10 Surprising Sources That Influenced The Creation Of Today’s Funniest Memes

1 You Don’t Say?

“You Don’t Say?” is a black-and-white drawing, often used in rage comics, of Nicolas Cage taken from a scene in the 1988 black comedy Vampire’s Kiss, which revolves around a troubled literary agent’s descent into madness after convincing himself that he is turning into a vampire. In rage comics, the face is used as a sarcastic response to an obvious observation or statement.

2 First World Problems

First World Problems, also known as “White Whine,” are frustrations and complaints that are experienced by privileged individuals in wealthy countries. It is typically used as a tongue-in-cheek comedic device to make light of trivial inconveniences. Believe it or not, its origin can be found in the lyrics of the Matthew Good Band’s 1995 song “Omissions of the Omen,” whose lyrics include: “And somewhere around the world, someone would love to have my first world problems; kill the moon and turn out the sun.”

3Sudden Clarity Clarence

The awkward photo of this young man at a party staring into the distance as if he is having an epiphany has become one of the most viral memes in the past few years. The captions often contain the phrase “Oh my God” or “Holy S#%$” followed by a sudden realization that is trivial and insignificant. The original stock photo was submitted to the Australia Associated Press covering the Schoolies Festival on Queensland, Australia’s Gold Coast on November 21, 2009.

4Bad Luck Brian

Bad Luck Brian is a meme featuring a photo of a typical geek wearing a plaid sweater vest and braces, accompanied by captions that describe a variety of embarrassing and tragic occurrences. On January 23, 2012, the original instance of the meme was submitted to reddit by Ian Davies, a longtime friend of Kyle since elementary school, using a yearbook photograph of Kyle with the caption “Takes driving test . . . gets first DUI.” The original post received fewer than five up votes but what followed next ended up giving the photo millions of views.

5Grandma Finds the Internet

The original image of this awesome meme comes from a stock photograph titled “Elderly Woman Looking at Computer Screen” taken on December 21, 2005. On February 4, 2011, several redditors posted image macros featuring the stock photo, referring to it as “Internet Grandma.” The rest is just part of Internet pop culture now.

6Overly Manly Man

Every hard-core boxing fan knows that the overly masculine alpha male with a misogynistic attitude is nothing but a truly badass, bare-knuckle boxer from the 1800’s named Mike Conley. For those who don’t know, Mike was known for his knockout power and roughness but unfortunately he lacked finesse and skill in the ring.

7Overly Attached Girlfriend

Laina Morris’s fake fan video for Justin Bieber turned her face into a symbol of what we call Internet pop culture. The video was a submission to a contest held by Bieber who challenged fans to create a “Girlfriend” counterpart to his hit song “Boyfriend.” Unfortunately she didn’t win.

8Joseph Ducreux

Joseph Ducreux was an eighteenth-century French artist known for his unorthodox portrait paintings. On the Internet, his eccentric self-portrait has inspired a series of exploitable macros, featuring “archaic reinterpretation” of popular rap lyrics superimposed over the artwork. Judging from his attitude and pose in his self-portrait we tend to believe that Ducreux would have loved all the attention he’s been getting more than 250 years later.

9Scumbag Steve

When you see a meme of Scumbag Steve the theme is usually revolving around unethical behavior regarding drugs, partying, and other hedonistic behavior. However, the photo of this guy was taken by his mama and was the cover of the totally amateur album Ma Gangsta by the rap group Beantown Mafia, of which Blake Boston, also known as “Weezy B,” was a member. And yep, “Scumbag Steve” is Blake in reality.

10Good Guy Greg

GGG (Good Guy Greg) was created as the antithesis to Scumbag Steve, but nearly four years after the meme became viral Good Guy Greg’s identity still hasn’t been revealed. Reddit users have come forward every now and then with images of people they claim to be the “real” GGG, but the mystery hasn’t been solved yet.

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