Before 2016 vs. After 2016

About

Before 2016 vs. After 2016 refers to a series of memes in which year 2016 is viewed as the time of a certain critical event after which one's life made a turn for the worse. Originally a Harambe meme, the format gained popularity on social media in August 2021.

Origin

On August 18th, 2021, iFunny^[1] user DiagnosedCancerPatient posted a Wojak Comic meme in which Bloomer, a positively-minded Wojak character, is changed into Doomer, a Wojak with a negative outlook, by the death of Harambe the Gorilla in 2016. The post (shown below) gained over 76,200 smiles in three months.

Spread

In the following days, the image received viral spread online through reposts on Twitter,^[2] Facebook^[3] and other social media.

On August 22nd, 2021, Twitter^[3] user @Ne0nImpala posted the earliest found edit of the image, replacing Harambe with Frank Ocean's 2016 album Blond. The post (shown below, left) gained 14 retweets and over 110 likes in three months. On August 23rd, Italian Instagram^[4] account darkmemegang posted a collection of 10 memes about music albums that were released in 2016, with the post gaining over 42,500 likes in the same period (examples shown below, center). On September 3rd, 2021, Twitter^[5] user @BigAssSwagBear posted a meme based on the format that gained over 15,900 retweets and 92,100 likes in three months (shown below, right).

After a brief period of popularity in August and September 2021, the format did not see further spread until November 21st, 2021, when gimmick Twitter account neural net guesses memes (@ResNeXtGuesser) posted^[6] the original meme, with the neural net recognizing that it as a "comic book" (shown below, left). The post gained over 2,400 retweets and 30,400 likes in eight days, also helping revitalize popularity of the format. For example, on November 23rd, 2021, Twitter^[7] account @GameTheoryRejct posted a meme about a Game Theory video that gained over 4,000 retweets and 57,400 likes in one week (shown below, right).

In late November 2021, several notable versions of the meme were posted on Twitter.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

Not available.

External References