Memes: Then and Now

When I was a kid, “memes” didn’t exist as such. But the general concept was still in place. We’d quote lines from TV shows and movies and commercials to each other – those were our “memes.” What child of the 80s has never said, “Whachoo talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?” or “I'll be back” or “Time to make the donuts”? Our memes weren’t on the internet, but they were just as universally present in teenage society.

Every meme that exists today had a counterpart back in my day. Today we have Grumpy Cat, back then, we had Maxine.

 

Today we have the Ermagerd girl, back then we had Valley Girls (whose “Oh my God” cannot be accurately expressed in print).

 

Gangnam Style by Psy? How about Thriller by Michael Jackson?

Today’s kids have Scowling McKayla. We had Disapproving Spock.

Now we have Bad Luck Brian. Back then, we had Anthony Michael Hall. (It is distinctly possibly that these memes are, in fact, the same person.)

Let’s hope for Brian’s sake that he – and all the rest of these memes - aged as nicely as AMH did: