Minecraft Crafting Recipes

Submission 10,976

Part of a series on Minecraft. [View Related Entries]

About

Minecraft Crafting Recipes refer to a category of memes utilizing both real and made-up crafting and smelting recipes from video game Minecraft. Starting with memes referencing 'Indestructible' Nokia 3310 in 2012, the trend achieved significant popularity online in February 2019.

Origin

On January 29th, 2010, crafting and smelting mechanics were added to video game Minecraft.^[1] The players could now craft various items in the game by combining items they already had by accessing a 2×2 crafting grid (shown below, left) from their inventory, or a 3×3 grid by using a crafting table (added on January 30th, 2010;^[2] shown below, center). On February 10th, 2010, the furnace along with modern smelting interface (shown below, right), was added to the game.^[3]

Spread

The exact origin of memes in which Minecraft crafting recipes were used for comedic purposes is currently unknown. In 2012, several memes in which Minecraft crafting UI was used for memes about 'Indestructible' Nokia 3310 were circulated online, with notable examples archived by Know Your Meme users.^[4]^[5]

On March 13th, 2017, Redditor^[6] art2718 used a Minecraft crafting recipe for sugar^[7] in a meme about drug smuggling posted to /r/dankmemes (shown below, left). The post gained over 2,300 upvotes in six months. On May 18th, 2017, Redditor^[8] Ewanbb used the recipe for another meme which gained 19,700 upvotes in six months (shown below, center). On July 17th, 2017, Redditor^[9] 20mtrebu proposed to use "crafting table" memes as a format in a thread posted to /r/MemeEconomy.

In the following years, more memes utilizing the format appeared in various subreddits, including /r/memes^[10] and /r/animemes.^[11] In early February, 2019, memes utilizing smelting UI from the game gained popularity on Reddit, with the earliest known post made by Redditor^[12] TheLegenb27 in /r/PrequelMemes subreddit on February 2nd (shown below, left).