The meme is one of the strangest cultural staples of modern society; but like all living things on Earth, they experience death. Unfortunately, they are not timeless ambrosia; they’re milk that turns disgustingly rancid. But even rancid milk deserves some respect, so an obituary of homage to the memes that have given pleasure is a well-founded endeavor.  

Senior student Dominic Monacelli requested an obituary for his beloved, sweet meme. Within this meme, Dominic boldly combined two items that would seem absurd if placed in a regular context: a pickle and toast. However, the meme is so well-executed that it managed to live a prosperous life as a comedic tool. However, the meme suffered acute nonsense atrophy, a disorder that causes a meme’s audience to not experience laughter because the meme does not make sense on any measure of comedy. Thus, Dominic’s meme died of the disorder on the 19th of April 2021, which was shortly after its birth of the night before.  

I was then directed to have the Trigomemetry Cemetery of Memes, which contains a large selection of meme corpses that are conveniently organized into years. Due to the recent time of their passing, the 2020 category of the dead most deserve their obituary. The vast majority of these evoke a vestige of past joy that can no longer be felt as they seem their deaths was caused by the old age of at least a month. 

Within the cemetery, the notorious meme “Pickle Rick” is buried here. On the grave of the meme, the epitaph states, “A meme that died as it lived: a meme that was never funny.” Although that may be a lambasting statement, it is a very true claim. Another instance of a once joyful meme is the meme where Bernie Sanders requires your financial aid. That meme does not really spark joy anymore as it feels older than Bernie Sanders himself, and no one really likes people above the age of 25 – unless they are your relatives or teachers that you do not want to upset. However, all these memes suffered from becoming a grandpa joke.  

I visited the Meme Catacombs, an ocean of dead memes that are older than the concept of comedy itself. This series of catacombs are not Parisian, but they are from the room of Mr. Bilof. During the visit, the souls of the dead memes told me that I have made a terrible mistake, and they were very right. 

Also in the catacombs, I was encountered by the meme I wish I forgot in my mind, the meme of “Do you want a Sprite Cranberry?” I most certainly did not want a Sprite Cranberry, but I shall at least pay my respects to the meme. It dominated the internet for what seemed a very long but unpleasant time, which I probably do not remember all too well because Sprite Cranberry was too traumatizing to remember.  

I was then greeted by memes of pure quirkiness, a quirkiness in a very negative way. Those memes being the dread Ugandan Knuckles and the bear that asks where his spaghetti is. In this particular meme, the two beings of utter partake in a duel of comparison that cements why they are so entertaining during their times of fame: Ugandan Knuckles’ pure existence invokes some laughter at its randomness, and the bear does the same. However, the meme seems to be also their final resting place as they both are very, very dead. To the memes of nonsensical quirkiness, they shall not be missed. 

Perhaps I have satiated the dead for now with the obituary, but there will always be more memes that go with only silence. I encourage you to pay respects to the memes that you may have enjoyed but have grown too old for, or to the memes that were never funny to you but still had an impact on our culture. Whether or not we like it, these memes that are dead and not funny anymore have defined childhoods and adolescence.