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Ctrl alt delete miscarriage meme series#
It was taken up by popular animated and gaming series like Super Mario Bros and other works involving Pokemon and Futurama.Īlthough the memes and the jokes were based on a very dark theme, it isn’t surprising that most people found humor in dark spots, hence the growing popularity all across the internet.īrian Feldman in one of his podcasts in 2016 declared this as one of the longest-running jokes on miscarriage. More than the popularity of the actual comic strip, the parodies and edits of the meme started gaining more and more traction. “Loss.jpg” is a meme and more.Recommended: Funny Meme Templates How did Loss Become an Internet Meme Sensation?Įver since the first release of Loss memes, the four-panel comic strip got immediate popularity and became a trending internet meme wherein popular creators and accounts on Twitter and Tumblr started using different parts of the comic strip to create their version of the meme. It is 10 years in four panels, found in every corner of the Internet and adored by all its users. It is the perfect prototype of meme culture for innumerable reasons, more so than the fleeting “the dress” debate or the nonsensical, meaningless “Nyan Cat.” It is a symbol, the face of a cultural niche. It is easily adapted into countless contexts.Ībove all, it is rooted in bullying. “Loss.jpg,” besides withstanding the test of time by remaining relevant for more than 10 years, embodies every aspect of meme culture. Its existence as a meme comes at the expense of somebody else – of a man using art to tell an incredibly painful story from his own life – more so than the accusation that Ice Cube’s real name is “Icelandic Cubicle,” or any other meme for that matter. Not only is it the longest-running, and one of the most universally understood, memes of the decade. Thus, “loss.jpg” is the perfect meme to embody the 2010s.
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We love making fun of one another, and our meme culture has long reflected that. In celebrities, political figures, and murdered gorillas, we find something to laugh at. The memes of the past 10 years all share one common characteristic: a base in poking fun at – and oftentimes harming – one another. More recently, the jeering scorn exhibited in this year’s “OK, boomer.” The treatment of Harambe’s death in 2016. Fergie’s 2018 cover of the national anthem. The mockery of Kim Kardashian’s Paper Magazine cover in 2014. “Loss.jpg”’s cruelty is precisely what crowns it the meme of the decade, because meme culture is characterized by a disregard for the thoughts and feelings of others. Why, then, would I award it the meme of the decade? Its origins are callous and rude there’s no way it could encapsulate the glorious meme culture of the 2010s. The heavy content of “loss.jpg” shocked viewers.Īs people tend to do, Internet-goers of 2010 found it hilarious and gave it a life of its own as a running joke.īuckley also reveals the storyline is based on his own experience in college, when his girlfriend at the time suffered a miscarriage of her own – pushing the memeification of “loss.jpg” (which had become less about its uncharacteristic sadness and more about the comic as a whole) past the label of “stupid and immature,” straight into “mean.”īut “loss.jpg” is insensitive, one might argue. The comic’s dark tone came out of nowhere: Ctrl+Alt+Del had a reputation as lighthearted and insubstantial, known for bad gamer jokes and cheap-looking art.
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Tim Buckley’s 2008 comic, part of webcomic series Ctrl+Alt+Del, consists of four panels following the main character Ethan as he enters a hospital, speaks to a doctor, and approaches his fiancee Lilah, who has just suffered a miscarriage. Perhaps the Internet’s oldest meme, “loss.jpg” exemplifies the nature of memes: blatant mockery and bullying. From “Covfefe” to “Bad Luck Brian,” I scoured the Internet in search of the most endurant, relevant, influential meme. I’ve carefully and extensively analyzed the last 10 years’ running jokes to determine the decade’s defining meme. As their influence grew over time, the 2010s became riddled with memes, until it had become defined by them. With the increasing accessibility of the Internet and the rapid spread of information, memes entered the world of mainstream pop culture as a means of expression and communication. Though the term “meme” was created in the 1970s, the meme itself didn’t truly flourish until the 2010s.
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