It's a universal truth that a school subject is as interesting as its teacher or the materials they provide. Take history, for example. Memorizing dead people's names, distant places, and so many dates; at the wrong hands, it can become quite boring.
But at the right ones, it becomes a valuable tool, showing how past societies, systems, ideologies, governments, cultures, and technologies were built, how they operated, and how they have changed. Not only does this knowledge make people more rounded, but it also inspires and accelerates one's critical thinking, a skill that transfers to every intellectual pursuit.
Plus, it can also be fun! We at Bored Panda expanded on our earlier list and put together a new collection of the best history memes on the internet.
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Imagine
Nestlé Biting Their Tongue
Hard to believe it's the same company that thinks water isn't a human right
Howard Zinn, an American historian, playwright, philosopher, and socialist thinker, said he started studying the subject with one view in mind: to look for answers to the issues and problems he saw in the world about him. "By the time I went to college I had worked in a shipyard, had been in the Air Force, had been in a war. I came to history asking questions about war and peace, about wealth and poverty, about racial division," he explained.
Zinn saw the thrilling, entertaining side of history even without the memes. "There's a certain interest in inspecting the past and it can be fun, sort of like a detective story," he said. "I can make an argument for knowledge for its own sake as something that can add to your life. But while that's good, it is small in relation to the very large objective of trying to understand and do something about the issues that face us in the world today."
"Students should be encouraged to go into history in order to come out of it, and should be discouraged from going into history and getting lost in it, as some historians do."
Anyone Know Her Of?
Alice Roosevelt with her dog Leo. She smoked cigarettes in public, chewed gum, placed bets with bookies, rode in cars with men, stayed out late partying, and kept a pet snake named Emily Spinach, which she often wore wrapped around one arm and took to parties. Her father President Theodore Roosevelt once said of her “I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both.” 1902.
Simps
Well focusing on a woman's sexuality as a way to undermine her legitimacy or achievements is common. Catherine the Great gets the same treatment. Elizabeth I has a whole chunk of the New World named after her not getting laid. And this is only the women who can't be effectively erased from the "Great Man" version of history. Thank god for gender, Queer, disability and minority studies for pushing to include historical actors who aren't white men in history and for revealing some of the most fascinating narratives out there.
To learn more about history meme culture, we contacted people behind one of its biggest communities, the appropriately-titled subreddit r/HistoryMemes. Its owner and head moderator, u/TheDelta was kind enough to respond.
"[Some of the most popular topics are] the World Wars (mainly 2) and the late interwar period (rise of the Nazis in Germany and the Sino-Japanese war)," they told Bored Panda. "Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, the assassination of Julius Caesar, and Vlad the Impaler [are also pretty big.]"
It Really Do Be Like That
Dog History Memes Are Undefeated
Those Cows Are Beautiful
r/HistoryMemes has a whopping 2.8 million members with thousands browsing it at any given moment. If you like this sort of content, we can't recommend joining the subreddit enough. The moderator of this online community likes to think of it as a high school club — there's a general interest in the subject, but everyone has their own specific thing they like to study/know the most about.
u/TheDelta thinks history works great in memes because "everyone has to learn history in school and history itself is often taught/studied as a narrative and that is something we humans are drawn towards."
"Combining that with something we all have been exposed to and have (mostly limited) knowledge of, you have people who want to make memes and jokes to tell those events and stories," they explained.
Low Blow
Relatable
Humans Rock
However, as the moderator pointed out, one has to remain careful when "consuming" history. "The sheer amount of stuff we hear about from media (movies, books, video games, etc.) is just wrong or very much misinterpreted," u/TheDelta added.
"Things like German tanks being the best of WW2 and how they had such a mechanized army, how the 'vomitorium' used by the Romans was a place for them to vomit so they can eat more peacock brain and hummingbird wing, etc. I guess I'd say we really want to encourage fact-checking and people looking critically at this history you're told by people with little to no actual credentials."
George Santayana once said: "History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten." Something tells me he'd appreciate these memes!
Shoutout Yuri
Here We Go Again
Wars Suck
Astrologers Be Like
Innovation Is Scary
There's an old cartoon where a woman asks a conductor from an electrical tram if it's safe. His reply: As long as your one foot isn't on the ground while your other foot is touching the wires, you're safe.
Gotta Love Geography
Canadians Are So Nice
I think since Canada is literally digging up mass graves of Native school children we can agree that this tweet is far from their most aggressive act.
Why Lord Mittens, You Look Ravishing!
Respec
Feels Good Man
Sheeeesh
You're Killin Me, Pilgrim
Read The Primary Sources, People!
True. The Angels in the bible were described as being, well, all over the shop. A mish-mash of animals here, some gold wheels there (Yes, interlocking gold wheels, plus eyes?).
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité!
And if they lived to the age of 92 they could still see a quick and awful defeat of the French against the Prussians, the fall of the Second Empire, the rise of the Third Republic, and a ephemeral attempt at forming an utopian socialist government in Paris, which would result in a bloody civil war... all of this in less than one year.
It Do Be Like That
In my country, you are not allowed to sell or buy your blood nor your plasma... It can only be donated for free. I still do it anyway, but I am upset.
Home Of KFC’s Secret Recipe
Effective & Efficient
Fashion Is A Matter Of Historical Perspective
Keep Your Voices Down; The English Could Walk In At Any Minute
"Will You Update Your Portrait, Caesar?" "No, I Don't Think I Will"
The Strike Was Truly An Up And Down Kind Of Affair
Sick Balcony
Sure but show us how the common man lived in ancient Rome and then we'll compare...
Don't Be Tricked By The Puppets, Morty...
'look Who's Laughing Now, Pierre!'
My Stomach Hurts
Weird How Many People Found Their True Calling During The Prohibition
'are You Sure You Don't Want To Come In And Browse My Bedding Wares, Hans? You Look Tired From All That Intimidation You're Trying To Do'
The man wearing a iron cross is a ww1 Jewish German veteran named is Richard stern. As an act of defiance is standing in front of his store.
Like Father Like Son
Me Who Knows That They Were Built By Aliens:*signature Look Of Superiority*
I didn't know about the beer. I had the impression it was mostly a religious duty - only the Pharaoh can open the gates to heaven and lead the rest of them in.
I heard that it was basically you could help build instead of paying taxes. So already there’s like five different explanations, and not one of them has included a source that I’ve seen. Surely there IS a source, but where?
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The exodus, if it ever really occurred, happened at least 1000 years after the pyramids were constructed. Pyramids built 2500BC. Exodus typically dated to around 1100BC.
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It was a staple of their diet. They were paid in other ways as well, such as in eye make up (not a joke). I always assumed it was more of a stipend than a wage, with the benefit being that farmers would not have to use their own stores of food for the duration of the project. The building occurred during the idle months when farmers had little to do.
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stop learning history from tv shows!! I call this "the Simpsons pit" is a joke not fact...and you shouldn't think that is anything close to what happened
From Archaeologist Mark Lehner, "not slaves...digging deeper, discovers a city of privileged workers."There were slaves in Egypt, says Lehner, but the discovery that pyramid workers were fed like royalty buttresses other evidence that they were not slaves at all, at least in the modern sense of the word. Harvard's George Reisner found workers' graffiti early in the twentieth century that revealed that the pyramid builders were organized into labor units with names like "Friends of Khufu" or "Drunkards of Menkaure."...We do know, Lehner says, that service in these temples was rendered by a special class of people on a rotating basis determined by those five divisions. Many Egyptologists therefore subscribe to the hypothesis that the pyramids were also built by a rotating labor force in a modular, team-based kind of organization."
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Hmm, the same people relate current political issues to a meme about the building of the pyramids with that small brain
Load More Replies...Funny How Pop Culture Can Change How We Remember History
We Are Perfect
Killed the natives, stole their lands, owned slaves, had racist laws, stole tea, betrayed Britain...
I Wish Jesus Gave Me A Cool Nickname
The War Never Really Left Him
Haha, this is me as a kid. Also had a grandpa who fought in the war and heard all the stories way before I was ready to really comprehend them.
Domestication Always Comes With A Heavy Price
Rip Captain Cook
I'm sure if the indigenous people of America knew what would happen, they would have killed every stranger who set foot on their soil.
You Know, I'm Something Of A Philosopher Myself
The Odds Were Stacked Against The Scots
"Lenin, Stop Taking Selfies! We Have A Civil War To Win!"
'mamma Mia, Have You Never Heard Of The Frogmen At Alexandria?!'
"What About Engineering, Anakin? That Could Be Fun, Right?"
I get very tired of the idea that degrees in humanities are not "useful". They are useful. Universities are about learning and growing as a person and citizen and are not meant to be on the job training. Cutting humanities funding screws over society as a whole.
Note: this post originally had 90 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Yeah it’s ridiculous that memes these days don’t go anywhere near explaining the entire history of the world. Lucky they don’t though, how else would you get to try and act sanctimonious on the internet over such a paltry subject??
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Cue the spongebob rainbow meme “nobody cares”
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I agree with a paper I read once that posited that dogs were the smartest animal because they recognized that humans were something they should hitch their wagon to and enjoy the ride.
Yeah it’s ridiculous that memes these days don’t go anywhere near explaining the entire history of the world. Lucky they don’t though, how else would you get to try and act sanctimonious on the internet over such a paltry subject??
Load More Replies... Cue the spongebob rainbow meme “nobody cares”
Load More Replies... I agree with a paper I read once that posited that dogs were the smartest animal because they recognized that humans were something they should hitch their wagon to and enjoy the ride.
