The first account of the "Meanwhile in" meme appeared sometime in February 2010. A flipped image of a Holden Commodore (a very common Australian-made sedan) with the caption "Meanwhile in Australia" appeared on 4chan via /b/ board. The image alluded to the age-old joke that everything in Australia is "upside-down" (due to its southern hemisphere location), and the new meme quickly went viral across imageboard sites, blog networks and aggregator services. Since then, multiple variations with other countries and their stereotypes have been posted.

Before there was the internet and memes there were books. This meme originates from a much older expression "Meanwhile, back at the X," a plot transition technique that is as old as Homer. It rose to popularity in the nineteenth century, when most novels were serialized in popular magazines. 

This literary strategy made its way to film and was used in silent movies when transitions were achieved through title cards interspersed between scenes. In the earliest days, studios didn’t make custom cards for each new movie, but instead used a set of stock cards: “One Year Later,” “Comes the Dawn,” and most famously “Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch” were the cards used when the action cutaway. 

Radio programs took on the phrase as well for their popular Western programs - such as The Lone Ranger. "During the course of a battle between settlers and Indians or cowboys and outlaws, there would be a flashback to the ranch preceded by the caption (or radio message), “Meanwhile, back at the ranch.” The phrase became part of the common lexicon and was used in casual conversation. During Lyndon Johnson’s presidency (1963–69), according to William Safire, the phrase was used to refer to activities at the LBJ Ranch in Texas.

While not everyone knows the origin, this phrase has evolved to take on a meaning all its own. According to Robert Hendrickson, author of the "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" (Facts on Files, New York, 1997) says: "meanwhile, back at the ranch. An expression that originated as a movie caption in the silent film era at the beginning of the century, these words are used humorously today when someone wants to get back to a story after going off on a tangent."