The First Meme of the Decade

Submission 9,293

About

The First Meme of the Decade is a series of jokes and memes in which people post what they believe is the first meme of the 2020s.

Origin

The earliest known usage of the phrase "the first meme of the decade" was posted on December 31st, 2019, Twitter ^[1] user @izzulbahrin tweeted, "First meme of the decade from me to yall." The tweet received more than 115 likes in less than two days.

Spread

That day, Redditor ^[2] Dr_K07 posted a three-panel mashup object label image macro of the Joker Gets Hit By a Car and the You Dumb Bitch memes. The characters in the image show a person in Samoa, where new years happens earlier than any other time zone, making the first meme of the decade. The post received more than 129,000 points (94% upvoted) and 2,800 comments in less than two days (shown below, left).

On the morning of January 1st, 2020, Twitter^[4] user @Phil_Lewis_ tweeted that The Pope Francis Slap was "about to be the first meme of the decade." The tweet received more than 1.2 million views, 23,000 likes and 5,800 retweets in less than two days (screenshot below, center).

That day, The Washington Post^[5] published an analysis of the meme.

In the coming days, some argued that New Guy was the first meme of the decade. On January 2nd, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @LilithLovett tweeted, "New Guy is trending, I am so happy that an unintentionally-wholesome character gets to be the first meme of the decade. May this signify a decade of wholesome goodness." The tweet received more than 2,500 likes and 380 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).