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Memes are getting a reboot. Not like a Marvel-is-trying-to-make-Fantastic Four-happen-again reboot. More like a rewind. The Great Meme Reset of 2026, as it’s being called on TikTok, demands that on January 1 all memes revert to their 2010s glory days. Bland “brain rot” and AI-looking memes are out; Big Chungus is in.As with anything on the internet, the origin of the Great Meme Reset is hard to place. Most sources point to a March post from TikTok user @joebro909 that called for a whole new generation of memes to save the platform from the “drought” that had engulfed it in the spring. The post said nothing of a January 1 launch date, or a return to the memes of the last decade, but the idea was planted. Now hundreds of posts are discussing the reboot—and a return to the internet’s “dank” era.
Which implies, of course, that memes lack dankness these days. If anything, Gen Z– and Gen Alpha–fuele
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Memes are getting a reboot. Not like a Marvel-is-trying-to-make-Fantastic Four-happen-again reboot. More like a rewind. The Great Meme Reset of 2026, as it’s being called on TikTok, demands that on January 1 all memes revert to their 2010s glory days. Bland “brain rot” and AI-looking memes are out; Big Chungus is in.As with anything on the internet, the origin of the Great Meme Reset is hard to place. Most sources point to a March post from TikTok user @joebro909 that called for a whole new generation of memes to save the platform from the “drought” that had engulfed it in the spring. The post said nothing of a January 1 launch date, or a return to the memes of the last decade, but the idea was planted. Now hundreds of posts are discussing the reboot—and a return to the internet’s “dank” era.
Which implies, of course, that memes lack dankness these days. If anything, Gen Z– and Gen Alpha–fueled internet culture has prided itself on somewhat meaningless content like “6 7” and absurdist, seemingly AI-generated “Italian brain rots,” but after nearly a year of memes with little humanity or depth, a backlash has begun.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-great-meme-reset-is-coming/
Em Adespoton
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •Why not revert to the Internet of the 1990s, before it was commercialized and before Internet became synonymous with Web Services?
Of course, the truth is, even back then, there were a lot of dark memes on Usenet.
like this
fif-t, fistac0rpse and MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown like this.
eleijeep
in reply to Em Adespoton • • •calliope
in reply to eleijeep • • •2001 film by Eric Corley
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)like this
fistac0rpse and MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown like this.
Ooops
in reply to Em Adespoton • • •Because the idea is pushed on commercial platforms that would suppress the idea otherwise. There are probably more people spanning several generations wanting that internet back. After all that's a comment you can read dozens of times a day. But you won't see that message spread on the usual platforms and neither see other media pick up the story.
t3rmit3
in reply to Em Adespoton • • •I think in part because 90s Internet was before the majority of millennials were really heavily online. I'm an '88 millennial, and my childhood Internet was still early 2000s, mostly.
Stuff like IRCRizon and Limewire and Geocities and even Gaia Online over DSL, rather than BBSes over probably AOL dialup (I had that as a kid, but only as a very young kid, i.e. literal preteen.
Nyan cat and motivational poster memes are my golden age, not Usenet.
RivverRavven
in reply to Em Adespoton • • •teawrecks
in reply to Em Adespoton • • •Why not 2012?
For Kony.
like this
MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown likes this.
i_am_not_a_robot
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •emmanuel_car
in reply to i_am_not_a_robot • • •imetators
in reply to i_am_not_a_robot • • •MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •like this
MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown likes this.
Lvxferre [he/him]
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •I think 6-7 is a shibboleth. It doesn't say much on its own, except which group you belong to.
I'd argue the Nyan cat is more substantial than what Andy Warhol came up with.
If you want a great reset you'll need a new internet that is outright hostile to corporate interests. No corposlop being produced there, no derailing old memes to sell you junk.
like this
MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown likes this.
whoever loves Digit 🇵🇸🇺🇸🏴☠️
in reply to Lvxferre [he/him] • • •HappyHappyJoyJoy
in reply to whoever loves Digit 🇵🇸🇺🇸🏴☠️ • • •The website is confusing me, can you try to explain this to me?
So it's like ActivityPub?
How is it accessed, do you need to connect to IP addresses, is there a url analogy or is it all on the 'clearweb' and another layer on top.
whoever loves Digit 🇵🇸🇺🇸🏴☠️
in reply to HappyHappyJoyJoy • • •It is a protocol like ActivityPub is
Currently there are relay servers and web clients with DNS addresses, onion addresses, and I think some reachable with meshtastic somehow, but idk much about meshtastic. DNS and onion address servers also work with native client apps for Android and Apple
HubertManne
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •AceFuzzLord
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •I mean, a temporary reset is possible, but nobody, myself included, wants that because it would involve destroying every single digital storage device and completely wiping away everything.
All we'd have is the memory of brainrot and AI... until everuthingngets rebuilt and status quo returns to normal.
mesa
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •TehPers
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •e0qdk
in reply to TehPers • • •🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮
in reply to e0qdk • • •HappyHappyJoyJoy
in reply to TehPers • • •TehPers
in reply to HappyHappyJoyJoy • • •I Cast Fist
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •chicken
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •I think you're always going to have problems with a lack of authenticity on platforms where opaque algorithms do all the work of deciding what gets popular and what gets shown to who.
Jul (they/she)
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •stray
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •That Weird Vegan she/her
in reply to stray • • •Helix 🧬
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •