Vintage Memes for Internet Veterans Who Miss the Good Old Days

Ally Perry • Writer and Editor

Oct 5, 2026 9:15 AM EDT

Remember when the internet seemed like it was good?

While meme culture has stood the test of time and succeeded in evolving with every different iteration of internet culture, there is something special about that period, all too many years ago, when it seemed completely fresh and novel. The general internet-using public was just waking up to the fact that it was the perfect medium to share stupid jokes with one another, and boy, was it magical. Every possibility was only getting started.

This is the period that set the scene for all the weird and wacky stuff that was to follow. Of course, there are plenty of arguments to be made about when exactly the very first meme was created, but it was in the 2000s when things really started to get going. Add in the phenomenon of social media, and it was pretty much inevitable that everybody was going to pick up on it sooner rather than later.

No doubt about it, Memebase wouldn't be here if the meme humor pioneers hadn't started making all these jokes, which have developed into the thing that we know and love today. Sometimes, though, it is nice to go back to the basics and appreciate how far we have come (or how far we have regressed, if you happen to be a real purist). There was a time when this stuff was the height of humor, and who knows, it may well turn out to be that again someday. It is fun to appreciate it no matter what.