71 History Memes That Prove The Past Was Anything But Boring

History and memes aren’t something you'd immediately think go hand in hand. Well, aside from the fact that memes are technically part of history, because everything that happens in the time-space continuum eventually becomes history. But our point is that memes aren’t usually the subject of historical facts or anything too… serious or dull.

Funnily enough, though, one of the original meme formats from before the internet actually came about during a pretty important historical moment: World War II. American soldiers apparently drew bald, long-nosed figures on walls across military routes around the world, often accompanied by the phrase “Kilroy was here.” It is considered one of humanity’s first memes, long before the internet was even a thing.

But what actually created the word “meme”? History points to Richard Dawkins as the term's father. He coined the word in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, where he defined it as an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.

He essentially combined two words: mimeme, derived from the Ancient Greek word meaning “to imitate,” and gene. He shortened mimeme to make it sound more like gene. In his words, these memes can be a melody, a catchphrase, or even a fashion trend. The concept differs slightly from what Dawkins initially had in mind, but he embraced it, calling it a “hijacking of the original idea.”

But the world’s oldest joke, which is, again, a part of history, actually comes from a really unexpected place. Apparently, an ancient Sumerian tablet contains the oldest joke in human history, and it is nothing more than a fart joke. It reads: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial: a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.”

The joke is from the Old Babylonian period but may date back as far as 2,300 BC. At the time, it was the pinnacle of human humor, and frankly, it does seem fitting that our sense of humor hasn’t fundamentally changed in 4,000 years. To this day, fart jokes, or just a fart, are still among the funniest things around, regardless of age.

Funnily enough, the Sumerian tablet was hardly the only joke found in cryptic places. Historians have shown that both Vikings and Romans had their fun back in the day. In the 9th century, a Viking mercenary named Halvdan carved his name into the marble railings of Istanbul’s grandest cathedral. Essentially, he started a trend that many still follow today with the words, “Halvdan was here.”

As for the Romans, historians found several ancient graffiti scrawled across Pompeii’s walls, with jokes that could easily pass as tweets nowadays. Among them were “Staphylus was here with Enny,” and “We have wet the bed, I admit it! If you ask why… there was no chamber pot.” Not much has changed, has it?

And then, there are some historical moments that are absolutely and effortlessly hilarious. Did you know that after signing the Treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon ordered a rabbit hunt to celebrate, only for the hungry bunnies that were released to swarm the French leader because they thought he was their caretaker? He had to run back to his carriage to get away from the bunnies.

So, as you can see, even people in the olden days made jokes about their circumstances. Humans are funny creatures. We make fun of ourselves, the world, others, and, of course, history. That’s how we cope and how we connect. Humor is a powerful social tool, and people have used it long before modern times. Quite a funny thing, right?