An old classic

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Not a meme, really, but a behavior:  At one time, people honestly expected that putting their argument partially or entirely into Latin added to said argument.  In fact, by 1998, it had become a running gag.

Not sure if that was inherited from FIDONET or TALON, though.

I remember that. In fact, it was an incredibly formative time for me, during which I vowed to never, ever do that because it's intolerably douchey.

Almost everyone who did it was in their 50s.  I don't know if that's significant.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Not a meme, really, but a behavior:  At one time, people honestly expected that putting their argument partially or entirely into Latin added to said argument.  In fact, by 1998, it had become a running gag.

Not sure if that was inherited from FIDONET or TALON, though.

I remember that. In fact, it was an incredibly formative time for me, during which I vowed to never, ever do that because it's intolerably douchey.

Almost everyone who did it was in their 50s.  I don't know if that's significant.

Could be something that was taught in college in the sixties, that has since fallen out of favor?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Not a meme, really, but a behavior:  At one time, people honestly expected that putting their argument partially or entirely into Latin added to said argument.  In fact, by 1998, it had become a running gag.

Not sure if that was inherited from FIDONET or TALON, though.

I remember that. In fact, it was an incredibly formative time for me, during which I vowed to never, ever do that because it's intolerably douchey.

Almost everyone who did it was in their 50s.  I don't know if that's significant.

Could be something that was taught in college in the sixties, that has since fallen out of favor?

Given that the people doing it were invariably wrong, they probably thought it made them LOOK like they were in college in the 60s.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Not a meme, really, but a behavior:  At one time, people honestly expected that putting their argument partially or entirely into Latin added to said argument.  In fact, by 1998, it had become a running gag.

Not sure if that was inherited from FIDONET or TALON, though.

I remember that. In fact, it was an incredibly formative time for me, during which I vowed to never, ever do that because it's intolerably douchey.

Almost everyone who did it was in their 50s.  I don't know if that's significant.

Could be something that was taught in college in the sixties, that has since fallen out of favor?

Given that the people doing it were invariably wrong, they probably thought it made them LOOK like they were in college in the 60s.

"Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum, I'm right and you're wrong" 

Yeah, I think it's an affectation designed to intimidate people who don't know any better, which completely falls flat when you're talking to people who DO know better.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Not a meme, really, but a behavior:  At one time, people honestly expected that putting their argument partially or entirely into Latin added to said argument.  In fact, by 1998, it had become a running gag.

Not sure if that was inherited from FIDONET or TALON, though.

I remember that. In fact, it was an incredibly formative time for me, during which I vowed to never, ever do that because it's intolerably douchey.

Almost everyone who did it was in their 50s.  I don't know if that's significant.

Could be something that was taught in college in the sixties, that has since fallen out of favor?

Given that the people doing it were invariably wrong, they probably thought it made them LOOK like they were in college in the 60s.

"Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum, I'm right and you're wrong" 

Yeah, I think it's an affectation designed to intimidate people who don't know any better, which completely falls flat when you're talking to people who DO know better.

My new motto:  vos adepto quod tenes

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Not a meme, really, but a behavior:  At one time, people honestly expected that putting their argument partially or entirely into Latin added to said argument.  In fact, by 1998, it had become a running gag.

Not sure if that was inherited from FIDONET or TALON, though.

I remember that. In fact, it was an incredibly formative time for me, during which I vowed to never, ever do that because it's intolerably douchey.

Almost everyone who did it was in their 50s.  I don't know if that's significant.

Could be something that was taught in college in the sixties, that has since fallen out of favor?

Given that the people doing it were invariably wrong, they probably thought it made them LOOK like they were in college in the 60s.

"Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum, I'm right and you're wrong" 

Yeah, I think it's an affectation designed to intimidate people who don't know any better, which completely falls flat when you're talking to people who DO know better.

My new motto:  vos adepto quod tenes

I have no idea what that means. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Not a meme, really, but a behavior:  At one time, people honestly expected that putting their argument partially or entirely into Latin added to said argument.  In fact, by 1998, it had become a running gag.

Not sure if that was inherited from FIDONET or TALON, though.

I remember that. In fact, it was an incredibly formative time for me, during which I vowed to never, ever do that because it's intolerably douchey.

Almost everyone who did it was in their 50s.  I don't know if that's significant.

Could be something that was taught in college in the sixties, that has since fallen out of favor?

Given that the people doing it were invariably wrong, they probably thought it made them LOOK like they were in college in the 60s.

"Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum, I'm right and you're wrong" 

Yeah, I think it's an affectation designed to intimidate people who don't know any better, which completely falls flat when you're talking to people who DO know better.

My new motto:  vos adepto quod tenes

I have no idea what that means. 

"You get what you grab."

[Richter]

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/chopsueylounge

  Paging Richard Cheese.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/doodoocaca

DIVIDING BY HIRLEY0

It's like the love child of hirley0 and GIGGLES. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Not a meme, really, but a behavior:  At one time, people honestly expected that putting their argument partially or entirely into Latin added to said argument.  In fact, by 1998, it had become a running gag.

Not sure if that was inherited from FIDONET or TALON, though.

I remember that. In fact, it was an incredibly formative time for me, during which I vowed to never, ever do that because it's intolerably douchey.

Almost everyone who did it was in their 50s.  I don't know if that's significant.

Could be something that was taught in college in the sixties, that has since fallen out of favor?

Given that the people doing it were invariably wrong, they probably thought it made them LOOK like they were in college in the 60s.

"Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum, I'm right and you're wrong" 

Yeah, I think it's an affectation designed to intimidate people who don't know any better, which completely falls flat when you're talking to people who DO know better.

My new motto:  vos adepto quod tenes

I have no idea what that means. 

"You get what you grab."

Tawdry!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Tawdry!

I bounced it off the wife.  She said "I think YOU have a SLIGHT misunderstanding of how things work around here."

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Tawdry!

I bounced it off the wife.  She said "I think YOU have a SLIGHT misunderstanding of how things work around here."

She rocks.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Tawdry!

I bounced it off the wife.  She said "I think YOU have a SLIGHT misunderstanding of how things work around here."

She rocks.

She does.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I wonder what the oldest internet meme is? The oldest one I know of is "lemon chicken", but I think that possibly "kites" is older.

What about that weird dancing baby?

ETA: So I was thinking about my old Geek Code and realized that Kibo predates the dancing baby. If we go way back into Usenet, there are a lot of dead tree memes that became popular internet memes, Hitchhiker's Guide memes, Discordian memes, Python memes etc. There are some memes that were popular among the tech crowd, like the use of "Magic" from the "Magic/More Magic" switch story at MIT. Even old memes in coding like variables named foo, bar and baz... I guess it really depends on where we draw the line on defining a meme and defining what group it would need to be popular among; the general public (which would push the date forward) or old school geeks, which have loads of memes within that subculture (ala the Jargon File).

The dancing baby was way later.

You're right, I looked it up and that was 1996.