanley. Often this meme comes out in debate threads from my experience of seeing it.
I think the reason it took off was that it has such a particular use. Much like Condescending Wonka, Ancient Aliens is a meme that is used both for humour as well as making a point. Beyond that, he looks so hilariously bizarre in it and it usually has such a consistently funny punchline. I think this meme is one for the history books. Some notable examples below:
