Trebuchets

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Part of a series on The Meme Renaissance of Me_IRL / The Great Meme War of October 2016. [View Related Entries]

About

Trebuchets are large mobile weapons that can launch projectiles similar to cannons and catapults, but whereas cannons and catapults use explosive power and tension respectively to launch projectiles, trebuchets use a falling weight to launch its projectiles, similar to a lever simple machine. Trebuchets became more prominent online after the /r/Me_Irl Meme Renaissance, where memes were created at an accelerated pace. Typically, trebuchet memes are inserted into various other templates and often feature references to how trebuchets can "launch 90kg projectiles over 300 meters."

Origin

Trebuchets first appeared in China during the 4th century CE.^[1] Trebuchet memes began appearing online in early 2015. On February 6th, 2015, Facebook page Duchy of Burgundyball^[2] uploaded the first of many trebuchet memes that would be uploaded to the page. The post, shown below, gained 139 likes.

Spread

The page continued to post trebuchet memes along with other historical memes such as Deus Vult. On December 7th, 2015, the subreddit /r/trebuchetmemes^[3] was created by hildy77. As of July 18th, 2017, the subreddit has grown to over 62,000 subscribers. A common joke used with trebuchet memes references how trebuchets can "launch 90kg projectiles over 300 meters" (examples shown below). On February 18th, 2016, a Facebook page^[7] devoted to Trebuchet memes was created.

me_irl Renaissance

Trebuchet memes spiked during the /r/me_irl Meme Renaissance in October of 2016, a period in which several memes experienced accelerated life-cycles. The surge coincided with a post on /r/todayilearned^[4] on October 7th, 2016 about how King Edward I of England built the largest trebuchet to lay siege to a Scottish castle. The post gained over 9,600 points. This also led /r/Trebuchetmemes to trend on Reddit, leading to a post on /r/OutOfTheLoop^[5] investigating the origins of Trebuchet memes. In November of 2016, a Twitter account^[6] devoted to Trebuchet Memes was created. The sudden surge in popularity of trebuchet memes was covered by The Daily Dot^[8] and Select All^[9] the same month.