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.
This post may include affiliate links.
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.
Exactly. Its like the outdated ideas that a lot of people still have about the stone age. Thanks to modern feminist researchers we have realised now that not only women had a lot of power then (shamans, artisans, artists, huntresses..) but that traditional paleontology and archeology were extremely biased towards men. To put an example if a skeleton was found with hunting tools or weapons it was often deemed masculine even if it wasnt sexed properly. Nowadays we know that a lot of those skeletons were from women.
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I won't lie, competency and intelligence are definitely sexy to me. But the meme is right, historians give Cleopatra the same treatment modern reporters give to female politicians.
most of the stories about Cleopatra where written by Roman authors, who did as much as possible to discredit Cleopatra by turning her into a femme fatal rather than a crafty polititian. especially as her son was the heir of Julius Ceasar. Roman didn't like woman with power, and history just followed sue
Read about Hatshepsut, female Pharaoh whose name was systematically eradicated after her death.
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When you say "historians" do you actually mean Hollywood? I ask this because the fact that you know those things about Cleopatra is due to historians.
100%. Actual historians usually dedicate a portion of their class to the discussion of how the Romans used that depiction to discredit her because our sources were almost universally 1. Misogynist 2. Xenophobic and 3. Sucking up to Augustus who was the rival to her Husband, Antony (and, to a lesser extent, her son and Caesar's potential heir, Caesarion).
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Also genetically degenerated due inbreeding and sibling marriagest of Ptolemaic dynasty.
Actually within academia it has changed. There is a lot of shift towards telling women's LGBTQ and other minority stories and studying them seriously. The problem is the material rarely gets transmitted outside of academic circles, though there are groups doing podcasts and other outreach trying to change it. And students in many universities are also pushing to decolonize ( move from just focusing on white men) lessons which is great, but gets a lot of push back from conservatives.
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how could we know if she was sexy? hard to tell with the kind of painting we have. i always being told that cleopatra was really bright and really educated.
She had affairs with the two most powerful men in Rome (Julius Caesar and Mark Antony), which is where the 'sexy' reputation comes from. Actual depictions of her suggest she falls short of the modern beauty standard, but who knows when it comes to ancient values?
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Hmmmm..In a messed up way, I can understand focusing on a womans ( or anyones for that matter) looks because our first interaction with someone is usually visual. We see them first, before we learn more about them...the failing, and this is definitely a failing, is continuing to focus on that after more is known and understood of the person.
They are very dead and its not a narrative applied to men very often.
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Julias Caesar never liked Cleopatra because of her looks but because of how smart she was.
WATCH IT SAMANTHA LOMB, that disability comment was more than offensive to me. I'm Autistic.
I mean, it seems everybody just assume that the "sexy" only refers to her looks but it really depends on how you read it. An excellent general...sexy, a successfull ruler and leader...sexy, a talanted linguist...sexy. In fact one could argue that she wasn't even that good looking but still considered very attractive due to her person. https://brightside.me/wonder-people/20-facts-about-cleopatra-that-you-wont-hear-in-school-798855/
The thing that attracted Julius Caesar to Cleopatra was her intellect.
LOL! Cesar fought that war for her, and Egypt was at that point a virtual vassal state of Rome. Most of Rome's grain was imported from Egypt. But still - funny enough!
1000 years into the future they're gonna dig up freddie mercury and say he was friends with a lot of guys
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*
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.
