I love memes. I love memetics. For those who don’t know, memes are ideas or jokes, and memetics is the study of how cultural ideas are shared and how things “go viral.” Also, since the idea of memes is based on genetics, there is a theory that certain jokes and ideas will continue to thrive and be passed along (like a good gene) while others fade away and are forgotten.

These days, we have new memes almost every other week. Last week we had the birth of two excellent memes: Hipster Ariel and Bill O’Reilly: You Can’t Explain That.  These are my two contributions to those phenomena:

(For a complete history and timeline of internet memes, please see the meme timeline at Dipity.)

In any case, memes come and go, and I’m sure 3 months from now we will have forgotten Ariel and Bill-O.

But some memes have staying power. Playing Starcraft II online, or World of Warcraft, I still hear “All Your Base Are Belong To Us!” According to MSNBC, that meme turns 10 today.

So, Happy Birthday, AYB! You’ve been a great friend for all sorts of online gaming, for use when talking about corporate takeovers, or just laughing at how poorly some things get translated into English.

“All Your Base…” comes from a mistranslation of the 16 bit Japanese game Zero Wing. Other quotes from this game that took hold include “Somebody set up us the bomb.” A great video is available of this classic, which I have included here for your viewing pleasure.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qItugh-fFgg

So, I have two questions: what are your other favorite internet memes? And do any of you robots care about them enough that you would like a regular column on new and classic memes?