[PHOTO] Iowa Is the Birthplace of the Very First Meme

One of my love languages is finding and sending the perfect meme for a friend or family member. What random pop culture reference or hilarious video will make them crack up?

Nowadays, memes are essentially cultural shorthand...at least for millennials and Gen Z.

For those who love to LOL at a good meme, there's actually a historical connection between them and the state of Iowa.

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The official definition of a meme according to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary is,

"...an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media."

The very first meme might just have been created in Iowa. A few years back, someone on social media shared what they thought was the first recorded meme.

The old-time meme started getting attention on the internet in 2018 when a Tumblr account posted this interesting find. As people on the internet are wont to do, new captions and alterations were being made to the image to make it apply to present-day culture.

This comic was published in a 1921 issue of the University of Iowa's satirical magazine 'The Judge.'

According to reports, the original meme was credited to another college magazine called the 'Wisconsin Octopus' but for the rest of my life I will continue to say that the very first meme was created right here in the great state of Iowa.

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