Great reading: https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/archivesandmanuscripts/2023/12/13/the-persistence-of-tradition-the-curious-case-of-henry-symeonis/

We have civil war, corruption, and murder, all wrapped up in a 550 year long mysterious grudge!

I like that almost 300 years later they asked if they should remove that oath, and despite no longer knowing who he was or what he did decided it wise not to for another over hundred years lol

Fifth Monkey Principle IRL

Statute Tit

teehee. (Why no period after what I assume is the abbreviated word 'title'?)

town-gown

TIL about this phrase.

“Ice town costs ice clown his town-gown”

How is an unaltered Wikipedia screenshot a meme exactly?

I've had this discussion over at politicalmemes as well where they literally just post screenshots of social media posts and news headlines.

A meme is just an idea being shared!!! 😭

🫩 Well, it's not what I expect when I see "memes" in the community name, I guess.

Well, it's more of a meta meme that would have been better suited for a TIL. But the wiki entry shows us how hard the folks at Oxford were meming back in olde days.

Well, it's not what I expect when I see "memes" in the community name, I guess.

That is one part. The other part is that Dawkin's definition was flawed from the beginning, especially in regards to internet memes. Because memes do not actually behave like genes, there is no random mutation, there is no selection pressure, there is no survival of the fittest-kind of fight for lasting, sustained existence.
There is human intent behind every forwarding and sharing action, to every change, there are statements and meaning and a dadaistic approach every time a meme is created and altered.

The best summary of what a meme of modern understanding is I came across was "a recontextualising reproduction of a phenomenon (like pieces of media, certain motions, sounds, statements, etc...), usually with a certain intent (often humouristic and/or satirical)." Though that is just a rough summary, not a precise and conclusive definition.
There are, after all, still meme researchers trying to find an exact definition writing scientific articles on this topic. And they often are an interesting read.
However, none of these researchers and their attempts at defining a meme would say a simple screenshot of a Wikipedia passage or of a witty microblog post would suffice as a meme by itself.

Henry Symeonis smacked Osbertus de Langetoft's balls a little too roughly one day, as a prank, whilst they crossed the Hythe Bridge from opposite directions, leaving him unable to perform any physical activity for a number of months. As Master de Langetoft was a popular student, and a sterling coxwain on the rowboat, this was seen as such a heinous crime on the part of Master Symeonis, that graduates eagerly agreed to craft a tradition of swearing an oath to never be reconciled with Henry Symeonis.

Actually, it's worse than that, but I like my version better. Nobody is murdered.

The oath is the meme. It’s like meme history.

Thanks!

Huh, and here I was, thinking it was the DNA of the soul, as retold of Phnom Phem's teachings by Monsoon

Treachery of images. The story described is of a meme.

So the wiki screenshot displays a description of a meme. It is not a meme itself. I would not type a description of a meme into a .txt file, screenshot it and upload that screenshot into c/memes, because it's not a meme.

Til. But wrong commmunity. What's next, screenshots of news headlines as memes?

You'll be okay.

That was cool