collections
12 Memes From The 12th Through 20th Centuries
People of the distant (or recent) past may seem very different from us: their habits are odd, their values foreign, and their reasons for doing what they didare… sometimes difficult to understand. But in old paintings, manuscripts and tapestries, there’s a lot of stuff you just have to laugh at, and can rightly suppose they laughed at too, or at least wished they could without the living artist being very angry. Thankfully, that's no longer a concern for these older paintings.
It might not be the most traditional form of humor, but it turns out old paintings can be pretty entertaining, and not in the ways they were intended to be. On Reddit's /r/trippinthroughtime, the people in old art are given modern words to speak, react to 21st-century situations and generally relate to us as peers rather than as distant historical forebears.
Calibrating Appropriate Social Response
(Source: Reddit)
Waving is a surprisingly difficult task, both then and now.
Same Question, Bro
(Source: Reddit)
Painters are always getting into your business when you're a 19th-century gentleman.
The Friends You Make Along The Way
(Source: Reddit)
When the lights come up, you learn things that may surprise you about who you have passed the evening's revelry with.
Jeepers creepers!
The Face When You're Missing One
(Source: Reddit)
In the era of this painting, he was likely looking for his billfold, handkerchief, and cutlass.